What a weekend.
Saturday we went sailing again, we visited Singapore Sea Sport club in the morning for enquires about sailing course, seems like we had to postpone the course because we won’t be free on the schedule given.
Saturday wind looked good, but the sun was biting our skin, apparently the temperature was 42 Celsius degree, I don’t remember I had ever been alive in that temperature, I thought once it passes forty, I’ll be extinct. But I survived, in fact, that day we exposed to the sun more than ever. Result, roasted meat.
Our destination was to go Pulau Ketam and back. We had a fun starting journey, but half way, the wind was dead, we were hovering near Pulau Ubin, we could wave to Changi-Pulau Ubin ferry which passed by frequently, sometimes it sent a small tsunami to our boat, small, tiny. We attempted to land on Ubin few times but didn’t manage to do it because of sticks placed around the beach, I think the purpose is indeed to avoid unauthorized landing by hungry sailors and their passengers.
Yes, indeed we had a lot of time to kill, what made us anxious was the urge to eat the bacang. This time I brought double portion, but because I woke up too early, I miscalculated, I should have bought double for four of us, but in my morning math:
2 X 4 = 6.
When there was a slight wind, we sailed to nearby buoy and intended to tie our boat to the buoy, but the current was too strong that our boat kept drifting apart. So we moved to outside boat traffic area and tie two boats together while having our foods.
After a frequent accident, purpose or un-purpose falling to the sea, we decided to go to Frog Island, the wind had picked up because there were huge storm cloud hanging on our head. The water was great that day; it was green instead of dark brown because of high tide, the beaches looked clearer. One tiny fish decided to swim to girls boat and I had to spend few minutes trying to scoop him out. It’s girl boat, so it’s HE.
When we reached Frog Island, instead of fishing boat, this time we had accompany of an old tugboat. One of the boat crew was busy putting down a ladder. What a tedious effort, why don’ they just jump to the sea. It looks more dangerous to use the ladder, we commented.
How not, the ladder looked very fragile, one end clung to the front of the tug boat, and the other stood on the sand about 45 degree, while the boat was about 1,2 maybe 1,5 meter high.
We circled the boat and saw another guy.
What a nerd, we thought. He was wearing a neat white long sleeve top and looked like he was ready for high management meeting.
Then we knew why.
We saw a bride coming out from the boat with wedding gown, huge and floppy and flowery wedding gown.
It’s an outdoor wedding photoshoot. Oooo.
We landed our boat side by side and watched the couple like a bunch of primitive natives while eating our bacang. The girl climbed the ladder with every effort. Good work!
If it were me, I would land face first in the water while my feet entangled in the ladder, that’s my husband comment.
They then posed around, while trying to ignore us and never used us as background. We were tempted to run behind them and squat, but then we decided to relax on the beach, half dipped in the water and played whale.
After we finished every logistic, we started to sail back, not far from Frog Island, we stuck for a while. The scenery around was beautiful. I regretted that I didn’t bring my camera. There were few big rocks popping out from the sea and full of seagulls, the reddish sand of Frog Island provided a great contrast with the jade water. It looked like lake, but nice one, Singapore water never looked this beautiful.
In front of the background, the guys sat with those sad, sun burnt and refugee’s face provided a good photo opportunity as ‘boat people’.
The wind picked up quite fast, and soon it became strong and exciting ride to the shore. We won the unofficial race. : )
When we reached the shore, two rainbow came out in the sky. We had never, in our five years here, or my friend along his life, seen rainbow in Singapore. It’s indeed beautiful day.
It would be a more enjoyable day if not for bad news back from home. There was burglars in the house, daytime, when family was out of the house. Lucky, nobody was hurt except some material lost. It scared the crap out of me, I was worried and pissed off because I couldn’t do anything and I wasn’t even at home to talk and got the clear news. So we rushed back to our house.
Jakarta, Jakarta, no matter how much I want to be back, this incident put the idea off to the back of my mind and throw it somewhere in my digestive system.
Now I can only cross my finger and hope everything is going to be all right.
Sunday, we walked a quarter of Singapore, just for fun. The not so fun thing was the hot sun, it was thirty-five degree, sound acceptable compared to a day before.
2007 is going to be the hottest year!
It’s been a week since Adam Air has gone missing. I couldn’t imagine the feeling of the family waiting for news of their loved ones. I hope there will be some miracles. I still believe in them.
