Life on the ship

Admin thought: It is better to comment on blog than facebook – no access to facebook to respond.

09.01.2020

I am sitting on the bridge at 5 am in the morning. When I came up the bridge, there were three people. One behind the blackening curtains, the navigating officer at the computer, and the other two outside in the non-curtained part, keeping an eye on the navigational systems, radio and the alarms.

“How is it going?” – I asked, as if I could make out everything that was going on.

“It is very quiet” – said K. “Just fishing boats”.

I look around and see around 7-8 lights spread around the horizon.

“So many” – I am impressed the fishing boats are up so early – I am so uninitiated to the life in the sea.

"Yes Ma’am – the fish at night".

“Where are we?”

“Straits of Malacca” said Kenneth.

He zoomed out on the map and showed me where in Straits of Malacca we are. We are more to the north than we were yesterday but still not where I expected to be – exactly between Aceh and Kuala Lumpur. My family friend, A, who works for a shipping company and has spent major part of his life on sea, had told me that we would go around the Aceh into the Bay of Bengal – I am waiting for that. I always wanted to go to Andaman Nicobar islands. I was coming closest to it finally and waiting anxiously to make sure I do not miss the experience of being on Bay of Bengal.