New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty-six

Early morning is my favourite time at sea. Before dawn, I make coffee and watch the sun come up. Here's my Second Cup - a Canadian coffee chain - mug on its second circumnavigation. It sits on a fire hose box in the Indian Ocean.

At day's end, lean on a rail and take it all in. Today, I saw Snoopy in the clouds and an iTunes 'Angry Bird'.

Denis says he definitely spotted a cumulus tugboat. I will miss Denis' Aussie humour when he disembarks at Singapore.

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I'm plagued by a kitschy tune. So much time on deck at dawn and dusk, and more time than usual for reflection:

"Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,

Swiftly fly the years.

One season following another,

Laden with happiness and tears."

Over and over. More times than Broadway performances of Fiddler on the Roof.

New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty-five

We're out of the Indian Ocean high risk pirate area. Main deck walks resume tomorrow.

Shortly before leaving, a friend asked, “How much ransom do you want to pay?” The question was half meant as a joke, although it nagged at me through the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. Thankfully I didn't have to find out.

Below is a link to the NATO Shipping Centre; it makes for sobering reading.

www.shipping.nato.int/

I knew the risk. My previous round-the-world booking was abruptly cancelled after the vessel was attacked off Somalia. See my July, 2009, posting:

trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.com/2009/07/change-of-plans_19.html

Boularibank had been attacked once before. As I researched other possibilities, another shipping line first asked passengers to sign liability waivers for pirate areas. Then, earlier this year, the line simply stopped carrying them between the Mediterranean and Singapore.

CMA CGM did not ask me to sign a pirate waiver. As defence, it seems largely to depend on 'best management practices' (do business schools have piracy courses?), high speed and high freeboard for its larger, faster vessels.

Four hundred years ago, Thomas Fuller declared:

"He that will not sail till all dangers are over, must never put to sea." (Quoted in The Traveller's Oracle or Maxims for Locomotion William Kitchiner 1827)

New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty-four

This is a four day posting and written off the southwest coast of India. Earlier this year, the Indian Coast Guard stopped an attack in this area on the CMA CGM Verdi. The pirates’ mother ship was destroyed and fifteen pirates arrested.

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Back in the Gulf of Oman, we were again in the high risk pirate zone. No going on the main deck, watches doubled and crew reacquainted with the 'safe room'. This happens as we learn of an attack in the Gulf of Aden through which we passed less than a week ago.

We descend into the ship.

In the engine room, Third Officer Frederick Villanueva waits to direct us.

Past the engine and down a very long passageway.

Finally, we crowd into the 'safe room' (which, as this is a public blog, I won't specify), our last, desperate refuge in an attack. With luck, there'll have been time to disable the engine; then we better pray for swift military intervention before the pirates find our hiding place (where I would not want to be for very long at the best of times).

The captain lectures us: absolutely no resistance once captured; if you don't understand pirates' orders, lie face down on the deck with hands clearly over your head; don't look them in the eye as this will be seen as a challenge; cooperate when possible. Hostages face psychological and, increasingly, physical torture. And remember, with little excuse, they will kill you.

Let's review the situation in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean: much water - about two million square miles or ten times the size of Germany; many pirates; not enough naval vessels; insufficient global will to eradicate the problems in Somalia; mainly Third World seafarers are affected and some shipping companies accept an occasional ransom as the price of business.

I've found some pertinent 19th Century thoughts on pirates. In 1866, James Lawrence was aboard U.S. Navy ship in the Far East:

"Of late many of the merchantmen trading with this part of the world have begun to carry a few small pieces of cannon, and a supply of small arms with which to defend themselves; these, the pirates seldom molest, and whenever they do they are sure to get worsted." (China and Japan, and A Voyage Thither James B. Lawrence 1870)

Later in the century, Stanley Lane-Poole summed up the problem in the Mediterranean:

"(The pirates) were not likely to reform, especially as the choice lay between piracy and starvation." (The Barbary Corsairs Stanley Lane-Poole 1890)

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Where's a nice Force 6 or 7 when you want it? The Indian Ocean is calm and the horizon clear - pirate weather.

New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty-three

A two day posting ...

Past early morning tankers, motorized dhows and a Yang Ming Line container ship, we enter Jebel Ali, Dubai's container terminal.

You may remember that, two years ago, I was not allowed in Libya. If you don't, see October, 2009, posting:

trainsandboatsandplanesandtheoddbus.blogspot.com/2009/10/libya-trip-that-wasnt.html

This morning, I am barred from Dubai.

Here's about all I'll see of the place (where property prices plummeted and which nearly went bankrupt in 2009), whose hospitality ranks with that of Colonel Gaddafi.

Canada's in a dispute with the United Arab Emirates over aircraft landing rights. Although, before leaving, I was assured of being able to disembark in Dubai, it turns out I am the victim of incompetent or just bloody-minded officials. Australians, however, are welcome, but Denis has refused to pay $70 USD for the privilege of a couple of hours ashore.

The terminal's far from the city and I'd only hoped to buy a newspaper. So, not hugely disappointed to have avoided the muggy heat and taxi drivers who, like taxi drivers everywhere (except London), expect the passenger to tell them how to find the destination.

Enough of irritating statelets ... on the nicely air conditioned bridge, I have a front row view of a container terminal's extraordinary choreography. Tons of steel whisk by just feet away. An experienced crane operator can move more than forty boxes an hour.

Amber is thirteen containers across. But look at the future. Cranes in Dubai extend far beyond Amber's width.

Astern, the COSCO (China Overseas Shipping Company) Thailand departs. She's seventeen rows wide.

There are now ships on which containers are stacked twenty-two rows across. These hold as much as 15,500 TEU. Remember, Amber can hold just 4,400 TEU.

And consider this: Maersk has ordered twenty new ships, capable of carrying 18,000 TEU. These will only be used between Asia and Europe via Suez as they'll be too big for the new Panama Canal locks.

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Twenty-one hours in Dubai and Amber’s gangway has been raised. Below - far below - you can just see some of the dockers.

The deck trembles, smoke pours from the funnel and mooring lines are loosened. Captain and pilot peer from the starboard bridge wing and dockers heave lines – fore and aft – into the harbour water. We're - almost imperceptibly, at first - easing away.

Past a row of vessels and out into the Persian Gulf.

The Kuala Lumpur Express heads in to occupy our vacated terminal space.

Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number: creatures both small and great. There move the ships and there is that Leviathan …

Psalm 104.25-26

The writer of Psalm 104 can never have imagined such fleets and such leviathans.

New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty-two

This morning, entering the Gulf of Oman, our first closeup of a warship. Likely American, but no identification, electronic or otherwise.

Preparing for pirates, a petroleum products tanker tests a fire hose.

At 1445, after the captain said we'd soon be out of the pirate zone, we're taking evasive action. Two suspicious fishing boats mean we're into a wide turn with pronounced heel. From the window at the back of the bridge, you can see our circle above the containers.

1655. Back on course after a complete circle and nearing the Strait of Hormuz. Another fishing boat, but this displays proper identification.

Sunset between Iran and Oman. Through this strait passes 17% of the world's oil, so a thought for the day: ransom payments for large ships are now said to average about five million dollars.

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November 26 - With the help of my friend Chris, I think we’ve identified the warship above as the USS Anzio. She’s a Ticonderoga class cruiser currently on counter-piracy operations.

New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty-one

At 0435, the chief mate saw two small boats on radar, changed course and moved off. They could have been fishing, but who knows? This isn't usually a fishing area, so best to play it safe.

This afternoon, I am the victim of a practical joke. Wandering onto the bridge, with the watchmen chatting and second mate busy with charts, I say hello and glance at the radar screens. Click on picture.

'Pirate'. Pirate?! "Pirate!" I say, my voice jumping a few decibels. Everyone sniggers. The wretches had mislabeled the innocent cargo ship below in hopes of catching out another member of the crew. I hardly think pirates have AIS - Automatic Identification System - to announce themselves, but I can be very gullible.

Other chitchat: a notice reminds crew all porn should be stashed away before arriving in that pillar of taste, restraint and respectability (my words), Dubai.

New York to Houston ... the long way - part twenty

We are in the Arabian Sea. Awake to Maersk Kuantan on port. It's clear, the first such day since entering the Red Sea, so useful for pirates and not so good for us. Better to have additional protection from mist and waves. Much as usual on the bridge.

By afternoon, the sea state - and it's not easy to see so high above the water (and in low resolution photos) - is rough to very rough. This is bad for pirates and good for us, because, with small motorboats, it's difficult for boarding. However, an attack in worse conditions has occurred.

At 1500, we pass a westbound convoy of ten slow vessels, escorted by two warships. Large protected convoys such as this have not been seen since the Second World War. At twelve miles not a great picture, but like a newsreel of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic. I confess to a slight tingle while watching from Amber's wheelhouse.

New York to Houston ... the long way - part nineteen

0800 and we're passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb - the ‘Gate of Grief’ or ‘Gate of Tears’ - from the Red Sea into the Gulf of Aden. Unstable Yemen to port and Djibouti and Somaliland to starboard; anarchic Somalia ahead, also to starboard. Amber is at more than twenty knots.

This narrow waterway presents as good a chance as anywhere of pirate attack with automatic weapons and rifle propelled grenades. On the chart table is the latest report of hijacked vessels potentially used as pirate 'motherships'. Some are surprisingly large.

Last year, Captain 'Boni' watched skiffs launching from a nearby vessel; he made off at high speed and the skiffs headed elsewhere. He says how upsetting it is to hear a frantic radio "Mayday! Mayday! Pirates boarding!" and be unable to do anything.

According to the U.S. State Department, in 2010 Somali pirates captured over a thousand sailors aboard forty-nine vessels. As of mid-2011, four hundred seafarers were hostages and eighteen hijacked ships being held for ransom.

Anxious lookout as we near a ship similar to ones in the report.

If not using motherships, these maritime criminals operate from the many barren islands along the coast.

0815. Third Mate Elijun Tan intently studies three radar screens set for different distances. The cadet tracks an object to starboard. It's a motorboat moving quickly.

At a near run, the captain returns to the bridge. One of the watchmen hurries to the wheel as the captain takes us off autopilot, ready for quick maneuvering. An uneasy few minutes; some quiet, calm commands and eventually the motorboat heads in another direction.

Our speed and very high freeboard may have dissuaded the pirates - if they were pirates - from visiting. CMA CGM says there already have been more than ten pirate attacks on its ships this year.

The captain turns to me and - trying to ease the tension - points out an "interesting" bird in front of the wheelhouse. "I wonder what that is?" he says. Everyone relaxes a little, just a little.

Here's our situation at 0902. We've reduced speed slightly and are headed for an 'Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor' to follow along the Gulf and into the Arabian Sea. On the radio, I can hear another vessel contacting a British warship in the area.

Now the day's important news: the captain insists I must use his chair when on the bridge. Below are 'my' temporary chair and view. As I peer through my Mountain Equipment Co-op binoculars, the third mate smiles: "Helping with the lookout, huh?" You betcha.