Captain Hawkins Blog: Princess 52 “Michael’s Day Out” Part 1. The delivery from Singapore to Phuket

Princess 52033 Michael’s Day Out.
26/10/2013. One° 15 Marina Singapore.
Delivery, Singapore to Phuket.

Being on board of this Princess 52 I carried out my normal pre-delivery inspections, checking that all systems were operating correctly, and that I had sufficient equipment to undertake the delivery of this Princess from Singapore to Phuket.

This trip is fairly normal one for me, as many of the boats that are shipped from the UK come into Singapore and are then delivered under their own steam up the Malacca Strait, via Port Dickson, onto Penang, and then stopping off in Langkawi before the final leg of the journey up to Phuket. Whilst this boat delivery is very normal, there are still risks with a limited number of marinas, or places of refuse on the way, also with the odd palm tree floating down the channel. So, a good look out is required.

But at the back of my mind I knew that the trip up to Phuket was only half way for this boat to be delivered to its new home, this being a place called Ngwe Saung, 600 nautical miles north of Phuket in Myanmar. Having travelled up to Myanmar prior to going to Singapore, I knew that the facilities for such a boat in Myanmar were limited. Therefore, when the boat arrived at its home destination, it would have to be running well, and good maintenance equipment would have to be onboard.

This first half of the delivery was an ideal opportunity to test the boat thoroughly, and knowing that I would be stopping off in Phuket where Princess South East Asia have there main service centre. So, off we set keeping a good log and noting any areas that we need looking at by the service team, once in Phuket. The delivery trip went well, no major problems. I made a fuel consumption table so that I would know how far we could travel on a tank of fuel at different RPM and speeds.

Once in Phuket I gave my list of findings to the Princess Service Manager and left it to him to do his work. The service team also had a number of retro jobs to complete; also the logistic team had a full list of interior items they needed to put onboard, such as bedding, kitchen, bathroom and lounge fittings. When I saw the amount of items that had to go onboard I thought that my fuel consumption figures would go out of the window.

I had already calculated that we would need to carry extra fuel in order to make the legs between each fuel stop and also to cover us in case our arranged bunkering facilities were not there.

During a 2 week stop off in Phuket the owner had visited the boat, and I had spent a few days with him so that he could familiarize himself with the boat. The owner had given the thumbs up to the boat, and several days after he had left me and crew along with 1,000 litres of extra fuel onboard set out to sea.

Part 2

Gallery