98028 Deep Draft Lane Blocked

Deep Draft Lane Blocked
Singapore Strait
Report No. 98028

A near miss grounding was experienced during my last passage through the Singapore Straits. Unfortunately it was all too familiar. It was a night passage with good visibility. A medium sized eastbound cargo vessel was ahead of her schedule and arrived early off the approaches to Eastern Boarding Ground Alpha. With no pilot available, she just slowed to bare steerage way in the middle of the east bound TSS lane. A deep draft VLCC was forced to take evasive action out of the deepwater route and slow from 12 knots to 4. Own vessel and the VLCC had agreed when approaching Racon Delta earlier, that own vessel would not attempt an overtaking until clear of Berhanti. We were about 1.5 miles behind the VLCC approaching Buffalo Rock but had then closed to a distance of about 8 cables while also slowing to 4 knots.

There was of course the usual mix of small craft, fast ferries and tugs with tows in the area. Also, we had a rendezvous with a stores launch, who, because we were behind schedule at this point, proceeded to meet us near Berhanti rather than the agreed site further east.

At such a slow speed, the current set us down on Berhanti shoal to a distance of only 0.3 miles before we were able to manoeuvre and use full ahead on the engines. Traffic Control was quick to tell us we were standing into danger, but not so quick to order the vessel, which caused it, to clear the TSS until her pilot time. In discussing the incident aboard, it was felt that, when possible, we should try to keep more distance between our vessel and deep draft vessels we are transiting with to allow for this type of event.