Land Log XI - Back to Lazarus Island

Let's take a break from boat purchase this week. We went back to Lazarus Island again, but this time round we did not take the public ferry, my friend ferried us there using his boat.

This is really a beautiful place. Want to know how beautiful is it?

The clear turquoise water against the blue sky. You can see Singapore city landscape in the background.

This time round, we had a few students with us who are keen to learn fishing. What a perfect environment to learn something new while enjoying nature.

The fish here are not spectacular but they are enough for beginners to experience the fun of fishing.

All the fish caught were released safely back into the sea. Though we did not catch a fish sizable enough for dinner, we had a fulfilling day. Experience like this is hard to come by in our small island city.

Log X - Artemis 1 (Choosing - Part 2)

A full cabin cruiser usually has a sleeping capacity of 3 or 4 people and preferrably air-conditioned especially in tropical areas.

The kitchenette is normally equipped with a sink, an electric stove, a microwave, a fridge and a coffee-maker.

The toilet comes with shower facilities though they are not so commonly used and I will explain why in my later posts.

But what makes the Wellcraft Coastal 330 stands out is this...

There is a small cozy dining area inside the cabin. If you have not stepped into a cabin cruiser before, it is quite hard to imagine from the exterior looks that there can be so much furnishing inside. This is because part of the boat is submerged in water and you can only see the exposed top portion, you will not know how deep is the draft. *Draft of a boat is the distance between the surface of the water and the lowest point of the boat.

As for the Grady White, most of the reviews I found on the internet were excellent! From the cabin design and facilities to the shape of the hull for a more stable ride. But being a well known brand, the price tag on a Grady is generally higher than a Wellcraft. If I am going to find a Grady that can fit my budget, it will be likely a boat from the 90s.

So in the end, I chose a year 2001 Wellcraft Coastal 330 but without the flybridge as shown in the photo from my previous post.

If you do not know what a flybridge is - it is the open deck on top of the boat. When you compare the photo above with the photo from my previous post here, you will know what is the difference.

After you have decided on the the boat that you want to buy, you can contact the seller's broker to bargain on the price. Usually the listed price has at least a 10% room for discount. The bargaining process will take quite some time because the broker has to convey the messages between you and the seller, and the 13 hours difference in time zone is not helping.

Read on what do you do next after the seller agree to your offered price in the next post.

Log IX - Artemis 1 (Choosing - Part 1)

After importing a boat myself, I realised that not many people had done it before. Most of the boaters will usually get an agent to do everything for them. In case you are one of those who like to do things yourself like what I did, you might find some of the information useful in the following blog posts.

Anyway the posts will be based purely on my single boat purchasing experience, I believe that there are better ways to do certain tasks, and if there is, please drop me a message so that I will know what to do for my next purchase. I shall start from the very beginning - picking a boat.

There are 2 main countries that I looked at when I was choosing my boat - Australia and USA. Of course there are many other places you can choose to look for your dream boat, but I narrowed down to these 2 countries because of the credibility. Unless you have too much cash and want to fly there and stay for a couple of weeks to settle the transaction, most of the communication will be done through emails or phone calls. So the credibility of the local broker you are dealing with is very important.

You will not want to transfer tens of thousands overseas to a country that is known for scams do you?


Australia has the geographical advantage over USA as it is much nearer to Singapore, hence the shipping will be cheaper. The power rating is also similar at 240V. But for USA, the voltage rating is 110V.

This is a typical US 110V wall socket.

Buying a boat from Australia looks like a more logical choice. However, there are many cases of boat owners in USA unable to finance their boat loans due to the economic downturn in the past decade. And I guess this is the reason why the average selling price of boat in the US is much lower as compared to Australia.

At the end of the day if you factored in the higher shipping costs from USA and the costs of installing a transformer to step down the shore power from 240V to 110V, you might find certain bargains in Australia better than US. But without knowing much on the shipping and transformer costs at that point of time when I was choosing the boat, it seemed obvious to me then that I should go for the cheaper boats in the states.

Next is the question of what type of boat you want. I shall not list the types of boat here as you can easily google the types of boat or yacht to get your answers. For me, I know what I want because I have been thinking of buying it since 6-7 years ago and it is only now then I put my first step forward. I was looking for a cabin cruiser with a small living area and designed for fishing.

These criteria narrowed down my search by a lot. FYI, the number of resale boats in USA is more than the number of boats registered in Singapore. So narrowing down your search criteria will save you a lot time. And finally I shortlisted to just 2 models of boat - Grady White Marlin 300 and Wellcraft Coastal 330.

Grady White Marlin 300

Wellcraft Coastal 330

Grady White is well known for making quality luxury fishing boat, so basically you cannot go wrong with this brand. As for Wellcraft, frankly speaking I was not aware of this brand until I started researching on fishing boats. It was shortlisted because I was attracted by the cabin design.

What is the cabin feature that attracted me? And which model did I choose eventually? They shall be revealed in my next post.

Land Log XI - Nongsa Point Marina Resort

This beautiful resort is just a 45 minutes ferry ride from Singapore. It is so near yet it has such different pace from the lifestyle here. Once you have reached the island, you will automatically enter a relaxed mode.

After the welcome drinks, you will be checked in to resort rooms which are spacious yet cozy, and they come with a balcony for you to laze around.

There is only one restaurant to dine in the resort and it is very comfortable. The local Indonesian menu is recommended over the others as the chefs are really good at preparing their own local food.

After lunch, you can check out how the fishing condition is at the resort jetty. There is a shuttle bus service for you to get around in the resort and also explore the neighbouring Turi Beach Resort.

The 220m long jetty out into the sea is a good place to try fishing.

There is a clean and well maintained shed at the end of the jetty - an excellent place to setup your home base and most importantly, there is a tap that supplies fresh water to the shed.

If you are quite lucky, you will be greeted with selar frenzies. This definitely is a potential good fishing spot because whenever there are bait fish, there are bound to be predatory fish around!

 

Seaweed can be abundant at times depending on the tide and current and once a while you may even find some surprises hiding in the bunches of seaweed.

It is worthwhile to setup your gear for big game fishing and if you are lucky you maybe able to have some fresh seafood for dinner. Or you can also choose the less challenging option of strolling back along the jetty to Turi Beach Resort and dine in one of the restaurants there.

The way back from the jetty to the resort can be a pleasure to walk. This makes the distance seem so much shorter. If you are in the mood for some raw fish, there is a Japanese restaurant to satisfy your cravings.

It can be very tough to get out of bed the next morning as this place is simply too relaxing and comfortable, it is a luxury to just let time slip by without doing anything.

Land Log X - Kelong

This is one of my favourite fishing grounds with countless fond memories. All the previous kelongs that I went to were all demolished. Luckily I still managed to find another one which is still relatively near to Singapore.

A mountainous island formed the backdrop of the kelong. You can arrange to take a short boat ride to go ashore the deserted island. The water that we used for bathing on the kelong was actually from the spring on top of the mountain. It is available for a limited period only as the spring water will dry up during the hot season.

I have learnt a lot on fishing at this place and it shall be the classroom for Captain Q Junior too.

Sometimes when he was in the mood, he would hold the rod longer.

And sometimes he would just enjoy feeding the fish with leftover dinner...

while grandpa tried to catch the hungry fishes in feeding frenzy.

Catching small fish on the kelong is easy. Once a while you may even find some giant monsters lurking around too. My reel got stripped clean a couple of times on the kelong and the setup that I used was not light. I find that there is a lot of joy in catching small fish for dinner too.

As the sun set, the kelong presented a different view which was as spectacular.

The experience of lazing on the chair with an ice cold beer while waiting for a big one to take your bait under the setting sun was priceless.

I hope they will not take away this kelong from me again or the famous 'kelong jump' will not be able to pass down the line. I will definitely enjoy fishing on the kelong for as much as I can while it still last...

Log VIII - Lake Chini

The definition of a captain is the person in command of a boat. The definition of a boat is a vessel for travelling over water. Question is: If you are in a command of a canoe - which is a vessel for travelling over water, are you considered a captain? Whatever the case, I shall put it inside my captain's log.

Lake Chini is Malaysia's second largest natural lake. One of the more famous tales about Lake Chini is the legend of a dragon as the guardian of an ancient lost city which lies in the lake.

We went there during the monsoon season. Though the water area was larger with the heavy rains, the water colour was milky brown because of all the soil  that was washed into the lake. There were many types of aquatic plants growing out of the water.

It was quite an experience to canoe in this kind of environment. It gave us the feeling that we were in some deep jungles. The plants were big and tall, and we had to paddle through narrow water paths with giant aquatic growths beside us. It seemed like we were back to the Jurassic age.

Sometimes the lake opened up to huge areas of vegetation growing on water.

Exploring Lake Chini by canoe was tiring but extremely exciting and rewarding as we were able to access areas that cannot be reached by boat due to narrow straits of water. It was a totally different kind of experience when you are gliding so near to the water surface in the wilderness.

Of course we tried fishing from the canoe but there were no actions at all. We also tried a few casts at the small wooden jetty where we launch our canoe but the lotus leaves kept getting in the way.

Our trip here is to find out whether Lake Chini is a good fishing ground. Though no fish was caught, we gained something else - a very unique experience in nature. And thanks to my co-captain who helped to navigate the canoe while I was taking all these shots.

Lastly, here's a gift to those who have trypophobia (密集恐惧症).

Land Log IX - Mandai

There are many hidden 'treasures' in Mandai. So one fine day, we decided to explore this place to see whether we can find a good fishing spot. I also needed footage for my video - the one that I had posted in my previous post.

The journey was not easy. It brought back memories to the days when I was still in the army.

The difference was, this time I was carrying my fishing rod instead of my rifle and lures instead of ammunition. We passed by a couple of lakes and tested our lures. There were a few strikes on our surface poppers but did not manage to get a hook up.

Diving lures were not suitable at certain places as there were lots of weeds especially at places like this.

Weather was hot and our water supply was running low. We decided to look for shady areas to fish instead of acting hero and fish under the scotching sun.

When we arrived at a shady spot, there were a couple of bright orange gourami playing around in the shade.

They show no interests on any of our lures. After a few more casts, a couple of surface strikes and misses, we decided to call it a day. Though we did not catch anything today, I had a few nice shots and footage of the area. The scenery was nice and indeed it is a treasure. Hope more natural places like this can remain untouch and not develope into another urban area.