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| The start of a new leg |
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 Future
America's cup helmsman in training. Weng Khin is a very enthusiastic boatsman.
Hopefully he will get the opportunity to do more. |
Dragon's Toy
had been sitting on the hard in Singapore for 18 months while I returned to the US to make
more money so I could continue my travels. On returning to Singapore in July of 98,
I started cleaning the boat and getting her ready for extensive cruising through Indonesia
and on to the South Pacific. The work along with requesting cruising permits ended
up taking longer than expected (doesn't it always) and we ended up not leaving Singapore
until 20 September. While there, I made a lot of friends and in true cruising style,
met some old ones from Hong Kong. |
| At the
beginning of summer, I had help working on the boat each day as Weng Khin was staying with
me in Singapore during his school holiday, while his mother was back in Beijing
working. The two of us put in a lot of long hot days trying to get a couple of years
of dirt, grime and UV damage cleaned up. A lot of things to get done, but eventually
it all came together. |
 Capt'n
and the 2 Daves about to set off Singapore. Notice the big smiles and relaxed looks
of trio that has absolutely no idea of what they are about to get into. I don't
think that I saw smiles this big again until Dave and Dave were packing their bags to get
off the boat in Darwin. |
| While working
on Dragon's Toy I got to know the other people on the boats around me.
Nick, on Judge, I used to sampan-pool with in Hongkong when we were both living
on our boats in Causeway Bay. His girlfriend, Katerina was with him now. They
were planning on going to South Africa. Don, of Bungo Rye, was
completely rebuilding a Tartan 56 that had been sadly neglected for the past 7
years. And then there was Phil. Phil was a delivery skipper that had a
contract to take a boat that had been struck by lightening while an the hard, down to
Sydney. Le Dragon du Maud was a wooden boat that look like a 2/3rd model of a Vendee Globe race boat. While the hull was
wood, the deck and coach roof were fiberglass. When the boat had been struck by
lightening, a fire had started inside and burned the inside layer of glass off the leaving
just the foam and outer layer. He was frantically trying to reinforce this area so
he could set sail. Dave and Dave
arrived in Singapore on the 12th of September. There was still a number of projects
that needed to get get done and the extra hands made very fast work. We were
targeting departing on the 15th or 16th when I received word that Siew Pheng's brother had
died. The bright side of this tragedy was that I did get to see her one more time
before I left. As soon as the funeral was over, we took the boat out for a quick
shake down cruise and to top up the fuel. The next morning bright and early, we were
off. Phil was also setting off that day for Sydney. We tried to talk him into
going with us, but he was determined that he would motor the entire distance to Sydney at
8-9 knots that the boat was capable of, so we said our good byes. |
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