The boat stalls! In the SAF live-firing area!

Date: Feb 24, 2017 

Trip #13 (#33)
Weather: Scorchingly hot
Waters: Calm out west 
On board: C, A, J1, J2, R 

Another day out, and we were looking forward to it. The last time we had been on the boat, it had been days before Christmas, and we hadn't even gone out to sea. We had booked a berth in the marina to celebrate Christmas on board. 

The trip out west (towards Puteri Cove, Johor) had started out without incident. Then, while we were in the channel, a high-pitched beep sounded. This is what C saw on the dash: Sensor fault.  

The beep stopped soon after, but we continued our way. The beep was to sound twice more, each time squealing thrice, and then stopping. Subsequent times, instead of "Sensor fault", the dial gave an oil pressure reading. 

Then the LW2 stalled. The engine just cut on its own and we were adrift, right on the edge of the Singapore Armed Forces live-firing area. (No, we didn't hear firing going on then. It was around 3pm.) The engine refused to fire up again.

C called Eric of  SG Boating, but he wasn't picking up his phone. We called Raffles Marina, but they said they "couldn't" send any boat to tow us back to the marina "if the boat wasn't within line of sight of the marina". Another call was made to SG Boating's office, but the connection was bad and the person on the other end couldn't hear C. The thought did occur to us to call the Police Coast Guard for a tow, as it wasn't at all wise to hang out in those waters. 

After a few minutes, the engine could be restarted. We moved beyond the live-firing area and dropped anchor.

Finally, we got Eric on the line, and he advised us to take a slow drive back to the marina, and not to gun the engine beyond 2,000 rpm. 

We figured that since we were already out there and it was a pleasant-enough afternoon, we would just float and do our usual weekend relaxing thing board. After some beers, music and conversation - J1 went to sleep because the dramamine from a Japanese pharmacy was working too well - we made tracks back for the marina. 

A couple of brahminy kites circled overhead, squawking loudly. We did agree that for a majestic raptor like that, its call sounded decidedly unmajestic. 

The trip back was uneventful, though it was the slowest we have ever gone on the boat, which had just come out of its annual servicing just before the Chinese New Year. So did some wiseacre not put back the parts properly? This baby is less than a year old. 

It's back to the workshop, I guess.  

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.

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. 

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.