Day 87 - New Bridge

I checked today and found out our arrival with be tomorrow in the early afternoon. That's the arrival at the pilot station. It turns out that we will have to drop anchor and await instructions. The captain relies a great deal on the local agents and they seem to be a mixed bunch. The other person we take on board at each stop is the supercargo. He's the person responsible for how the cargo is loaded (i.e. the balancing plan). The agent is usually a different person in each port, whereas the supercargo will often be the same person for a specific area.

There's not much to see outside today. From time to time we pass a fishing boat, however, the skies are grey so visibility is poor. We spent some time down in the crew mess after dinner. The movie of the evening was Mission Impossible, followed by some karaoke and a concert video (Gloria Estefan). There was no real rush to go to sleep, as it's unlikely we'll be in port tomorrow.

The picture for today is of a bridge in progress over the Pearl River. I think it's the first time I've ever seen a suspension bridge being built. One of the crew was telling me that Huangpu had a population of 3 million and even had a McDonalds. I haven't quite decided if that's a sign of civilization or of its decline.