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
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| This one says it all. Hammock, sunnies, cold beer. Chill Island Life. 'Nuff said. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| He dived off the aft, and then off the bow. 'I've always wanted to do this,' he said. |
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| 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" ...
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| 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.
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