Raffles Marina, Singapore

It turns out the boat store located in the Raffles marina complex was the right store for us. Raffles Marina has won awards as being one of the best marinas in Asia. It is a popular marina with cruisers. We decided not to go there because it is pretty far out of town and we wanted to check out the highly touted brand new marina One degree 15. Pretty far out of town is right. It was a 30 minute train ride west from Vivo City to the Boon Lay train stop the end of the line. From the train we took a 15 minute cab to the marina. Out here there is something we have seen virtually none of in Singapore to date: vacant land. What is weird is there are high rise complexes that look kind of like low income housing in and amongst the empty fields.

Raffles Marina is absolutely beautiful. Like One degree 15, it is a private club. It is just as nice, if not nicer, than One 15. One 15 is very sleek and modern, Raffles is more colonial opulence, kind of like Raffles hotel.

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There is a website we look at sometimes written by a cruising couple from Seattle that are about our age, Warren and Steph on Micro Verde (see Useful Resources). We knew they were staying in the marina, so we found their boat and knocked on their door. Warren was home and Continue reading

Lunch at Zurna

Today we set out in search of a boat store. We had found the store listed in the directory from the marina, and had absolutely no clue where it was. We gave the taxi driver the address and he took us to the southeast part of the island, an area much farther out than we have already been. As we got further from downtown, the skyscrapers thinned out. This area has a lot of turn of the century row homes, but most of the buildings are newer townhouse style residential buildings or low rise condos. There were even a few Continue reading

Sentosa Attractions

Even though we have been staying on Sentosa Island, we hadn’t explored it as of yet. Sentosa was uninhabited before the British arrived. The British used Sentosa as a fort island to protect Singapore Island and until a few years ago, it contained nothing but the old forts. Then the island was designated a recreational area and master planned. There is tons of building going on all over Sentosa. The section of the island called Sentosa Cove, where we are staying, has tons of homes being built. We have been told some are selling as high as Continue reading

Checking into One Degree 15 Marina and Singapore

It was made clear to us last night that we needed to be at the marina office promptly at 0900 to check in. Getting up wasn’t too hard since there is an enormous construction side on the other side of the cove that was making lots of noise. We were given a brief tour of the facilities. The marina is part of a private club that opened in April 2007. It costs S$50,000 (USD$38,000) to join. It is swanky, featuring two restaurants, a deli, bar, pool, gym, game room, guest rooms, and on and on. The shower/bathroom area off the pool is amazing. The facilities for the people in the marina are not anywhere close to as nice as the facilities for the club members, but it doesn’t really matter. You get a temporary membership card and can use all the club’s facilities. Most of the boats in the marina are power boats, with only a few sailboats. They also have free unlimited wireless internet to the boats, which is like heaven for us. The connection is so-so by our old San Diego standards, wonderful by our new cruising standards.

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Once we were checked in to the marina, we headed to town to Continue reading