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.

BBQ on Pulau Hantu Besar

Date: Nov 21, 2015

Trip #8
Weather: Sunny 
Waters: A little choppy (slowing us to below 18 knots at some points)
On board: C, A, J1, J2, N and JY
New gear on board: Weber "Go Anywhere" grill

N and J were our first guests (outside of family) on Little Wanderer today. It was JY's first time on a pleasure craft, and it was the first time on Little Wanderer for J1, newly back from Sydney for the Christmas holidays. 

We headed out for Pulau Hantu, making the bigger island, Besar, our destination this week.  The entrance to the lagoon, like that on Hantu Kechil last week, was a seaweed forest. This time though, C brought the propeller a little off the water and we made it into the lagoon. It was almost noon, and the tide had been at its highest six hours before; although we were a good 50m from the shore, the water was no more than hip deep. 

We dropped anchor, unloaded the boat and made for shore. We shared the space with a group of SIM Outdoor Activities Club people, who were making 'team-building' noises. 

Our new Weber "Go Anywhere" Grill (the gas-powered model), which arrived from Amazon recently, made its debut today. On the menu: four types of sausages, hot dog buns, salsa, lettuce, Angus sirloin steaks, feta-stuffed peppers, olives, two types of corn chips, red grapes, wine and beer. Nope, we don't eat simple. Haha. 

From left: Grapes, salsa which C made, olives and peppers stuffed with feta.
Two types of chips at top right.

But... so much for eating fancy. We had left the bag with the BBQ tongs, paper plates and cutlery as well as oil, salt and pepper in the car. But we weren't going to let missing equipment get in the way of our day. Improvisation was the name of the game, and out came the "tactical box", which had the Rambo knife and pliers. These were used to turn the meats on the grill, which fired up nicely. We used the lids of the plastic boxes for the olives and peppers as plates. No cups? We chugged the wine straight from the bottle. 

The Rambo knife split the hot dog buns nicely. 

Tools from the tactical bag become BBQ implements.

Hot dog assembly in progress.

We didn't bring the condiments, but luckily, our steaks were already
pre-marinaded in olive oil, salt and pepper.

After lunch, there was time to chill, and for N and JY to take a stroll around the island, while C, J1 and J2 waded out to the boat and did some swimming. A, with her camera, went on the breakwater. 

An unusually long wade out to Little Wanderer from the shore.

Pulau Hantu Besar is quite the nature-study spot: 

These were live (and returned to the water after this shot).

We found this type of seaweed entirely filled with liquid (salty, yes, we tasted
 it)!  I Googled this later and found it to be the bubble green seaweed 
(Boergesenia forbesii, allow me my nerd moment). This bunch 
happened to be wedged tight between the valves of a cockle. 

But the island was also a place where a lot of jetsam washed up. When will people stop littering and just keep their trash on board till they get ashore? I'm assuming these washed up, rather than were left behind by previous Pulau Hantu picnickers.  

Fruit juice cartons, bento boxes, soda bottles, cans and, for some reason,
about 20 blue balloons with the logo of the Republic of Singapore Yacht 
Club, all washed ashore.

About an hour after the tide began coming back in at around 2pm, we packed up and headed back to the marina. The boat was washed, and we later chilled in the bistro, watching one of the marina's famous sunsets. 

Sunset on the way back to the marina.

Sunset at the bistro, Raffles Marina.

A note on J1's seasickness: He refused Dramamine because it would hv made him drowsy. He also declined to wear the Sea Band, saying that he preferred keeping his dignity to wearing "voodoo bracelets". He took instead Blackmore's "all-natural" ginger tabs - which failed to stave off some nausea. In the end, a swig of beer while en route seemed to keep the nausea from worsening. Beer, the cure-all.  

How much does it cost to own a boat? (part deux)

Here's more info on why the answer is "More than you think!"

This entry is a post-script to the first post on the costs of owning a boat. See that earlier post here.

We got the bill from Raffles Marina this week and saw additional charges included; aside from the usual costs of monthly berthing (S$476) and cleaning (S$300) were other charges related to the trip to Puteri Cove (see the blog post on that here).

One charge was the port clearance fee levied by Raffles Marina, for the sum of S$42.80 (S$21.40 each for the outbound and inbound trips).

Another charge, MPA port dues, came to S$489 for that trip. We had registered Little Wanderer with the Singapore Registry of Ships to be exempted from paying 7% GST for having imported the boat from the US. (That's 7% of the S$123,300 cost of the boat, not small potatoes!) Eric explained today that an SRS-registered boat is essentially regarded as a foreign vessel until that first trip to Malaysia is made. The S$489 were port dues payable for that trip.

From now on, MPA port dues are payable annually. For Little Wanderer, S$30 covers us until Sept 30, 2016 - cheap compared to the above charge.

I mentioned in the Puteri Cove post that we paid S$150 each way for immigration services, meaning it cost us $300 to engage our personal immigration officer to do the passport thing before and after the trip. But the bill today had an additional "administration charge" of S$180 on top of that S$300. Go figure.

Conclusion: Going to Puteri Cove (or anywhere in Malaysia) isn't going to be cheap. Neither is owning a boat, come to think of it.

Oh, but then we knew that already.

Afloat off Pulau Hantu Kechil

Date: Nov 14, 2015

Trip #7
Weather: Sunny, and then drizzly, with dramatic storm light on the way back
Waters: Mostly calm, choppy in Sinki Fairway 
On board: C, A, J2, R and MH
New gear on board: Three boxes with lids for dry storage of boat sundries

The plan was to land on Pulau Hantu as a dry run for when we have N and JY on board in a week. Today, Little Wanderer bounced along merrily and had actually shot past the two Pulau Hantu islands, Besar and Kechil, before we realised it. 

This was what we saw on the approach to Pulau Hantu Kechil's lagoon. 

We doubled back, aiming for Pulau Hantu Kechil, only to find the entrance to its lagoon snarled by forests of seaweed, and the water no more than 2 metres deep. Concerned that the propeller might get tangled, we backed away from the lagoon to deeper water, dropped anchor, broke open the beers, wine and a giant bag of pretzels. ACDC was the soundtrack.  

Most of the seaweed was underwater, anchored to the seabed, but
there were breakaway chunks like this one. 

Sargassum seaweed comes with little air sacs and are hiding places for sea critters. 

No other pleasure craft was there in the channel between the island and Pulau Bukom. They all appeared clustered in the coral flats between Hantu Besar and Hantu Kechil.  (See map here.)

It was a hot afternoon and the waters were relatively clean and clear,  which I found surprising because my memory of diving into the pea soup off this island 15 years ago - when I was a newly-qualified open-water diver - are still vivid. But, inviting as the waters were in the afternoon heat, we had to ditch the idea of going swimming around the boat because the currents were strong. C and J2 went in with snorkels, only to clamber back on board in five minutes; fighting the current in the channel would have been too much work for a Saturday afternoon.

Just floating. Just being.

The oil refining facilities of Pulau Bukom in the background.  

Yes, Singapore waters can be this clean and clear.

Horsing around at aft.

When we made tracks for the marina later, it was still sunny, but we knew a storm was brewing. Out in Sinki Fairway, before turning to starboard at what we call Lands End (or The Corner or Singapore's Elbow), the skies ahead, where the marina was, were a deep slate with intermittent slashes of the golden-lavender-pink light from a 4.30pm sun.  In some parts, there was no distinguishing the horizon or where the sea ended and the sky began, and we could see parts where the rain was coming down in blue-grey sheets. 

I often wonder about these rigs out in Singapore waters. What are they doing
out there when Singapore has no oil (though it is a global leader in building rigs)? 
Anyone has a clue? Post a comment! 

This is what it looks like when it is light and dark at the same time.

It was then that I realised that we urbanites often experience weather where we see it, right in our faces. Rain in the city is the run-off from the eaves, or coming down in big fat drops into our built-up canyons or rapidly filling up drains and wetting clean laundry. Out There at sea, one sees the weather on a different scale altogether - writ large, in the great, wide open. What we saw yesterday were a few rain storms lined up in the distance, each drenching some faraway part of the sea. 

And the light at that hour, with the gloom of the storm clouds and the brightness of the almost-setting sun sharing space in one big sky ... was nothing short of atmospheric, and wildly beautiful. I was snapping several shots with my Canon and hoping the pictures would do the scene justice. 

It drizzled in the last 15 minutes of our journey back to the marina, but the waters were fairly flat. Back at the marina, we were occupied with more mundane chores - such as washing down the cabin and untangling metre upon metre of anchor rope. 

How much does it cost to own a boat?

The short answer is: More than you think. Ker-chinggg!

COST OF BOAT: Our 25-footer Chaparral came with a S$123,300 price tag, including the cost of freight. We chose to pay for it in full. If you decide to take a loan, you'd end up paying more, with interest factored in. A five-year repayment schedule is usual.

When we bought our first and second boats more than a decade ago, they cost under $10,000 each - but they were old, very old, and gave mechanical problems. But that was a long time ago, when boats were a lot less well-appointed, less high-tech. So no meaningful comparisons can be made here.

ELECTRONICS: We didn't want all the tech bells and whistles for their own sake. We just wanted the doo-dads that were integral to safety and navigation. The cost of the GPS on board, a Garmin Echo 70s, was bundled in the price of the boat. It costs about US$1,000, going by an online check.

We don't fish (at least, not yet!), so we haven't bought a separate fish radar, but apparently our well-regarded Garmin model is a fish finder too.

Beyond the GPS, another piece of electronics is the Marine VHF phone at S$288. This is so you can communicate with the marinas, or, if you are bored en route, eavesdrop on the conversations mariners have at sea - which are neither terribly scintillating nor very often even in English.

Then there is also this little box called the AIS Transponder, which cost S$1,782, including installation. It sits unobtrusively in a corner of the hold. There is no saving on the cost of this gadget, which is compulsory for Singapore's maritime security. It enables the Police Coast Guard and other vessels in the vicinity to pinpoint your location, and you, theirs. SGBoating gives an explanation of this thingy on its website. Read it here.

OFFICIAL STUFF: One of our invoices lists S$207 as the cost of two items, the Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) number and the Ship Station Licence. The MMSI number is like the boat's telephone number and is assigned by the telco, Singtel.  It is what enables you to use your VHF phone. The Ship Station Licence, which alone costs S$100 a year, is applied for through the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore with your SingPass. It is the licence to operate the ship-board radio station.

INSURANCE: Coverage for Little Wanderer with AXA costs $1,391 a year.

MARINA MEMBERSHIP:  The (once-only) entrance fee varies from marina to marina. Ours at Raffles Marina cost S$2,500, bought from someone who was giving up membership, plus another S$500+ for the membership transfer fee. And then there are the monthly membership dues, about S$130 a month. You need to be a member of the marina in order to berth your boat there, which brings us to the separate costs of...

BERTHING: Little Wanderer is dry-berthed for $470 a month, including unlimited launchings. The cost depends on the size of the boat. If your boat is so large that it has to be wet-berthed, it'll cost a lot more. Two weeks afloat on the water is all it takes for barnacles to grow on the hull, so the cost of the berthing space aside, you'll need to pay a diver to go scrape the critters off on a regular basis... unless you DIY.

CLEANING: The Raffles Marina staff clean the boat every week (whether or not it goes out) for $300 a month. Maybe this expenditure can be saved - but first, we'll have to retire to be free enough to DIY this job!

SERVICING: We expect this (and attendant repairs) to be done down the road. If you are still reading at this point and holding a calculator, said calculator might have started smokin' already! Our boat is still too new for us to know the cost of servicing and/or repairs.

FUEL: A full tank of petrol - yes, not the cheaper diesel - for Little Wanderer costs nearly S$500, which should be good for a few trips out. We don't yet have a gauge on the consumption for this single outboard engine.

MISCELLANEOUS SUNDRIES: We have a yet-to-be-used stand-up paddle board and that hammock (tassels included)!

Me, on Lazarus (see Oct 17 post).

We also have on board a slew of boat-cleaning detergents (for the times we might want to DIY), sunblock, beach towels, wet wipes and plastic storage boxes with lids to keep everything in place. And then there is C's "tactical case" (more than S$100!), for carrying his Rambo weapons and snorkels (see the Oct 17 post).

Do you have anyone on board your boat who is prone to seasickness? We bought a Sea Band in case we have such a person on board. Check back on this blog soon to find out whether this wristband does stave off nausea; we are expecting the sometimes-barfy J1 to come out with us on the water this month.

We won't go into the cost of the above items. Most are nice-to-haves. We once asked Eric what he regarded as essentials on the boat. Right off the bat, he said the VHF phone, a good torch and a knife (check, check and check, the last two in C's "tactical case").

One item we expect to buy soon is the Weber Go-Anywhere portable gas-powered BBQ grill for our picnics. Chef C and all of us enjoy a good BBQ. That's just the hardware. You'll still need to pony up for the food, drinks (preferably alcoholic), the dining ware and the (S$19) gas canisters to power that grill...

On the cost of boating, Eric Koh of SGBoating says it well: "I can't tell you why any practical person would buy a boat. There is simply no way to justify the hundreds you will spend every month on payment, gas, marina storage, registration and the like. Add up your monthly boating expenses and you'll see that you could easily be driving a second new car instead."

True. BUT.

There is a but. He says boating is about life, about getting together with people, about waking up your senses and making memories that only those of us with boats will have. We couldn't agree more. (Read Eric's full piece here. Scroll to halfway down the page to the headline "Why I started boating".)