This is a beautiful setting, just across the Singapore Strait from Singapore, although getting here was truly an event! We dodged high-speed ferries, tankers and cargo ships, even passed within 100 yards of a massive drilling platform, not to mention the tremendous amount of floating debris and trash in the water en route to Nongsa Point.
For a while I stood on the bow watching for logs and other large floating hazards. Fortunately the trip was more fascinating than perilous. Nongsa Point Marina is a sight for sore eyes offering the first really modern facilities we have seen since leaving Darwin, Australia, including free wifi, a really nice laundry room, inviting pool, bar and restaurant. The staff is extremely friendly. For a small fee the resort offers a shuttle service into the shopping mall and free shuttle service to the ferry terminal. Now what more could we ask? Well, I suppose the down side is that the sweltering heat continues to just zap us day and night.
We have run into many of our cruising friends here as they come in and then leave on the way to either Singapore or Malaysia. We have not been able to secure a marina berth in Singapore so we are content to keep Destiny here while we take the Fast Ferry over for a short visit. Meanwhile I am loving being able to catch up on emails, get our computer updates downloaded, get some pictures posted to our website which is several countries and a couple of years behind, but I at least wanted to get the orangutan photos uploaded. I'm not stressed over anything right now. We are having difficulty getting our boat parts so we'll hit the chandlery in Singapore. Frank took a day longer than me to de-stress. I'm still not caught up with emails and haven't spent a lot of time checking out FB either. I'm lazing by the pool, getting laundry done a little at a time and just taking it easy. We had a game night with Ute and Hans before they set off. Everyone else seems in a rush to get to Malaysia. We don't plan to leave Indonesia until the 2nd or 3rd of November, now that we are not sailing to Singapore. This has bought us a teeny bit more time to take it easy. No more day hops, up at 5 AM and sailing all day for a while.
My passport has run out of pages – well I have one blank one left - but it is good for another 5 years, so I have an appointment with the US Consulate in Singapore on the 29th to get more pages added. Frank was in charge of booking our trip and tried to get us in at the Marina Sands Hotel, which should be one of the 7 wonders of the modern world, but it was full. So we are staying at another 5-star hotel named Marina Mandarin, leaving Nongsa on the 10:00 AM ferry on the 28th, returning to Destiny on the 31st. So this morning we rushed around getting Destiny ready to be left by her little lonesome for 4 days and trotted off with bags half full hoping to fill them to the brim shopping in Singapore. Our good friend Joanne Van Os sent us some pointers on where to go and what to see. Andy Heger our ever-dependable foodie expert has sent us a list of where to eat. We are armed and dangerous now.
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