2012 Sailing Adventure – SG to Aur to Tioman

Foyer of our flat: Collecting stuff that are going with us.

It seems like we have a pattern that is influenced by the prevailing S. China sea climate. Every year, about end April, we go on a boat and head out to Tioman. We’ve done that in 2009, 2011 and now 2012! .. I almost made it in 2010 in Eleanor.. I took off, but didnt complete it tho.. Well..,  we are probably doing it 2013… pretty sure .. on route to Japan… possibly, cant be 100% sure, but its a good chance that we be doing that.

Kayaks loaded, fuel loaded, ready to go

This year, I am taking time off work between Labour day and Vesak day to make this a 10 day sailing adventure on board S/V Calliste. Didnt feel too good about leaving 2 cats to the care of 2 teenages in my partially renovated flat.. hope they’ll be alright…

27 Apr 2000hrs: We moved onboard with fresh groceries. Put things away and put kayaks in their places, took awnings down…. At about 2359hrs, we were too pooped to continue and nah… we are not leaving at 0400hrs.

28 Apr 1400hrs: We are finally underway. Yeah! While in Singapore waters, we continue to enjoy mobile broadband and that was fun… Hopefully, we get Maxis broadband to work just as well… I had to make arrangements to get the Maxis Sim card ahead of our departure, and sign up for the monthly prepaid broadband for RM68. Thats not bad, but only 3G of data and wonder how good is the transfer rate.

At about 2000hrs, it was just beginning to get really dark, and I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me… there was a strip of very black water ahead of us…. hmm…. seems to be getting bigger… WHOA! Throttle back engine way down, change course 90′ Port! That was just reflex action and good thing too. We were less than 10meters away from running into some really dense fishing stakes that ran a long ways down to somewhere that I cant see the end. Almost a heart attack… anyway, we got around it by going inshore and passed it in 6meters depth. This end was lighted by some very small blinking red light… I was like, WHOA! Damn crazy garbage people put up this unmarked trap! Yeah right! What blinking light! Damn! #$!%#*@. This is, btw, off Tanjong Ayam.

Approaching Aur. Our favorite island in South China Sea

2200hrs, going thru the narrow passage among the rocks off Rumunia. Good timing, we had a slack tide and passed the dangerous North rocks easily. It was very dark and we relied totally on my 7 yr old Garmin GPSMAP76C and 2005 Bluecharts. I have done this route 3 times before, going up to Tioman, so I was pretty sure that if the old guy(GPS) is working, we would be okay.

Here we are. Moored on the Duyong side of the channel.

29 Apr 0100hrs: My watch. Lots of lights out there to our Starboard. Could be anything, fishing skiffs, big ships… looks like something is closing in on us, I am starting to see some bright red, green and white lights… must be some SG power boats going the same way… hearing their engines now… WHOA! Look at that … how many are there…? They look exactly the same… size, height and lights, and seems to be quite large… 60 to 70 ft perhaps… Changing course 20′ to Port, wanting some distance from this convoy… On closer look, they are military vessels and 7 of them. WHOA! And every one of them checked us out with their on board spot light! I think we have our picture taken 7 times tonight… hmm… are these Malaysian Navy? I didnt think they keep their vessels so up and running… everything seem to be in good working condition…

Calliste at Aur mooring

0400hrs, my watch again. Looks like another big vessel is coming up on our starboard. Couldnt tell where he is going, but its coming a little to close for comfort. 20′ to Port, looks like a very black hull passing us about 50meters on starboard… got beamed again.! They definately saw us…. and bully us into giving way altho it would be nice of them, being the big boys to show a little class and alter course to pass behind us. Since they never did alter course, we did… We know not to expect better of them working vessels in Asia already.

We really love the rocks at Aur and Duyong. See, how pretty.

0630hrs, my watch again… we do like 2hrs on and 2hrs off. Seems to work pretty well. I got this sunrise shift, which is exactly what I wanted. Hoping to catch a glimpse of jumping fishes at the instant sunlight touches down on the water. That was a experience that I had last year and it was so natural and left me with a desire to see it again. I decided that when we are out to sea, I reserve all sunrise watches… I bully Doug into it anyway … Well, this time, I am not so lucky. No jumping fishes, but some consolation, the rising sun was really round. Most of the other sunrises or sunsets that I have seen, usually the sun is partially obscured by clouds.

and Aur waters are beautiful! As usual

0930hrs, off the SW corner of Aur. We are looking for anchoring spots and discovering other parts of Aur that we havent seen last year. See, we really like Aur… more than Tioman really, but its too rustic and we cant be very comfy staying around here. We miss A/C and fresh foods… no, we dun fish and we dun put jumping prawns into a pot of boiling water and cover up quick.

1 happy kayaker among rocks at Aur

1130hrs, everywhere around Aur are pretty rocks or sandy beaches. We pick up a mooring on the Duyong side this time, as it seems to be a busy weekend for the dive operators on the Aur side.

Now time to cook a little something for brunch, and then time to relax and catch up on sleep… Yes, the midday heat almost killed us.

1 laid back kayaker in the cool shade among rocks at Aur

1600hrs, time to crawl out of the cabin and go for a little exploration. Things are starting to cool down around here and there’s even a little sailing breeze if we are going anywhere.

We found this little inlet among the rocks at Duyong. This is so serene.

1800hrs, done with rock grocking. Very pleased with ourselves for having done that. Its like 1 thing off our list. On the paddle back to Calliste, I went around to the other 2 sailboats moored off the resort. Socializing… sun down happy hour. Everyone’s bound for Tioman in a day or two.

30Apr 0330hrs, we left the mooring. Nobody came up to collect for our mooring… guess we were lucky once again. One of the sailboats paid RM20.

It was a very dark night. The moon had set and other than a few little lights for the various boats in the channel, we could see nothing… and then there were some flashes in the sky and we could make out the edges of the islands. We relied on my trusty old GPS and our tracks to help us get out of the channel.

Reosrts at Tioman… yawn… havent we seen that before…

0400hrs, we are out of the lee of Duyong and I wondered if we should turn back. Seems to be heavy weather brewing out there. Doug thinks it wont be too severe and nothing that Calliste couldnt handle. Ya, I know, but… ok… prepare for a boisterous ride over to Tioman. Here we go… Choppy 2 -3 meters wave coming in from starboard. Wind against current… so we got a good boost from the current and even tho we are bashing into the waves, we make good speed. Overall 3+ knots, sometimes 4… until we crash into a biggie wave, then we drop down to 1+ knots and slowly build back up.

Leaving Doug to helm the most boisterous bit with his stronger stomach, I went down to get the 1st snooze… Lying flat in the cabin while Calliste is being knocked around… wasnt too bad for me. Nah, I wasnt feeling queasy at all… but standing up and bracing in the cabin for a few minutes, I start feeling my stomach turned upside down…

0600hrs, my watch now. Doug was so nice, he got me up when we entered the lee of Permangol island. We have shelter from the island for about 1hr as we travel north. Well, its my favorite sunrise watch again, but it probably would be dissapointing because of the weather… kinda sleep drunk and a little drudging it… but got to be fair eh…

Yep, here we are. Snug as a bug in a rug at Tioman marina

0800hrs, Tioman insight and the seas are a little less boisterous now. Looks like the storm blew itself out and we didnt get any rain that we thot we might… yes, I was right about the disappointing sunrise… off watch, head straight for the bunk.

1000hrs, finally up again… and now have some energy. Now we can gawk at Tioman and resorts as we pass them. The seas are not quite settled yet, residue from the storm.. but I am surprise, we still have the current going with us… interesting…

1300hrs, we arrived and tied up temporarily inside the marina. Now to take care of the paperwork and be formally cleared into Malaysia. 1600hrs, we moved into a more permanent slip. 1800hrs, off to a cold beer with the gang at Captain Kerks. Yes! We have arrived!

Passing by the beautiful Pulau Aur

We departed Tioman 0015hrs for a cool overnight passage back to Singapore via P.Aur. We didnt actually plan to visit Aur in this trip, but it was highly recommended that we do so… we hear such raving reports on how beautiful Aur is, we just have to see it for ourselves.

It was a very windless night, the seas were very calm… We couldnt sail in this condition, but we did have a current in our favor. Motoring at 1800rpm, we made an easy 4-5kns, we got there in just 8hrs.

Entering the slot between Aur(right) and Dayong(left)

0700hrs, daybreak on the S China sea, we are about 5nm to Aur. At the moment when the sun broke thru the clouds and horizon, there were a flurry of jumping fish activity all around us. These are big mackeral like fishes jumping all around on our port side. I did wonder if they were dolphins, but nah, we could see the shapes of the jumping fishes very clearly.. .. then I wondered if they do this morning exercise daily..? The feeling of being there amongst them and watching them is quite undescribeable.. it was AWESOME!

Fishes swimming by our boat...

0830hrs, entering the gap between Dayong and Lang and then Aur. The rocks on Dayong and Aur are really quite spectacular.. and the waters are unbelieveably clear! We start seeing the bottom very clearly at 20ft.

Limited charting of Aur.

The top island is Dayong, the big island is Aur and the little one left of Aur is Lang… There are 3 resorts in the gap between Dayong and Aur. Resort 1 is nearest tot the jetty, where ferries brings holiday makers from the mainland to Aur. Resort 2 is on P. Dayong, directly opposite Resort 1. Resort 3 is further into the gap. It doesnt show on the map, but depth in the middle of the gap is 25meters at least. It shallows quite rapidly nearer to shore, so we do really have to keep an eye on the depth sounder.

Sunset on Calliste at Aur

We dont have good charts of this area.. using our very basic Bluecharts, depth sounder and common sense, we manage to find a small patch of sand to anchor in among coral heads.. not a ideal situation for anchoring… really should have pickuped a mooring.. but lets wait and see how it goes.

Another pretty picture of Calliste at Aur

1000hrs, Doug needs a rest.. and I need to stretch my paddling arms.. am too excited in this beautiful anchorage to get any sleep. Launched Yakuni and out to play on my own… only a short 3 mins paddle to the shallow waters near the beach around the 3rd resort, next flow with the current down towards the 1st resort and gawk at all those beautiful rocks, marine life, beaches and coconut trees.

Oh wow, that was so fun. Now, whats over at the 2nd resort? Crossed the gap in just 10 mins, paddled up and then back down towards Calliste.. check out the restaurant and chalets… looks like quite a resort, but its Friday noon and nobody is around… all so quiet in all 3 resorts, a skeleton crew goes about preparing for the busy weekend.

Tiny snails on a rock

Looks like there are plenty of moorings around and available for us.. Can see the huge blocks and chains at the bottom, a reassuring sight.. yes, we really should move to a mooring. … saw a beige colored mooring ball with a haysack color thingy attached to .. just about 10meters from it… the mooring moved… ! and slowly glided away and into the water! What was that!!! ?? Was it a Dugong? … Oh WOW! That was so cool!!

Shallow waters near to the resorts on Aur

1300hrs, back to Calliste. Sun is getting too hot now, time for lunch anyway. We were just hanging out in back and having lunch.. a nice breezy day, feels alot less hot and stuffy than in Tioman.. I really do have many reasons to like Aur better.. really!

Sea cucumbers hanging out in the shallows of Aur..

.. something large is moving in the water .. about 20 meters on our starboard.. I point out to Doug… its like a dark shadow just under the water surface.. we watch and watch and… out pops a head! Its a TURTLE!! Then it dive away… no time for a pix… DRATS!! At least, this time, its a positive identification and we both saw it.. but I think the beigy thing that I saw earlier is different…

Looking out at resort 3 on Aur

 

1600hrs, we are pointing in a rather usual position… a sign that our anchor chain is fouled around some coral heads… time to shop around for a better anchoring spot.. Doug prefer anchoring to picking up a mooring… After 2hrs of moving up and down, left and right between the 3 resorts… no luck. So back to the same old place and this time, we are picking up a mooring. Always better to ask the locals for which is available for us… if you dont want to upset anybody. We were pointed to the new blue mooring near to the dive tank refill platform… we saw them putting it in earlier in the day… well, it’ll be fine. We are not expecting any bad blow in the next 24hrs… fingers crossed.

Postcard perfect picture!

Day 2 0830hrs, launched both kayaks. I kept talking about my solo expedition whole of the night, and I bugged Doug all night to go paddle with me the next day… .. I am sure he’ll enjoy it too.. 1st stop, short paddle to the rocks near the 3rd resort. Thats where the sea cumbers hangout.. and snails too.

Early morning daylight is great for postcard pictures! Look at the gentle blue sky, lush green palm trees, weathered grey rocks and shades of teal green waters.

Rocks on the left and rocks on the right...

Next stop, to the passage thru the rocks! I could hang out here all day!!

Currents run quite strongly between these islands, that makes the hydraulic actions very interesting among these rocks. Its undescribeable interesting to sit in a kayak and wait to see where the waters will bring you.

Thats Calliste! Shes so small among the rocks!

We had so much fun around the rocks! Seeing Calliste thru a pair of small rocks… and in 10secs of waiting… viola! A different view of Calliste … and the dive platform appears out of nowhere…. ! Optical illusions!

The crab are almost as big as Calliste!

Check out how big the crabs look! Oh wow!

Looks like Calliste is sitting unprotected from the NE… but for the time that we were there, it was not really too uncomfortable.. it surprised us.. really.

Alright, just 1 more picture of the beautiful waters of Aur…

Crystal clear emerald waters of Aur!

1600hrs, we left the mooring. We exited thru the narrow part of the gap, going for a circumnavigation of Dayong.. We see dive boats do that all the time, so we think we be fine… do as the locals… but follow the big boats, not the sampans…

Once out to the open, we started picking up a little wind, 2-10kns. Made it around Dayong to Lang in just 1hr. Alright, now for the long haul down to Singapore! Its gonna be a long night…

Day 3 and 4 around Tekek, Tioman

Day 3 0900, opps the day kinda started late and its almost too warm to start walking… it took abit more energy to get us started on the walking thing, but I am glad we did go.

Flight into Tioman

We are walking North towards the marine park, checking out the villages along the way. We were walking along the airstrip when the Berjaya flight into Tioman was coming in. Got this pretty good picture of the plane.. and then my trusty Nikon L20 died… sigh… we’ll count on Dougs’ L21 from now.

Map of tioman

Newly constructed waterfront walkway.. a sign of the village getting more touristy. Modern homes were being constructed and lots of sewerage systems and piping were laying around… not so rustic anymore eh..

Lots of trees line the waterfront. We try to walk under shade where we can. .. So we got to the marine park and its free entry and free to swim. Life jacket and snorkels are for rent but hanging out with the fishes is free. Okay we are coming back tomoro with our own gear.

Gina preparing for party on Supercat

Back to Calliste for lunch and nap. Its too hot for anything else. Snooze up and be ready for the next party at Supercat.

Day 3 1900hrs, we are on board supercat and were introduced to the 14 very fun Filipino employees of Berjaya Resort. The party has began! Once again, Phil and Gina, spoiling us with great food, drinks and entertainment. This was a Filipino themed Easter Monday night. The Berjaya crew had to work on Sunday, so party had to be on Monday… but hey, this is island life! Anyday can be party day!

Dawn at the marine park..

We retire to Calliste at about midnight… the party is still on, the band is still singing and the girls are still dancing… but we were pooped!

Day 4 0720hrs, we are out and on our way to the Marine park. This time, Doug is going snorkeling and I will be snacking and lazing around. Its only a 2km walk, which should take only 24mins at normal walking pace.

Snorkel and fins on

We were there at 0800. Its dawn at the marine park, the sun is behind the mountains and its nice and cool. The fishes are just waking up to welcome us. We like it that we have the whole place to ourselves.

That strange big fish in the aquarium

I am not a water person… really.. I try not to get wet… I am sure Doug will enjoy swimming in the aquarium… and I will enjoy watching the strange “big fish”..

Crabbie

So while I was there… check out the other creatures around here. A good looking crab with pinches still intact.

Oyster wall art

A wall of oysters! Look at the purple lip. .. its only at the edges of the shell.

After 1hr of soaking, I got Doug out.. before he gets too pruny… and yes yes, I had a earful of whats going on down below..

The day was still cool, so we walked over to Air Batang.. just over the hill from the Marine park. A short 10 min trail and viola, we’re there. A nice little resort and restaurant. Just looking around. A little more rustic than Tekek, a little more relaxed around here.

Sunsets are usually quite nice after warm days

1200hrs, we’re back on Calliste. Another flak out hot afternoon, save for some cooking for our small dinner party tonight.

17o0hrs, time for a little stroll around town. Visit captain Kirk and his table of beer downing friends. Ordered our booze. To be delivered on Thurs.. our last day in Tioman. ..

1900hrs, time for our private little dinner party on board Calliste. Our long time friends from Sebana, now here at Tioman. A simple Chinese home fare kinda meal. We have so much to catch up on. .. and so we yakyakyak.

<… continue… again later..>

6 solid days in Tioman

Day 1: Tying up to docks, asking around about moving into a better berth if possible, clearing in at the customs, immigrations and harbourmaster office. Getting a worthless dinner at one of the Chinese restaurants… There went a day.

Kayaking is fun amongst rocks!

Day 2 AM: Am determined to have a day of fun.. 1st thing this beautiful morning, we are going kayaking! .. and I am looking for clams … brought my tiny little plastic shovel, but alas no clams to be found on the 2 beaches north of the marina..

Sitting back, coasting along on a kayak

Oh well, just relax and enjoy the beatiful aquarium. .. I mean, sitting so low on the water that is so clear that the bottom can be seen, and the fishes that are just going about their business, this really feels like I am kayaking on a aquarium. I feel so connected to the sea and marine life. Of course, the next step is to join them with dive or snorkel gear… but count me out on that.. I really do prefer seeing from the top.

Lots of fishes in this aquarium

Kayaking around the pier at the marine park. Look at all these fishes. They just swim up to you.

Danger! Patch of sea urchins

And this black patch is ….. urchins! A whole colony of them. There are many patches around, so swimmers beware. I thought they must be worth a bunch… wonder why nobody harvest them..?

Urchins. Look at the dots!

I am surprised to see that they have iridescent white, blue and orange spots.. and they crawl! They clean (eat) the algae along the path, so you can even see their tracks.

Waters of Tioman

This is the water around Tetek. Its definately clean and clear. The bottom is whitish rock and sand, with good amount of daylight that penetrates the clear water, the result is a abstract beigey tint picture of the rocky bottom. There are 2 surfaces that are visual here, the water surface and the rocky bottom. I am fascinated by reflection and refraction effects of the water medium, which makes looking at the rocky bottom similar to looking thru a kelaidoscope.

Day 2 PM: Quite a number of Singapore Easter rally boats left… as usual. They are so predictable. This Good Friday – Easter rally kinda an yearly event that is organized by somebody at One15. Participants are always powerboats. They zoom over in like 10hrs on Friday, and then zoom back on Sunday.

Gathering of cruising boaters at Nona's

So anyway, they made it before us, so they took up all the places in the marina. Now that they are gone…. hee hee, we get to pick the spots. Its very tight manuvering in there, almost impossible to turn around without hitting somebody. Good old boy Doug did it and we got ourselves a berth..

We were then overcome by heat and fatique, simply collapsed into our warm bunks and snoozed. It was really terribly warm! We should have brought the aircon! We will! Next time!

Good thing it cools down quite abit as soon as the sun sets. Now we are ready for the partying! 1st stop, gathering at Nona’s. On the pontoon, there is just enuf space to set up a picnic table and bring your own stools. Finger food contribution welcomed, definately BYOB!

2nd party stop, the doctors’ birthday party on Eastwind II finger. It was late night pizzas, lots of cold beer and plenty of drinks. A real party!!! The doctor is in a most generous mood….

<… to be continued..>

Sailing to Tioman 2011

Its here, finally! A shake down testsail for Calliste and a dream vacation for Doug and me. This will be the 1st test of the new mast that was installed just last month… will it work? we hope so.

Sunrise off the East Coast of Singapore

Our intended departure was 21st Apr 2300hrs… yeah right! Why leave at almost midnight!? .. Dougs old sailors’ myth, its bad luck to leave port on Friday. .. so Thursday just before midnight it is, and thats stated on our port clearance.

Port side is where Yakuni is stowed.

Doug spent the whole week prepping for this trip, so that we could untie the lines and leave at the expected time… Yeah right! By the time we remove the aircon and some boxes of bulky not-gonna-use equipment, it was already 2300hrs and we were to exhausted to leave.

Stowing the un-named white Kayak on the starboard

Alright, so whats plan B? The weather is perfect for this trip on Fri and early part of Sat, but is expected to build and turn nasty on Sun. That means we leave Fri, or else we’ll have to wait till the system work itself out. … At least, on paper (port clearance), we left port on Thu… and you know what, its Good Friday! So its not going to be bad luck, I’m sure!… and I did manage to persuade Doug to go.. altho reluctly.. I was never a believer of that myth anyway.

Main sail and stay sail hoisted

0445hrs 22 Apr Good Friday, Calliste is underway, a short motoring to the Sisters Islands for Singapore immigration departure clearance…

0530hrs, nobody else is trying to get clearance at this .. er… ungodly hour… which is good for us, as we got immediate attention from them and the whole process was completed in 15mins.

Watch for bobbies and booby traps!

0600hrs, Calliste turn around the bottom corner of St Johns Island and bound beeline for Telok Rumunia, where we will have to navigate her carefully thru the North Rocks and then we can relax for the long straight northerly path to Tioman… altho we will still be on constant watch for fishing boats and traps.

Land HO! Tioman

1000hrs, past North Rocks in slack tide and very light wind. Ideal conditions for making around this treacherous stretch of rocks and reefs. As we expected, once we turn north, we went head on into the dominantly south flowing current, making only 4kns with engine running at 2400rpm. A very light NEasterly is filling in. .. Doug merrily raised full main and staysail, they went up alright! and gave us a precious 1/2 kn in our long crawl up to Tioman.

Opps, we are out of gas... luckily, we have a spare tank

1800hrs, we are offshore quite abit and dont see land no more… but from the GPS, we know that we are just passing Desaru on the Malaysian East Coast. Winds around here build in the afternoon and around this time it gets to be much more than we started. Double reefed main and staysail working very well in this condition and we would expect to leave them on thru the night, unless the wind falls off completely later.

Bread, bacon and tomato sandwich

0400hrs 23Apr, Land HO! Its still dark, but I can make out the tall hilly island. 0700hrs, approaching the marina, decided to have breakfast and washup before going in. .. opps, we are out of gas… but we have a spare.

Tiller dance by Doug

0830hrs, entering the marina. Tiller underfoot, Doug doing the tiller dance.

The marina is full! Lots of big power boaters from Singapore! Drats! They made it before us. Sure, they must have used zillion gallons of fuel to get there this fast! Ok, so we will stay at the incoming berth for the day and move to the inner berths when they leave the next day.

Calliste at the "incoming" berth.

Cruising tip: I dun like to cook within 24hrs after leaving port. This is the time that I need to acclimatise myself to the new environment and plus, we can get take out food and keep them edible for a day rather easily. Our 1st seaward meal was paper wrapped fried carrot cake for breakfast and the 2nd was paper wrapped fried kway teow. Paper wrapping is much better for keeping the original flavor of the food without adding the plastic taste to it. The thin PP sheet that line the paper keeps the oil in and is in itself tasteless, unlike the styrofoam which have a strong plastic taste. These foods were purchased on the evening of our intended departure, from Seah Im street hawker that is about 15mins walk from our berth. For this type of cooked food, I dont refrigerate them if I expect to eat them within 12hrs. It will be alright to just keep them cool, and reheat before eating. 

For meals between 12hrs to 24hrs, I like it prepared on the day of departure, while still in port. Usually, I cook a pot of rice, allow to cool and then put into tupperware and refrigerate. Tupperwares allow neat stacking and is the best way to use the very small refrigeration space in our little Engel.  Hard boiled eggs are very good “tide me overs”, we always cook 1/2 dozen and refrigerate. Also high on my list, pickled veggies, canned olives and tuna. Anything that doesnt need cooking and will add good flavor to my rice is good to have on board.

Bread, Spam and tomatoes makes a great sandwich that is easy to prepare. Hot choc, tea and coffee are must haves rations. Biscuits, chips and nuts for snacks… We find ourselves, that we really do eat quite well while sailing… that comes only with good provisioning and pre trip food prep makes life easy for the 1st 24hrs out there.

<… trip blog to be continued>

Mini tsunamis – a daily affair at Labrador park

Ferry wakes!

The power behind these waves flooded my little sit-on-top kayak when I was paddling off Labrador park.

Its coming in! Run if you can, take it bow on if you cant.

Was exploring the park on foot and decided to get a footage of these waves that swamped me. These are about 0.5m peak to bottom.

Starting to peak!

On that kayaking day, I had been stern to waves on the 1st hit, and bow to waves on the 2nd set of waves.

Mini surf

If I wasnt careful enuf to watch for them, I could have been side swiped by the waves and capsized!

Whooossshhhhhh!! Crashed...

Conclusions…  Must be prepared for the worst conditions when I kayak. Everything on my sit-on-top must float! 

Floating key fob

In the event of a capsize, I still can retrieve my paddle(floats), crocs(floats), camera(inside a water-tight tupperware and floats because there is air in it)… opps, my favorite hat wont float! Am going to make a float clip for it! Will really hate losing my hat by being careless! Already have a float for my keys

Plus, dont bring anything unneccessary. … like iPxxx. They sink and they die when wet! Let nature be your music. .. btw, I have 2 drowned phones! from previous kayaking days. Learned it the hard way!

So guys, have fun and dont lose anything!

Getting to know our new little island

We are really enjoying having our weekend home so close to us. Instead of driving 2.5hrs each way every weekend, we have now time and energy to get more use of our kayaks.

Enjoying the bloom at the Carribean

After a night rest on board Calliste, we woke up 1 morning and decided to go kayaking. We were out on the water in 30mins flat. It was that simple and quick! Do I hear envy oozing from my kayaking enthusiast readers… ? hee hee hee..

Stone steps built in the colonial days...?

We were thinking about checking out the Labrador park from the water… the replica “long ya men”, and the little mangrove creek that we have seen so many times from the other side of the Keppel island. …

Well maintained Colonial mansion...

I was taking a picture of these eerie looking steps, and just managed to put my little Nikon L20 away into a trusty Tupperware container when I got swamped by surfing waves from a passing ferry wake. Doug thought I was going to flip and roll, but I had better skills and balance than he gives me credit for. Hmmphh!

Entrance to the swampy creek

Oh well, so I had to bail and had to paddle feeling wet, but still I was going to paddle out and see the park. It was really choppy outside the marina breakwater but I was coping okay. Doug decided that the conditions were too boisterous for our level of preparedness and so we turn back into calmer waters. Time to check out the swampy little creek.

Just before entering the creek, there is this old mansion on the hill. I wonder whats the story on that old place… A old tyre marks the entrance to the creek. It shows how shallow it is at low tide, at high tide it would be covered.

Markings by the Keppel people

Quite interesting, Keppel actually sent out a team and mark this little waterway and labelled some of the mangrove plants. .. Wondering if they were planning to lead kayaking excursions ..?

As we were leaving the creek, huge breaking wakes were just coming in. Doug managed to clear the low water surf zone before it broke… and poor me got completely drenched again! Luckily my little camera was tucked away in the trusty little waterproof tupperware… was tempted to sneak a shot of the breaking waves. .. it was awesome! I could probably make it look like mini tsunami… Well, me on little Yakuni, we were hit by a tsunami! Could have rolled easily, but kept cool and balanced.

My handy old crocs. ... bailing yakuni

Thats me bailing again, in the aftermath…. Oh well, so we know, kayaking around here is a wet wet ride. .. but we are not going to let that stop us from going out. Next stop, Sentosa…

BTW, there is a excellent shower facility back at the clubhouse on Keppel island. Nothing beats the feeling of going out, getting drenched and then washing up in comfort and luxury. Now I begin to understand why people pay to go to a workout weekend retreat…

Paddling around our new Turf

Crawling out of the hole

Doug and I are going kayaking tonight, and packing our dinner too. We have been waiting all day for it to cool off enough to be a comfortable short paddle.

My little Nikon L20.

I was wondering if my little Nikon L20 would be up to mark on night photography. Seems it turn out okay, if the subject is close enuf for the flash. Its really quite difficult to take a night photo while swaying to the little wakes that we do get and doing long exposures. Some turn out okay, only by chance.

No flash for this pix. Long exposure is the only way.

Our new boat base at Keppel is really an island. A very unusual strut holds the bridge from the mainland to this tiny island that now looks bigger with the marina gangways. .. but its really a very small island.

Me! On the outside of the island

Going clockwise around Keppel island. 1st off, under the bridge. Once past under, it got quite choppy. Ferries, tug boats and pilot boats were still coming and going. No pictures for this leg up to the other side.

This picture is taken with a Canon A430. This one came out much better than the Nikon… for some strange reason…? I am bias, yes I am…  

Eating under a stone canopy

We went around the stone wall which held that big Marina sign, and found a calm spot for dinner. .. but the current was surprisingly strong.. so we drifted and eat, paddle back and eat some more, drifted again, paddle again, eat again… but it was nice for a change. Dinner on the water. .. Doug calls it a dinner cruise.. think we might be doing this more often…

Half done dinner.

My half eaten dinner. Holding with my knees, to take this pix, while I drifted..

Meal on the go. Good use for Tupperware!

 

What next? How about jumping over to Sentosa next weekend… on the kayaks, I mean.

Kayaking around Sebana

This is the year of many visitors for us at Sebana, and our newest visitor is Vanessa. Before you start thinking that Sebana is a fun place that people are flocking over to see this beautiful place.. ahem.. this place is nice, but my friends are here to visit with us, because we are fun and we do fun things.

Warming up her kayak paddling arms.

Vanessa and I travelled from SG on the last Friday night ferry from CFT to Belunkor where we met up with Doug and off to Sebana. Our plans start 1st thing at 6am on Sat. We are going to make a Cevichi! and so we need lots of stuff from the wet market. .. That is followed by breakfast, then lots of prep work to get the Cevichi going. The Cevichi making will be in the next post.

Upriver Santi.

With 3 of us working together on the Cevichi making, we managed to finish it quite quickly. By 1100, we were finish and it was time to go paddling. Vanessa has been dragon boating lately, and she runs all the time. I definately have alot of respect for her fitness… but I dunno how well she paddle a kayak. 1st, I set her on my little H/P Yakuni. Very easy to stroke, this kayak is always friendly to new paddlers. I followed on the white Cobra SOT, which was high volume and heavy. It wasnt half as fun as my little Yakuni at all.

Only a short 1hr paddle up river Santi. Okay, so she paddles. Now, we can be sure that she’ll will have no problem to make the trip to see the fireflies this evening. Yes, that the plan. Seems like fireflies trips is very popular around Desaru, so why not..

Paddling out at dusk.

We put Van on our fastest kayak, Doug on the Cobra SOT and I in Yakuni. Being on the shortest kayak, meaning possibly the slowest of the group, I set the pace. This arrangement proved to be the best for us, we all had fun because we were almost equally paced without too much effort.

Was it scary to kayak in a very dark night? Even tho we bought a flashlight, we hardly used it. The dark night was great for watching fireflies, they were so cute, little light bulbs on the mangrove trees. Being on a kayak, and since it was high tide, we could paddle up to the trees and touch those flies… Another thing about paddling on a very dark night was the phospherescense display in the water. We all had silver wake. Too bad pictures dont turn out, so you guys will have to come to experience it yourself…

A visiting friend and a day at Sebana

My Platial map, the red icon marks location of Kak Kak

Day started at 0400hrs on 20th Jun’09. Getting last minute stuff to bring to Sebana. Most stuff already loaded the night before, it wasnt that much anymore. Travelling with me today is Monique. Doug stayed the week at Sebana, working on the many projects that are on our list.

0500hrs, picked up Monique from her place. 0600hrs, customs cleared and arrived at our usual Kak Kaks’ for very good dimsum breakfast. It has finally dawned unto me how I could give better directions to these great eating places. Check out the Platial map link on the right. You can zoom in and out and pan around. Those little icons are added by me, marking some of the interesting places. But this link dont work well with old IE and may have problems with other browsers. I will try to add to the link with pictures of the food or place… I think Platial is great!

0800hrs, shopping at Tesco, Monique goes crazy with bargains on certain stationery. Not everything is worth buying over in JB. 0915, left Tesco and on route to Kota Tinggi.

Arrived Kips 1000hrs, ahead of schedule. Traffic wasnt bad. More shopping, got ingredients for Cevichi making. A red snapper RM$12.50, 0.5kg large prawns for RM$7, 0.5kg squids for RM$3. .. and 1kg cockles for RM$2. 1.5kg limes… we are gonna make alot of Cevichi.. Other ingredients, chilis, parsley, tomatoes, onions. ..

Lunch as usual at our fav Pork Rib Soup

1130hrs, stopped for lunch at our usual KT eating place. Doug and I are animals of habit. .. Always repeating a successful pattern and do become predictable.. Our friendly Bak Kut Teh lady recognizes us and knows our orders. All we need is to sit down, give her a wave and over she comes with the food.

1315hrs, arrived SebanaCove. A solid morning of eating, shopping and girls talk. We are pretty tired and needed comfort of cabin in Calliste.. Doug helped carry the stuff from the car while we rested.

1500hrs, started Cevichi prep. Doug on the fish and squids, me on the prawns (Monique peeled them!) , onions, garlics and limes (Monique squeezed half the batch!). 1700hrs, Cevichi making done. Sorry no pictures of the process cos we were so busy doing it. Camera felt neglected.. really. 

Monique looking steady after 15mins on HP/V Yakuni

1900hrs, dinner at Jade Garden. Very dissapointing. Waited 1/2hr for food to be served. Small lobsters and Gong Gongs are sold out. We didnt realize that it was Fathers’ day weekend! Food was not the usual standard. Back to Sebana 2200hrs, too tired for fireflys and kayaking. Postponed to the morning.

This was a perfect Sunday morning weather for beginner kayaking. Monique, a self proclaimed “disaster on water”, is wanting to try something adventurous. Introducing our brand new kayaker! <Tada>

0830hrs, after the initial drama of getting in without falling over and getting wet, and 1 major bump on Calliste, shes got the hang of it after a while. Now to hone those awkward strokes into more efficient propulsion is gonna take some time.. … <she is looking good in 2 pictures only, the rest were discarded to not embarass our beginner.. > .. Ha ha..

Enjoying the flat waters on a perfect Sunday morning paddle.

0915hrs, back onboard Calliste. Enjoyed a great breakfast of BLT and orange juice. 1000hrs, Monique checking out Facebook and games for the 1st time.

1300hrs, lunch at roadside satay shack. Given up on lobster due to the huge crowd at Jades’. 1420hrs, Monique left on the bumboat to Changi Village! Phew! Back to normal activity around Sebana for me and Doug..