Cabin Boy's Big Adventure

[kismet]

i hope the smell did not drive you away.

[kismet]

show us a map if you have the way.

[Ex-Calif]

I really enjoy your updates and the link to your blog. Many thanks and keep the updates coming!

[UnlikelyVoyager]

As much as I have grown to appreciate the convenience, safety, and, yes, beauty of much of the ICW, I am looking forward to finally reaching the deep, open water of the Chesapeake.

However, my anticipation is not without an edge of anxiety. My last experience with open water was also the worst on this voyage -- a dreadful thrash across Albemarle Sound...

The Unlikely Boat Builder: A Dreadful Thrash

[UnlikelyVoyager]

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

I get it, Leo! What can you say about a fabulous cruising ground when every thing (including the wind) is going your way? Who wants to read about happy cruising? Well, I'll give it my best shot, but if Tolstoy couldn't handle it...

Complete Blog Post: The Chesapeake

[UnlikelyVoyager]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

I really enjoy your updates and the link to your blog. Many thanks and keep the updates coming!

Hey, I've been to the Singapore Yacht Club, or at least one of them. It was quite a while ago, but the one I remember was along a muddy river, and had an open air bar. A business colleague (can't remember his name!) took me sailing. Good memories!

[Ex-Calif]

Depends how long ago. Singapore's shore line has changed remarkably in the last 15-20 years.

[UnlikelyVoyager]

Originally Posted by Ex-Calif

Depends how long ago. Singapore's shore line has changed remarkably in the last 15-20 years.

Gosh... now you are taxing my memory. It must have been 20 years ago, or perhaps a bit more.

What I remember is that it was a sort of ramshackle club, on a muddy river. This was not the modern part of Singapore. I remember thinking it was like the underside of the clean, modern city. More like Thailand than Singapore.

As we were heading out, we passed by commercial boats on the banks of the river, like small rusty freighters. I was told that the crews were strictly forbidden to step ashore. The crew watched us as we motored by.

Once out of the river, we sailed in a fairly small bay, up to a certain invisible line, which was patrolled by gunboats. This was an international border that it was forbidden to pass.

On the way back, the prop got fouled by something, and the owner had to dive overboard and untangle whatever it was. That is why I remember the muddy part of the muddy river. I was glad I didn't have to swim in that river!

And we ended the day in the club bar, which, if memory doesn't fail me, had a grass roof, like a big Tiki bar. Nothing modern or flashy about that place!

I loved it, because it felt like 'real' Asia. I used to work in the airline biz, so I used to travel to all sorts of places -- the more exotic and different, the better, I always thought.

Of course, we were staying in this enormously tall hotel, which was a block or so from Raffles. I spent a long night watching my boss get bombed in this bar:



Although it was a lot darker when I was there!

My wife, Helena, lived in Singapore for a year.

[UnlikelyVoyager]

Actually, maybe it was this bar:



I've been googling memories for a half hour... this looks more like what I remember, but who knows. It probably has changed since I was there. I just remember small, dark, with very good Scotch.

I remember it wasn't the Long Bar, because my boss said that was for tourists :-)

-- John

[Ex-Calif]

Ah but ya gotta visit the long bar at least once. Atually the long bar was relocated and it is not quite as long as it used to be.

It does sound like you were at the club on the Singapore River. Long time ago, all cleaned up, it's now a very cool mediteranean looking river with lantern boats, lots of restaurants and clubs.

Google images Boat Quay and Clark Quay and you'll get stuff like this.



and this



And here's boat quay in the 60's

[UnlikelyVoyager]

There's an old English proverb that says "An yll wynde blowth no man to good".

Apparently, this was a bit gloomy for Sir Walter Scott, who completely reversed the proverb's meaning (and spelling) with his own version: "It's an ill wind that blaws naebody gude".

Stranded on an isolated river in southern New Jersey in early November by a very 'yll' wind indeed, I wondered which version of the proverb would prove true...

Read complete episode: An Yll Wynde

Fair Wyndes: John

[UnlikelyVoyager]

In the end, getting down Delaware Bay was a matter of picking the right weather.

That's a phrase you read a lot in cruising guides: "Pick the right weather to cross ______". Fill in your favorite nasty stretch of open water.

But picking the right weather isn't so easy...

Complete blog post: Home Stretch

Fair winds: John

[UnlikelyVoyager]

E.F. Knight's "Sailing" is one of my favorite sailing books. It's the book that John Walker consulted when, as a young lad, he had to sail the Goblin across the North Sea to Holland in a gale (in "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea"), and it's probably the book Arthur Ransome learned to sail with.

Knight says the science of sailing is "practically infinite", and I agree -- particularly when it comes to weather. After many months of studying weather forecasts, and comparing them with the weather that actually showed up, all I can do is quote the ancient weather proverb: "Believe it when you see it."

Oh, and "Take it with a grain of salt."

Complete blog post: Going For It

Fair Winds: John

[UnlikelyVoyager]

At last! The final segment of "Cabin Boy's Big Adventure". Don't miss it!

When you reach the southern end of Governor's Island, you have a choice of either the main channel to the west, or the Buttermilk Channel to the east. I chose the Buttermilk because it took me out of the main traffic and seemed a bit more protected from the northerly breeze.

Governor's Island got it's name when New York was a British colony. The island, being just a mile south of Manhattan, and close to the anchorage for the British fleet, was reserved for the use of the royal governor.

Even back then it was location, location, location...

Read complete blog post: East River Adventure

Fair tides: John