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.
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| Thank you, Blu Tack. |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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