J1 rejoins the crew; LW2 hits coral

Date: Sept 3, 2017 

Trip #9 (#29)
Weather: Scorchingly sunny 
Waters: Flat before Sinki Fairway, fairly choppy afterwards
On board: C, A, J1, J2 and R 
New gear on board: Free Breath full-face snorkeling mask

We are five again! This was J1's first time back on the boat since the trip to Sebana Cove in January - not that he was looking forward to it. He put himself at a 3 or 4 on his 10-point barf scale during the ride out, stayed seated and didn't move around too much in case the nausea got worse. This is, after all, the guy who refuses to wear the anti-seasickness accu-point bracelet, and for whom ginger-based motion-sickness tabs don't work...  

Did Dave Grohl come with us on our day out??
We had all been at the Foo Fighters' concert just the weekend before this.

The tide was too low for the boat to enter the lagoon between Pulau Hantu Besar and Kechil, so we floated just outside it, where the water was around 11m deep. LW2 anchored, we enjoyed music, beer, and pastrami sandwiches lovingly put together by C. 

J1 and J2 tried out the full-face snorkeling mask off the back of the boat. R tried it out once in the pool, but this was its salt-water debut. Visibility in these Singapore waters, as ever, was lousy. Treading water just off the swim platform, J2 said he could see no more than beyond the propellers. The mask itself worked a treat, though it would not win medals for comfort. 

R helped J2 clear his hair off the edge of
the mask for a complete seal. It was watertight all right.

It's either Dave Grohl or Jesus. 

The water looks all right here, but it was at times pocked with
gross-looking brown foam, flotsam and seaweed.
J2 contemplating the meaning of life in his beer bottle.

After more than an hour, C hauled up anchor and thought of moving to another spot, and as we were rounding the eastern end of Pulau Hantu Kechil, we all felt a huge clunk. Heart in our mouths, we checked and found that the swim ladder had hit some rock or coral in shallow water. C said the depth gauge had shown 3 metres. 

C got into the water for a quick inspection and found no visible damage on the hull itself. He manually hauled the boat out to deeper water and we got underway again. The anchor wouldn't take in the waters to the north of the two islands, so we headed back to almost the same spot we were earlier to finish the rest of the afternoon. 

The crew's Miss Sunshine!

Back at Raffles Marina, LW2 was hosed down and had its tank topped up, and we found our tans intensified from this scorcher of a day.