Where am I ? > Journals >November 2003 >
(NEDERLANDSTALIGE VERSIE BESCHIKBAAR)

November 2003

In November we moved from our comfortable centrally located apartment to the Republic of Singapore Yacht Club, which is far less centrally located. There are two main reasons for doing this: Working on the boat is a lot easier and not having to pay a huge amount of rent each month makes it possible to save much faster.

Not a bad place to live actually, The Singapore Yacht Club! The facilities are great: A huge swimming pool, luxuous shower facilities with black leather couches, two good and very affordable restaurants, an outside bar, an inside bar, a convenient gym, apartments, a business centre with free internet facilities, electric buggies that bring you to the reception or to your boat (dry when it rains!), a chart room with charts and pilots from all over the world, a games room, a childrens room, a mahjong room (Chinese game), a tv room....We've got nothing to complain!!

We find living on Espiritu very cosy, although the rocking and rolling of the boat can be pretty inconvenient. The Marina is located next to a Ferry Terminal and when one of those ferries passes by, the waves sometimes make our boat rock heavily. This oftes wakes us up during the night, but fortunately we'll fall asleep again easily. But besides that, we really like boatlife. Enjoying a drink in the cockpit at sunset or before going to sleep, gives a feeling of holiday.

Espiritu is berthed opposite John's and Carolines' boat Jocara. John is the one that sailed with us from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu. Together with their kids Casper and Alex, they will also start their one year cruise in July. Part of their journey will be similar to ours, but we'll round the Cape of Good Hope and they will round the Indian Ocean and return to Singapore after one year. Next coming months we'll be doing jobs on our boats together, which is nice and we could also help each other. There's lots of jobs to be done on Jocara just as on Espiritu.

[Natascha]