Date: 6th June 2009
Captain Sparrow has been mentioning about this island Singapore in the movie "Pirates of the Carribean" and today is the chance for him to really explore this island......however, he couldn't really make it today and i was told to replace him as the Captain for the Orange Pearl maiden trip....Hahahaahaaa...juz joking!
Seriously, i was so excited about this trip and hardly able to sleep well the day before the trip. I woke up pretty early at 05:30am and reached Tuas about 7am in the morning. I was pretty late for the 6:30am appointment with Ian and was feeling quite bad for my delay.
When i reach the destinaton, i saw 2 Police officier talking to Ian.....perhaps asking him about his Expedition. Initially, i was quite shock to see the Petrol car, parking on the road thinking that we might get some tickets for parking here. I greeted the 2 freindly officer and immediately check with them for the parking. When i have finished setting up my Orange Pearl, one of the officier came over and ask for our particulars which is a normal standard procedure (SOP) just to make sure we are not into trouble and most importantly making sure Singapore is really a "FINE" city.
An AE Expedition and a AE Convertible
Ian with the 2 Kayak
After some Photo-shooting session, we set off from Tuas to some good fishing spot. This maiden trip is a good chance for me to really test out the boat and this Kayak really track well with me and load of stuff on the Kayak. The frame which i built on the Kayak was really superb and i'm damn proud of it although some more modification is needed to make it flawless.
Out at sea with my convertible
After 15 minutes of paddling, the first Coastal Petrol boat came over to us for some checking. Both Ian and I was so surprised to see that the commander of the Petrol boat is a pretty young lady. Seriously, How i wish i could have join the Coast guard!!! :P
Not long after, another petrol boat came to check on us. This time round, no more pretty ladies on board the petrol boat...hahahahaa! After some routine question being asked and making sure that we have our safety gears with us. Soon, both of us were back to our fishing and paddling.
The 1st Fishing Spot at the yellow buoy
Caught a Queenie with Tamban (White sardinella)
A Butterfly Whiptail caught and released by me
Time for a break
The Orange pearl with gears
Its time for some more fishing
It was a pretty tiring trip for me being my first paddling after so many years since my school days. The fishing was not really good but the paddling was really awesome. The total distance covered for this trip was approximately 10km that took us roughly 6.5 hour in total. The kayak was really stable and according to Ian, the AE-Convertible (without the backbone installed) seems to track better than the AE-Expedition. I will try out the AE-Convertible with a Backbone next time round to see the actual performance with it. So everyone, got to stay tuned for my next Kayak-Fishing trip with my AEC aka Orange Pearl :P
The cool looking Orange Pearl of mine
