Floating, fishing

Date: March 26, 2016

Trip #15
Weather: Fair, sunny  
Waters: A little choppy in the west, calmer just off the marina 
On board: C, A, J2 and R  
New gear on board: Water Wolf, Lexan hook 

The tide wasn't in our favour today, so we didn't make an island landing. We just dropped anchor and fished off the boat. We first headed towards Puteri Cove, intending to hug the coast, head north for a bit of sightseeing until we saw the Causeway at Woodlands, and then turn around and do a spot of fishing in the area. 

We didn't get that far! Not long after passing Sarimbun Island and the Sarimbun buoy where we had our first fishing lesson (see post here), we came upon a clutch of floating fish farms. They spanned almost right across the channel between the Singapore and Malaysian (southern Johor) coast, and we weren't sure about being able to drive through, between them.  (These were the farms along the Lim Chu Kang coast that lost thousands of dollars worth of fish and fry a year ago because of a plankton bloom. For more, click here.)

So we did an about turn to go back the way we came, intending to look for a fishing spot. We dropped anchor near Sarimbun Island, but the currents were strong; they would have pushed the boat toward shore, near the SAF live firing area. We decided to move off, but had huge problems bringing in the anchor. It seemed snagged on something on the seabed. It took a while for it to come free, during which a patrolling Coast Guard boat came by. The officer on board used a mic, apparently to ask us if there was a problem, but his mic wasn't working well, and we couldn't hear him. 

Time for some research on how best to free a stuck anchor - or buy a bigger boat which comes with its anchor winch!

Anyway, we got the anchor free after a combination of brute-strength pulling and putting the boat in reverse to yank it free. We had had this same problem the last time we anchored in these parts to fish with KH, so we vow never to drop anchor in these parts again. 

We headed back to the waters just outside the marina instead. It was calmer there, and we dropped anchor again, had a late lunch of the burgers we had brought, broke open the wine and beers, turned up FM91.3. 

Simple pleasure. Sharing a beer.

The Water Wolf, an underwater HD camera able to record images of fish and underwater life for playback later, is C's newest tech toy.  We set up one of our rods with it and cast the line and waited... but came up empty even after an hour. 

Above and below: Attaching the Water Wolf.

The cylindrical device, about 10cm long, had recorded images on the micro SD card all right - but the footage was all pea-soup green, seemingly devoid of life. We will embed a short clip here as soon as the three longish clips are properly edited - not that there is much to see. In between the screens of green are short interludes when the line was reeled in, leaving the Water Wolf spinning crazily in the air even as it continued recording, so all one sees are whirling images of parts of our feet, the boat, the swim platform and, occasionally, some of our faces. 

At least we know it works. The images are really sharp. Now the job is to find clearer waters and fish! We may have better luck off the Sisters Island marine park. Till the next time, then...   

The other new piece of equipment on board is a Lexan hook, meant for pulling the boat closer to the dock. This was ordered from Amazon, and had come in a box that was as tall as A. 

We saw other people out, enjoying the water this afternoon. One group was from the Singapore Management University, out sailing. The other group was in this odd-looking two-storey-high vessel that we called a "houseboat", for want of its correct term... 

Both groups practised what has come to be maritime "tradition"
- they waved back at us.  

After we got back to the marina, there was still the usual post-trip work - cleaning the boat, flushing its engine with fresh water ... 

We chucked out the storage boxes that we have kept in the hold (various
boat detergents and other paraphernalia) because these boxes weren't water-
tight. Water from the weekly washes had gone right in and made
some items mouldy. Next task is to hunt down some water-tight
storage boxes, but without blowing $300+ on military-grade tactical cases.

And then, there was another of Raffles Marina's fabulous sunsets to behold...  

Little Wanderer to go on show!

This little six-and-a-half month old boat, with 14 outings under its belt, goes on show at the Singapore Yacht Show 2016 between April 7 and 10.

Eric Koh of SG Boating asked us today if he could borrow Little Wanderer, Singapore's first (2015) Chaparral SunCoast 250, for the event, and we said yes. In return, he'll get it polished before and after the show, which will be at the One Degree 15 Marina Club in Sentosa Cove.

Seaweed hell... and tidal-flat critters

Date: March 5, 2016

Trip #14
Weather: Fair, sunny at times, with passing sprinkles 
Waters: Fairly calm all the way to Pulau Hantu Besar, very low tide in island's lagoon 
On board: C, A, J2 and R  
New gear in use on the island: A pair of Helinox camping tables  

We were looking forward to this trip, our first in a month! Chinese New Year and assorted family obligations in February had kept us on terra firma. A check with the winds and tides in the days preceding told us one thing for this trip -- that we had to be on Pulau Hantu by 1pm, because the tide would be at its lowest by 2.15pm or so. 

The water was low as we approached the lagoon, and the seaweed forest at the mouth of the lagoon of Pulau Hantu Besar was clearly visible, nearer the surface of the water than usual.  Though we raised the propeller part way, a lot of the brown stuff, Sargassum seaweed, still got tangled in it. We made it into the lagoon and J2 and C spent about 10 minutes cutting away the seaweed to free the prop. J2 said he felt like he had cleared "100 pounds of seaweed", estimation unverified! I regret I didn't take photos of this.

Hantu was ours, all ours, this sunny Saturday. For once, it wasn't crawling with undergraduates or teenagers camping overnight and playing team-building games. 

C fried up some sausages, meatballs and broccolini and we broke open beers. A lone macaque walked by, looking studiously nonchalant about our presence, quite unlike its no-good, aggressive, thieving brother on Sister's Island on our last trip out. (See post here.) 

We set up what we thought were Helinox chairs, a gift from N when we got the boat, but they were the brand's camping tables instead. C and A had to ditch plans to settle down for a comfortable beach-side read!  

Meanwhile, the water retreated, and by 3pm, Little Wanderer was pretty much marooned, sitting on the wet sand. This is the first time we've been out and seen the tidal flats. 

Nothing like some photos of the critters out on the sand:  

The porcelain fiddler crab. Tons of them on the wet sand, each of them
wandering not more than a couple of centimetres from its burrow. Measuring
1 to 2 cm across, they were very shy, ducking back into their holes upon my
moving towards them. But I froze, and waited, till this little guy came out.
 There were roughly equal numbers of right- and left-clawed ones!
Pic above: Taken from much farther away, a clutch of five. 

The common sea star was seen in abundant numbers in the

shallows as we made our way from the boat to shore. Most had

 five arms...

 ... but this one just had to be different.  We also saw a four-armed one.

In the geographical centre of this pic are two sand-coloured fish, well
camouflaged.  They have a dark band on their backs. They were only
1.5cm long, and were practically invisible - until they darted away. 
I haven't managed to find out what kind they are. Are they some 
kind of goby? Or the young of some other fish? Can anglers out there help? 

A convention of hermit crabs - which is quite funny if you think about it.

At around 5pm, the tide had come back in, though it was still low. It took quite a bit of pulling and pushing by the two guys to get the boat afloat again. (They gallantly told us girls that we could stay on the boat while they did this.)  And though we proceeded really slowly through the seaweed forest again, we had to stop for a while outside the lagoon to pull off another tangled mess. We were alerted to this by the boat, actually - Little Wanderer's whistling alarm went off!  

Considering the trouble, I don't think we'll time another boat trip with the lowest tide. 

Happy campers

A dry month

February 2016 is the first month - in the six months since we got Little Wanderer  - that we won't be out on the water even once.

Half the month is gone, and our time in the remaining weekends is already committed to activities on terra firma, as has been the case with the last two weekends.

We miss being out there, and look wistfully towards the sea whenever we come within sight of it, and take note of whether the waters look flat or choppy. The weather hasn't been that great too, alternating between bursts of sunshine, sheer gloom and outright rain sometimes.

Meanwhile, the Year of the Monkey has begun. We hope for times out there on the water again soon, but these will have to be taken without J1, who's headed back to school in Sydney shortly.

We reel in a shark on Sisters' Island!

Date: Jan 30, 2016

Trip #13
Weather: Fair, sunny at times, rainy on return leg 
Waters: Sometimes choppy, and shallow (4 ft!) in some parts out in open sea; high tide in the Sisters' Island lagoon 
On board: C, A, Uncle Wong, D, KH, J and ZQ
New on board: Wet bags 

This black-tip reef shark was caught by 10-year-old ZQ, who was on the
beach, practising the art of casting a line under his dad's supervision. 
It is still a baby, about half a metre long - and a good sign of the state 
of the Sisters' Island Marine Park.

The junior angler, in Primary 5, also regularly solves Rubik's Cube puzzles
in under a minute. He took 42 seconds on the outward journey on the
 boat, and cried foul over Uncle Wong's timekeeping. He claims 
20 seconds is his best time. 

This must surely count as the trip with the most encounters with the wild side of Singapore so far! 

We are talking about catching a baby black-tip reef shark and a parrotfish and having a face-off with one of the islands' resident macaques, which got its hands on one of our bags of chips. It boldly came within a metre and a half of the whole group of us, only to drop the bag when we shouted at it. It looked to be an aggressive alpha male.

After its failed attempt at chip theft, it shimmied up a coconut palm and glowered at us from about 10 metres up. Two other members of its troop also stared at us from trees nearby. They dispersed after a while, perhaps convinced we weren't going to leave our food and drinks unattended.

After that close encounter with the macaque, some of us armed ourselves with
sticks to ward off further attempts at snack theft. 

Chips, nuts, wine, champagne and good conversation. It was a lovely afternoon,
not too hot, but the air was still. 

Meanwhile, angler KH, using chopped prawns as bait, reeled in a parrotfish, which, like the shark, was released alive.  

The white stuff near the mouth is the chunk of bait.

We packed up to leave the island, and bagged and binned our trash. As we waded into the lagoon to load the boat, the macaques reappeared and made immediate tracks for the bin. Their leader effortlessly pushed the swing cover of the bin open and their feast began - green tea, loose tobacco from C's empty pack of Marlboros (yes!) and leftover grapes and groundnuts. The mess they left around the bin made it look like we were the litterbugs.

I think the simians got the drill already: Wait till the humans leave. Raid the bin.

NParks, are you reading this? The islands need monkey-proof bins! [See post-script.]

Our return trip took nearly two hours because of a stretch of really shallow water near Pulau Sebarok and Pulau Semakau. We could see the sandy and rocky bottom among the seaweed. C slowed the boat down for nearly 20 minutes till we were well past Junk Island. (See map here; enlarge map so Junk Island is identified.) 

We usually pass the island (a small circular patch of tree-covered land) on our port side on the return trip, but today, we passed it on our starboard because a storm was brewing on our usual route. This was where the water was shallow.  C's note to self: Stick to the usual route. 

We ran into rain on the return trip anyway, and everyone huddled under bath towels to blunt the sting of the rain drops.

Post-script
I wrote to NParks to give them a heads-up on the failed rubbish bins, and told them that the aggressive monkeys somewhat spoiled our visit to the island. NParks replied fairly quickly to thank me for the tipoff;  regarding the monkeys, they said (somewhat condescendingly) that the "monkeys" are macaques (we knew that), are native to Singapore (we also knew that), and that we are not to stare them down, feed them or engage them in any way to prevent attacks (we knew that as well). In short, I guess, NParks won't do anything about them (and I had in mind shipping them off to another of Singapore's offshore islands that are off visitors' radars). I think we won't be visiting Sisters Island that often from now. Who likes spending island time being wary about where the monkeys are?? 

Back on Pulau Hantu Besar

Date: Jan 16, 2016

Trip #12
Weather: Cloudy, brief afternoon showers  
Waters: Fairly calm; the tide stayed high through the afternoon 
On board: C, A, J1, J2, and R
New on board: Pelican case (waterproof) for our phones 

We planned to leave for the marina at 11am, but "delays" happened, so by the time we got to Pulau Hantu Besar, it was nearly 3pm. We topped up Little Wanderer's petrol tank today. That last tank had  lasted us around half a dozen trips, and there was still a quarter tank left, and this was our 12th trip in just under six months. No, we haven't got any numbers on the rate this boat drinks. 

We landed on Pulau Hantu Besar after an uneventful journey out under a cloudy sky. The island was crawling with NTU students from an outdoor activity club, there to spend the night after a day of "team-building games". No, the island wasn't quietly idyllic today. 

Just as we were done unloading our gear, it rained. Thankfully, it was only a short shower, but we stayed under one of those shelters provided by the good people of Sentosa Development Corp. There under the shelter, to music from the Beach Boys, we fried up sausages, bacon, tomatoes on the vine and asparagus. 

Under that one shelter not occupied by the hordes of NTU undergraduates. 

The Bauhinia blakeana, or Hong Kong Orchid Tree, fresh after the rain.

Fishing was fruitless today. Nothing bit at either the island's jetty or the breakwater fringing the lagoon where the boat was anchored. I think the footnote here was that we didn't bring any bait...  

Nope, the fish didn't like the bits of sausage we took from our picnic stash. 

Fishing off the breakwater lost us a set of hooks and a weight.
We came up empty. 

As we packed up to leave the island, we got help from a bloke who was camping there for the night with his Japanese wife. There were five of us, so we didn't really need the help with our assortment of bags, BBQ grill and stuff, but he volunteered and was friendly. We gave him a beer for his effort! 

Beefing up our fishing supplies

We went to Beach Road today, Singapore's hub for anglers, and bought more fish hooks and fish pliers so we can remove our catches from the hooks more easily.

We visited two shops (Hong Guan Pro Fishing and Joe's Fishing Tackle), 'fessed up to being utter beginners in fishing and got some help selecting what we needed.

Our haul today.

We felt like fish out of water there - pun wholly intended - and really unschooled. The customers there were mostly middle-aged, and browsing among a staggering array of arcane-looking doo-dads. Baits that claim to be able to change colour, baits that looked like real frogs, fish and squid; there were also rods, reels, ice boxes, frozen bait... you name it. 

C showed us some photos of his colleague M, who has just returned from one of his angling pilgrimages in New Zealand. His catches are a metre long, and his photos are all captioned with technical information on the kind of rod and reel he used.  

We have so much more to learn, though C and I believe we won't go far beyond the "fishing for fun" phase. It just adds a dimension to our times on the boat, and there's the promise of grilling something we caught.