A Slow Boat From China - Miles per Gallon

Sunday 8th April 2012 (Easter Sunday) - Day 4

Early morning I'm checking my GPS again when I should be hiding Easter eggs for the lads.  I reckon we have a minimum of 367 miles to go - probably more with all our zig-zagging.  Our average speed is only 6mph and so our time to our destination is around 61hrs (2 days 13 hrs - ETA at Subic is Tuesday evening).  Our fuel consumption is estimated at being 12 litres/hr.  Fuel remaining (again estimated only) is 656 litres.

Hence:

61 hrs x 12 litres/hr = 732 litres required.  We only have 656 litres remaining so we are theoretically 76 litres short.  Bearing in mind these are estimated numbers based on questionable quantities extracted through questionable means, my thoughts are that we should err on the side of caution.  

I mention this to Jim but he can only assure me that Berk says we have more than enough fuel.  No other substantiation other than Berk's say so.  I speak to Adam and explain my fuel calculations and he agrees they are pretty much irrefutable and so Adam also mentions to Jim.  Jim just says there's no cause for alarm and that we have plenty of fuel.  Perhaps there's a BP garage in the middle of the South China Sea?  Or maybe we can sidle up alongside one of the many oil rigs we've seen en-route and ask them to fill us up with diesel, low sulphur of course, whilst we stock up with crisps and Mars Bars in the shop.  I don't think so.

Early morning we're trying to salvage the damaged timber from the front of the boat again as it's been shaken loose by the weather again and Berk hadn't exactly made a good job of lashing the timber to the deck.

John decided to risk it and cooks a breakfast of bacon, sausage and egg sandwiches and I volunteered to help him with.  A decent, if a little messy cooked breakfast was well received by all.

After breakfast a pod of dolphins was spotted and that certainly raised my spirits - seeing dolphins in the wild is such an exhilarating experience, especially when you've only the sky, sea and 5 ugly crew members to look at all day.

Mid morning Berk is fuelling up again, transferring it from the drums to the tanks.  There's little improvement in the pump so there are the same problems as before - you would have thought he'd make more of an effort to fix the pump.  Like I say, I'm not a vindictive person (much) and I think Berk's suffered enough so I do what I can to assist from up on deck.  

Whilst filling up Berk must have had a Damascus Moment as I noticed we've changed direction and are now heading south-east.  I mention this to Jim who sheepishly says Berk has decided we won't have enough fuel to make it to Subic so we're now heading towards Bolinao where there's a port and fuel!  Apparently that's were we were heading for originally so there's nothing like sticking to a plan.

I cook lunch, consisting of spaghetti, tinned ham and pasta sauce - nothing too glamorous but filling and for me I feel a need to do something rather than just sitting around (or rather being thrown around)

In the afternoon, for want of something better to do, I take over from John with the fishing rod and actually manage to catch a small tuna, which wasn't big enough to eat so I threw it back and was criticised for doing so as John says I should have kept it to use as bait.

At this point the battery on my camera is getting dangerously low so I'm not taking too many photos, trying to conserve the battery for a special event (sinking, mutiny, a keel-hauling).

That evening Jim and me are on the 6pm to 9pm and 3am to 6am watch.

Our progress over the next 24 hours was as follows and shown in green:

Note the change in direction when we went from having plenty of fuel
to not having enough.

A Slow Boat From China - Berk's Just Desserts

Saturday 7th April 2012 (Day 3)

In the morning there was no improvement in the weather.  Boiling water for tea was out of the question again so I had a Coke Zero instead but what I really wanted was a nice cup of tea. Somehow Coke Zero just didn't hit the spot like good cuppa would have.

Flying fish were regularly found dead on the deck

Everyone seemed to be very lethargic but then there wasn't much else to do except sit around and be rocked to sleep. Standing was nigh on impossible, if not dangerous.  At best you were in danger of falling into something hard, at worst there was a real danger of going over the very low side rail and into the drink. John kept falling asleep with his rod in his hand but then as he wasn't catching much else since his moment of success yesterday, he wasn't about to be disturbed.

This photo shows how much the boat was  rolling

. . . as does this one

. . . and this one

I did another calculation this morning and reckon it's still going to take us at least another 3 days to get to Subic Bay, not accounting for all the spinning around and mis-direction, which was depressing enough, never mind not being able to have a cup of tea.

The chilled/frozen food in the so called refrigerators was already soggy, limp and turning rotten so the joke was that with our current progress we were all going to go down with scurvy.

To make matters worse I notice we've changed course and were heading due south and not south-east towards the Philippines.  When I queried this I was told that Berk had decided the best course of action was to head south because that's where the better weather would be.  Quite how he could determine this remains a mystery to me but it didn't seem a particularly bright idea.

Berk at the wheel

To my mind, considering the vulnerability of the boat we were travelling in, we would be better making for the Philippines in the shortest route possible as once we were in sight of land we would be in range of safe anchorage, harbours, mobile phones, fuel, possibly more sheltered waters and plenty of other craft to rescue us in the event of an emergency (bearing in mind we'd not seen another vessel since heading out).

I made breakfast for the crew which consisted of ham and tomato sandwiches.  Jim was raving about what fabulous sandwiches they were but when you're hungry it's amazing how good tinned ham and tomatoes in plastic bread tastes.

Lunch was pot noodles. We took the risk of boiling a kettle of water (and it nearly ended in an accident) as we were in need of some hot food.

Pot Noodle lunch

It was time to top up the fuel tanks and so Berk went below deck to top up the main tanks from the drums we had filled in Hong Kong. Below deck there wasn't much room and in the rough conditions standing was difficult. Berk had the hand pump and placed it in one of the barrels with the hose running across deck to the fuel tank fulling point.  Once he started turning the handle diesel started spraying out from every conceivable connection and I couldn't help thinking that even without the right tool I would have made a better job of putting the pump together so it didn't leak.  Diesel was spraying the deck below making it very, very slippery.  It went onto the hot engine making it smoke and was soaking Berk in smelly fuel.  As he tried to crank the handle on the pump, which was taking twice as long as it was sucking in air, Berk kept slipping on the deck and the only thing that was to hand, and which he grabbed by reflex, was the exhaust pipe scalding his hand. If he did it once, he did it a dozen times. Most of it was insulated except the bit that was used as a step to access the engine room, and this was the bit Berk kept grabbing.  But he very soon let go, cussing and swearing.  I don't consider myself a vindictive person but I was kind of enjoying watching this go on and thinking to myself as I watched 'I've sacked people for doing less that that'!

One drum down and only 3 to go: it was going to be a close thing to get to our destination on the fuel we had available.

By late afternoon the battering that the boat was taking on the port side (a symptom of going due south) took its toll and a large piece of the front trim broke off.  Jim managed to induce a fair amount of anxiety by declaring that the boat was starting to break up but retracted his statement saying it was superficial damage only. Regardless, it looked like a pretty significant chunk of the boat.  A salvage team (me and Jim) was organised as the timber was held in place by the handrail netting and was bashing against the side of the boat.  The easiest solution would have been to cut it free but Jim, obviously as it was part his investment, wanted to salvage what was a significant lump of wood for the repairs to be carried out later so after several attempts it was hauled up and lashed to the side of the deck.

Parts of the boat were being knocked off

Steering the boat didn't get any easier. The loop-de-loop usually 
occurred at a change over.

That evening Jim and I were on the 9pm to midnight shift. We were unable to agree over the heading we are taking.  I thought the arguments that I was putting forward to get as close a possible to the coastline made sense but Jim could only counter argue that he thought that what Berk had decided in heading south was the best idea. And so we continued to head deeper into the South China Sea half way between the Philippines and Vietnam.  It would be a long swim to shore.

Our progress over the next 24 hours was as follows (note the change of direction heading due south):

Progress shown in green

A Slow Boat From China - Into the Storm

Friday 6th April 2012

Our progress since leaving yesterday evening and up until midnight (for the 5th April) was as follows:

Progress shown in bold blue line

At midnight we had just passed the tip of the island of Dangan Dao, which is approximately only 16 miles from our mooring at Aberdeen Harbour.

During the night falling asleep wasn't a problem - staying asleep was. The boat was rolling heavily so if I laid lengthways to the boat there was a constant battle not to fall off the narrow bench that I was sleeping on and hence kept waking up due to nearly falling off.  If I slept across the boat then it was akin to being on one of those fairground rides where you alternate between weightlessness to having all the blood rush to your head and then a lightheadedness as it all drains back to your feet.

Hence, waking up at 3:00am to take over steering the boat/watch wasn't so much as a chore but a relief.  As we took over, Adam gave me look and nodded towards Brian.  I gave him a 'What?' look back and he sidled up to me and told me that Brian had been completely unable to steer the boat and had spend quite some time just going around in circles, hence Adam had done the vast majority of the steering.

Admittedly it was extremely difficult to steer as the heavy cloud cover and the darkness made it pitch black and therefore there was no moon or stars to follow, and we were beyond sight of land and any shore lights to use as a reference.  It was very easy to become completely disorientated.  The only guide we had was a handheld GPS device that was swinging about and had a delay in referencing your actual direction to the one you'd just steered in.  Furthermore, with the screens down to keep the weather out they were acting like a sail with the strong wind blowing on them, in a boat with no fin keel such as you'd have in a yacht and so we were at the mercy of the wind, waves, tides and currents.  Steering the boat in a straight line was akin to steering a bumper car on ice.

GPS track of the boat - hardly a straight line

The sun rise didn't happen, it was just too overcast.  All that happened was the sky went from black to dark grey and stayed that way for most of the day.  I was looking forward to a cup of tea or coffee but boiling water was deemed too dangerous, what with the boat rocking and rolling around as much as it was and the gas hob wasn't on a gimble so there was a real danger of a kettle of boiling water sliding off and scalding someone.

All there was to do was sit about or take turns spinning the boat around.  Looking at my GPS it was apparent that with the zig-zagging and spinning around we were taking a far longer route than if we were heading in a straight line so I was concious that fuel might become an issue at some point.

By late morning the sea had calmed down somewhat which made for a significantly more pleasant and smoother journey.

John spent his time fishing off the back of the boat and spirits were raised when he caught a rather splendid looking Mahi-Mahi fish, which rather spectacularly changed colours as it died.  This was then was the principle ingredients for a somewhat late lunch and very delicious it was too.  Cooking lunch was a rather hazardous affair with the boat pitching around but we had to eat something.

Mahi-Mahi caught by John

Brian pretends he's caught a fish 

. . . and a change of colour

By late afternoon the wind picked up and we were jumping around again.  We passed a couple of oil rigs and I looked at the support vessels nearby and longed to be on one of those instead.  With the side of the boat acting like a sail we seemed to pick up a bit more speed.

We passed several oil rigs

Checking my GPS again it was becoming obvious that we had no chance of completing this trip in the time we were told it would take unless we were on a fast tide and with some very strong winds behind us.  My calculation was that we would arrive some time Monday night, assuming there were no delays or problems.

That night, and with the winds becoming even stronger making the boat roll even more alarmingly, Jim and I were on the midnight to 3:00am watch.  We passed a huge oil platform that lit up the sky and at our pedestrian speed seemed to take forever to reach and pass but other than that we just ploughed on into the the darkness.

Our progress for the day (6th April, from midnight to midnight was as follow:

A Slow Boat From China: What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor?

I was up early the following day, at 7am and out looking for a hole-in-the-wall cash machine and at the same time managed to grab a coffee and a breakfast croissant in a coffee shop, which turned out to be a remarkably sensible thing to do as the plan was to meet at 9am for breakfast and then head to the boat.  But that didn't happen.

At 9am there were 3 sorry looking lads with bleary eyes from what turned out to be a big beer session from the night before.  Capt. Berk was off processing the passports and Brian, who had a notoriety for dabbling with women of questionable morality was no where to be seen.  If there's one thing I hate, it's people who are late.  To me it's the ultimate rudeness.  It says that their time is more important than yours.  Anyway, it got to the point where I was saying we should just go and leave Brian behind.  I was mindful that we had a great deal to achieve before we were ship-shape and Bristol fashion enough to be in a position to set sail.

Eventually, and equally bleary eyed, Brian turned up followed by Capt. Berk with the passports, but the delay meant that breakfast was put on hold as we were to head off back to Aberdeen to make preparations.  I was happy I'd had that croissant earlier.

Back at the ABC it was agreed that Jim and Adam would go looking for the hardware required (bulbs, batteries, jerry cans, etc.) whilst me, John and Brian would go shopping for the provisions.  Capt. Berk would head straight to the boat to make preparations.

Shopping for provisions was relatively easy as there was a supermarket nearby.  By mutual consensus we agreed on what essentials to buy and the estimated quantities for what we were told would be a 3 day journey.  Brian seemed fixated on buying as much frozen/perishable food stuffs as possible and I kept pointing out that we had no certainty that the refrigerators on board could be made to work.  By a stroke of luck the freezers in the supermarket had packed up and everything had defrosted so that was my way of dissuading Brian from buying frozen foods that had already defrosted but it didn't stop him completely and he continued to buy perishables, whereas I concentrated on tinned, canned and dried foods.

We also bought some beer but not significant quantities as none of us thought this was in any way going to be a booze-cruise, but didn't see that a little light refreshment would go amiss.  With shopping trollies laden we pushed them down to the quay side. John and Brian when back to the boat with the provisions to unload them, whilst I went walk about and exploring and found little Chinese cafe where I had a late lunch/early dinner.

After that I had a walk around to explore the locale but that didn't reveal anything of any interest.  I was aware that there was a probability of there being no power on the boat to charge my camera battery so I went looking for a solar charger, something I'd been meaning to buy for ages, but to no avail, I was simply in the wrong part of Hong Kong and so I went back to the boat.

A grey day in Aberdeen harbour

The provisions had been unpacked into the cupboards and what were assumed to be refrigerators.  These turned out to be nothing more than cool boxes to be used with ice - there were no refrigerators on board and why would there be?  Cool boxes were sufficient enough for a boat built for day trips.

The weather was starting to deteriorate and dark skies moved in with heavy showers.  I'd been hoping for sunny days and calm, flat seas full of sunbathing on deck but that didn't seem likely any more.  The wind didn't seem too bad but then we were still within the typhoon shelter, moored amongst other boats.

I looked around for something to do and to make myself useful. There was a box containing the unassembled parts of a hand pump that was going to be needed for transferring fuel from the spare 45 gallon drums we had on board into the fuel tanks in order to complete the crossing.  I set about assembling the pump but our tool kit consisted of two screw drivers and a pair of pliers, which struck me as being somewhat inadequate (and that's an understatement) for a 3 day crossing of the South China Sea in a boat with a inboard motor and no sail.  As I was assembling the pump, Berk walked over and looked down at me tightening the barrel collar with a pair of pliers (rather than using a non-existent spanner) and said in a very condescending tone, 'I've sacked men for doing less'.  Being a pretty crass statement which didn't take into consideration the circumstances at hand, I have to admit this grated on me.  I retorted along the lines that in the absence of having the correct tools one has to make do with what is available and finished up by suggesting that he did it himself and left the partially assembled pump in the box.  At this point I didn't know that the saying 'He who laughs last, laughs longest' was going to ring very true later in the trip.

The tool kit (on the table, not sleeping)

Mid afternoon the life raft turned up, delivered by a Chinaman in dingy, and we were still waiting for Jim and Adam to return so we had missed our departure target time already.  The self inflating life raft said it could hold 6 persons but I doubt if it could hold 6 of us, all being big fellows as we all were.  If there was an emergency at least it was going to be snug in the life raft.

There was a guy on a boat moored opposite who shouted across asking where we were going.  When we replied we were heading later in the day to Subic Bay in the Philippines he had a look of utter disbelief on his face, which then became one of a bemused smile as he shook his head in amazement.  This did nothing to bolster my confidence.

Jim and Adam eventually arrived with the hardware but not all the items they'd been looking for.  During the installation of the navigation lights and rigging up a temporary power supply for the laptop that Berk was going to use for navigation, there was a debate over how much fuel the tanks could hold.  There was no tape measure to measure the tanks accurately to determine the volume and there was no owner's manual to say what the capacity the tanks was or what the estimated range was when they were full, although Jim had been told what the estimated fuel consumption was per hour of operation. As there was no tape measure, Adam offered up the tip of his nose to his finger tips as being exactly a metre and a piece of rope was cut to this in order to measure the tanks. This struck me as being all very Mickey Mouse, using questionable estimates for something that ultimately our lives might depend on.  However, an estimate was made but who know how accurate it was?

By late afternoon we were ready to go to fill up with fuel and water and in heavy rains headed for the harbour fuel depot.  When we got there no one knew where the fuelling point was on the boat.  This was now getting to be farcical.  Someone had said there were two fuel points and one water filling point in the deck but only two could be found.  A third was eventually found under the table and in the absence of any form of notation to denote which was which (opening and sniffing didn't give any clues either) it was concluded that the two points either side of the cabin were fuel and the one aft was the water as they more or less corresponded with the location of the relevant tanks below decks.

We started to take on fuel to the port side filling point and after a few minutes, Berk, who was below deck watching the sight glasses on the tanks started yelling and screaming (one thing he's good at) to stop, saying the water tanks were filling up with fuel and was spilling out of the tanks.  None of this made any sense. The only thing that was apparent was that the bilge pump started and was pumping fuel into the harbour on a scale that would make the Exxon Valdez look like a minor spill. This caused quite some distress and concern with the staff the fuelling station, who ran around chucking detergent into the water.  This only seemed to make the spill more conspicuous and bubbly and my guess is that they, we or both of us were very lucky not to have received a sizeable fine from the harbour board.

Filling of the fuel tanks swapped to the starboard filling point and this seem to go okay.  At this point I made the comment that if Berk was right, and there was fuel in the water tanks, we had a problem.  Jim seemed to think that it wasn't a problem stating that the water would float on the top of the fuel and so long as we didn't let the tanks get too low it wouldn't get into the fuel system.  My response to this was that if the boat was pitching around then the fuel and water would emulsify and we would have no idea how close it was getting to being drawn into the fuel system, and then added that in the event that we were to run into problems it would be the water that keeps us alive, not the fuel. But if the water was contaminated with diesel then we wouldn't be able to drink it.  I really think should have walked away at this point and was glad I bought large quantities of bottled water at the supermarket.

Team photo before heading off

Whilst filling the tanks with water and fuel Brian had gone off to buy McDonalds for everyone as no one (except myself) had eaten all day. With all the water and fuel tanks full and our bellies full of cold, wet burgers and soggychips (Brian was caught in a rain shower) and with the light fading we headed off at 5:30pm at a positively pedestrian speed of 5mph (4.3 knots).

I switched on my GPS and made a heading to Subic Bay - see below.

There was over 780 miles to go and by my reckoning at our current speed it was going to take at least 6½ days to complete so someone, somewhere didn't know what they were talking about when they said it would only take 3 days to complete.  That is unless we picked up more speed but we were already running at the designated 4500rpm engine speed.  Most of us were expected back at work.  Families and friends were expecting us back in 3 days so if we weren't back after 3 there were going to be some very anxious and concerned people about and the possibility of International Rescue searching the oceans for 6 lost souls.  However, if we were to take the shortest route to the Philippines, as I thought we were, then at least we would be in range to use mobile phones to put minds at rest that all was okay.

As we headed out I asked, as most of us were without sailing experience, what the procedure was in the event of an emergency, such as the boat capsizing or sinking. I guess my asking this was borne out of coming from a very safety conscious construction industry background where there is usually a procedure for everything.  I was hoping for a response something rather more serious that the flippant remarks and jokey comments received so I figured that in the chaos that was sure to ensue in an emergency that I knew (in the dark) where the bottle water was, the life jackets and the life raft.

All was well until we passed the typhoon shelter and started into the open seas.  It was choppy. Very choppy and rough and the boat pitched and rolled alarmingly making it almost impossible to walk about. I thought we were sure to turn back but no one else seem particularly concerned - or was hiding it.

Leaving Aberdeen (HK)

It was agreed that at night we would work in pairs in 3 hour rotating shifts - one steering and the other lookout.  Me and Jim; Brian and Adam; John and Berk.  Jim and I were scheduled for the last shift at 3am to 6am, which I didn't mind because if the weather cleared there would be a chance of seeing the sunrise.

I found a spot on the benches on the deck (I didn't fancy being below deck and getting trapped should the boat capsize or turn-turtle) to bed down for the night and tucked into a bag of peanut M&Ms, a treat I'd paid for myself whilst in the supermarket and fell into a deep sleep full of weird dreams, despite all the rolling around.

A Slow Boat From China - Load of Junk

Whilst I was in Singapore I had a text message from a former colleague who lives in Subic.  Some time ago he'd mentioned that between him and a friend they were planning to buy a boat in Hong Kong and to bring it to Subic Bay to keep and use. At the time I'd expressed an interest in joining the boat for the journey from HK to Subic

At very short notice via text message I was told the boat was ready to leave on the Wednesday but I wasn't leaving Singapore until the Tuesday.  I still wanted to join but I had to refuse as it would have meant me flying  direct from Singapore direct to HK to rendezvous with the boat, and I needed to be back in the Philippines, albeit briefly, for work reasons and to grab some clothes for the boat trip.

Having also received an e-mail on the same subject and read the thread included it was apparent hat the reason for the short notice was that someone had dropped out at the 12th hour and so I was second choice.  Nice.

Regardless of this I was prepared to swallow my pride and was still keen to go, just for the adventure but told them that unless the departure date could be postponed I wouldn't be able to make it but I was told the dates were cast in stone.

But apparently the stone was made out of something not so solid as I was subsequently told the boat would be leaving on Wednesday lunchtime so there was a window of opportunity, even if it was a very small window.  It would mean flying back to Subic on the Tuesday and arriving late afternoon, getting stuck into the paperwork I needed to do, book a flight at short notice (assuming there was a flight available) and up at 3am to catch the early flight to Hong Kong.

Booking a flight at short notice hurts as you're stung by being charged an outrageous amount for the flight.  I ended up paying far more for a one-way, 1 hour flight than I paid for a 3½ hour return flight to Singapore.

I caught the early flight from Clark to HK on Wednesday the 4th April. On arrival at the airport in HK I had only sketchy information on the exact plan (it didn't seem to be running well) and where to go.  I had a text message from one of the boat's co-owners who told me that a guy called Dirk, also travelling from Subic, had left his passport in the departure lounge (lets call him Berk) and had had to stay overnight in transit until his passport arrived with the next flight, and I was to meet him in the airport arrivals hall.  Despite giving him two phone numbers this seemed to be doomed to failure and after waiting for longer than necessary at the agreed rendezvous I received another message saying Berk was on the train to HK Central without me (it was going from bad to worse), so I followed suit and was told to head to the ABC.  Now using acronyms is fine so long as everyone else around you knows what they mean and trying to use them to appear to be clever, is just not clever.  To me, the ABC was a cinema on King's Street in Maidstone that was the venue for the chaotic and riotous Saturday morning cinema and which was demolished in the 70s (I guess) to make way for a new shopping centre, so it clearly wasn't there.  As it turned out the ABC was Aberdeen Boat Club - that's Aberdeen HK, not Scotland . . . .

Once off the train I went looking for the bus to Aberdeen and spotted a familiar looking guy that I'd seen in  Subic so walked over and asked him if he was Berk, and it was.  Berk told me he was heading off to the harbour control immigration office to arrange our exit later that day and so I went with him.  When we got there, which wasn't too far from the station and we went by taxi but it would have been quicker to walk, it was closed due to it being a public holiday, which made me begin to wonder about the efficiency of the planning that had gone into this trip.

From the harbour immigration office we headed to the HKYC (that's Hong Kong Yacht Club, see how clever I am?!) where we were to meet the other members of the crew.  It was here that I found out that our departure was meant to coincide with the Rolex China Sea Race from Hong Kong to Subic so that there would be other boats in the vicinity should we encounter difficulties, which did little to improve my confidence, especially as we were going to be leaving a day later than all those super-sleek racing yachts speeding towards Subic Bay without us.

The time spent waiting for the others to appear was spent with a beer in my hand watching the start of the yacht race.  It's not exactly like Formula 1, is it?  All the yacht seemed to mingle around the harbour and then once a klaxon was sounded they then pointed in the same general direction and off they (slowly) went.  The yacht club terrace consisted mostly of the posh, nouveau riche and bankers all in a sea of blazers, boat shoes, pressed chinos, G&Ts and bubbly which was far from my liking.  All Ruperts, Sebastians, Felicities and Henriettas.  About as nice as a golf club.

The other crew members turned up and after the dull start to the race we introduced ourselves and made a plan.  There were to six of us in total: from Subic there was me, Berk (Dutch), Jim (ex British Army and part owner of the boat) and from Macau/HK there was Aussie Adam (security systems) and two more Brits, Brian (façade engineering) and  John (mechanical engineer).

The plan was this: after lunch head over to Aberdeen to check the boat then back spend the night in in Central.  The next day travel to Aberdeen first thing in the morning.  Pick up a few supplies and then head off promptly at midday, with the trip to Subic taking no more than 3 days to complete.

At Aberdeen we boarded a harbour taxi, which are sampans deftly piloted by leathery faced old Chinese ladies, and headed to the boat.  

Sampan in the rain

I was told the boat we would be taking to Subic was a Chinese Junk. Now, I don't know about you but to my mind's eye a Chinese Junk looks like this:

Which I believed to be relatively sea worthy ocean going sailing vessel that was the ship of choice of Chinese traders/mariners. Although I did think for a minute that perhaps if the Chinese had chosen something else there wouldn't be quite so many programmes on the Discovery Channel about salvaging willow pattern pottery from the sea bed.

However, what it was in fact was this:

Now, whilst it is undoubtedly a nice boat I don't know about you, and I'm no expert, but to me this didn't appear to me to be a ocean going vessel capable of crossing the South China Sea. Well perhaps on a flat calm but not on even remotely choppy seas, never mind a storm. Perfect perhaps for cruising the coastline or Hong Kong island hopping but nothing too adventurous.  

I was having serious doubts about this trip and considered using the excuse that as there had been a delay I needed to be back in Subic and so would have to bail out.  But you know what, I didn't want to be the guy who scuppered the whole trip.  Six people were needed (so I was told) and I looked around at the others and they didn't outwardly show any sign of concern, especially Berk who was apparently a sailor extraordinaire (but who couldn't look after his passport) and was to be our pilot and captain for the trip.  So I continued to go along with it albeit with some serious reservations.

There was no life raft on the boat. One would have to be acquired. There was no EPIRB (Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon) so in the event of an emergency we could be found in the lift raft instead of bobbing around in the South China Sea for days, weeks or months on end.  I'm not even sure there were any distress flares. Berk had a hand held VHF radio, which if dunked in the sea would have been useless and even if it wasn't, was only good for line of sight distance so unless there were loads of ships passing we wouldn't be able to contact them.  There was no power outlet so one would have to be rigged up.  There was no refrigeration to keep food fresh (why would there be?  It's not like it was the sort of boat built to spend days at sea in).  The navigation lights needed new bulbs.  And there was me thinking it was all set up ready to go.

Really it was going from bad to worse.  There seemed to have hardly been any real or proper preparation and I could see with the amount of preparation involved it was going to be difficult to leave the following day, never mind leaving at midday.

After making a list of items needed we headed back to Central.  I went to bed early whilst the others went out on the lash - perfect preparation for a busy day ahead.

What's the Meaning of the V?

At the beginning of April I was back in Singapore for a company conference, which ideally should have worked out well for me because I had a couple of second hand cameras to pick up from the office (I don't have anything delivered to the Philippines for two reasons: firstly, I don't think I'll ever get it because anything of any value will probably go 'missing' or secondly, it's is likely to held to ransom pending the payment of outrageous, punitive and exorbitant customs and duty charges (see Coffee Chaos) that bear no resemblance to the real world. The reason for the disproportionate charges, as I believe, is for either those nice chaps holding on to your goods to make some easy cash or if you don't pay, then the crooks nice guys in customs get to keep your goodies.

Unfortunately, one of the cameras I was hoping to pick up was stuck in a warehouse in Singapore. The Singapore post office has a service called Vpost which facilitates buying items in Europe (including the UK although I steadfastly refuse to accept that the UK is in Europe), the US, China and Japan, having them delivered to an forwarding depot in the relevant county whereby Vpost then ships your goods to Singapore for less money than regular courier/postal services.  And they do all the customs nonsense as well, rather than having to deal with a separate entity.

Up until now this has worked out rather well for me with no problems and an excellent, efficient service such that you'd expect from Singapore.  On this occasion I'd bought two items in the UK.  By some eBay or PayPal quirk (don't get me started on PayPal) one item ended up being delivered to my UK address, which was relatively easy to resolve.  

The other was correctly delivered the forwarding depot in Warrington.  It was even shipped to Singapore within a couple of days but then it all went wrong.  Once Vpost receive the item they send you an invoice to pay.  Once you've paid, the goods get sent to your address.  However, the camera they were invoicing me for wasn't the camera I'd purchased, it was one I'd bought last year and had already taken delivery of.  Now, you'd think it would have been relatively simple to just explain to Vpost where this had gone wrong and for them to correct it? Wrong: it took me over 4 months and countless e-mails to get my camera (which I still don't have and won't have until I visit Singapore again).  

I've often wondered what the V in Vpost stands for.  Now I think I know:

The upshot of this was that I wasn't able to get my sticky mitts on the camera (a Nikonos V  if you must know - with V standing not for 5 but for Very nice underwater camera) when I went to Singapore, which was rather disappointing and so had to rely on my phone (crappy shots on a HTC Wildfire) and a Yashica Dental Eye III, whose furthest focussing distance is around 2ft (don't ask why I have a Yashica Dental Eye III) so is limited to macro photography.  

I also picked up (and nearly strained my back as it's a behemoth of a camera) a Fuji GX680 II.  Now that was something I was looking forward to playing with but, like a kid at Christmas with a new toy and no batteries, this came with no battery pack.  I was convinced I'd be able to source one in Singapore but to no avail, despite checking all the second hand camera shops and even Sim Lim for an alternative type.

Hence, most of my weekend was taken up with looking for batteries for the GX680 and very little in the way of actual photography.

On Sunday morning I was up very early and went for a walk around the Singapore Botanic Gardens, something I'd been wanting to do for ages.  Going early was definitely the right thing to do because as the morning progressed the place just became increasingly mobbed, which is hardly surprising considering Singapore is the world's third most densely populated country (it used to be second but it's relegation to third place hasn't been because of a reduction in population, in fact far from it as it's looking to increase the population numbers, but it's slip to 3rd place is probably due to a large influx of mainland Chinese into Macau). 

The gardens were fantastic, immaculately kept and tended, as you'd expect from Singapore. In one section there were sprinklers emitting a fine spray creating a mist to water the plants and with the low morning sun creating a dapple light through the trees the whole place looked enchanting and just like you'd imagine a rain forest to look like.

Here are some photos - apologies for the poor quality but don't blame me, blame HTC and Vpost.

For lunch, as is now par for the course, Sunday was spent having champagne brunch in the Prego Café at the Fairmont Hotel. As usual it involved too much food and too much champagne and so a lazy sleepy day was had for what remained of the day.

Mmmmm! Any room for dessert?

Taiwan Times

Mid March I was in Kaohsiung again as I needed a break from the Philippines and spend some time somewhere rather more civilized. What can I say about this place that I haven't said already?  It really feels like home. Especially as the weather was unseasonably and decidedly chilly with a rather unfortunate grey cloud blotting out any hint of sunshine.  Crap light for taking photos - everything seems so flat.

Kaohsiung airport is only small and there aren't many, if any international flights going there from Europe or the west.  There are hundreds to Hong Kong and China to cater for the cultural links between Taiwan and China but that's about it really.  As a result I love the airport because there are rarely any crowds, absolutely no queues at immigration and the baggage collection hall is as serene as a Buddhist temple.  It's the same going out and the airport security are super polite - they really treat you like they are inconveniencing you, rather than the other way round as it is at London's airports.  Furthermore, because it's a small airport you don't have to walk miles and miles between/to terminals.  That in itself should be an argument not to expand Heathrow further.

I once arrived in Heathrow (Deathrow) and there was sign as we exited the plane stating that you needed to allow 1 hour to walk to the furthest gate if you were transferring.  1 hour - that's like 4 miles away at a brisk pace!  Although I'm sure the airport was allowing for a large margin to cater for the less mobile (probably those nationals - mention no names - who lug around more hand luggage than I carry in baggage).

I had to travel to Manila to fly to Kaohsiung because the only airline that used to fly to Taiwan from Clark had gone bust.  Little surprise really: they didn't advertise and no one knew of them.  I only found out about them from a friend who found out about them by accident, and on the one occasion I did fly with them the plane was nigh empty going in both directions.

So what did I do in Kaohsiung?  Well, nothing very much different from what I usually do.  I went camera shopping, caught up with my mate Dave, ate far too much wonderful food, drank far too much beer (Dave's fault) and walked for miles and miles and miles.

Wrap 'em - I'll take them all.

Two binge drinkers on the town

There is a dynamism about Taiwan that we would do well in Britain to emulate.  When the Taiwanese realised that the port in Kaohsiung (the principle reason the city exists) were becoming obsolete, they basically shut down the old ones and built new super high-tec ones (watch Mega-Cities on Nat Geo about Kaohsiung).  No fuss, no drama, no years and years of public enquiries, they just did what was necessary to make the place work.  And the upside of this is there is now a whole new area that was once the old, grimy, dirty and seedy docks, and railways sidings that served it, which has now opened up to new waterfront venues for bars, restaurants, museums, exhibition halls and concert halls.  Again, and although this is all in its infancy, the transformation as been nothing short of astonishing and it's where I spent most of this trip, walking around and exploring the place.  I've always been aware that the area exists but obviously when it was an operating port, security restrictions prevented anyone from entering the area (unless you were a docker or a merchant seaman of course), so it was really interesting to see what actually was behind the port walls.

When I arrived back in Subic my feelings of inner tranquillity and harmony were very quickly shattered.  I'd bought a new (brand new) bin for the gardener to use to collect the leaves so that he didn't have to use the rubbish bin and scatter the rubbish in the forest at the back of the house.  As I pulled into the drive I noticed the new bin was still sitting there unused and that he was using the rubbish bin.  I do find it difficult to control my rage in circumstances like this but I did manage to keep it together.  But this was severely tested.  I asked him why he was using the rubbish bin and not the new bin I'd bought specifically for the garden.  His first answer was 'No'.  No what?  What do you mean no?  No's not an answer - it wasn't a yes or no question. Then when pushed for an explanation he said he liked the rubbish bin.  What? It's a plastic bin the same as the one I've just bought, except the one I've just bought is empty and for use in the garden and the one you're using is the rubbish bin full of rubbish.

All I could do was just walk away.