Moving away

we move very strange objects around all the time

We are leaving Sebana! YES! After almost 4yrs of being there every weekend, I am tired of the driving at odd hours … but I will miss the flat waters, clean air, quiet environment and the good food in Sg Rengit…    

loading up our vessels

Rearranging our cargo: foam blocks to go on truck to Singapore.  Thats me paddling “ice bergs” over to the truck loading area at the container.  

Doug loading the tubes… Calliste new mast inside the protective white plastic tubes. We are very careful not to lose those precious extrusions.  

vagabond calliste.. poor girl..

Calliste the vagabond girl, making way towards her new berth at SAFYC Changi   

Tanjung Pengelih immigration office

Daybreak on 19th April 2010, Calliste and Eleanor checked out of Malaysia at the Tanjong Pengelih immigration office. The blue building houses the immigration office, port master office and is a ferry terminal for passengers going between Changi point and Pengelih.    

Singapore immigration at sea

Checking in on the Singapore side, we found the RED color bouy marked “South Angler”, called the ICA on channel 74. Hovered around for 5 mins, and here come our immi guys. This is interesting… my 1st try to clear inward immigration on the waters… just how do you pass the documents over?  

No worries, just put passport and 3 copies of crew list for entering Singapore into a zip lock bag. These guys approached Eleanor(with motor engaged forward in idling speed) slowly, with a crew standing at the bow, who will stretch out a net on a long pole towards you. Dropped my documents bag into the net, the captain goes hard on reverse to pull away. When the officer in the cabin is done with the stamping, the vessel will approach again, this time grab the document bag from the net and thats it. Strange… but okay. .. BTW, its free!    

Our transport company. 1 crane and 2 trucks.

The next phase of moving. We sold our container to the transport company.. it was going to be way expensive to truck the container into SG and then where will we house it? These guys were great! They made the moving possible, in the face of hostility from the crazy old man at Sebana.    

Our stuff loaded on truck going into Singapore

This 20tonne crane was for lifting the container onto the truck.   

This other truck is loaded with our stuff going to Singapore… can you see Eleanor’s trailer sticking out. .. and the “ice bergs”…   

giants at the container yard

Long story… but here we are, at the container yard for Winspec Logistics. I thought this picture is fun… Giant containers, big trucks and horribly mean looking container grabber. … Trio is a brave girl going into the land of giants… A little out of place, isnt she…   

Our own little truck...

Trio our little convertible truck… Bringing home our 1st load.     

2 shifts, Trio on overtime over the weekend...

2nd loading in process. Doug running a 12V saw powered by Trio! Atta girl!  

We’ll have to collect the trailer later with a tow truck… just a note, it is illegal in Singapore to tow any object without permit and permits are only given to licensed tow operators. … otherwise Trio will once again outdo herself in usefulness! wont she!?

New moon New year!

Moon rise over Sebana on New Year's Day!

Today marks the 1st yr anniversary of funvinyldecals blog… and so I feel the need to commemorate this by posting a good picture here.

To the new year! Cheers everybody.

Basic Sg Rengit navigation

I should have done this post long time ago… Only now realized how necessary it is, after a weekend visit from sister and friends.. There was no way they can find Jade Garden Restaurant! So here it is, a map! At last!

Town of Sungai Rengit

Sungai Rengit, located at the East Southern penisula of Johor, Malaysia. A town of many Chinese (.. yes there are towns of very few Chinese in MY), good Chinese food are available here.

If you are staying at Sebana and Desaru, this would be the place to find inexpensive good food..

Zoom in map of SG Rengit

Marked on this map, are my personal recommendations of food stops. The market is only opened 5am to 8am, take out breakfast is available here at unbeatable prices. RM$0.50 for a Nasi Lemak! ( only rice and chili ..)

CCF. short for Chee Chong Fun..

CCF stands for “Chee Chong Fun”. A lady runs this counter at the front of the coffeeshop. This lady makes the best CCF that I ever had. Fresh, made daily! Made to order. Usually sold out by noon. The noodles in this shop are pretty good too… but not the best..

Oh those squares! I always like a good Roti!

Our favorite Indian Roti man. Very nice roti, but curry is so-so only. .. but so cheap, cant complain lar.. Mornings only.

Workers’ lunch, Pork Rib soup.. usually sold out shortly after noon. We like sitting in this coffee shop. Very friendly people in here. Family atmosphere. Sorry, no picture… its standard fare..

Jade Garden, still our favorite dinner stop.

Jade garden… usually we do a dinner here when we have guests. Most reasonable prices for everything. Great seafood, not the best, but nice atmosphere, friendly management and the price is right. The black cross mark is the neighboring shop that was totally unfriendly and overcharged us! Blacklisted!

Fixing up an “abandoned” property at Sebana

Our electric connection at the container was deteriorating. Sometimes its just low current available, other times its totally out. Sebana has always been patch fixing it… that is never really fixing the root of the problem, which is a broken down underground cable. Finally, it totally gave up and Sebana’s management decided to not fix it anymore as the cost will be quite high.

Wire twisting setup out in the woods

Now, we really have a problem with that. We have installed a burglar alarm system on our container (due to the terrible breakin experience that we had, click on the Sebana tag to read the history), and it runs on power and battery. And now that Sebana cut back on its number of security guards, they do not patrol this area anymore. This situation is very threatening, such that we had to jump into a how do we fix it mode, rightaway.

1st, Doug check out the nearest electric outpost to the container… seems like a 200m overground line will do it for us. We really felt abandoned here, and so we decided to not even get permission to hook up to that source and just do it. So we did, get 7 coils of 100m 2.5mm single core, and couple of weather proof plugs. Here we are, improvising to do the job in the outback setting of “Doug’s and Lang’s workshop”.

Our twisted 3 core 100m coil. That was alot of work.

It took us a total of 2.5 days, 2 of us, to put it all together. Just twisting the coil took a full day, and then hacking thru the bushes to lay the wire, and climbing up trees for the overhead stretch.

Putting on the plugs at our scenic workshop.

We are not about to give up our scenic workshop space and move away..

Installing the wire

Doug trodding thru the jungle and laying out the wire overground. Our colorful coil is pretty much covered up by the thick bushy growth and not very visible..

Throwing a monkey fist.. what is that?

 

Doug up a ladder in a rather soft spot on the ground.. a delicate balancing act and attempting to accurate throw the fist into the V of the tree branch… and he got it on 1st try! Yippee!

We did try to make it harder for the desperate locals to snatch our wire… by looping it up on a tree across the dirt road. It would mean that if they wanted our wire so bad, they would have to bring a really tall ladder into the the outback just like we did.. but they would have to travel on a motobike with it. And theres the thing about how we installed it, that they would only get a small segment of the whole line before they will be discovered. Yes, we are paranoid and we are setup to avoid problems with the thieving locals. This is the outback, we protect ourselves and our assets, and we are our own security.

Mobile Hawkers

It is interesting how seeing something triggers a whole bunch of flashbacks in my mind. As a kid growing up in the 70s in SG, I remember those early morning market trips with Ah Ma to the wet market that was just 5mins walk from our place. In those days, little 3 wheeled Suzuki vans were still quite common and some were food counters, mostly unmarked because as early as that, SG had already banned street hawking. These mobile hawkers had to be ready to run at the 1st sighting of the enforcement officers. Ah Ma have no qualms about patronizing them, and I like seeing them around too. As a result of regulations and growing prosperity where people were in demand to work the production lines, street hawkers declined in numbers and finally disappeared from the Singapore streets.

Sungai Rengit wet market, 5am - 8am only

I have forgotten about them actually. With all that proporganda about hygiene and proper food preparation, I have also come to think of street food as unhealthy and probably very contaminated. .. a typical SG hippy youngster you might say.. … but actually I still do patronize street hawkers.. alot more than I realize or care to admit..

Whats that bluewagon? Its the Sg Rengit meat man.

Since berthing our boats in Sebana, we have been making our weekly trips into our neighbouring Malaysia, driving past JB, KT and into Sebana. In the early days, we would always bring our food or ingredients from home, which we buy from the supermarkets.  We had no desire to buy streetfood or buy anything from their supermarkets… and we didnt know about their wet markets.

The meat man. Nice chap and speaks good English.

Until much later, some yachting neighbours told us about the early morning market. Urh.. do we really want to wake up at 6 and make it there by 630? And many other ugly images of dead fish, poultry and livestock came to my mind… typically young SGrean disdain..

.. but.. during 1 of our extended week stay at Sebana, we were out of fresh food and we know that the local supermarkets’ selection for anything fresh is just undescribly dissappointing.. Guess we just have to give the wet market a try.

sorry if this picture disturbs you...

Yes.. all that stinky smells hit my sleepy mind and boing! Urg! Slimy wet floors with fishscales floating around, fish guts everywhere! Groteques! .. but if you overlook that, you might find the freshess shrimps, squids and fishes around. Chicken, delivered to the market dead and featherless, are being chopped up.

Nobody sells beef around here.. and where do you buy pork? … From the man with the blue wagon! Never! … It took yet another few months and a craving for pork to make me yield to buying meat from a van… Cultural shock! and yes, we SGrean will succumb to anything for a good meal.

Honda bike with sidecar selling breakfast.

Yes, indeed. The porkmans pork were very good cuts and very fresh. Reasonably priced too. 1/3 the price from Fairprice in SG and no foam packaging that is so ungreen..

Sometimes we drive thru JB a little later.. like 0630hrs .. We get to see the morning come alive with people crawling out of their little holes to go marketing at the very popular wet market in Tebrau City. We have been there too early at 0530hrs and only afew hawker stalls were open for business and plenty of rats were scrimpering around unwashed cement flooring littered with all sorts of garbage. A really disturbing sight. Rat city, Doug calls it. But the Roti was good.. and I didnt get poisoning.. .. nah, I dont think I will go back there.

Deep fried flour that we call "You Tiao"

But there is alot at Rat City .. and I dont mind getting something from those mobile street vendors. At least they are outdoors and their stainless cooktop stalls look much cleaner.. and no rats running around their feet. In MY, street hawking is not illegal and these hawkers are possibly licensed to operate as they do, in vans, motorbikes, bicycles or makeshift cooktops. We did enjoy the cheap and good “You Tiao”… will try the carrot cake on our next visit.. ..

I am hoping to find those corn hawkers.. I have a special fondness of that old corn taste that I had as a little kid. It was a kind of corn that was more flavorful and not sweet.. more chewy .. and each kernel was a little harder… that was 1 of my favorite snack… if anyone knows where I can find that, do let me know!

Riding on the Belungkor – Changi Ferry service.

We have been getting some problems with the ferry service between Sebana and Tanah Merah (SG). There had been a number of breakdowns, unpredictable schedule and nobody knows if there will be a ferry service or not at the scheduled time. We were told to turn up at the ferry counter, and if there is a ferry, you get on. If there is none you, come again and hope the next one is coming! That is so crap!

The other ferry.. Batura Express

Sebana’s reception desk recommend us to use the Belungkor ferry for now. They too are having problems dealing with the current ferry operator. So what choice have I got, but to try yet another way of travelling between Seabana and home.. 

Passengers on top deck..

The Belungkor – Changi Ferry Terminal ferry service has been in operations for at least 2 decades. It caters mainly to tourist from SG to Desaru. This ferry has seen many golf bags and bicycles. Last ferry on Sunday leaves at 1900 and we must check in at least 1/2 hr before departure. Sebana to Belungkor is a good 30 mins drive away and would have cost RM30 in cab fares, so we wouldnt be too keen on it if didnt drive ourselves. I had only 1hr to adjust to this change of plans and we made it just in time.

Eagle flying..

RM66 for a return trip, all tax included. That is cheaper than RM110 for the Sebana-TMFT (1 big point) and it has a good running reputation (another big point), but it lands at Changi Ferry Terminal which has no bus service and no waiting cabs (-1 big point).. that was the reason we didnt use this ferry before, but I guess we have to try it now..

Sunset was happening at the time of departure.. got a nice picture of an sea eagle flying.. and the other black spots on the left are little birds. 

The cruise ship Megastar Tauraus

Megastar Tauraus! I’ve been on that cruise ship. Dont quite remember when that was.. long time ago.. Now berth at Belungkor and taking guest on weekend cruises to nowhere.. it seems.

Getting from CFT to home is a chore.. I took a cab, and switched to a bus this time.. but I am going to discover how to do a bus journey on my way back.

On your mark!

… <snip> 5 workding days went by .. <snip> Time for returning to Sebana. Here I am, trying to make the 2015hrs ferry, and that took some doings.

My day started at 0600, in office by 0700 so that I can be off early at 1600. Got home, pack stuff and out of the house by 1730. Lucky me that the buses are working on time today. Bus 53 came along soon as I reached the bus stop. That was nice.. but I alighted 1 stop after the Pasir Ris MRT and had to walk back towards White Sands mall to get bus 89.. oh well, since I was there, I got myself a dinner. This place is really quite different from the last time I was there. Alot of new businesses and alot more vibrant now..

A beautiful park with many tall trees.

Good thing that bus 89 was a quick one and I alighted at Airline road 1840. This was the nearest busstop to CFT… which is still 1.8km away… and I am going to make the best out of this walk.

Starting my walk at the 1800m mark.. wondering what is it going to be at the end. Carrying with my a loaded up backpack, a heavy laptop case and some food for the weekend, I walk down the lonely path of Changi beach. Its pretty nice actually.. except that I had to walk fast because the mozzies are after me. Should have applied on the bug repellent before leaving home.

A glimpse of CFT from the beach.

Midway into my walk, I stopped and rest my tired laptop carrying arm. Its getting dark, so the picture of CFT across the bay doesnt come up well.

I have arrived! .. at the last marker.

See! It was dark when I finally get to the last marker.. 1910. So it was 3300m – 1800m, oh only 1.5km afterall.. but I still had to walk across the car park and into CFT. Anyway, happy that I made it in time for check in.. and really, it wasnt so bad… only if I had the bug spray on. 3 bites on my ankles!

Would I do this again..? yes, probably. .. but I really like doing the sebana ferry bettter. Using this ferry service, means that Doug would have to drive me over and fetch me back. A waste of fuel for Trio and time for him… maybe S$20 savings is worth it huh?

Collection of photos around Sebana

Well, I was planning to clean the insides of Eleanor this AM, but we were hit by a Sumatra which makes cleaning a little more tedious. Stuck indoors onboard Calliste, and just letting the RC run itself for the next 30mins..

Pretty shells, but nobody home.

Looking thru my collection of photos.. thot I might share some of the sights around here.

Starting with my walk on the beach at low tide in Sungai Rengit. I confess. I was looking for a clamming beach.. This is a muddy sand beach and it stinks. Littered with garbage at the high tide mark, and with vacant shells at the low tide flats.

stinky, sucking, sinking mud ..

I guess this beach would be interesting if you were a collector and not a clammer… the oysters harvesters were having a field day out. There is a bed of small oysters all over the lowest tide zones that are only exposed once a month. I tried to go a little closer to them, but I wasnt prepared to get really dirty, muddy and stinky… Notice how the muddy cracks around my feet? They were sinking slowly, and if I stood long enough it will suck me right in! Yucks!

Home robber!

Back to firmer ground on the low tide mark. There were some live snails.. but not my fav Gong gong. Most of the pretty shells were taken over by hermits. Hermit are everywhere on this beach…

Mobile home moving.

These littles things remind me of the bankers foreclosing on the home owners who have fallen on hard times. And they are always on the lookout for bigger and prettier shells to move into. If you love watching hermits fight, there is plenty of action right here. Venue: downtown Sungai Rengit beach. Time: low tides only. Admission free, squatting room only, unless you like to go back with a muddy bottom. 

No swimming, this pool is seriously off limits

Back to Sebana. Whats new around here? Once a year, we are visited by a squadron of cuttlefishes. They are always a welcomed sight. They sorta look like slow moving light bulbs and very colorful. Mostly bluish… yes, they are poisonous. Try not to go swimming with them around.

Green nuts. Great drink.. but.. doug woulnt crack one for me.

Another regular sight, coconut clearing around Sebana compound. Here is 1 pile of the clearing. There are at least 3 piles of them waiting to be collected.

What is Doug doing in the bush?

We dont usually drive into the wilderness on Sebana, but this week we needed to check out the power supply box . Power at the hardstand/dry storage is giving us some problems.

This is a fun picture.. is Doug peeing in the bush…

The revelation!

Hee hee hee… well, no.. The truth is not so fun.. Doug is just setting up for the power testing. Using our heaviest load, the 3HP air compressor to test the current directly from the power box. Trio, is really a tool wagon around here. Poor girl.

Dark clouds right

And finally, the Sumatra! Wikipedia has a very good description of the Sumatra phenomenon, go look it up.

Quite interesting really. I was actually enjoying the strong cool winds blowing through this morning, standing on Eleanors deck and soaking in the atmosphere of impending rain, dreaming about the time when I was sailing in a condition similar to this. Cant believe that I think it might be fun going out right then…

New crew onboard S/V Eleanor

Looking fresh and ready for the day

Who would’ve thought, these 2 gals, names witheld as they requested… finally made it to Sebana. This day trip took almost 2 months to materialize. ..

0930, collected the girls from the customs building. Zee had starting snapping away on her camera, anything that caught her fancy was “shot”. Walking towards Calliste took forever, as the girls posed and snap away.

Having some of that great stuff

Sebana marina is really quite pretty at 1st sight. After the initial oohs and aahhs, we are off to late breakfast/early lunch at the “Chee chong fun” lady at Sungai Rengit.

 

Getting Eleanor ready to sail.

1200, it was a beautiful day to sail, the wind was a gentle 5-10kns. Ideal conditions for taking out new crew. Although it wasnt in the plans, the girls could resist giving it a go.

1st time on the Jib halyard.. kinda weird look on her face..

Putting the girls to work. Raise the JIB! And up went the JIB.

Up goes the Jib

As I normally do, we left berth on the jib only. Raise main when we are in the open.

After another small stuggle with raising the main, the girls take a break.

Taking a break, C posing.

A few easy tacks in the open to get them used to Eleanor’s motion and up to speed on their jobs as jib crew.

Reluctant mariners ...

No short of picture snapping opportunities here. Its great having photo maniacs visiting, almost all photos in this post are from Zee’s camera.

Nice picture of me sailing.

And thanks to her, I have a great picture of myself sailing.

Thats us sailing.

Doug snapped afew of us sailing by. No wake, we are moving very slowly. Wind was very flukey. Surprising change in directions and speed.

Putting Eleanor away.

1400, as commented by my crew, the not so fun part about sailing is putting the boat away. Its alot of work going out and coming in, but I think our new crews enjoyed the experience. .. thats just what I do, it gives me great satisfaction to take my friends out on Eleanor. They are worth it.

Walking in the gardens around Sebana

1500hrs, I had been wanting to walk and take some photos of flowers that I have seen from afar while sailing. Somebody’s got a really good thing going with Orchids.

1600hrs, we have time before dinner. Decided to go check out Desaru.

One of the many rocky beaches at DesaruIt was a beautiful day at Sebana.

1745, dinner at Good Luck restaurant. Our regular Jade Garden is hosting a wedding dinner banquet, not available. Just as well, discovered that Cereal Prawns and deep fried baby Squids were better at Good Luck. Other dishes like sweet n sour pork bits and tofu were not worth mentioning. ..

It was a beautiful day at Sebana.

1900hrs, back at marina, in time for sunset. A full days’ activity. All exhausted.

2000hrs, check in and waiting for ferry. More catching up on chit chat.. seems like a whole day of chatting is not enough :O .. imagine that.

2100hrs, girls departed on last ferry back to SG.

2200hrs, me knocked out cold… zzzZZ

Riding on the Sebana ferry

I use to travel on the bumboats plying Changi Village and Pengerang, on route to Sebana. Doing that route is somewhat incovenient, but way cheaper. Last weekend, I got into a argument with the guys that was running the setup. I was there at Pengerang terminal at 3pm, and I waited and waited for my turn onto the bumboat. Some people who came later than me got their seats before I did, and I was literally “bummed”. Finally, at 445pm, I was able to get my bumboat ride but it was the last 2 bumboats of the day. The captain of that bumboat smugly announced that his new fare is S$10(RM24), instead of the usual RM15/16. I was furious.

Then I realize that all the passengers in the last 2 boats were Singaporeans. Why is that? So that the captains can extort money from Singaporeans needing to go back!? I flatly refused to pay that new price as a matter of principle… that means I dont get to go on that ride. Fine, I go take the Sebana ferry and paid 2.5x the bumboat price! I have a problem with bad business practice and I will not go along with it! Even if its just $1, its still extortion!

Open upper deck. Looks like its pretty new. Airy and good view.

My return trip to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (Singapore) was at 910pm. Late and dark on a lousy old ferry with a Taiwan series going on Channel 8. That was okay. .. sigh S$48 or RM110 for round trip. That really cost alot more, but the timing is better for me and I get to buy duty free on the ride back to Sebana. So the duty free savings may just totally cover it..

Air-conditioned lower deck. Flat screen TV, better seats.

I wasnt expecting it, but my return to Sebana ferry ride was superb! Its pretty new, and I like the open deck very much! Look at my “travelling companions” .. … and .. haha, I was the last passenger on board. Alright, there were only 2 of us on this Friday morning ride. She takes the lower and I keep the upper all to myself! Yippee! All that space was great! I could go left and right without incovenience to anybody… and so I did! I took plenty of pictures of ships today. Its just fascinating, those ships!

The shipping that defines Singapore

Speeding ahead! Our men who stop swimmers across the straits, smuggling and bad boys on SG waters.

If not for the shipping trade, there wont be a city founded on the tiny island at the tip of the Malay Peninsular. Look at the number of ships hanging out within Singapore port limit! And our brave men on this Police Coast Guard vessel.

Closeup on a empty cargo ship serviced by a smaller working ship.

Another view of that cargo ship.

And below is a ship that I totally think is so weird looking… and its bright ORANGE .. .. like it wants to be noticed..

Maybe there is a reason for this split..

Any guess what this box like thing is? ..

Big ship for transporting cars and trucks all over the world.

Its a carpark on the seas! See the ramp on the stern? That how cars are loaded and unloaded. They are simply driven in and out.. Its a ugly looking thing.. practical, but eyesore.

Wish this picture was clearer..

 

Coming up next, a cute little thing (cute is relative to its surroundings)… a tugboat! The Tug boat. Unsung hero of Singapore “literal” expansion of land mass. 

The Tug boat..

And the scene at the land reclaimation site. Men and machines that make it happen. .. Women are more reluctant to hurt Mother Nature, I think…

Growing island. .. The things man do to Mother nature.

 

Ha ha... Hmm...

After 30mins of gawking at “men at work”.. and those great hulks of the sea.. we enter the peaceful flat waters of the Santi river. Things get abit slow around here..

There is no one around … alright, I’ll take my own picture.. like so many people do with their phones these days.. .. after many photos and 1 that turn out ok.. that I realize we have passed the fishfarm restaurants .. oops that would have been a nice picture to end this tripblog.. And oh yes, a picture of us arriving at Sebana would be great too.. Maybe Doug have one on file…

Oh well.. thats it folks.. til next time.

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..