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!

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>

Keppel to Marina Yacht services @ Raffles Marina

After 6 years of hard work and preparation, Calliste is finally ready to have her new mast installed. Why so long? Well, Doug had to do alot of research and then design the bits and pieces, and we had a life too! If we ever build a mast again, it will surely be better and alot faster… … but thats not in our plans. We are not becoming mast builders for a career. We are going cruising!

Our intended route. Keppel to Raffles Marina

BTW, going anywhere within Singapore waters, we must travel with a AIS or harts transponder. If we do not have one, we must rent one. The MPA places a couple of them harts thingy with the marina. Reservations are sometimes necessary. Charges are $60 for a 3 day block and $15 for every subsequent day + $10 fee by the marina.

The TSS, our route and our tracks..

0600hrs, Calliste left her berth at Keppel. Moving against the current at 2-3kns this beautiful morning weather. 0630hrs, just outside Keppel is some land reclaimation works. We didnt know that we had to navigate around it… okay, so we got chased out by the safety boat. Now, we are in a Traffic separation zone and technically we should go with the arrow… but it wasnt appealing to us to travel in this narrow channel between the land reclaimation and the Cyrene reefs. … anyway, we decided to pass with the reefs on our starboard and keep close to it as we are sharing this also very narrow passage with huge tankers. .. we are like bicycles sneaking on the road shoulder with buses coming at us .. get the picture.. ? But with our rented Harts on board, they can “see” us, on the radar that is.. even if they dont actually see us.

The unseen side of Singapore

I like the Garmin GPS and Bluecharts combo. Here, I am showing screenshots from Bluecharts, our intended route(pink line), our tracks(red dots), the land works, big ships coming into port(blue arrows) and the TSS(pink arrows). Now, big ships are every where, I just didnt draw all of them.

0800hrs, breakfast of hard boiled eggs while basking in the cool morning sunlight.

I would love to make those BIG decals...

0900hrs, coming up upon the sultan shoal. Look at all those smoking pipes! We never saw those on postcards or on TV, but yet that is Singapore too. If you think that SG is all HDB flats, condos, shopping malls and big commerce buildings, you are so wrong.

The very long and boring stone wall at Tuas

1000hrs update. There is a good wind blowing and we are kinda like moving against some currents. Doug is wanting to go with “one foot on the shore”, deviating from my route again. … and from where we are, it looks like we have lots have water space and a “short cut” over to Raffles. .. well, so I conceded to turn in earlier that I planned… against my better judgement.

1030hrs. Opps! Turning in early was a mistake. We really have to go around the reclaimed stonewall bend. Alright, turning out. Ya know, I am the captain and I planned the route with my knowledge of Singapore waters, why did I let my crew(the boat owner) talk me into this dead end. Well, but its really no big deal. Just a 20 mins detour.

One of the nicest work boat that I have seen. Clean and well equipped with lots of lift raft everywhere.

1100hrs. Leaving Doug on the helm. Motoring along a very long and boring old stonewall is putting me to sleep… going down for a little snooze…

1200hrs. Up and feeling refreshed.. now where were we..? Just passing the last of the stone wall and getting to the original Tuas area. .. Actually, almost all Tuas land is reclaimed, so there is really no original Tuas. Slowing down to almost idling speed now. .. we are approaching Raffles much earlier than anticipated. We really dont want to show up when the yard workers are having lunch. The waters are so flat calm and with the autopilot on the helm, its a pleasure for me and Doug to sit up at the foredeck and just enjoy the very smooth ride.

1300hrs. Pulling into the slip at Marina Yachts services. Thats it for the journey. Up next, the works.

Moving “foreign yachts” around Singapore waters

Truthfully, I had a hard time deciding on the subject of this post… which would be better? “Moving foreign yachts around Singapore waters” or “Sailing Calliste in busy Singapore waters” or “Navigating a small vessel amongst the giants in busy Singapore waters”?  

I hope this info is helpful to foreign visiting yachts to Singapore and maybe of some use to the local sailors and at the same time, be a fun blog to read… afterall, I did have a fun day out.

26/06/2010, 0700hrs: We arrive at SAFYC Changi with food and water for a day sailing trip, eager and in good spirits. Calliste has been sitting in SAFYC for a little over 2 months now, Doug expect prop to be fouled. A dive, to clean the prop is top on our list. There is still a sheen of oil on the water, so my job is to try to clear the area around Doug as best as I can with Simple Green and water hose. Despite my best efforts, Doug is still abit oily.

Like I mention in the last post, Calliste has something similar to ”milky lips”, except that its really “oily lips”… just from sitting 2 days in water with the oily sheen water.

1130hrs: It took me longer than I expected to sort out the money matters with the YC. I would like to leave at 1000hrs… but it takes what it takes… BTW, in Singapore waters, I am the captain of foreign registered yacht Calliste. I have the PPCDL (MPA license for boating in Singapore), therefore was able to purchase the MPA required 3rd party insurance for Calliste, on the condition that on any trip, I must captain the boat with at least 1 competant crew (vessel owner Doug).

This is a escape pod? So cute!

1145hrs: Calliste left her berth nice and slowly without any drama…

1200hrs: We were underway, just outside the walls of SAFYC. I, as captain of the vessel and as required of me, made a phone call to the Marine Safety Department of MPA to inform them of Callistes’ intended passage and route. I was shocked, but had to turn back. Permit to make this trip was not granted! Because we hadnot followed the proper procedures to get the cruising permit 3 days in advance! :O . Totally shocked that we may not make this passage when the weather and conditions were fabulous, but simply due to the technicality.

Ohhh... I want 1 of these... ... can I can I can I?

1230hrs: Calliste back at SAFYC, tied to fuel dock. Captain Lang sat for the test for master of foreign vessels in order to obtain the permit… Fortunately I had enuf local knowledge and common sense enuf to pass. Trust me, the test wasnt that simple.. and that was just the 1st hoop.

1330hrs: Captain Lang took the public transport, rushed over to Keppel Marina to rent 1 a Harts transponder …(because the one at SAFYC was not working!).

1600hrs: Captain Lang back at SAFYC, and promptly got underway again. Fortunately for us, the great boating weather stayed with us for the whole trip… but the current was not so good for us… we missed the “free ride” … sigh… and it was all seriously choppy all the way until we make the turn past the Southern Islands..

Eerie looking ship.. and its BIG!

Although we were pretty shaken up by last minute “bureaucratic” events, and the violent tossing, I still am in pretty good spirits to enjoy the trip… and the sights… I dunno about you guys, but I always did enjoy moving small vessels around the super giants… It dont scare me… … and did I hear on the VHF ” little boat little boat, this is MV something… are you crossing my path?”… VHF comms are sometimes very muffled and I have no idea if we are the little boat that should respond to that call…. well, but I did slow down and alter course 10deg port to allow the container ship to pass ahead of me… hmm… did it really think I didnt see him coming…? Or did the captain think that I am going to insist on my right of way and cut infront of him… hmm…? Oh come on, get real…

Hey look, this is an interesting one. See the cute escape pod?

And look, lighting make this ship look huge, dark and forebodding. Like something out of a nightmare…

Riptides. See the water going 1 way and another?

1800hrs: We made the starboard turn into the channel between the southern islands and sister’s islands. At this point, the currents changed and now in our favour. The chops ceased immediately, but then we got into the rip tides. This is an area of very fast cross currents. Sometimes we make 7ks(mostly), sometimes 4kns.

The helicopter flypast. National Day Parade review from the sea.

On hindsight… maybe God altered my trip in his strange, but kindly meant ways… being there between those islands at the time we were was simply a treat! We had a fabulous sunset, a learning experience of boat handling in  riptides, beautiful view of the islands and plus the display of helicopters flying in formation for the National Day Parade rehearsal.

Flypast over the Sisters.

Oh, did I mention the moonrise? 1 minute it was sunset, then turning my face about, there was the moonrise! This is just spectacular!

Sun setting over Jurong. Ships anchored near Jurong Island

1900hrs: Passing Sentosa. Its getting a little dark. Time to turn on the lights..

Called Keppel on the VHF channel 77. They will assist us in finding the way into our new berth… BTW, it was quite difficult navigating thru the unknown waters leading into the marina. We almost ran aground at Labrador Park. Definately advise all helmsman to go very slowly around the area at night. The many lights around that area are definately a great distraction for boaters. The red/green leading lights into the marina were small and difficult to find among the numerous lights all over the place. 

It was just getting dark, enuf to see the rising moon.

2000hrs: We are in. Slowly we crawl into our slip. The dock staff were great. They knew how to tie up a boat and receive new visitors, well prepared and well educated on our needs… we got a goodie bag and were hook up to the utilities in no time. Aaaarrrrr, time for a hot shower at their very fancy new facilities… and then back to the aircon cabin for the night… The pleasures of what money can buy…