Day 65 - Strait of Malacca

We're on our final day of sailing before Singapore. Because of where we are the talk turned to pirates. I don't think it's a big deal on the type of ship we're on, but last night and tonight the outside doors are locked. This usually only happens in port. We're running with a few more lights on outside and I think some of the crew walk the decks a bit after dark. I'm not sure how much of it's joking or how much of it is serious. I was up on the bridge today using the binoculars to look at the variety of fishing vessels we were passing. This is actually unusual for us as we normally only see other cargo ships, unless coming into a port. One of the officers made a joke about all the small vessels we were seeing. "In the day they are fisherman, at night they are pirates."

Anyway, we got an update on our arrival in Singapore today. It seems that a sister ship is in the berth we're due to dock at. So tomorrow morning the pilot will take us in to a certain point and we'll drop anchor. It means we won't be in until later on, possibly the evening. The good news is that we'll likely have both Saturday and Sunday to explore Singapore. We originally thought we would only have part of Friday and maybe Saturday. I think I'm at a point where I really need to update the blog. Wireless access in the port would be nice... okay, that's wishful thinking. So far that's only been an option in New Orleans and for future travellers Philadelphia may have it soon (although perhaps not in NJ where we tied up). In Hamburg I managed to get a connection to a network, just not one with internet access. I really can't complain though since (so far) I've generally found access without too much trouble. In a pinch most of the seamen's mission have access, although we've only taken advantage of it in Houston.