Saturday, December 31, 2016

First overnight stay on board

Date: Dec 30, 2016
Weather: Drizzly in the evening, sunny the next morning  
Waters: Fairly flat
On board: C and A  
New gear on board: Cushions, potted plants, kettle, kitchen linens, bathroom and kitchen sundries 

We scheduled an overnight stay, specially to spray-paint the length of the anchor chain/rope at 5-metre intervals for a visual guide on just how much of it is paid out;  we were also expecting to meet Peter, the guy who will install carpet runners below deck. 

Arrived at the marina just past 4pm, headed for berth F11 (where Eric had earlier berthed the boat) and met Peter. With his two assistants, he had taken templates to make button-down runners that will protect the pale beige carpet lining the below-deck area. Eric had recommended these canvas overlays, which can be easily removed for passengers to enjoy the soft carpet - such as when everyone is all showered and has clean feet!  

We picked a pale beige canvas, just like the colour of the carpet. It will cost $750 and be ready in a week. 

The drizzle came and went, and we nearly couldn't get started on marking the anchor chain/rope with spray paint amid the wet. When it seemed drizzled out, C and A laid out all 30 metres of the chain/rope in five-metre zig-zags on the deck. 

Tape measure, old newspapers and
some back exercises.

We applied a layer of "flat white" (matt white) paint at five-metre intervals,
so that the second coat of fluorescent orange would pop. The hardware store
told us that, without the white, the fluorescent orange wouldn't
be truly day-glo.  
 

As we waited for the paint to dry, we brewed our first cups of coffee on the stove, using our Ikea whistling kettle and some Jed's coffee bags.

Below-deck area looking cosy with cushions,
bedsheet, flannel blanket, kettle, coffee cups and
(fake!) plants.  Almost like home.    

Time to enjoy a coffee and a ciggie while watching paint dry (literally). 
 We sprayed on the orange an hour later - not before A photographed another of the marina's spectacular sunsets:

Do we really need a caption for this? 

We then adjourned to the marina's bar for dinner and wine, and finished the wine later on board, sitting on the swim platform, just enjoying the quiet of the marina and the blue underwater lights. 

Retired for the night and were planning a shower on board the next morning, but thought better of doing this, because the marina was rapidly getting crowded; lots of boats were being launched for folks taking a New Year's Eve trip out. We canned the shower plan and C took his first drive back to the marina from berth F11. A, waiting by the dock, helped tie the boat when C pulled in without incident. Yay!  







Thursday, December 22, 2016

Orientation Day

Dec 19, time for a "class" by Eric on boat parts and routines.

We showed up at the marina sans the family. We figured that since it was a lecture, there was no point in them being there, probably bored. Besides, the water, even within the protected marina, was so choppy.

Eric did a walk-through of the features of the boat and the routines we should follow each time we head out. He started with the in-board engine, lifting the hatch and pointing out the key parts.

I hope we remember all the details!

The water in the marina was so choppy - we're talking white caps! - that A felt sick after half hour of bobbing. He said this is typical December roughness, though the westerly winds, instead of north-easterly ones, were atypical.

The late-morning briefing ended with a lesson on how to handle 
the windlass at the bow,  and tips on how to mark the length of chain/rope
 with paint so we will know how much is paid out each time the anchor is dropped. 

C declined to pilot the boat out. Given the choppiness of the water, which was slapping against the dock, he had nightmare visions of the brand-new boat collecting its first scuffs and dents. The maiden trip out will have to wait a bit.

We will be signing up for the trip to Sebana Cove in mid-January - another one of those administrative trips that have to be undertaken as a condition of registering LW2 with the Singapore Ships Registry instead of MPA. (We did one such trip outside Singapore waters with LW too, to fulfill this condition. See that post here.)



Friday, December 16, 2016

The first ride out on LW2 with Eric

Date: Dec 16, 2016
Trip #1 (#21)
Weather: Sunny   
Waters: Slightly choppy 
On board: C, A, J1, J2 and Eric  

The new boat's AIS has been fitted, but a couple of other things still need to be fixed. But she was ready for another sea trial, this time with us on board.

We got to the marina at 1.30pm to find her on the water, with Eric's guys seeing to the fixtures. Below deck, Eric explained how the various appliances on board could be powered - either by generator, battery or on-shore power.


Eric had an air-con unit tented above the skylight to cool the below-deck area for today as the boat's air conditioner wasn't ready yet. The boys retreated there and pretty much spent the entire time below deck, eating sushi at the table that was set up over the main bed.

Armed with a measuring tape, A took some measurements in preparation for "interior decor".

The skylight above the bed/dining area below deck is why the
below-deck cabin is cheerfully bright. 

Eric took the wheel and we went out for a short spin. C and A stayed above deck with him, and J1 and J2, below. It was unseasonably hot for December, the tide was very high and the waters just outside the marina, choppy.  The boys told us later that they were tossed like corks below deck, haha. Eric said that if they don't use the portholes there, they can't see what's coming, so that's likely to happen!


Eric checks that it's all systems go. He showed us how to "trim" the boat
to achieve balance and be level while underway. 
We didn't go far. LW2 purred through the short round trip just beyond the marina, and up Singapore's western coast and back. The plan now is for C to take the wheel when we next head out.

New boat, new things to get used to - an anchor winch, or windlass, for one.
It was elbow grease with Little Wanderer. 

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Checking out Little Wanderer 2

The new boat went on its first sea trial in Singapore on Dec 10, and later that day, the family made the drive out to the marina to have a look at it on the water. The AIS hasn't been fitted yet, so it's not ready for a trip out to sea.

But no matter. There's the business of clinking glasses of champagne, listening to music and checking out the boat, above and below deck. See the specs of the Sea Ray Sundancer 260 here.

We are thinking of having the boat's name moved to lower on the hull. 

A few amenities remain to be fitted, such as the shower head and the air conditioning system. But Eric knew we were coming to have a look at the boat, so he arranged for a temporary air-cond unit to be fitted to cool the below-deck space.

The space below is rather a uh... tight squeeze, but I suppose it won't matter when you are asleep. Mental notes were made about what to buy - cushions, bed linen, melamine crockery... and maybe a fake plant or two! 

Some Verve to mark the occasion. 

C sent his new Mavic drone up, and this is what it came back with: 

Little Wanderer 2 is in the upper row, sixth from top right.
Yes, it's bigger than Little Wanderer by a couple of feet, but still smaller
 than most of the boats berthed here! 

Another pic, with us posed! 

Looking forward to more adventures at sea. 
There's one feature we have on Little Wanderer 2 that we didn't have before: underwater lights! When the sun went down, we turned them on. 



Friday, December 09, 2016

Thanks for the memories, Little Wanderer

Yes, we are moving on ... to a bigger thing.

We bit the bullet a couple of months ago, and traded in Little Wanderer, our tireless steed of the sea, for a bigger boat - which will let us drop anchor and do sleep-on-board over-nighters off Singapore and maybe even Malaysia.

We had to pony up some money of course, but because Little Wanderer (a 2015 model Chaparral SunCoast 250) is still quite new - and we have taken good care of her - we got (what we thought was) a good offer from Eric of SG Boating.

Our new boat, a Sea Ray Sundancer 260, will have sleeping berths for four adults, a small on-board kitchen (microwave, stove-top), bath and head - all below deck - and seating space for about eight adults above deck. It will have an inboard engine, unlike Little Wanderer's outboard one.

Over the last two months or more, this boat has been on some cargo ship, taking the long route to Singapore from the US, via Australia. (Sigh, yes.)

On the night of Dec 7, this boat got towed from the port to Raffles Marina in the dead of night, in the company of police outriders.

The Sea Ray, still under wraps, arrived at Raffles Marina, late on Dec 7.
The next day, most members of the family - A and R excepted, because they were at work! - went to take a look at it. It was still parked in the wash bay for pre-handover inspection, her hull still virgin from Singapore waters.

The Sea Ray in the marina boat shed, many parts still under plastic wrap.

We are letting Little Wanderer go, but with a pang. She was ours for just over a year, and we had 20 memory-making trips, be they to the Southern Islands or just to float somewhere to fish or to chill.

C, and occasionally J2, have enjoyed piloting her. A and R have spent a lot of time in the seats up front, wind in hair and getting "marinaded" by saltwater. We have taken family and friends out, and bar none, the trips were memorable, whether or not we made an island landing, and yes, even when we were fighting off aggressive macaques.

There have been anxious times, like when we got into too shallow water (see this post), when the boat was practically beached (see this post), and when we had problems hauling in the anchor, which was stuck fast - twice, both in the channel off Puteri Cove, so we think it's a major Anchor Jinx.

In tribute to Little Wanderer, our new boat will be christened Little Wanderer 2.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Back on the water after 2.5 months

Date: Nov 13, 2016
Trip #20
Weather: Cloudy, then threatening, then clear   
Waters: Slightly choppy, especially off the SLNG terminal
On board: C and A  
New gear on board: DJI Mavic Pro drone

Litle Wanderer sits at the mouth of the Pulau Hantu lagoon at low tide. 
The deep brown patches are seaweed.
Mainland Singapore to the north of this. Photo by the new Mavic drone. 

That's the newspoint of this post, folks! It's a photo we've been wanting for a long time, and now that we've got it, it runs first, ahead of the preliminaries!

Now, the preliminaries: Talk of a long break from boating. It wasn't for the want of trying. Some weeks, we had stuff going on on Saturday, our designated boating day; other weeks, the weather screwed it up for us. Or the tides did.

With J1 still to return from Sydney and J2 in Milan on holiday, it was just the old fogies today. We were looking to fly C's new toy off the boat and getting aerial shots of Little Wanderer sitting amid the blue.

We arrived at the mouth of Pulau Hantu's lagoon to find it awash in seaweed. The tide was very low but just starting to turn. It was just calf deep even at the breakwater, so we cut the engine and floated there.

Fairly clear water. Pulau Bukom in the background. 

Seems to be the sargassum?

A short video of C putting the drone into take-off from the swim platform of the boat:






The skies turned dark as we ended the flight.



We waited it out. There was a thin drizzle, then the skies brightened. We headed for home base, and there, Raffles Marina laid out yet another one of its spectacular sunsets for us. We berthed the boat and C hurriedly assembled the drone again and got this from the dock:

It was so picturesque that a wedding couple were having a photo shoot there.
This was taken a few minutes before the pic above. C at left
at the controls of the drone, and A washing out the icebox.

This was Little Wanderer's 20th outing, and what a great day it was.




Sunday, August 28, 2016

Jahblessdawg wrests control of the P. Hantu gym

Date: Aug 27, 2016
Trip #19
Weather: Hazy   
Waters: Choppy most of the way out, calm on return leg
On board: C, A, J2 and R   
New gear on board: Canon EOS 80D 

So Pokemon has landed in Singapore and taken it by storm. We hear of people being warned against trespassing into military airport zones, of vehicles rear-ending the ones in front because of "distraction" and of people talking about stardust, Pokeballs and lures. 

We landed on Pulau Hantu just as the day's low tide was turning, and J2 (a.k.a. Jahblessdawg in the Pokemon universe) found a gym near the island's jetty. He promptly headed there and after five minutes, took control of the gym after beating a big blue bear-like Pokemon called Snorelax with his Exeggutor.  He was thinking that, by virtue of the island's inaccessability (except to daytrippers on ferries or their own boats or dive boats - certainly a smaller constituency than say, East Coast Park), he would reign in the gym for a while. 

Or so he thought. 

We had barely made it back to the comfort of our deck chairs by the lagoon when A reported that Snorelax had recaptured the gym. We reckoned that Snorelax's trainer must be among the few families that looked like they had encamped (somewhat permanently) in the shelters on the island. Ah well, so Jahblessdawg prevailed at this gym for no more than 10 minutes...  


A was plenty pleased that the aqua shoes (bought a few months ago
from Decathlon but used for the first time today) work like a charm.
They keep the sand out and protect the feet from rocks and possibly vicious
sea critters. Little Wanderer has five pairs of these on board. 
At $16 each, a good buy!


One of a dozen craft beers we brought to the island. 


C on anchor duty.

We brought lunch (ayam penyet again, by popular request: see previous entry), and, as usual, wine and some craft beers (we like Thirsty). Chilled on the beach for a while as the tide rose, and A tried out her new Canon EOS 80D. All in, a relaxing afternoon with dear ones, away from the madding crowd on the mainland, and after a hectic work week in which the nation watched as its Prime Minister nearly passed out during the National Day Rally and then took in the death, wake and funeral of a former president.  

Tuesday, August 09, 2016

A relaxing time on Hantu

Date: Aug 6, 2016
Trip #18
Weather: Sunny  
Waters: Calm on way out, choppier on return leg
On board: C and A   
New gear on board: ONAGOfly drone

With most of the family out of the country, it was just C and A today, a beautifully sunny day, with the waters fairly calm. This was the first day of our four-day National Day weekend! 

We headed for Pulau Hantu, our default landing stop. The island had some folks on it - a couple of anglers, a group of Caucasians who berthed their big boat outside the lagoon and made for the island on a rubber dinghy with their two dogs, and a group of local divers. 

The waters in the lagoon were cleaner and clearer than usual. Yay! The tide was high when we landed at 1.30pm or so, but going down.


It was chill time. Chairs laid out, ice box, music and beer. 

We were out of gas canisters, so cooking a meal was out. No matter. We bought ayam penyet with rice from the Bedok Corner food centre - a decidedly unhealthy but delicious meal. The token nods to health were represented by a leaf of lettuce, huge slice of cucumber and four cherry tomatoes, haha. 


Ayam penyet

It was peaceful on the island. We just sat and chilled. And drank some pretty good beers (going by C's beer app): 





C took his ONAGOfly drone (built through an American crowdfunding exercise) on its maiden flight after lunch. This palm-sized gadget replaces his now-busted, way-more-expensive Phantom drone. The cute little thing flew credibly well, but C didn't fly it for long; he was spooked by the thought of losing it to the water just 10 metres away!  

He didn't shoot any stills or video with it because he hadn't yet bought the micro SD card that it needed. 




I piloted Little Wanderer for about 15 minutes on the return leg and thought it a stressful thing to do. One has to keep on eye on the depth, the water surface for bits of junk and choppiness, keep a lookout for other vessels... while wrestling with direction and the stiff steering. Too much to tend to! 

  

Saturday, July 09, 2016

The day the marina couldn't launch the boat!


Pizza ordered from Peperoni, check. Beers, chilled, check. Ice to keep said beers chilled, check. Corn chips (Doritos, Nacho Cheesier!), check. Extra change of clothing, check.  Sunblock, check. 

Call put through to Raffles Marina to launch Little Wanderer, DOH!

The huge beeping crane at the marina was on the blink. We were all logistically and mentally prepared for a boat outing, but no go. The marina said they emailed "everybody" to announce that the crane was not working. We were the only ones who didn't get the memo, apparently.

So we hauled our still-warm  pizzas to the East Coast Park, near the Sailing Centre, for a picnic there instead. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

From where we sat, we were treated to a parade of dogs and their humans, en route to the second checkpoint of  The Amazing Inu Race near our picnic spot. Corgis, daschunds, a retriever or two, spaniels and Singapore Specials. 


It was a sunny afternoon at the East Coast Park near the Sailing Centre.
Laid out our chairs, turned on the music and used a discarded
wooden box as a table for our family-size pizza. 


Why climb a tree? Cos it's there. J1 finds it harder
than expected, earns the title of Resident Macaque.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Afloat in a drizzle, two catfish and two other whats-its

Date: June 11, 2016
Trip #17
Weather: Drizzly  
Waters: Choppy
On board: C, A, J2, R, KH, J and ZQ  

The plan was to head out to Pulau Hantu for a picnic and a spot of fishing with KH and family, in an attempt to make up for the disappointment of the last trip, which turned out to be a non-starter because of the weather. (See post here.) 

But Man plans, God laughs, right? 

We arrived at the marina amid grey skies and choppy waters - even in the marina. We sat it out in the rocking boat in the marina, music on. Some of us even ate the delicious pastrami sandwiches that C made.  We tried to move out, but the currents within the marina were sweeping the boat back against the dock. 

A bunch of anglers sat out the choppy waters in the marina as well. They had gone out earlier and returned because of the roughness out there. They told C he was "mad" to try to get to Pulau Hantu in this weather. 

After an hour and a half, the waters seemed calmer, so we moved out (and so did the anglers). But the island landing had to be ditched; we had already lost more than an hour waiting in the marina. So we were going to just float about 1 km from the marina for some fishing. (In case the rain came, it wouldn't be a long trip back.)  This way, 10-year-old ZQ wouldn't have to go home again without an outing! 




We dropped anchor where we had seen some fishing boats on our past outings. ZQ landed two catfish from the stern within 10 minutes of each other, with a rod loaded with pieces of squid. We released the fish, since they probably aren't good for eating. (We think the same fish may have been caught twice, and made jokes about how it wasn't too smart.) 


KH handled this after ZQ landed it, because catfish can sting.


KH tried one of his lures (no bait) from the bow of Little Wanderer, and landed two whatever-fish, silvery with a bluish line along the dorsal fin, each about 10 cm long. These too, were released. 


Look, I got two!


This fish, species unknown, had wicked spines
 just behind its dorsal fin. Here, they are folded
down and not showing.
KH gave it a shot with one of these lures that C had bought online. It's light
metal and in an insane neon orange. In the water, it mimicked a fish
 in distress on the surface of the water - but sigh, no, KH didn't land
anything with this.  

The rest of us who weren't too excited about fishing or who had animal-cruelty issues just chilled, listened to music, drank wine and beer and snacked on lychees, potato chips, raspberry shortbread, marshmallows, gummies... 


ZQ got into the water with C, but the currents were strong,
so they stayed close to the boat. 

June used to be that scorching time of year. What's happened? It was scorching in the morning, but out there today, it was just grey, drizzly and dreary - and even chilly, when the winds whipped around our damp T shirts.  

But it looks like ZQ had a good time. After we got back to the marina, the routine hose-down of the boat became an obvious excuse for him to play with water. 





So when you have a boat, it isn't as if you can go out when you want. There is really only a small sweet spot on any given day when you can go out, perhaps make an island landing for a picnic and head back in time, untrapped by a rapidly receding tide or bad weather.   


Tuesday, May 24, 2016

A trip aborted due to bad weather

We were to have set out for Pulau Hantu at 11 am on May 21 with KH, J and their son ZQ, but the wind and currents were very strong even in the marina -  amid generally sunny weather -  so C made the call not to go out.

We already knew that weather conditions weren't in our favour, but got the picnic stuff prepared anyway, and met our guests at the marina. The waters in the marina were rippling, and there was an ominous calm in the place - none of the noisy gathering of anglers, wakeboarders and day trippers typical of a Saturday. They must have checked windyty, but unlike us, didn't hope against hope.

A boat with a pair of fishermen headed out - not before having to gun the engine a bit -  in a no-wake zone, mind you -  to overcome the waves that would have pushed their boat towards the dock. They were back in the marina in 30 minutes. The waters out there were choppy, they said.

We had a very disappointed ZQ, who was all set for fishing Saturday. He kept asking if we would go out "later" if it got better.

It wasn't to be. We spent time by the pool at the marina instead.  

An aside: The name of the boat has been put back on both sides of the hull in that Tangier font we chose. The name had been taken out when the boat went on show at the Singapore Yacht Show 2016.

Monday, May 02, 2016

Lazarus Island: The anchor goes on strike ...

Date: May 1, 2016
Trip #16
Weather: Sunny, temps in the 30s!  
Waters: Choppy
On board: C, A, J2 and MH  
New gear on board: 32 fishing lures, courtesy of an overly enthusiastic online shopping session

Question: What happens when the anchor doesn't do its job, and the incoming tide sweeps the boat relentlessly shore-ward?

Answer: One spends a lot of time pushing the boat out towards deeper water, and has a kind of disappointing boating day.

The plan was to head to Lazarus Island and have a picnic on its shore.  We were to arrive at between 1 and 2pm, when the tide was coming in after the day's lowest tide at noon. April had been a really dry month. We went out only once - Little Wanderer had been unavailable because of the boat show - and today was already the first day of May, so we were really looking forward to today.

As we approached the island's lagoon, the first of the day's signs that all was not going to be well confronted us: The lagoon was already bristling with nine other boats, mostly larger than ours, and the shores were crowded with picnickers. Whatever happened to those days when we had the island to ourselves? C said: "Wah, this feels like East Coast Park."

Then it happened. The depth gauge very quickly went from 5 feet to too-shallow. We were beached before we knew it and the waves from the incoming tide were coming in. The other boats all seemed to be comfortably anchored further out, where the water was overhead.

We unloaded the stuff anyway in calf-deep water while the boat pitched about. Picnic mats were laid out and the sausages were put on the grill... but we spent most of the next hour in the water, trying to get the boat to deeper water. The incoming waves would lift her momentarily, only for her to land with a gentle thunk seconds later. She just wouldn't budge. (Cue rising stress meter here.)

Little Wanderer high and dry. Note the hull is missing the boat's name.
 It was removed for the boat show and Eric hadn't put it back on. 


After trying a few times - and considering asking two kayaks full of fit, young men to help - a guy came up and offered us help. It's amazing, the difference an extra pair of hands makes. The boat was pushed off the sand into deeper water.

But it was no good. The anchor just didn't catch on anything in the sandy seabed, so the tide kept sweeping her in.  We made the call to pack up and leave. We had to chuck out four half-cooked sausages. We had hardly had lunch.

The picnic spot looked nice. But we had to share it with angry red ants.

The picnic spot (nice and shady though) was pre-claimed by a bunch of red ants; and the fact that the reputedly pristine waters of Lazarus included blobs of black oil, planks, plastic sheets and assorted litter just added to the misery. We made our way back to the marina, with the deck of the boat smudged with oil from our feet.

I guess, as with the rest of life, there will be good days and bad days. This one wasn't good.

Back at the marina, we applied a lot of elbow grease (and the boat-cleaning detergents, courtesy of another of C's overly-enthusiastic shopping sprees on Amazon) to clean the deck of oil. The detergents worked marvellously. (We recommend Star Brite!) There had to be an upside to such a day, right? Give us that.

Monday, April 11, 2016

At the Singapore Yacht Show 2016



Little Wanderer, with her name removed, was the model for Chaparral's 250 SunCoast at the Singapore Yacht Show 2016 over the weekend.

She drew a lot of interest, said Eric Koh of SG Boating. Families clambered on board to check her out (above), and some folks got as far as discussing financing with Eric and his crew. The boat show price was S$126,000.

She was dwarfed by the Chaparral Signature 310 behemoth sitting next to her, also borrowed from one of Eric's customers for show.  We climbed into the 310 and were taken by the sleeping quarters for four adults, mini kitchen and mod cons...

The rest of the exhibitors in the indoor booths drove home the point that boating is indeed a lifestyle. No, make that Lifestyle, with a capital L: So, after buying your boat, you might want to also consider getting a Seabob for really souped-up snorkelling or just whizzing through the water, above or below surface. It is light and can easily be stowed in the stern of your boat. Cost: 8,000 - and that's in euros, dear.

And while you are doing all this shopping, how about also picking up a villa in Phuket and a private jet that can fly non-stop from Singapore to Dubai or even London, right? Hahahaha.

Outside the air-conditioned tents and bobbing out on the water of the ONE Degree 15 Marina were a host of super yachts with price tags in stratospheric levels. I think those tagged half a million euros were the cheap ones, and several were larger than our home.

They had mood lighting, full-sized dining tables (with fresh flower decorations, no less), sofas and hostesses in little black dresses and matching hats, waiting to welcome potential buyers on board and serve them champagne and canapes, no doubt. And visits on board were by appointment only.

This is how the top 1 per cent of the world lives, huh?  

Monday, March 28, 2016

Floating, fishing

Date: March 26, 2016
Trip #15
Weather: Fair, sunny  
Waters: A little choppy in the west, calmer just off the marina 
On board: C, A, J2 and R  
New gear on board: Water Wolf, Lexan hook 

The tide wasn't in our favour today, so we didn't make an island landing. We just dropped anchor and fished off the boat. We first headed towards Puteri Cove, intending to hug the coast, head north for a bit of sightseeing until we saw the Causeway at Woodlands, and then turn around and do a spot of fishing in the area. 

We didn't get that far! Not long after passing Sarimbun Island and the Sarimbun buoy where we had our first fishing lesson (see post here), we came upon a clutch of floating fish farms. They spanned almost right across the channel between the Singapore and Malaysian (southern Johor) coast, and we weren't sure about being able to drive through, between them.  (These were the farms along the Lim Chu Kang coast that lost thousands of dollars worth of fish and fry a year ago because of a plankton bloom. For more, click here.)




So we did an about turn to go back the way we came, intending to look for a fishing spot. We dropped anchor near Sarimbun Island, but the currents were strong; they would have pushed the boat toward shore, near the SAF live firing area. We decided to move off, but had huge problems bringing in the anchor. It seemed snagged on something on the seabed. It took a while for it to come free, during which a patrolling Coast Guard boat came by. The officer on board used a mic, apparently to ask us if there was a problem, but his mic wasn't working well, and we couldn't hear him. 

Time for some research on how best to free a stuck anchor - or buy a bigger boat which comes with its anchor winch!

Anyway, we got the anchor free after a combination of brute-strength pulling and putting the boat in reverse to yank it free. We had had this same problem the last time we anchored in these parts to fish with KH, so we vow never to drop anchor in these parts again. 

We headed back to the waters just outside the marina instead. It was calmer there, and we dropped anchor again, had a late lunch of the burgers we had brought, broke open the wine and beers, turned up FM91.3. 


Simple pleasure. Sharing a beer.

The Water Wolf, an underwater HD camera able to record images of fish and underwater life for playback later, is C's newest tech toy.  We set up one of our rods with it and cast the line and waited... but came up empty even after an hour. 


Above and below: Attaching the Water Wolf.



The cylindrical device, about 10cm long, had recorded images on the micro SD card all right - but the footage was all pea-soup green, seemingly devoid of life. We will embed a short clip here as soon as the three longish clips are properly edited - not that there is much to see. In between the screens of green are short interludes when the line was reeled in, leaving the Water Wolf spinning crazily in the air even as it continued recording, so all one sees are whirling images of parts of our feet, the boat, the swim platform and, occasionally, some of our faces. 

At least we know it works. The images are really sharp. Now the job is to find clearer waters and fish! We may have better luck off the Sisters Island marine park. Till the next time, then...   

The other new piece of equipment on board is a Lexan hook, meant for pulling the boat closer to the dock. This was ordered from Amazon, and had come in a box that was as tall as A. 

We saw other people out, enjoying the water this afternoon. One group was from the Singapore Management University, out sailing. The other group was in this odd-looking two-storey-high vessel that we called a "houseboat", for want of its correct term... 


Both groups practised what has come to be maritime "tradition"
- they waved back at us.  



After we got back to the marina, there was still the usual post-trip work - cleaning the boat, flushing its engine with fresh water ... 


We chucked out the storage boxes that we have kept in the hold (various
boat detergents and other paraphernalia) because these boxes weren't water-
tight. Water from the weekly washes had gone right in and made
some items mouldy. Next task is to hunt down some water-tight
storage boxes, but without blowing $300+ on military-grade tactical cases.

And then, there was another of Raffles Marina's fabulous sunsets to behold...