Well, Durban is astern of us and we now have a  50 knot wind across our decks, a 10 feet swell on our bow, add the Agulhas current and we’re almost going astern, but heavens, it’s good to be back at sea.

9th April, Durban, ‘parked’ on a berth with Police and Port Health surrounding us, no-one on and, once we had disembarked our 5 South African crew, no gangway either, a far cry from what this lovely lady is used to.  We came to take fuel, stores and provisions, all accomplished, however not without some difficulty.  Originally, we had approximately 10 container-loads to put on board; what on earth are we going to do with all that?  Take 3 instead is what transpired.  Being the ‘leper’ that we are, everything loaded had to stay on board and we, being who we are, weren’t going to to try and touch anything that came on, for at least 14 days.

Everything, literally everything was sanitised, big sprayers and foggers going at it and then onto pallet jacks and into store rooms and chilled/freezer rooms for 14-days.  3 of the crew volunteered for this and as a result are now in 14-day quarantine, bless them.  No photos of this of course, minimum personnel and everyone else stay the hell out of it.

The pilot (compulsory, although we could have gone in there with our hands tied behind our backs), didn’t even have gloves or face mask on, a good start to the proceedings.  The one who (compulsory) took us out did though, however, at my suggestion, left after we had got off the dock!

Then there was communication ashore to deal with, we usually do this with radios of course, however no-one ashore wanted one of our radios, so comms between the ship was conducted on WhatsApp between myself and the agent, not a good idea I can tell you, pesky phone going ‘ding’ at all times of day and night 😕

A few photos before I tell you where we are going, (got to let you wait awhile longer)  🙂

So, back to where we are heading; numerous emails (and WhatsApp), back and forth, however 2 hours before we got out of Dodge, the question was answered,  Batam, Indonesia.  It’s on the Malacca Straits, south of Singapore and we are going to try to disembark our (wonderful) crew, get them home to their families, albeit they will have to quarantine before they do so.  I told them over the PA and you could hear the cries of joy from the Bridge.

Every port or anchorage we go to requires a 14-day isolation period before arrival and so it will take us 16 days to get there.  (We could do it faster, however it’s all about $$$, save fuel, save $$, so we are our minimum of 2 diesel generators and thus the 15 days, April 24th).

I know many of my readers have luggage on board and you’re probably wondering when you’ll see it.  It certainly hasn’t been forgotten by the powers that be and various options are being discussed, so don’t concern yourself at the moment, please.

I will write again as we progress east, it’s a long haul………..

Stay Safe and Healthy. please…….