The captain of the Manxman has released the first of his logs from the ship’s journey from South Korea to the island.

Manxman, the Steam Packet’s new vessel, left Ulsan, South Korea, on May 13.

Captain Andy Atkinson and his team will be providing updates on the delivery voyage to Manx waters that will document the passage and provide some insight on each of the locations the vessel visits along the way.

On May 13, Manxman left Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Ulsan at 2.52pm, or 6.52am in the Isle of Man, to begin her sea passage to Singapore.

This was the first stop on the way to the island.

Mr Atkinson said: ‘Immediately after clearing Ulsan, we passed between the Korean city of Busan, and the Japanese island of Tsushima and continued to head South through the Korea Strait. By midnight, the ship had done its first 136 miles of the trip home.’

At around midday on May 14, the ship passed 200 miles east of Shanghai and the mouth of the Yangtze River.

By May 15, Manxman had entered the Taiwan Strait between Taiwan and mainland China, which separates the East and South China seas.

‘It’s about as wide as twice the distance from Heysham to Douglas,’ Mr Atkinson said. ‘We covered 401 miles.’

Routine inspections found some fuel contamination on May 16, which meant she was diverted towards Hong Kong to collect spare parts as a precaution.

‘Therefore today was spent awaiting Port Clearance to enter Hong Kong and arranging the supply of stores and some extra fuel,’ Mr Atkinson added.

‘We spent the day in a holding position until we had the appropriate clearances from the Hong Kong authorities for our entry.

‘As Hong Kong is an hour behind Korea, we put our clocks back today. We will do this seven more times on our way back home.’

The next day Manxman entered Hong Kong for her fuel and stores.

At 5.30pm the crew anchored off the south east of Lamma Island and Mr Atkinson noted that ‘bunkering fuel went well’ and by midnight they were preparing to depart. Manxman’s anchor was aweigh just after midnight on May 18.

The captain said: ‘We’re now in the tropics, which is renowned for its warm and humid tropical weather conditions. By the end of the day we had completed 361 miles.’

On May 19, the ferry headed south as it passed the Paracel Islands in the South China sea, known as the Chinese Maldives.

‘The traffic’s getting busy,’ Mr Atkinson continued. ‘There’s lots of fishing boats offshore, as well as the shipping traffic between China and Singapore and Indonesia.’

In the morning of May 20 Manxman passed 160 miles off Mekong River Delta and later in the day she was east of the Gulf of Thailand.

He added: ‘The weather has been overcast, with light winds, thunderstorms and occasionally rainy squalls.

‘This is characteristic weather of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, which was once known by sailors as “the doldrums”.

‘The calmness of the winds used to be a hazard to sailing ships as they could get stuck in light winds.’

The last day documented so far is May 21, when Manxman arrived at the port of Singapore, which is the world’s second-busiest port, and the world’s biggest ship refuelling centre.

The captain said: ‘We’ll take a short break here to assess the ship’s systems after a good shakedown at sea on the voyage so far. Before we leave port we’ll also take on additional fuel for the next leg of the voyage, to Colombo, Sri Lanka.’

The blog can be found on the Steam Packet’s website.