Monday, December 18, 2017

Christmas on the water



There. I think the picture says it all. Colorful LED lights festooned over Little Wanderer 2 and - you can't hear this now - carols by artistes ranging from Sinatra to ACDC (yes, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen in rock riffs!) on the stereo, good conversation and (most importantly), time with family.

I think the weekend of Dec 16/17 sums up Christmas as it is lived in our family. We have always been big on Christmas. We observe Advent (ok, some of us do). We go to church and feel the goosebumps when the priest and altar boys process up the aisles to O Come, All Ye Faithful. We think about the past year and how we can live the next year as better people.

December is when we (C and A) have always taken the bulk of our annual leave. The office can just go shove it and cope, somehow. We spend time with family, whether we are thinking about and getting the gift that will be just right, or just hanging over a meal of bak kut teh in a far-flung, time-forgotten spot in Punggol or just trying not to doze off in front of the telly at home.

This year, we hit on the idea of marking a night in a berth at our boat's home base Raffles Marina, decorating the boat and just chilling. It is just so not our scene to mill with the throngs on Orchard Road and drape ourselves over every available Christmas decoration, lighted bush or rock there, and to have to avoid the folks with eyes glued to their phones while they edit their selfies and post it on Facebook.

The day hadn't started promisingly. The skies were grey as we headed for Tuas, and a drizzle started as we made our way to the marina just before 4pm; and as we unloaded our stuff, the wet came down. When life deals you a lemon, you make lemonade, or, in our lingo, when life deals you a bit of wait time, you chill and have a beer.

At around 5.30pm, the rain tailed off. We moved LW2 to Berth E08, moored it and put up the decs.

All green garlands need a spot of red for Christmas.
We got this drapey one flecked with "snow" at Takashimaya,
and felt it incomplete until we found red "holly berries"
 and a "cardinal" (above and below).



As daylight dimmed, we brought out our supplies of champagne, turned up the carols and just relaxed. Our underwater lights came on blue, as the twinkling Christmas lights grew bolder in the failing light.

Another of Raffles Marina's beautfiul sunsets,
as seen from Berth E08.



Drone time. C sent up his Mavic Pro drone
for some stills and video.
We took a break for dinner at the marina's Chinese restaurant, Captain's Table, and weren't disappointed. (Yes, this is a shout-out for above-average Chinese food to those who are in the vicinity of Tuas or can be bothered to drive out to these boonies.)

We also took a room in the marina as a back-up and in case anyone preferred a bed on terra firma to being on the boat for the night. We took showers in the room; it is certainly better than to shower in the claustrophic box of a space on board the boat!

J1, fresh from a week-long holiday in Sapporo, retired for the night relatively early, leaving J2, C, A and R on board. A surprising number of boats out there were on shore power, given the number of sunflower-yellow cables tethered to the power points on the docks. But as the night wore on, it was really quiet out there. The water was like glass. A couple of other boats had night owls like us, still up and enjoying the cool December night.

We four were there till nearly 3am. All in, five bottles of champers and two of prosecco were finished among the five of us. Scary, but true.

This is the first time we have marked Christmas on the water this way, and going by the way it turned out, it might well be the start of another of our family's Christmas traditions.




Sunday, December 17, 2017

A day out with KH and family

Date: Dec 14, 2017 
Trip #12 (#32)
Weather: Scorchingly hot
Waters: Calm out west 
On board: C, A, KH, J and ZC   
New gear on board: Itiwit kayak 

The December school holidays are here, and an outing had been promised to ZC, who is fresh from his PSLE and looking forward to 2018 in a new school. 

We took LW2 out west - seems to be our go-to destination nowadays because of the relatively short commute and calm waters - and anchored at our usual spot near the Lim Chu Kang fish farms. 

KH and J whipped out a carrier bag containing an Itiwit kayak and set of oars, along with a bottle of 2006 vintage Dom Perignon as a gift to us. We provided the club sandwiches from Marina Bistro at Raffles Marina




The boy, grown in height since we last met on our previous outing, was keen on going on the kayak, so C and KH got it inflated with its pump. ZC got his kayaking legs fairly quickly, and even capsized it deliberately a couple of times for fun. (Sigh, to be free from the fear of water, A thought!)  







It was sunny throughout, which was great, considering that the weather pattern in the last few weeks has been sunny in the morning and a thunderstorm in the afternoon. 

After we got back to the marina, we took a table poolside and continued chatting and drinking, while the boy took to the pool, at times with C, who has come to be one of his favourite grown-ups.