Snow City birthday. And Pink Dolphins!

Another birthday for our granddaughter aboard the boat named after her.  Elisabeth, a/k/a BeBe, celebrated her 9th birthday aboard S/V BeBe on August 12, 2010.  She is beginning to think this should be an annual event.  She celebrated her 6th birthday with us in Bonaire; she celebrated her 8th birthday with us in Cairns, Australia; and now her 9th with us in Singapore.  And she has all intentions of celebrating her 10th birthday with us next summer in Greece.  I baked a chocolate cake with plain white frosting (as per her request).  I don't have food coloring so I tinted the frosting with grape jelly to write "Happy 9th Birthday Elisabeth" on it in a very girlie pink.

We went to Snow City to celebrate -- again, as per her request.  Bill refused to go back into that cold; so it was just Elisabeth, Zachary, Aaron and me freezing in the19F temperature.  We paid for 1 hour and managed to stay inside there almost the full allotted time.  Aaron and I made a deal with the kids -- we would slide down the hill only one time and then we were leaving.  BeBe and Zach trudged up the hill and slid down many times, but Aaron and I stuck to our guns and we did it only once and then high-tailed it out of there.  Our noses were freezing!!!  The parkas provided by Snow City were quite warm; and I rented heavy gloves for the kids so they could throw the snow; but our noses were freezing.  You slide down the hill on packed snow while sitting/laying atop a small inner tube.  The tubes work great except that your butt is dragging in the icy snow at least half-way down that 100-ft hill.  It was cold!!  The heat and humidity of outdoor Singapore felt wonderful after being in that cold chamber for an hour.

I spent almost all day Friday doing laundry.  During the afternoon Bill and Aaron took the kids to the swimming pool for several hours.  The pool at this marina is very nice.  It is especially nice because it is shaded by adjacent tall buildings during the afternoon.  A great place to spend a hot afternoon.

Saturday we took the local small shuttle bus to the Beach Station; then the Blue Line bus to Siloso Point.  One Degree 15 Marina is located on Sentosa Island of Singapore, and there are tons of tourist attractions and things to do on Sentosa Island.  The marina is situated on the eastern tip of the island.  On the western tip of the island is Fort Siloso, which dates back to the 1800s and played an important part during WWII with the Japanese occupation of Singapore.  Aaron wanted to see the fort.  However, when we stepped off the bus it was lunch time and also was beginning to rain.  So we switched plans and went into Underwater World, which was located right at the entrance to the path to the fort.  Seemed a much better idea to stay inside rather than walk around a fort in the rain.

Underwater World is a typical new style aquarium with the acrylic tubes that you walk through.  This one has a nice improvement -- it has a people mover belt inside the acrylic tubes to facilitate constant turnover of the tourists.  The moving belt keeps people from stopping and holding up everyone behind them.  I liked this feature very much.



There was a hologram of a great white shark that appeared to project out from the wall.  However, the programmer or installer did not take into account the height of children's eye level.  The kids could not see this hologram at all.  Nothing showed up.  We adults could see it just fine.  Bill went into a corner and snapped a couple of photos so that the kids could see that there really was a hologram of a shark just above their heads.

Next we visited the Dolphin Lagoon section of the complex.  The seating area was mostly covered by a roof to protect us from the intermittent rain.  This was the first time we had seen pink dolphins.  Of all the thousands of dolphins we have seen while sailing half-way round the world, we have never seen a pink dolphin in the wild.  According to the information posted, pink dolphins are coastal creatures and are found all around the Pacific, Indian Ocean and eastern Atlantic.  Pink dolphins are not native to North, Central or South America.  They were the same shade of pink as baby pigs.

We watched a short performance by a couple of sea lions.  They were cute and the kids enjoyed watching them.

Saturday evening Bill and I met fellow Amel owners at their home for a delicious chili dinner.  Mike and Peta recently purchased an Amel Super Maramu 2000, a little newer than ours and located on the southern coast of France in the Med.  Peta's British version of chili was very different from traditional Texas chili, but was a welcome treat to these 2 Texans.  We are hoping to meet up with Mike and Peta somewhere in the Med either summer 2011 or 2012.

Sunday we hoped to try again to visit Fort Siloso but were rained out.  Instead we went to Vivo City food court for lunch and did a bit of shopping in the Giant supermarket.  The afternoon turned bright and sunny, and Bill decided to service our winches.   We wanted this routine service maintenance performed before setting off across the Indian Ocean in a few months.  He managed to finish 3 of the cockpit winches before sunset and will work on the others over the next few days.

The end of our long stay at Puteri Harbour Marina

Our younger son, Aaron, arrived last week to fly back to the States with his daughter on August 17. I am afraid he has endured a boring time during his short stay with us in Malaysia, as we have done nothing other than the typical marina things -- walks, bike riding and pedal boats.   I suggested renting a car and driving to Malacca or somewhere else, but none of us were keen on that idea.  Aaron stays very busy in his normal work life at home, so maybe a few days of kicking back and lazing around the boat was just what he needed for the beginning of his vacation.  Plus adjusting to jumping ahead 13 time zones takes its toll on anyone's energy level.  Most of our time the past 5 days has been spent couped up inside the boat sucking up the air-conditioning either because it was raining or it was too danged hot to tolerate being outdoors.


Late this afternoon one of the guys on the marina staff took us to the PTP (port?) terminal and assisted in clearing us out of Malaysia.   It is very nice of the marina to provide transportation to the distant port facilities and to provide staff to handle all the paperwork.  They handled our clearance both into and out of Malaysia for a total cost of 50 ringitt ($15.85).  No place else we have visited provides services and transportation like this for such a low fee.  In about 2 years the authorities will have a clearance office situated at the marina.  That will be very convenient for cruisers berthing at Puteri Harbour Marina.  There also will be a fast ferry to Singapore.  Lots of improvements are planned for this nice marina.


Yesterday Bill kitted up and dove under the boat to clean away any marine growth that had accumulated in the past 2 months since we moved back into this slip after our short trip to Singapore to pick up the grandkids.   I think the last time Bill donned a scuba tank was in the Caribbean more than 2 1/2 years ago -- and possibly even 3 years ago.  Everyone else we know enjoyed beautiful diving spots throughout the South Pacific, but I do not like diving so Bill did not have a diving buddy and he missed out.  Yesterday he was breathing very hard and managed to suck up a full tank of air while cleaning the boat bottom.  He found about 8 barnacles on the entire hull -- pretty darn good for bottom paint applied in New Zealand 17 months ago!  Micron 66 is a very good anti-foul paint.  During that same haul-out, we had Prop Speed applied to protect the prop and it did not hold up nearly so well.  It worked beautifully for the first year, but at the end of that year it the effectiveness stopped completely.  Yesterday Bill found the prop was covered in marine growth about 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick on both sides of each blade..


Bill surfaced shortly after going down and said "that prop does have 3 blades, doesn't it?  I can only find 2 blades."  Well, that sounded like very bad news!!  But the water was so murky that he simply could not see much of anything down there.  He had to clean the prop by feel rather than by sight.  After chipping away the growth on the first identifiable 2 blades he was able to find the third blade.  Whew!  We carry a spare prop, but changing the prop out in this murky water was not something either of us wanted to think about having to do.


Next he moved to the front of the boat to check our speed sensors.   The speed sensors on our Amel are not the usual paddle-wheel type.  Amel installs B & G Sonic Speed sensors.  Basically, one sensor is on the front side of the keel and another sensor is mounted on the front area of the bottom of the hull, facing backward.  The 2 sensors face one another and somehow determine the speed the boat is traveling through the water.  When we took the boat over to Singapore a couple of months ago, the speed sensors were not working.  When we apply anti-foul paint, we are very careful to tape off these 2 sensors.  They are the only spots on the hull beneath the waterline that are not painted, so we figured 1 or both sensors had a barnacle growing on top.  Sure enough, the forward sensor (rear facing) had a good-sized barnacle growing on it.  Bill grabbed it and pulled it off.  Luckily, he surfaced to show me the barnacle.  He obviously does not wear his eyeglasses while diving.  He has corrective lenses inserted in his diving mask, but he really cannot see well underwater with those.

I looked at the barnacle and could see there was something rubbery and black on the bottom side.  I scratched off the barnacle growth and found a rubbery circle about  the size of the nail bed on an adult's finger and 1/2-inch thick.  It had a small indention all around the bottom of the circle.  Very obviously this rubbery piece was a part of the sonic speed sensor.  I returned the cleaned-up piece to Bill and he dove again and replaced it.  I pulled out a hammer and he tapped into place as tightly as he could -- considering that he could not see much of anything in the nasty water.  We emailed Amel and learned that this piece is a protective cover for the actual sensor and that without this cover that the water turbulence might cause incorrect speed readings.  But at least we don't need to worry about water leaking into the boat if the cover is lost.  


Tomorrow morning we will slip the dock lines and head over to 1° 15 Marina on Sentosa Island in Singapore.   We hope the rubbery piece is still in place when we arrive at that marina.  The water there is very clean and clear and Bill should be able to see much clearer to make sure it is properly inserted to cover the sensor.  Waterproof epoxy should do the trick.


As much as we have enjoyed staying at Puteri Harbour Marina for the past 9 1/2 months and traveling almost all of SE Asia, I cannot express how delighted I am to be moving again -- even if it is only 30 miles to another marina in Singapore.

Summer time with the grandkids is fading fast

It is hard to believe that Zach and BeBe have been with us for almost 2 full months. Next week our younger son, Aaron, will arrive in Singapore to collect his daughter. He will stay until August 17 and return home to Houston with BeBe. Zachary also will leave on the same day, but he will be flying as an unaccompanied minor on another airline and route. We have decided to take the marina car over to Singapore to pick up Aaron when he arrives, and return with him to Puteri Harbour Marina in Malaysia for about a week. Then take the boat over to Singapore around August 9 or 10 and stay there until everyone flies out the following week. That way Aaron will have the opportunity to see both a tiny bit of Malaysia and everything he might want to see in Singapore. Maybe we will rent a car and drive over to Malacca, although neither Bill nor I have heard of anything in Malacca that calls out to us to come see. We understand that the marina in Malacca was recently totally destroyed by high winds, so if we don't drive there then we will be skipping Malacca altogether.

The only regret I have had about the grandkids activities this summer is that our dinghy developed a severe leak and we have no more hypalon patch material or the proper adhesive to effect a repair. So the kids have not been able to go fishing in the dinghy in the Johor Strait as we had planned. We had bought little fishing rods for them to use in the dinghy. Guess we will hang onto those rods and they will be able to fish when they visit us next summer in Turkey or Greece. Both kids have announced that they plan to visit us in the Med next summer. Wonder if their parents know of these plans.

A few days ago a young Malaysian couple of Chinese descent had a few of their wedding photos taken aboard S/V BeBe. Jasmine is a pharmacist who has assisted us in obtaining a few routine prescription medications; and her fiance, James, works in Singapore; I believe James is an aeronautical engineer. They are each very nice and we enjoy their company. A lot of brides and grooms have their wedding photos taken at this marina -- always up on the mainland seating area under the palm trees and on the wide concrete retaining wall around the marina. But Jasmine and James are the only ones who have been invited to have their photos taken aboard one of the sailboats. We thought they might enjoy having a unique setting for some of their wedding photos. The local custom is to have many professional photos taken in several wedding gowns at many locations. These photos are done months before the actual wedding. A photo album is prepared and the "wedding book" is displayed to the wedding guests. This same custom is followed in Korea and Vietnam. Possibly this is the norm for all the SE Asian countries, but we know for certain that this is commonly done in Korea and Vietnam as well as here in Malaysia.

After the photo shoot we joined James and Jasmine at the marina cafe for dinner. It was nice visiting with them. Who knows what the future will hold. We encouraged them to stay in touch. If nothing else, they can follow this website and be advised of our future locations. They are invited to visit us aboard S/V BeBe somewhere in the Med if such a trip for them becomes feasible during the time we are cruising that area.

Before Jasmine and James arrived with their photographer, we had the boat washed by one of the marina staff on his day off. Then Zachary and Bill polished the stainless -- that never-ending job. Zach is a champ at polishing brightwork and doesn't complain a bit.

Yesterday BeBe finally actually rode a bicycle on her own. She still cannot start off on her own and requires a starting push, but that will come with practice on her own. She had told her mom in a telephone call a few weeks ago that she now could ride a bike (yeah, right -- about 30 feet). When she got off that phone call, I told her that now she HAD to really learn how to ride on her own before her father arrived or her parents would know she had lied and would be very disappointed. The deadline threat must have kindled her interest because she finally got serious about learning how to ride. We celebrated with ice cream sundaes at the marina cafe last night after dinner.

Back at Puteri Harbour Marina

It has been raining almost constantly since we returned to the boat after our trip to Thailand.

We are all getting a little stir crazy staying cooped up inside the boat.

One day BeBe wanted to cook something and we agreed that I would teach her how to bake a cake. I wanted to bake a meatloaf -- something we haven't had since last August in Cairns. I don't like to heat the oven just to bake one thing, so this seemed like a feasible idea for a rainy afternoon. Unfortunately, due to foreign language printed on the labels, the can of evaporated milk that I thought I was opening turned out to be a can of sweetened condensed milk. Not something I want cooked into a meatloaf. So I asked Bill to get online and find us a recipe using sweetened condensed milk. Normally the only thing I use this for is to bake granola, and I did not have all the ingredients for proper granola. He found a pan cookie recipe and a fudge recipe. Both kids immediately exclaimed that they wanted the fudge. So Elisabeth cooked her first batch of fudge. It turned out just fine. Better for her to start with this simple recipe than to try her hand at the better and more difficult real fudge recipe that we prefer.

It had stopped raining by the time the fudge was ready, so she and Zach brought a small amount of the fudge to share with Bill and Amy on S/V Estrellita. Later, they came over to our boat and we enjoyed visiting with them in our cockpit. BeBe and I managed to get a lot of insect bites and will be itching miserably for weeks. It really isn't fair that she and I are the only ones who react so severely to insect bites. That is the main reason I stay cooped up inside the boat so much. With all this rain, the insects are particularly thick.

Last night we were treated to dinner at the marina cafe by Randall and Ruth on M/V Dora Mac. Bill had checked on their boat several times while they visited Nepal and Tibet. They reciprocated by buying dinner for all 4 of us. How sweet! And totally unnecessary. Bill was happy to check on their boat in their absence. Cruisers always are looking out for one another.

Nothing else going on -- except more rain, rain and rain.

Photos of Thailand trip uploaded

Since it is raining so much and we are stuck inside the boat, I decided to take the opportunity to upload photos from our recent trip to Thailand. Photos have been added to the individual postings for the trip. These are a few additional photos.



These photos are mainly intended for our family members to see what the grandkids have been doing this summer.


As can be seen, the kids have been enjoying unique experiences and places.

I particularly like the photo of Zach laying on the floor and face-to-face with the baby tiger. This is not the tiger that bit him.












Both kids got a kick out of the small young elephants putting hats on their heads and taking the hats back off. Each time the elephant did this to someone, it would place the hat on the person's head and then tap the hat 3 times. Then the elephant would remove the hat and take a bow with its trunk placed on its forehead between the eyes -- just like the Thai people place their palms together and put their hand between their eyes when saying thank you. It was really cute.


The baby elephant was at the horrible Mae Taeng Elephant Camp. This one is 5 months old. There also was a newborn less than 1 month old, but we were not allowed near that one because the mother was still ultra-protective -- as well she should be.






And here is a photo of BeBe frying the spring rolls that she made from scratch during our full-day cooking class at the Asia Scenic Thai Cooking School in Chiang Mai. That was an enjoyable day and we each learned a lot from the experience. And we especially enjoyed eating all the delicious food that we cooked!


And this last photo is some structure that we passed while riding the river boat taxi in Bangkok. Elisabeth was more observant than the rest of us. She noticed that there was a large painting of this structure on the wall of our hotel room. We never did find out what this is. People were climbing the steep steps up the sides of it. We weren't interested enough to get off the boat and explore.

We are now finished with Thailand -- unless we sail to Phuket in December. In fact, we are finished with all SE Asia travel. Nothing left to do except sail up the western coast of Malaysia after we depart from Singapore late next month. The Phuket area is supposed to be beautiful but extremely crowded with tourist long boats. I'm not convinced that the beauty of the area is worth the hassle of crowded anchorages with fast tourist boats zooming around. Bill has not yet decided if we will sail up there before heading west or if we will depart for India from Langkawi. I am leaving that decision entirely up to him. We can't plan that far in advance.