When contemplating a visit to Singapore, the most significant issue is ship traffic. Here's how our electronic chart looked as we approached Singapore. All the triangles are AIS ships. Smaller traffic will be little radar dots. What you may see is that Scott planned our approach from the southeast. We traveled south of the traffic separation scheme (going west) and then crossed at a designated crossing, staying very close to a small local freighter doing the same thing. As it was, after crossing the eastbound and part of the westbound ships we encountered westbound traffic. There is a smaller separation scheme on the north of the major traffic to accommodate short hops along the coast of Singapore Island.  However, those ships don't necessarily stay where we think they should be and they're just going against the grain, so to speak. Well, we made it to the temporary immigration anchorage. We were treated well by the officials and made it to our slip in Keppel Bay Marina by 5:00. Happy Days!!

This is the lobby at the Marina. It's new and gorgeous. We have electricity and water on the dock. We haven't had potable water at a dock since New Zealand. Of course we have rarely been on a dock in the last several years! Perhaps that's why we're so happy to be here. Otherwise we like to be out and about in the more remote areas. But in the land of pirates and bullies we prefer to be in a safe place. We were told NOT to visit any of the remote islands on the way here as the locals will treat you badly and demand "presents." An Australian yacht we met in Palau traveled through Indonesia and experienced their girls being spat upon as well as being threatened by a group of 20 machete carrying men on their boat with demands for baksheesh. Because of this we've planned our trip to stay in friendly areas.

So, let's see more of Singapore. Here's another shot of the Marina at Keppel Bay and all the building that's going on around the water. About 6 blocks from here is the largest mall in Singapore, with everything from massage, hair and nail parlors to retail shops and movie theatres. Also next to that location is the ferry stop and MRT station for subway connections to other parts of the city.

We went to Raffles Hotel for our obligatory Singapore Sling (a sweet, unimpressive drink!). It is a beautiful complex and we enjoyed getting a few souvenirs at their gift shop. The entire complex is stately and traditional right down to the doorman! (right)

The exterior of Raffles is renown (left)

The Malays are mostly Muslim. A huge part of how they express themselves as a religion relates to how the women dress. There are schools for girls and you often see even little girls with their heads covered.

We walked around the city quite a bit. We were especially interested in pockets of ethnicity and history. Here we are (left) figuring out which way to go to find a new car/boat CD/DVD player.

Thought you'd enjoy seeing the large high-rise apartments where most people live. One thing you don't get here that we saw in Hong Kong is the large areas of green that cover the steep hills around HK.

We visited the RSYC (Republic of Singapore Yacht Club) and exchanged burgees with them. There was an old worn-out burgee from DRYC on display. We believe it came from Bruce Kessler's around the world trip on his trawler yacht, Zopilote.

It was very interesting to see large displays of their race sponsor, Corum Watches. We saw the same thing at the RHKYC (Hong Kong) with their sponsor, Rolex Watches. I don't understand why DRYC didn't do more visual displays around our club, on our website and in international yachting magazines with Corum (when they were sponsoring our international race to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico). Let's hope that changes with future sponsors. 

As you see, we were warmly received at the RSYC and enjoyed a tour of their facilities and a delicious lunch. I will say we were happy to be at Kepple Bay Marina with Quest as the RSYC slips are near a noisy ferry dock and ship construction yard. We also noticed a lot of surge in the slips.

What I haven't shown you is our trip across the equator and back, on the way to Singapore. I should start by explaining that a person that has crossed the equator (mostly on their own boat or as crew) is now considered a "shellback." This is opposed to a "slimy pollywog" who has NOT crossed the equator. In researching this subject on the internet it turns out that the Navy has some very elaborate ceremonies for becoming a shellback. We tried our best on Quest and it turns out that Vivian and Dennis were duly impressed. We crossed the equator at night and common sense dictated that we postpone the ceremony 'til daylight. So, here's our crew in the middle fo the night and here's the chart as we cross the equator (left).

To be correct about the whole thing, we actually crossed the equator twice! This shot of our chart plotter could be enlarged to 125% or even 150% to get a better view.

First, our crew had to endure being painted with engine oil! Secondly, they had to show us proficiency with nautical knots and steering the boat.

They were also served a meal of all the things they hated. On the menu were beets and boiled eggs (not bad, I like those!). But then came dried fish strips, mackerel on marshmallows and uncooked sweet potatoes.

They passed all their tests and were awarded anchor necklaces (Dennis' is choking him!) and then we were on our way to Singapore!

So, here's Dennis putting up our  Singapore flag and on we go toward the north.

We had approached these strange lights in the water the night before. Not knowing what was going on we turned the boat around and headed south so as to approach during the day. These floating homes of fishermen were what was lit up in the night. Even during the daylight we weren't sure how far their anchor lines proceeded from their homes.

As we paralleled the shipping lanes on the south heading west, we could see the BIG ships passing on our starboard side. Each one of these guys showed up as a triangle with AIS information (name, size, destination, call number, etc.). Presumably, they can see us also, though I have radioed ships that seem to be coming too close to be sure they see us. After all, we're pretty small compared to them!

We crossed the traffic separation scheme at about midway, just south of the immigration area. Each entering ship and yacht needs to check in in this area by anchoring and having your documents ready for the officials who then come along side and very efficiently and with great courtesy complete the procedure. The shot on the right shows a bunch of ships anchored on the other side of an island. Our route to Keppel Bay was to proceed through those ships, turn around the island and enter the Bay to the Marina just on the other side of that bridge whose structure you see jutting up on the right side of the photo right. We're standing on a hill in Singapore looking south west in this shot.

You see what a nice sunny day we had when we toured Singapore. Our guide was great and (most importantly) his car was air conditioned!

The huge building on the right is a casino (The Marina Bay Sands). It has a park on the top cross structure, with trees growing and plants and grass just like a "normal" park. We saw this in some large shopping malls also.

This merlion (as in mermaid) is the symbol for Singapore. It's situated across the water from the large building above. Nearby there are restaurants and bars and a little walking promenade. The Singaporean government has tried to provide citizens with entertainment and park areas where they can go out and enjoy themselves. This is a bit of a priority as housing is small and the island/country is small. 

On the right is a Hindu temple adorned with many, many bare breasted robust women. We were quite surprised by this as the Muslim population makes a point of being covered and modest. I was told that the Singaporean government has decreed that apartment buildings must be integrated so that ones neighbors are of different ethnic groups. Furthermore, that a single ethnic group does NOT cluster in one area. Pretty interesting, I thought. When talking to people we found that, indeed they had friends and neighbors of different backgrounds. This was really a contrast to what we saw in Penang, Malaysia where we were told that if a person of a different ethnic group was in an accident on the street no one from another group would help them. I'm sure this was not absolutely true, but we did hear and feel ethnic tensions - especially against the Chinese (who have lived in these areas for generations!). It seemed like deja vu from Fiji, Polynesia and other Pacific islands where the Chinese were the hard working shopkeepers and business owners and the  local population sat back watching and wondering what was going on. And in the end developing envy that the Chinese had a nice lifestyle and they (the locals) had what they always had, a leaf house and a taro patch.

I thought this mermaid sculpture was pretty neat and of, then thought you'd like to see it. We enjoyed many beautiful sculptures along the boulevards of Singapore. All along these tree lined avenues were wide clean sidewalks were coffee houses, restaurants and bars. We'd see all kinds of people walking along and enjoying the ambience: families, school girls and boys, office workers, tourists as well as street walkers. There were also kiosks that sold ice cream, drinks and snacks. There were also places to sit down along the way. What we didn't miss from similar sites in the US were the homeless and beggars.