First servicing, and a berthing contract signed

Little Wanderer hits a milestone after purring her way through 10 outings.

Little Wanderer was booked for the first servicing of its four-stroke Yamaha outboard engine today, after 20 hours of use.

It will be ready only after Christmas.

Watch this space for updates on the work done and cost.

We recently signed a berthing contract with Raffles Marina for three years. This locks us down to berthing the boat at Raffles Marina until October 2018, but will bring down our monthly berthing costs from S$470 to S$378 (excluding GST).

I guess one could say we are getting used to the long drive from our home in the Upper East Coast to the marina's Tuas location. And we do like the chill atmosphere at the marina.

For our earlier posts related to the cost of owning a boat in Singapore, see here and a post-script here (useful stuff to know for those out there contemplating buying a pleasure craft in Singapore).

Fishing on Sisters' Island ... without sensei

Date: Dec 20, 2015

Trip #10
Weather: Fair  
Waters: Fairly choppy, calmer on return trip
On board: C, A, J1, J2, and R
New on board: our Phantom drone, which we didn't get down to flying because we set out too late on this trip, and there was cooking, etc to tend to!

First, the good news: We set up the fishing rods all by ourselves, without KH around (see previous post), and caught seven fish from the jetty on Little Sisters' Island (Pulau Subar Darat), each around 10 cm in length. Oh, and of the seven, one was caught without even using bait. We returned all fish to the sea alive.

The bad news: When we landed the catches on the jetty, all of us (ok, maybe except for C) were a bit squeamish about handling the fish and removing the hook without causing the fish more pain and distress. 

We are not the sort of people who are afraid of animals, having had dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters and ... yes, aquarium fish, among us. But the thought of the cold, wet, slippery fish given to sudden flipping and flailing of (possibly) sharp-spined fins ... freaked us out. Maybe we just need to get used to this. 

Or, as J2 said, maybe we shouldn't fish anymore! We are indeed a long way off from Robson Green's practice of waxing lyrical about the beauty of the fish and kissing it!  

We had made our way to Little Sisters Island, drawn there by its two lagoons. The water was choppy and we took longer than we planned getting there. The first lagoon we saw had a No Entry sign, so we entered the other lagoon. It had a lot of feathery green seaweed in the shallows, but was otherwise freer of litter than Pulau Hantu was (see that post here). 

Little Sisters' Island was deserted this Sunday afternoon, and we saw some resident macaques - they look like wizened males, potentially aggressive, so we steered clear of them.

We unloaded our gear and started a BBQ with the Weber grill - marinaded lamb chops,  a butterflied chicken marinaded with lemon and rosemary, some sausages and big prawns (one was used as fish bait). Beer and wine were accompaniments. 

Chef C's rustic kitchen - the Weber grill in the shadows of the buttress roots,
out of the wind so the meats would have steady heat. 

The lemon and rosemary chicken (left) and lamb.

J1, J2 and R made for the island's jetty, across from which was the other Sisters' Island (Big Sisters' Island or Pulau Subar Laut), separated by a channel, which we now know is deep and has dangerous currents. It was on the jetty that the trio landed the seven fish. J1, perhaps making up for not catching any on our last outing, caught four, including one without using any bait. The chopped up prawns we brought along were getting smellier by the minute, so I hardly blamed him for touching the bait as little as possible! 

J1's second catch. Anyone out there who can help us identify this
(or any of the other fish) pictured in this post?

Fishing champ of the day. Four fish, including one without bait.

Removing the bait without the benefit of those pliers that Sensei KH had.
Not an easy task. R provided the background soundtrack of shrieks
each time the fish flipped.

C using his tactical pliers (which weren't bought specifically
for fishing) for the job.

R, absent from our Fishing 101 lesson with KH, lands her first.

R (after washing her hands to get rid of the prawn odour): "Does anyone
have tissue paper?" J2 (sardonic, as always): "What do you think
this is - St Regis?"

After the last piece of food was grilled, we gave the Weber time to cool and then started the journey back to the marina, where we showered and settled down to watch the Liverpool vs Watford game at the marina's Discovery Bar. The guys were disappointed to see their team go down 0-3. 

Fishing off the boat!

Date: Dec 16, 2015

Trip #9
Weather: Sunny, and then overcast later 
Waters: Fairly flat
On board: C, A, J1, J2, KH, J and ZQ
New gear on board: Our fishing rods, courtesy of KH and J, and new hats from Black Tactical in Funan the IT Mall

Talk of Fishing 101.

KH and J came on board Little Wanderer with their 10-year-old son ZQ. All three are experienced anglers and were all set to introduce the "fishing virgins" to a new on-board activity. One can take a measure of the seriousness with which KH takes fishing from his box full of thingamajigs, including two types of pliers to remove hooks from fish.

They brought us a surprise - a pair of rods and reels for us, and KH set up the new gear with hooks, 30-pound lines, weights and bait (chopped prawns) as C pulled the boat out of the marina.

KH setting up our new rods. 

No stress, KH said. We are doing this just for fun, and if we do catch anything, it'd be a bonus.

We dropped anchor in the waterway a little beyond Puteri Cove, about 20 minutes from the marina, and hung around a red buoy named Sarimbun. We had slowed down nearer Puteri Cove at first, but a Police Coast Guard boat came along and the friendly fellows on board advised us to move further north, out of the Singapore Armed Forces' live-firing range.  I reckon we were just off Sungei Gedong, C's former army camp.

J2 just off the Sarimbun buoy, his first cast.

C looking absolutely the part with his military-grade 'tactical' hat.

J1 didn't land a catch, but it wasn't his first time
fishing. He did it while in National Service. 

KH and J broke open a bottle of champagne on board and we turned up 91.3FM.

KH and J with their son, ZQ. 

Turns out, we did catch fish - three little tiddlers and Jordan's remora-type critter, which was a good 25 cm long! Not quite Robson Green territory, but a good start nonetheless.

J2, extremely pleased with his catch. [KH sent us online info the following day,
showing it to be a sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates), from the remora
(Echeneidae) family. 

This was my catch. Looked like ikan selar or scad. KH called me out on it, saying
that if this was a fishing competition, my catch would have been 
disqualified because the hook caught the fish on its gill cover instead of its 
mouth. The bait was outside its mouth too, and it was a bloody mess on the 
side of the fish away from the camera.

C with his catch. He landed two of these! 

KH removing the fish from C's hook. We returned all our catches to the water.
They were too small to eat anyway. All the fish darted away quickly,
seemingly none the worse for having their lips torn by the hook. 

The sky above Johor Bahru in the distance turned dark, and we decided to make tracks for another fishing spot nearer the marina. We found an old jetty about 15 minutes from the marina, but J1 was feeling kind of barfy, so we decided to call it a day.

He had turned down the Blackmore's ginger tabs since they didn't work the last time. Sea Band didn't work for him either! The terry-towelling bands were uncomfortably tight for him and didn't stop the waves of nausea that set in when we were bobbing about near the jetty...

We returned to the marina for wine and a light meal after that.