one°15 marina club

the name of the marina is because of its location at N01°.15 E103°.50 it is more a club than a marina and the main reason why our stay in singapore was so wonderful. the service was extraordinary and the place immaculate and beautiful. the marina facilities were excellent with great restaurants, hotel, steam room, pool, shops, etc… we recommend this place to all our sailor friends that have yet to arrive in singapore. i am sure they will love it as much as we did. the complex is in sentosa island which is connected to the singapore main island by a bridge and it is a resort island with parks, gulf courses and fancy residences, i think it is the best and prettiest place in all of singapore with monkeys running wild in the park trees and peacocks on the streets.


the marina provided a free on the spot around the clock service to the vivo city mall and underground train station. it worked prefect for us. we would normally spend a beautiful morning at the marina by the pool and then go to the city to tour around in the afternoons. too bad we could not stay there forever…. we would have gladly done so.

out in the town with family!!!

while in singapore we met fernando and angela, my cousin and his wife who were traveling around south east asia. we had a wonderful time with them and walked like no other day before. we specially enjoyed the night city view and had one of the best dinners of the trip.




gracias mil fercho y angelita por la invitación. nos encanto la cena y la compañía por supuesto. que rico haberlos visto !!!!!

city lights

not much to say except that the same wonderful city you see in the streets can be seen at night and from above one of the prettiest buildings the city has. three towers connected by a bridge in the form of a ship with a pool and a terrace at the top. what a view of the city and the architecture of the building itself!

singapore

singapore is an magnificent city. the mixture of cultures and languages is fascinating. the majority of the population is chinese but luckily for us every one speaks english. there is a chinese district of course, an arab district, an indian one, the city center, the suburbs and the industrial park. we visited all of them, as regular tourism would require and, the industrial part as our engine would require us to do. we decided to pamper the diesel engine and ourselves, as if we had not done so before for the past year and a half…! nothing is wrong with the engine by the way, only the ordinary wear after so much use….




so we toured the entire city, went to great restaurants, lots of shops and enjoyed this city a lot. we did not see a single piece of paper on the street. the traffic is very organized, everyone is polite. it is like a lego city where all is perfectly clean and works. the public transportation is superb.

the underground stations are very organized and spotless. The trains have double doors to keep the AC in and to keep the suicidal types out. we were simply impressed how well thought everything was and how well it all worked. maybe this is the result of the great fines imposed. eating in a public place is prohibited as well as drinking. any type of illegal substance traffic is punished by death. possession of firearms is also punished by death and pretty much every crime is punished to the fullest and with high prison terms, no wonder why the criminal activity in this island nation is so reduced. we were so fascinated that we now have a very big book on board on the history of singapore that we will both read to learn how this island came to be the beautiful place it is today.

immigration on board!

this was comfortable. for the first time since we departed we did not have to seek the immigration offices; instead, the immigration officers came to us. easy stamp in and fast, in the middle of the western anchorage absolutely packed with big freighters. after clearing in, we called the marina on VHF radio and their boat lead the way to our dock, certainly a royal entrance. we could get used to this type of service!!

frogger

do you remember this game?? where the object was to cross a frog form one side of the street to the other with as many obstacles as possible (mostly cars)….? Well we remembered this game too well while approaching singapore and crossing the singapore strait. we did not sleep or snoozed at all for the last 4 days before we arrived. The ship traffic was phenomenal.

not to mention the obstacles like trunks of very big sizes and island like formations like the one in the picture of course with no lights or any other warning of their existence. this added to the already crowded sea of indonesia by the hundreds of fishing platforms and boats and sadly the tons of garbage that floats in their waters. there were never less than 4 of 5 ships in sight… constantly….! and then to top it of, the arrival into what I think should be one of the busiest ports in the world. luckily Puerto Seguro reacted fast and we had the current in our favor so maneuvering through the big ships was no problem at all. when the city of singapore appeared in the horizon (we arrived at dawn) we saw all the lights and colors of this huge metropolis and the magnificent buildings, little did we know at this point that it was just the beginning of one of our best ports of call!