Singapore

Our marina, Marina Keppel Bay, Singapore

The grounds around the marina

Just the closest mall to the marina - stunning!

Mark, from the Rally yacht Blue Magic, getting a fish massage

Downtown Singapore at Clarke Quay

Walking along the river

Is that a ship in the air??? Yes, it is a restaurant and park area in downtown Singapore

Shopping on Orchard Road, Singapore. Probably the best shopping area in the world.

S/Y Aspen – November 24, 2010 – Log #57
Position: 01 degrees 14’ N 103 degrees 49’ E (UTC +8.0 Hours)

Wow, what a change 20 miles brings! We left Indonesia on a rising tide and 20 miles later arrived in ultra-modern Singapore.

Sailing across the busiest shipping lanes in the world was quite a challenge as we tried not to get run over by the massive number of ships traversing the Singapore Straits. Our AIS system identified 100 targets in our path but the AIS unit cannot handle more than that number so there were probably twice as many ships around us. Of course we had squalls, a water spout and lightning accompanying us on our short 4 hour trip.

Once we were inside the breakwater we saw a sight that was absolutely stunning (see the attachment). This is the marina we are staying in. It is ultra-modern as is all of Singapore. Restaurants, shopping on Orchard Road, parks, zoos, China Town, India Town, shopping malls that dwarf anything we have ever seen in the US are everywhere! Luckily Singapore is where east meets west so there are a tremendous number shops from Europe, the US and elsewhere in the world. This is one amazing city/country.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving dinner by going to Raffles, the original home to the famous hotel is here in Singapore. This is where the Singapore Sling drink was invented. We had to try one and afterward ate their famous curry buffet. This was a really special treat for us and hopefully our credit card will pay for this!

For the next few days we will luxuriate in the excesses of Singapore before heading north to Malaysia. There are more pictures on our blog if you are interested too.

Sail on sail on Aspen...