One of the activities that we enjoy the most here is sailing and whenever possible we join friends when they sail their yacht in the weekly Changi Sailing Club (CSC) races. The highlight of the CSC calendar is the Ambassador's Cup. An annual event where the club invites foreign Ambassadors posted to Singapore for a days racing.
Yachts from other Singapore sailing clubs are brought round to CSC in the days before the race and I was lucky enough to be invited to help sail a beautiful 47ft ketch from Raffles Marina to CSC.
In the photo below I was on the blue hulled boat, L'Attitude, moored between her sister yachts -Cavatina and Maybritt
We arrived at Raffles Marina early in the morning as we had a long sail ahead. During the briefing we were told that the journey was approximately 45 nautical miles and should take about 8-9 hours. We set off in glorious sunshine and motored out of the Marina and passed the Tuas crossing-the bridge in the far west of Singapore that connects it to Malaysia
We had company on our journey as we stayed in sight and radio distance of Cavatina and Maybritt,
On the way it was interesting to see the other craft on the Johor Strait- a huge vessel full of sand being pushed by a tug. Presumably heading towards one of the areas being reclaimed to help increase the land mass of Singapore
Then we passed a semi submersible driller rig used in the oil industry
Ships of different sizes carrying equipment, this one seemed to be carrying huge rolls of metal cables
The weather was hot, without much wind but for a time we were able to put the mainsail up and motorsail
As well as myself and my two friends; SH and KS, (both very experienced and expert sailors)
we were joined by Andrew, the skipper (in the black hat in this photo) plus 2 lovely young lads who are members of Big Brother Big Sister, a mentorship programme that matches an older student with a younger student, sailing is one of the activities they do together to form friendship and support.
It became very hot and shade was hard to find but it was very relaxing watching the world glide by
It was fascinating to sail pass some of Singapore's smaller islands, some of which are used only by the military but others can be visited. Below is Pulau Salu whose coral reefs offer great diving
As we neared the shipping channel we had to make our way through the large number of boats moored there, most waiting for a load or job to go to
We were enjoying ourselves and feeling very relaxed as we passed by the busy container ports
We sailed by the Sister's islands and Kusu (below). Kusu means tortoise or turtle in Chinese and is so named because of the legend that a giant tortoise turned itself into an island in order to save two ship wrecked sailors. In gratitude the sailors returned to the island some while later and built a temple which is still visited today on the eleventh month by many to give thanks and say prayers. We could just see the green roofed temple complex near the shore
With such light winds we were making slow progress and 6 hours later we passed by Sentosa and were just over half way! Gradually the central Business District came into sight, but the visibility was deteriorating as the weather was changing...
It became very overcast and ahead we could see a dark and ominous looking sky. We prepared the boat and tied down the loose sails
As the clouds thickened we could hear but barely see the planes just overhead as they approached Changi airport
Within a few minutes the storm surrounded us and the heavens opened, we were quickly soaked. Then the lightening and thunder started, the lightening flashes struck the water closer and closer to us. After a while the storm was directly above us, we counted less than 1 second between the lightening and the incredibly loud thunder claps. It was quite alarming particularly when the lightening struck the water only a few feet from us!
The rain continued to fall relentlessly and we were all soaked through to the skin, in spite of our 'waterproofs'! The two youngsters (who did not have waterproof jackets)were soaked and cold so we sent the down below to get dry and warm. The storm lasted for over an hour. Gradually we passed through it and carried slowly on.
It took a very long while and it was getting dark as we rounded the south eastern 'corner of Singapore
Finally the rain stopped and we could see the lights of Changi Sailing club ahead. Once there we were guided to a visitor's buoy and caught the mooring buoy using the glow from the lights on shore.
We left the boat for the night and made straight for the bar at the clubhouse, arriving there just after 8pm, our journey had taken nearly 12 hours and in less than 12 hours we were due back at the club for the big race. We all slept very soundly that night!
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The following morning, back at CSC, the sun was shining, the place was buzzing with excitement, flags were flying, and people were gathering for the big day
As I had helped bring one of their yachts over yesterday, I was invited to join the Big Brother Big Sister group photo. The youngsters as well as the mentors would all be allocated places onboard one of the 62 boats that would be on the water that day.
By midday 29 foreign Ambassadors and their Embassy staff had arrived
The draw was then announced stating which yacht would host which ambassador. Papa T and I were crewing for our friend KW, who owns and sails Wildcard and when his name was called out we discovered that we would have the Mexican ambassador and 3 of his friends on board for the race
Once we were all on board Wildcard we hoisted the Mexican flag and set sail
Only 1 of the 4 Mexican guests had any sailing experience but as well as our skipper-KW, his wife JW, Papa T and I and 2 other sailing club members there was enough crew to handle this big, complicated racing boat
In the half hour before the race started KW gave our guests a crash course in how to sail, and we all practised gybing and tacking, using the winch and ducking as the huge boom crossed from side to the other.
Ten minutes before the start the course flag was hoisted at the end of the jetty and the boats now knowing which of 5 possible courses has been chosen manoeuvre to get into a good position. The perfect position being facing the right way and timing one's approach to the start line so that the bow of the boat crosses the line moments after the starting horn is sounded, even a second too soon incurs a penalty meaning having to tack back behind the line and re approach, which obviously wastes valuable time.
It was really tense as 62 boats moved around each other in the narrow channel jostling for position but our skipper timed it perfectly and we crossed the line soon after the horn sounded, the race was on!
From the start the winds were strong, which Wildcard favours, and we made fantastic and fast progress, gradually passing the other boats one by one...
...until we had pulled ahead of all but one other boat! We and our Mexican friends were ecstatic
it was exciting sailing although one of our guests didn't seem that thrilled and as we heeled over put on a buoyancy aid, poor chap said he couldn't swim, we reassured him he would not be tipped out of the boat!
A short while later the weather deteriorated and the rain arrived, once again I and the others were soon soaked but fortunately this time there wasn't any thunder or lightening
I just love the photo below ( taken and kindly shared by one of our guests) showing the approaching storm
even the deteriorating weather didn't dampen our high spirits
We remained in second position as we raced around the last racing buoy and headed to the finish line.
As we passed through the storm the wind died away and we were becalmed, of course so was every one else. It was so frustrating, we were only about 300ms from the finish. We gently drifted inch by slow inch and could do nothing when a lighter hulled boat with the Peruvian ambassador on board slowly cruised passed us
Finally we crept over the finish line and the horn sounded for us, we were delighted to be the third boat to finish
After mooring and tidying up the boat we celebrated onboard with champagne and some delicious Mexican guacamole.
our guests and now new friends seemed very happy with their days racing and NW the Mexican Ambassador, a complete sailing novice before the race, declared his interest in coming again as part of the crew
We then went ashore and waited for the rest of the boats to finish. Everyone showered and changed in readiness for the evenings entertainment including a delicious buffet, speeches and the declaration of the winning boats after the boat handicaps had been taken into account followed by presentation of the Ambassador's cup
There was a loud cheer when Wildcard's name was announced as coming third in the Ambassadors cup, we went up together to collect the trophy presented by Ms Sim Ann, Senior Minister of State
Once all the prices had been presented the party really got going and we danced the night away.
Despite of or maybe because of the awful weather it had been a very memorable weekend of sailing and meeting new people and I feel very privileged to have been a small part of it
