And then there is BORED!!!
Some people watch Netflix in their spare time. Remy Osman tracks rusty tankers transporting illicit oil through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
From the roof of his Singapore apartment building, the British expat, who works as a food and beverage salesman, documents the passage of these shadow vessels, often sanctioned by the US and other Western countries, for his growing online audience.
Shadow fleets, also known as ghost or dark fleets, are ships that use murky tactics to transport oil for pariah states like Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Oil revenues from these fleets, consisting of aging tankers with opaque ownership, have become crucial sources of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Full article, HERE from CNN.com
First, a little background. Singapore and the Malacca Straits provide two choke points for shipping in the Pacific/Indian Ocean region.
First is the Singapore Strait itself. Very narrow, only about 3 miles wide, of which less than 2 miles is usable, and a lot of ship traffic every day/night. Now the Malacca Strait looks nice and wide by comparison, but when you take 12nm off each side for ‘sovereign’ territory, it suddenly gets a LOT narrower…
This is a typical real time look at the Straits traffic as of 2000 CST last night.
Even the shadow fleet ships run their AIS going through the Straits to keep from getting run over. The spacing is very tight, approximately 2 nm between the West (northbound) and East (southbound lanes). The traffic is governed by a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) set up by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and includes specific reporting points for ALL ships to maintain spacing and clearance. Maximum speeds in some areas are limited to 12 knots, and minimum speeds are expected for the entire transit area, while anyone with problems are mandated to make a right turn out of their lane to clear traffic.
I’m betting Osman is NOT the only person(s) monitoring the Straits…
But it is an interesting read, and does give some good info on what folks do look for. I’m also wondering who/how much he gets paid per month for his ‘reports’???
Gosh I wonder why the British were so keen on a base in Singapore 200 years ago?
Well, it isn’t like the UK was a naval power, or had goals of force projection around the world, or had a defensive posture that requires some interest in an effective navy, and hence in supply chains and naval basing.
Oh, wait.
Too bad they had all their artillery facing seaward. Guess they didn’t have many Army types looking at a map in the 1920-1930’s.
Francis- LOL, it was a couple of days sail from Hong Kong, and had a good protected harbor.
Hope he doesn’t fall off his balcony….
On the topic of bored autists running amok, with the lockdown, some effort was put into an effort to build a 1 to 1 scale model of the Earth in minecraft. I found out about this today from a video about the effort to build New York City, literally in Minecraft.
Though, apparently autists are rare, and this alleged increase is apparently public school teachers saying so for money.
Made that run a few times (Singapore and Malacca Straits) hours in CIC tracking everything close and dropping them as we passed and opened. Seriously tense sometimes. Long watches. Singapore was a fun visit.
Busy bridgewatch as well , the best experienced OOD’s , the best conning officers , the ol Man was usually in his big chair, the chart table was active , fixes being called out constantly , usually we’d put our master helmsmen on the wheel, extra lookouts , and set modified Zebra just for fun . Exciting transit through there . Singapore , one of the few places where I held off on drinking till evening and enjoyed the sights , and the food was fantastic .
Ed- Yep!
Bob- Interesting, on both counts…
Rey- Yep, flying over there wasn’t any fun either… Butterworth out and back for 12 hours, never got above 1000 feet.
Weird, I used to monitor big ships going down the Detroit river from our apartment in Windsor. Man, they were huge and blocked off the view of the Motor City as the gun shots rang out. Like no kidding.
Cheers.