Saturday, October 24, 2015

Admin trip: Puteri Cove, Johor

Date: Oct 24, 2015
Trip #6
Weather: Hazy, and then rainy on the journey back
Waters: Flat 
On board: C, A, J2 and R, with Eric leading the way on board Kai

As Little Wanderer is registered with the Singapore Registry of Ships (SRS), it is required to make at least one trip to Malaysia.

We made that trip today, to Puteri Cove, which is part of Iskandar Malaysia. Eric was making the trip for the same reason, on one of his customer's boats (a Chaparral Signature 310 christened Kai),  and so was there to show us the way.

We got to Raffles Marina 45 minutes later than expected - the ol' Goose (namely, me) forgot to bring the Most Important Items for this trip, namely, the passports! We had to double back to go home when we were already halfway to the marina. At the marina later, we met a testy Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) guy who checked through our boat papers and verified our passport details. We had to pay a fee of S$150 each way for this service. Boaters headed to Malaysia have to call ahead of a trip, submit the relevant boat papers and arrange for an ICA official to clear immigration for all passengers on board. One official does this before departure, and if the boaters return the same day, it has to be by 4pm for the official on the next shift to stamp the passports.

We set off, turning to starboard upon exiting the marina. We were in Puteri Harbour in 15 minutes, passing the live-firing ranges of the Singapore Armed Forces along the way.

Puteri Cove as seen from the water, with its marina, serviced apartments and
F&B/retail outlets. Such a dull day, so here's a B&W pic for a change.

Little Wanderer, just about the smallest vessel berthed there today!

We were taken in a mini van by a Puteri Cove marina official to the customs building two minutes from the marina, where our passports were duly stamped. Eric had errands to run in Bukit Indah, a nearby township, so we had a couple of hours to hang out at the F&B/retail area. Nothing much there interested us - I think S1 and S2 might be the correct demographic for shops offering Hello Kitty and Thomas the Tank Engine stuff! - so we settled for lunch at Brussels Beer Cafe - pork knuckle, pasta, that sort of thing - and some beers to go with it.

Puteri Cove itself was quiet for a Saturday afternoon. Vendors were setting up the stalls for a night market that would open later in the night; Eric said Saturday nights are livelier there, with some F&B places featuring live music. 

Just as we were nearly done with lunch and had bought coffee, it started pouring, but only for a while. It slowed to a drizzle when we were underway five minutes later, and was bone dry back at Raffles Marina. 

Back home, look what arrived from Amazon.com today. C ordered these things: 

Looks like a lot of elbow grease!

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Landfall: Lazarus Island!

Date: Oct 17, 2015
Trip #5
Weather: Sunny, slightly hazy
Waters: Fairly calm
On board: C, A, J2, R and MH, with Eric as guide on his boat 
New gear on board: Hammock and miscellaneous sundries. The "tactical case", in the boat from the start, makes its debut


This one says it all. Hammock, sunnies, cold beer. Chill Island Life. 'Nuff said.


Me and my bunions. 

We made our first island landing today, on Lazarus Island (see map). Eric had kindly offered to lead the way in his boat with his wife, Kellin. It took us an hour and five or 10 minutes to get there, and Sinki Fairway was fairly free of traffic. Pulau Bukom, Pulau Hantu, Pulau Sudong, Sisters' Islands, St John's Island, Reflections on Keppel Bay, Sentosa, its cable cars and even the Singapore Flyer ... we saw them all on the way in. 


R up front, as usual! That's Eric's boat in the distance.

Eric showed us Lazarus' lagoon, reminded us about raising the outboard, dropping anchor and watching the tide. He then headed off with Kellin for fishing.  (They were to end their afternoon catching a metre-long grouper!)  

Lazarus is now more manicured than we remember it from 15 years ago. It has shelters, breakwaters and concrete pathways, where we saw park keepers chugging along in their golf buggies. The last time we were on this island, we had camped on a strip of beach just across the channel from Kusu Island. Lazarus was "wild" then. Today, we were on the other side, away from Kusu (and also away from the causeway linking Lazarus to St John's, I was to learn later). 

We unloaded our food, drinks, crockery and cutlery, picnic mats and "tactical box" (more on this later), and hit the shore. It was hot and the nearest shelter was a bit too far away to bother. 

J2 and R went snorkelling, but didn't see much in the murky water. A and MH cooled off in the shallows, while C fussed around the boat, making sure the anchor had landed properly. 


He dived off the aft, and then off the bow.
'I've always wanted to do this,' he said.

Father and son



The new hammock - a gift from J2! -was set up. Ham sarnies dressed with lettuce and tomatoes, a hunk of cheese, Breadtalk buns, wine and beer went around.







There were two or three other boats around, but those folks didn't swim. They were having a noisy party on board, and near as we could figure, there were plenty of libations there! 

That "tactical box" ... 

C, who takes each boat outing like a military mission, with his 'best buy' for the boat. 

It is a waterproof, bomb-proof (haha!) case in "tactical black", filled with objects that "you'll never know you'll need": "tactical illumination device" (that is, a torch), "para-cord" (translation: rope), a vicious knife that Rambo would have been proud to own and a pair of snorkels (in "tactical" colours, black and military green - but of course). C may have finished his National Service stint three decades ago, but you can't take the love for all things military out of the guy. Operating the VHF phone also triggers soldier-boy memories. 

This past week, though, I shopped for other more ... uh... mundane boat supplies: hand sanitizer, spray-on sunblock, wet wipes, a vacuum-sealable bag for spare bath towels (odour-free storage!), a caddy to hold all these things and a miniature waste bin. And yes, also a plastic folder for our official "boat papers" - boat licence, insurance, registration papers - in case the Police Coast Guard boards the boat and asks to check them. (We got this tip off the SGBoating website.)

C had asked whether the folder was "tactical", that is, waterproof, bomb-proof and preferably in camouflage colours. I had replied:  "My dear, if our lives are under threat while out at sea, I think having a dry set of boat papers would be the least of our concerns." 

Note to self: Bring Blu Tack on next trip out. That miniature waste bin needs to be anchored down. (Am sure C would smirk at this.)   

After a couple of hours on Lazarus, we headed straight back to home base without any problems, except some sun-reddened skin, sunblock notwithstanding. 

This has been a good day.      

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Raffles Marina, our home base

We took up membership at Raffles Marina formally yesterday.

Since we bought the boat from SGBoating, we have used the marina for berthing and refuelling, and even had refreshments at its bistro, but all this was a courtesy extended by Eric for a limited period. We knew we would have to make a decision sooner than later on a permanent home for Little Wanderer, for to continue being berthed at the marina, one has to be a member.

In the past few weeks, we have attempted to check out other marinas, seeing how Raffles Marina - which we have come to like a lot - is really a bit far from Singapore's Southern Islands. It takes half an hour (on flat water) just to make it to what Eric of SGBoating calls "The Corner", and from there, it is at least another 45 minutes, we figure, before we get to Sisters' Island or Lazarus/St John's Island.

Those islands are really the reason we bought the boat. We have enjoyed landing on them, having picnics on their shores and even staying overnight.

Eric has said that Raffles Marina is near Puteri Cove in Johor, if we like the idea of landing somewhere, as opposed to bobbing out at sea, fishing from the boat or doing water sports. Nice as the place sounds, we aren't really keen on staying in a hotel on a boat outing...

We have since visited the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (RSYC) - a rather nice-looking place and in a much more central location -  but were told its dry berths were full. Wet berthing is out of the question for us, since we haven't got much leisure time to do all the maintenance work for a boat that is left on water. Two weeks is all it takes for barnacles to form on the hull, never mind the staining from other gunk in the water.

RSYC told us to leave our name and contact number with them, because they were in the process of "rationalising" their berthing spaces. They said if a berth became available, they would call.

Radio silence ensued over the next several weeks. We had to send them a "So how?" email, and even then, they didn't seem to interested to take us in. They went no further than to say they could take vessels only up to 2.9m in height or something like that. Since they didn't even ask us to bring Little Wanderer in to see if it could fit, we haven't bothered them again. (Little Wanderer might just make that height limit if its canopy were folded down.)

We used to berth our previous boats at Keppel Marina (now called Marina at Keppel Bay), but we hear that it's now only a wet-berthing-only facility. One Degree 15 Marina looks like it's only for millionaires who own luxury superyachts. Marina Country Club (in Punggol) would be just as far out in the boonies as Raffles is...

So Raffles Marina it is. It may be a 35-minute drive from our home in the Upper East Coast, and a bit of a run out to the Southern Islands, but the place has a rustic, unpretentious feel to it, and time seems to run a little slower there. (Add to that, Eric's helpfulness!)

It also doesn't hurt that the laksa at the bistro is more than decent. And the sunsets at the marina are the best, Eric says. C and the boys can already imagine chilling in the bistro and catching a Liverpool game on big-screen TV after a day out on the water. It'll be a good kind of tiredness.


Thursday, October 08, 2015

Thunderstorm!

Date: Oct 6, 2015
Trip #4
Weather: Fair, and then a thunderstorm, and hazy to boot
Waters: Surprisingly flat, even amid driving rain
On board: C and A
New gear on board: Protection from St Christopher and St Brendan, and a VHF phone

OK, "Thunderstorm!" as a title for this post may be putting it a tad too dramatically, but big, fat drops were pelting down hard on us - despite the canopy - on our journey back from (yet) another aborted attempt to get to Pulau Hantu.

We were calm, largely because the waters stayed generally flat. Also, our route hugged the coast and the GPS showed our heading to be correct, although the rain and haze made visibility poor. Luckily also for us, the traffic off western Singapore was thin this afternoon. We didn't feel in any way in danger. Felt wet, cold and drenched though!

It was a weekday and we were still on leave after our week-long trip to Sydney to see J1, and I suggested taking Little Wanderer out to mark our wedding anniversary. Before heading out, we had a chat with Eric to clear up questions about the GPS and to pick up our new VHF phone. (Channel 77 for Singapore marinas, Channel 16 for emergencies, we learned.)

The weather was fair on the trip out, with no hint of rain, though the NEA app had forecast rain this afternoon for the last two days. As C drove, I used Blu Tack to mount the St Christopher plaque on a space in the cockpit. I had a St Brendan locket on a chain too, but kept that aside since I couldn't for the moment decide where to hang it. Both items had been blessed by Fr Simon Pereira, who had delivered the homily as a guest celebrant in church two Sundays ago.

Thank you, Blu Tack.

Close-up showing detail of Christ on St Christopher's shoulder.

We got to Land's End in just 25 minutes, and C took the turn to port. Ahead of us, as in Trip #3, the view was hazy. We made it beyond the point we reached on the last trip, but decided to turn back because it was already nearly 3pm, and we wanted to be back in the marina by 4.30pm at the latest, in order to beat the evening rush hour going home on the AYE.

The waters of the Sinki Fairway, where we paused for a while, were beautifully blue-green - and clean too.

In Sinki Fairway, a major thoroughfare off south-western Singapore.

It was on the homeward trip that it started to drizzle. The rain got steadily heavier till it was an outright rainstorm, with intermittent rumbles of thunder. No lightning. Visibility was so bad that we could hardly see the red roof of Raffles Marina and the Second Link bridge though we were cruising through ugly grey-brown waters just 10 minutes from it.

St Christopher was watching over us.

Berthing: This was the day I realised I wasn't a good-enough assistant to Capt C, being vertically challenged and not as strong as a second or third guy on board would have been. Nevertheless, between the two of us, we got the boat by the side of the dock, pulled it into place and tethered it to the cleats.

I lost my Maui Jim sunglasses in the process. Lightweight as they were, they sank into the waters of the marina and I could only watch helplessly as I had my hands full with guiding the boat into place. They were a Christmas present from J2 just last year. :(

We also lost C's cap, his souvenir from visiting one of the US fleet submarines a couple of years ago. It just wasn't anywhere in the cockpit. These haven't been the only things we have lost since we re-started our boating life. The sea also claimed one of C's Zoot caps on our last trip out. It just blew off my head. Hmm. I guess Neptune exacts some kind of price for our going on his turf.