A sundown boat trip, 2016's first!

Date: Jan 1, 2016

Trip #11
Weather: Clear, after afternoon showers  
Waters: Very calm 
On board: C, A, J1, J2, and R
New on board: A frying pan, to use atop the Weber grill (to save elbow grease washing the grate!) 

Happy new year. 

The plan was to head out to Pulau Hantu and have a picnic there. But Man plans, God laughs, right?  Bursts of sunshine in the East Coast in the late morning gave way to overcast skies, and by the time we were ready to head out to the marina, everything was grey. We drove to the marina nonetheless, and it began raining en route...  It looked like it was raining heavily out at sea when we emerged from the Marina Coastal Expressway and looked out to the water at Keppel. 

We didn't even bother calling to ask the marina staff to launch the boat, and headed straight for the marina's bistro, where we had a nice lunch. The skies stubbornly kept that grey cloak on, so we called off the boat trip, and spent time at the bar, shooting pool, playing darts and having some drinks. 

At nearly 5pm, the skies cleared up, and the waters were very calm. Courtesy of fluid plans,  we headed in the direction of Puteri Cove and dropped anchor. 

The light was so flat, this photo is better off being in black and white.
Taken from the bow, just off the SAF live firing area.

C fired up the Weber grill and cooked eggs sunny side up and some rashers of bacon, while the boys opened up some bubbly. This was New Year's Day after all. 

The new frying pan saves quite a bit of
post-trip scrubbing! In another first, we set
up the stowaway table of our Chaparral 250. 

J2 and R set up the fishing rod and reel, but hauled in nothing, despite putting in some bacon fat as bait. 

But no matter. With 91.3 FM playing, a good time was had by all as we floated on mirror-like water just off the SAF live firing area. (It is Jan 1, and the soldier boys were taking a break, right?) 

Getting more confident with each fishing attempt. 

Another good day out on Little Wanderer, a trip that started at 5pm,
a lot later than usual for us. Below: A clip I made to give a 360-degree view
of what was around us. As usual, the trio at aft were not cooperative...

The day didn't end even after we returned to the marina. While C and I gave the boat its usual post-trip hose-down, J1, J2 and R cast a fishing line into the waters of the marina. J1 hauled in a pufferfish! And as we still had "issues" with freeing our catches, C stepped in to take the hook off the terrified fish. See the action here: