Another day out west

Date: Nov 4, 2017 

Trip #11 (#31)
Weather: Scorchingly hot
Waters: Relatively choppy for these waters out west 
On board: C, A, J1, J2 and R  
New gear on board: Three iPhone X (yes, we are quick off the mark), and binoculars

We had a fairly late start out, and we wanted to "get there fast and then take it slow", right? We headed towards the Second Link and the waters north of the live firing area, a mere 20-minute journey, versus taking 45 minutes to Pulau Hantu. 

The Coast Guard were there most of the time, slipping into and out of view, just to be sure we weren't in prohibited waters just off the military training area. 

The waters were clean and seemingly clear of the nasty foam, but nobody (other than R) entered it (see pic below). 

R in an other-worldly shot by J2. Captured on iPhone X. 

Doing it our way. Food, drink, music. 

A tried out her new binoculars. A Brahminy kite obligingly appeared.

Bird-watching.

C working the windlass when we decided it was time to leave. 

  

Floating north of the live firing area

Date: Sept 30, 2017 

Trip #10 (#30)
Weather: Toggled between sunny and cloudy 
Waters: Flat 
On board: C, A, J1, J2 and R 

We had a late start because everyone got going late this lazy Saturday. By 2pm, however, we were anchored in flat waters north of Johor's Puteri Cove, north of the Singapore Armed Forces' live-firing area. Never mind if no live firing was going on, but to drop anchor anywhere off the live-firing area is to ask for the Police Coast Guard to come by to tell you via a loud hailer to move off.  

We had three hours there, just chilling our usual way - with wine and beer, music and lamb rolls from Baker & Cook.  These waters to the west of Singapore were so flat that even J1 didn't have major problems with nausea today. 

This is what Donald Trump is good for on our boating trips
- opening beer bottles. A gift from a friend before Trump
won the White House. It was a gag then, but with all his bumbling
since January 2017, it doesn't seem as funny any more. 

This wasn't a posed shot, despite how it looks. They all refuse
 to pose for A's camera, so she has to grab whatever
lucky moment comes along.

We had to leave our anchoring spot before we
really wanted to. We brought Little Wanderer 2
back to the marina because A had a dinner to go to.
Lovely evening light, as is typical of sunsets at the marina. 

Horsing around on the dock after cleaning the boat.
All pix today courtesy of A's iPhone 6.
The Canon 80D is on the blink.

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. 

Floating off Sarimbun

Date: Aug 12, 2017
Trip #8 (#28)
Weather: Overcast, drizzly occasionally 
Waters: Flat 
On board: C, A, J2 and R 
New gear on board: Break-proof wine glasses, Thirsty Hippo for below-deck

The weather wasn't in our favour, as much as we were wishing otherwise, on this, our first outing in nearly two months. It was a grey day at home, but we pressed westward towards Raffles Marina all the same. It rained on the way there, but stopped when we got to the marina. 

The skies out east looked grey, so we headed west, towards Puteri Cove. It was one of those live-firing Saturdays in the SAF area, so we headed beyond the military zone - the Police Coast Guard would have shooed us away if we lingered anyway. We dropped anchor just north of the Sarimbun buoy. Two other pleasure craft were nearby. 

There, we stayed for the next couple of hours. It was quiet, the waters were flat. We just chilled.   

Guests on board LW2

Date: June 17, 2017
Trip #7 (#27)
Weather: Sunny 
Waters: Fairly flat, peak high tide at 7pm 
On board: C, A, J2 and R, with guests KH, J and ZQ 

C had extended an invitation for KH and his family to join us on board in the mid-year, when ZQ would be on holiday, though studying for his PSLE. 

So on this sunny Saturday, just a week after our last outing, we had KH and family with us, their first time on LW2, after having been on LW with us at least twice before. KH brought his fishing tackle. 

Skipper C invited ZQ to sit with him and gave him the job
of monitoring the water depth on the screen. 

We set out relatively late, after 1pm, and  made for Pulau Hantu, where we were last week. The waters were considerably clearer today, and we could see clear to the bottom. The tide was low in the lagoon, about 1.1m, but rising. This isn't the season for sargassum seaweed, but there was plenty of this other kind of weed in the water, brownish green floating scum that looked quite gross. 

A quick search of the Internet yielded no clues on the name of this scummy
type of seaweed. It was mostly brown, but had some greenish parts at the
end of some branches. 

The lagoon was so shallow that the propellers appeared to strike a rock or coral in our approach to the lagoon. There was no further trouble after that, and a check showed a slightly scuffed propeller blade.

The tree with the bare branches at the top had a second Brahminy kite in it this week. (It was a lone kite just a week ago, see last post here.) With the telephoto lens attached to her camera, A waded about 80m from the boat to get closer to the tree, and got the following shot: 

Much closer than the pic last week. Still not a Nat Geo closeup though.

J2 and ZQ went into the water, and ZQ prattled the afternoon away, telling stories about his classmates and school, and showing his prowess with the Rubik's cube, which took him no more than five minutes to solve. The boy is on the schools-level national team for Scrabble as well, beating both J2 and R in the course of the afternoon with some pretty strategic play. 

Horsin' around. 

KH went to the bow and cast his line using just a lure, no bait, live or otherwise. He came up empty. The lagoon seemed pretty devoid of fish today. 

Back at the marina later, C set the boy to work by flushing the windlass with fresh water.  We ended the day with dinner at the marina's Discovery Pub. 

An afternoon's fun didn't come free for this lad.
'Child labour' was used in the cleaning of
this boat, haha. 

An Africa-hot day out

Date: June 10, 2017
Trip #6 (#26)
Weather: Sweltering, then overcast 
Waters: Choppy in the Sinki Fairway, peak high tide at 1pm 
On board: C, A, J2 and R 
New gear on board: Coleman icebox and personal flotation device for A 

We headed out just before peak high tide and it was blazingly hot. The weatherman had described the UV conditions as "extreme" - and this was the day A forgot to pack the sunblock for re-application. 

We dropped anchor in the larger lagoon of Pulau Hantu Besar. The water there was just green murk. The depth gauge hovered between 1 and 2 metres, but we couldn't see bottom. There have been better days. 

PFD strapped on, landlubber A went to the water to cool off, and the jacket worked a treat. No need to tread water, one hand could hold a cold beer ...  just the thing for this mid-year weather. C and J2 went in too, leaving R to snap pix from the swim platform. 

Ah, the added security of a PFD. Despite being able to swim and
 tread water, A's fear of the deep is still there. Any waters over
 1.4m deep gives her the willies.   

R boppin' to music. 

Skipper C

Pulau Hantu showed us some majestic nature today. About 150m from where the boat was anchored, a bird of prey sat in the bare branches of a tree on Pulau Hantu Kechil, not moving much. 

With her telephoto lens, A could just make out the brown and white feathers.
Here, it seems to be looking directly at the camera. Going by descriptions in
the book of birds, it is a Brahminy kite.  

Almost an hour later, the bird took flight...  

This was the best A managed as it swooped over LW2. Other online
photos of Brahminy kites in flight describe a rounded tail base, 
splayed "fingers", warm brown body and black tipped wings. 

These unidentified raptors appeared to be hunting in a pair.
They spooked several smaller birds out of the trees.

The temperatures cooled quickly, and the sun went in. Further out east, dark clouds were gathering, so we hauled up anchor much earlier than planned and made the way back to the marina after an hour and a half in the lagoon. 

The sky seemed to change its mind about raining when we were nearly back at the marina, so we did a float there, and it was much cooler already. The relaxed fun on board continued for another 45 minutes or so. 

An outing thwarted

We were all set. Ice box filled, beers, wines and lamb rolls bought, and the day was a sunny scorcher. We even remembered the sunblock, for once.

Then came the clanger: The cranes at Raffles Marina, which lift the boats off their dry-berth racks and set them on the water, were on the blink.

Plan B made on the fly: Go with all our food and drinks to East Coast Park instead.

We cussed about the berthing fees the marina charges. Shouldn't the marina give us a discount off this month's bill? It's not as if we get them to launch the boat every weekend; we go out, at most, twice a month. But this weekend - after we had woken up earlier than we would have liked to buy supplies for the supposed trip  - the crane has to be out of commission.

Raffles Marina should not have this happening again. This is the second time it's happened on a day when we have planned an outing. See account of previous time here, when we also ended up at the East Coast Park. That was July 2016, less than a year ago. Who knows how many other times the crane has broken down on weekends we weren't going out?

Today, we were just family - C, A, J2 and R. What if we had asked guests along? There would be so much disappointment and apologies.

An aside: We got a call last week from the marina, asking us whether we were planning to go out; they had called to let us know that the crane was out of order then. It just so happened we weren't planning a trip that day.

But so has the crane been broken since then? Or was it out of order then, fixed and then went out of order again this Saturday morning (May 20)??

Anyway, we parked near the Sailing Centre and broke open our beers and wine there. It was a pleasant enough afternoon, I suppose, but an outing on the boat would have been far better.