Having signed on last October as Chief Mate we got the news of a new acquirement by Conning shipping, an old 2nd hand cruise ship made in Denmark. It was all crewed by Ukrainians, cheap as chips as was also told by the Technical Manager, Mr Yeung, that they can't afford us anymore. Bit of a pity to hear it but as usual it is the figure under the red line that matters.
Soon enough we were steaming down south to Singapore and I recall the first time coming into Cruise Bay to moor alongside. I had quite the butterflies in my stomach as so far I had only been maneuvering to a mooring buoy for past year, bit of a different ballgame comparing coming alongside a jetty with a bit of current. In the end it all went well as I had the memories from Superstar Leo and our approaches to Singapore. Columbus Caravelle was also considerably smaller so there was that too.
Having come alongside we were then boarded by various charter and office interests, they had a local partner who they were working with. The cruising route was set along the Malacca Straits as we could not do indefinite cruises to nowhere as stipulated by the local Gov't. So we started doing cruises Singapore - Port Klang - Melaka - Singapore - Pasir Gudang - Singapore and so on. Usually in Pasir Gudang we sat the night and could go sample the local cuisine. One office chap was into the Orang Asli restaurant nearby who served delicious seafood and was invited there frequently.
We also did a trip to Indonesia to Pulau Bintan to make contact with locals and see how it would fit our itinerary. It went as far as getting a sailing permit, was told it was very expensive but in the end we we did not include the island in our schedule.
Then in Feb it was my turn to go on leave and handover to my counterpart.
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