Appreciation
Besides the incident in stormy weather several days ago. My boat crew and I ran into another "close encounter" on night duty last Sunday. The sunrise photograph in the last entry could have been my last post in reality when I think back about it.
As usual, at night visiblity is really poor and we have to rely on our radar most of the time for navigation, however, there are some nights where the glow from the night sky as well as the lights from other anchored vessels are able to give us a good semblance of what lies ahead of us. Yet, there are some nights where everything is literally pitch black and the only specks of light are from the navigational green and red hues from many nautical miles away out at sea.
When my day shift last Saturday had ended, we made out way back safely to base by going in reverse the route normally used to head out to sea. Yet, nothing prepared us for what happened on Sunday. As usual, it was like going out on a day shift to our patrol sector, just it its at night. What we didn't expect was that the useless MPA had actually placed a whole string of unlighted buoys on our usual route out.
For the uninitiated, a buoy is a floating navigational aid that helps ships on the sea to navigate as safely as possible. They come in different sizes, different colors. Most of them are solar powered and are linked by a chain to the seabed. At night, each buoy gives out a distinctive flashing signal which can usually be seen from at least 3 nautical miles away. I was told the average cost of a buoy is about 40 thousand dollars. A good example would be the navigational marker that all boats will see on the way into Marina Bay. This one is the Marina Inner Buoy. Its just adjacent to Benjamin Sheares Bridge. In this case, the colors tell the helmsman that its purpose is to separate vessel traffic and all vessels passing through the channel must keep to the Starboard.
This particular buoy is about 2 storeys high on the surface of the water. And very generally, a buoy follows the "iceberg principle" of floatation. That is, about 10% is above the surface of the water, with the remaining 90% below the surface for floatation stability as well as to ensure the the lighting signals always face the intended direction.
The useless MPA had put up a whole slew of yellow buoys just outside Keppel Harbour. Yellow buoys are simply special purpose markers. Unlike the Red or Green marker buoys which have fixed meanings worldwide, yellow buoys can have all variances of meanings. They can be as small as a few study desks combined together, or can be as large as six storeys high. A buoy requires a special vessel to carry it around, and I've seen the entire thing fished out of the water before. It is huge! And the chain that links it to the seabed is about half a meter thick. The largest yellow buoy in Singapore is Eastern Buoy. It greets ships coming into our port waters and is about 10 nautical miles from East Coast. The buoy is so huge and so far out in our waters that a few meters more from it and its international waters already. Yeah, its about six storeys high and is anchored to a seabed in waters 50 over meters in depth.
The utterly useless and dumb MPA put up a series of yellow buoys outside Keppel Harbour to demarcate prohibited areas. Unfortunately none of us are told about the new arragement and proceed to navigate out to sea using our usual route. While most of the times we can spot danger far away using both our radar and having someone on lookout duty. On a pitch black night, it can get rather difficult to see and unlighted buoy at a distance.
We almost hit one of the buoys. All this while having a lookout, monitoring our radar and navigating at a safe speed. It was only when we passed "something yellow floating near us" by a few meters that we realised that it was actually a buoy! That was how bad visibility really was that night. The buoy wasn't even picked up by our radar! So I theorise that they might have been made out of plastic (being cheaper after all). Right! An important navigational marker made out of plastic! The safety navigational marker itself is the danger!
Had we hit that buoy. I think our boat would have sunk within 10 seconds or so. And the next day we'll have the newspapers reporting a Coast Guard version of the Navy's "Courageous". The MPA is a crap gahmen organisation indeed. So much for a world class port authority! They can't even light up a few buoys! Much less inform us! Indeed, I have nothing good to say about this useless organisation. Many times I've seen their boats tied up at the Jetty on Pulau Hantu doing NOTHING! Not one but TWO boats! And for the whole night shift that I am on duty!
Once , I patrolled so far out to sea that I saw an MPA boat tied to a Kelong and when we went closer to have a look. I myself saw men inside that MPA boat watching TV, cooking goreng pisang and to top it off, their top man onboard sleeping on the jetty of the Kelong! So this is where all the taxpayers money goes in mantaining a world class port! An utter disgrace indeed! Its nowonder why Port Tanjung Pelepas is drawing away the ship from our sector!
So when you read about the MPA in the papers. Just remember - they are CRAP. I will never have a good impression of them EVER again. If they can't even light a few buoys that pose a navigational hazard as well as seeing so many MPA boats (presumably on duty) blatantly slacking away doing NOTHING when I'm on duty. They are probably as useless as the security guards at MRT stations that taxpayers have to pay a quarter a million for, just to see someone wearing a uniform walk here, walk there and wayang.
So in conclusion. At the end of the day, I stil have to Thank God once again. Indeed, God is good all the time and His mercy never faileth! They are new every morning! Our boat could have hit that buoy that night and all of us go down into the murky depths. I won't forget what happened the previous night shift in the heavy rain when God miraculously cleared up the rain for us! Yet also, in epilogue, the MPA has lighted up that entire series of buoys already.
Hillsongs - I Adore
The universe is at Your feet
Gives You praise evermore
The stars will light the sky for You
Always, God be praised
And we sing
The Lord is on high
The Lord is on high
I adore You
I adore You
And theres none that compares
To Your majesty, oh Lord
I adore You
I adore You
And I stand
In the wonder of Your love
We will crown You
King forever
Living savior
Jesus redeemer
Lord of heaven
Robed in majesty
Crowned in glory
Creation adores You
Holy, holy
God almighty
And forever
The Lord is exalted
Hear the angels
Shout His anthem
Ever living
God we adore You
Besides the incident in stormy weather several days ago. My boat crew and I ran into another "close encounter" on night duty last Sunday. The sunrise photograph in the last entry could have been my last post in reality when I think back about it.
As usual, at night visiblity is really poor and we have to rely on our radar most of the time for navigation, however, there are some nights where the glow from the night sky as well as the lights from other anchored vessels are able to give us a good semblance of what lies ahead of us. Yet, there are some nights where everything is literally pitch black and the only specks of light are from the navigational green and red hues from many nautical miles away out at sea.
When my day shift last Saturday had ended, we made out way back safely to base by going in reverse the route normally used to head out to sea. Yet, nothing prepared us for what happened on Sunday. As usual, it was like going out on a day shift to our patrol sector, just it its at night. What we didn't expect was that the useless MPA had actually placed a whole string of unlighted buoys on our usual route out.
For the uninitiated, a buoy is a floating navigational aid that helps ships on the sea to navigate as safely as possible. They come in different sizes, different colors. Most of them are solar powered and are linked by a chain to the seabed. At night, each buoy gives out a distinctive flashing signal which can usually be seen from at least 3 nautical miles away. I was told the average cost of a buoy is about 40 thousand dollars. A good example would be the navigational marker that all boats will see on the way into Marina Bay. This one is the Marina Inner Buoy. Its just adjacent to Benjamin Sheares Bridge. In this case, the colors tell the helmsman that its purpose is to separate vessel traffic and all vessels passing through the channel must keep to the Starboard.
This particular buoy is about 2 storeys high on the surface of the water. And very generally, a buoy follows the "iceberg principle" of floatation. That is, about 10% is above the surface of the water, with the remaining 90% below the surface for floatation stability as well as to ensure the the lighting signals always face the intended direction.
The useless MPA had put up a whole slew of yellow buoys just outside Keppel Harbour. Yellow buoys are simply special purpose markers. Unlike the Red or Green marker buoys which have fixed meanings worldwide, yellow buoys can have all variances of meanings. They can be as small as a few study desks combined together, or can be as large as six storeys high. A buoy requires a special vessel to carry it around, and I've seen the entire thing fished out of the water before. It is huge! And the chain that links it to the seabed is about half a meter thick. The largest yellow buoy in Singapore is Eastern Buoy. It greets ships coming into our port waters and is about 10 nautical miles from East Coast. The buoy is so huge and so far out in our waters that a few meters more from it and its international waters already. Yeah, its about six storeys high and is anchored to a seabed in waters 50 over meters in depth.
The utterly useless and dumb MPA put up a series of yellow buoys outside Keppel Harbour to demarcate prohibited areas. Unfortunately none of us are told about the new arragement and proceed to navigate out to sea using our usual route. While most of the times we can spot danger far away using both our radar and having someone on lookout duty. On a pitch black night, it can get rather difficult to see and unlighted buoy at a distance.
We almost hit one of the buoys. All this while having a lookout, monitoring our radar and navigating at a safe speed. It was only when we passed "something yellow floating near us" by a few meters that we realised that it was actually a buoy! That was how bad visibility really was that night. The buoy wasn't even picked up by our radar! So I theorise that they might have been made out of plastic (being cheaper after all). Right! An important navigational marker made out of plastic! The safety navigational marker itself is the danger!
Had we hit that buoy. I think our boat would have sunk within 10 seconds or so. And the next day we'll have the newspapers reporting a Coast Guard version of the Navy's "Courageous". The MPA is a crap gahmen organisation indeed. So much for a world class port authority! They can't even light up a few buoys! Much less inform us! Indeed, I have nothing good to say about this useless organisation. Many times I've seen their boats tied up at the Jetty on Pulau Hantu doing NOTHING! Not one but TWO boats! And for the whole night shift that I am on duty!
Once , I patrolled so far out to sea that I saw an MPA boat tied to a Kelong and when we went closer to have a look. I myself saw men inside that MPA boat watching TV, cooking goreng pisang and to top it off, their top man onboard sleeping on the jetty of the Kelong! So this is where all the taxpayers money goes in mantaining a world class port! An utter disgrace indeed! Its nowonder why Port Tanjung Pelepas is drawing away the ship from our sector!
So when you read about the MPA in the papers. Just remember - they are CRAP. I will never have a good impression of them EVER again. If they can't even light a few buoys that pose a navigational hazard as well as seeing so many MPA boats (presumably on duty) blatantly slacking away doing NOTHING when I'm on duty. They are probably as useless as the security guards at MRT stations that taxpayers have to pay a quarter a million for, just to see someone wearing a uniform walk here, walk there and wayang.
So in conclusion. At the end of the day, I stil have to Thank God once again. Indeed, God is good all the time and His mercy never faileth! They are new every morning! Our boat could have hit that buoy that night and all of us go down into the murky depths. I won't forget what happened the previous night shift in the heavy rain when God miraculously cleared up the rain for us! Yet also, in epilogue, the MPA has lighted up that entire series of buoys already.
Hillsongs - I Adore
The universe is at Your feet
Gives You praise evermore
The stars will light the sky for You
Always, God be praised
And we sing
The Lord is on high
The Lord is on high
I adore You
I adore You
And theres none that compares
To Your majesty, oh Lord
I adore You
I adore You
And I stand
In the wonder of Your love
We will crown You
King forever
Living savior
Jesus redeemer
Lord of heaven
Robed in majesty
Crowned in glory
Creation adores You
Holy, holy
God almighty
And forever
The Lord is exalted
Hear the angels
Shout His anthem
Ever living
God we adore You
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