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Hi Everyone, Ten years ago Randal and I got married…Who would have thought ten years later we would be sitting side by side in a tiny internet cafe across the the world. This morning we donned wet suits and tanks and Randal cleaned our prop while I practiced staying under water in my scuba gear. Later today we’ll get some lunch, check out the tiny village here and then go back to the boat. I promised Randal salmon patties for dinner since he loves them. We left Sebana Cove Wednesday and cruised all say, 60 miles to Jason Ban where we anchored overnight. Ruth and Cliff on Icicle made the same passage and it was nice to have them anchored “next door.” The next day we finished the passage to Tioman where we have caught up with the Sail Malaysia rally. Both cruising days were smooth and sunny and I did laundry to pass the time. We might stay here one more night or we might take off tomorrow as the rally moves along. Everything is quite loose. I will email when I can and send photos when possible. We have no internet connection on the boat where my photos are stored. I guess I’ll figure out how to save the photo emails on a donigle and see if that works. And I also have to find one of those web based photo savers too as Audrey keeps telling me. So that’s where we are today. I will hopefully have more interesting emails to send as we take more part in Sail Malaysia. |
All posts by Ruth
New Bedford part 1
Hi Everyone,
I have a hard time sleeping when there is a Red Sox game on, so I’m up following it. It started at 2:10 but I just got up. Still half the game left to play. It might be the last one for a while since we seem to be planning to leave Sebana Cove tomorrow on our way to join Sail Malaysia. Our first stop will be an overnight anchorage at Jason Bay which I think is cool since “Jason Bay” plays left field for the Red Sox. It’s 60 miles from Sebana so we’ll have to leave at daylight. Then it will be on to Tioman Island. Our friends Ruth and Cliff on Icicle will leave either today or tomorrow with the same plan.
More from our visit to the States…..
I grew up in New Bedford, MA. My growing up friends Harriet and Bruce still live in the area: Har in Dartmouth and Bruce in Westport. But both of those areas say “New Bedford” to me. We grew up on Plymouth Street in New Bedford’s West End and it was a great place to grow up. New Bedford has great beaches, a mix of several cultures, and the best steamed clams anywhere. www.destinationnewbedford.org or www.ci.new-bedford.ma.us or www.nps.gov/nebe
Appropriately the brochure about New Bedford starts out….. ” “Around the World!” The crews of New Bedford’s famous whaleships sang out this cheer as they embarked on voyages that took them to every corner of the globe in pursuit of whale oil……Today, New Bedford is an authentic seaport city with a large fishing fleet and working waterfront.” There is a huge Portuguese community, hence the great steamed clams and wonderful Portuguese food. There were other influences too. At the beach we poured vinegar on our french fries and there were places to get fish and chips reflecting an English influence. When I smell vinegar I think of the Acushnet Beach where we learned to swim and hang out until we were old enough to drive ourselves to Westport and Horseneck Beach with its sand dunes and waves for body surfing. And there was a French area too, in the North End. The North End was French, the South End was Portuguese and the West End was where the Jewish community lived. But by junior high everyone was mixed together and there was only one high school so everyone went there. New Bedford wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was a good place to grow up and it is definitely worth a visit if your travels take you there.
Across the Achushnet River from New Bedford is Fairhaven where you can find the monument to Joshua Slocum, the first man to circumnavigate the world alone on his sailboat Spray. http://www.joshuaslocumsocietyintl.org/ http://fairhaven-ma.gov Growing up we rarely ventured across the bridge to Fairhaven or Marion, but now it is a favorite place and we always stop there when we visit Har and Bruce, the real reason we go to New Bedford.
“Acushnet” comes from the Wampanoag or Algonquian word, “Cushnea” meaning “as far as the waters” from Wikipedia
Our favorite corner in Fairhaven. Pumpernickle Restaurant where we “always” eat lunch and Euro across the street where we always find something to buy that we can’t live without. And the Millicent Library just down the street. We seem to always enter New Bedford from Fairhaven so stop there first.
Padanaram Harbor where Har lives. I love New England
Har took us to a daffodil field not far from her home, where it looked like spring, but felt cold to me.
Buttonwood Park Ruth the Asian elephant standing behind me. Yup, that’s her name and we’re about the same age too. She has a friend Emily the elephant too who is a bit younger. Buttonwood Park is the next street over from Plymouth Street. How great is that, as Rachel Ray would say, living around the corner from a park, zoo, tennis courts, skating pond, all part of Buttonwood Park. Growing up it was all free. Unfortunately, now the zoo isn’t free. but the animals do have better housing and care now so I guess the fees go for a good cause. And I think you can check free passes out of the libraries with your library card. You can see I’ve added an “I love New Bedford” button to my hat. Har bought it for me. http://www.bpzoo.org/
Lobstah Dinnah at Har’s per Randal’s request. Eating lobster is great fun and very messy. Har’s husband Dick, Bruce and his wife Jean were there too! We spent a wonderful evening eating lobster and catching up with each other’s lives and thoughts and hopes.
The most important reasons we go to New Bedford; Har and Bruce…”the Plymouth Street gang.”
Perfect fried clams from the Oxford Creamery in Marion, MA! YYYYYYUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! Har’s’ niece and her husband own the restaurant and he does all of the cooking. Go early, it gets jam packed!
Peter and Catharine Katzenbach and one of their labs outside their beautiful home on the Westport River.
The first time we met Catharine and Peter was when they welcomed us into their guest apartment for the 3 nights we spent in New Bedford. Har’s daughter Sharon is married to their son John. It was a lovely apartment, they were wonderful hosts. We hope one day we can repay their hospitality “when” they come visit us on DoraMac.
New England stone walls. “Good fences make good neighbors,” as Frost wrote. But it made for difficult farming as the stones had to be cleared from the fields first.
end part one
Doramac Update
Hi Everyone,
Randal and I are back on DoraMac in Sebana Cove. Our cruising friends Cliff and Ruth from Icicle had been keeping an eye on her. They even had the fridge going when we got back about 9 pm Friday night Sebana time. We had spent about 20 hours flying and 22 hours of layover time by the time we got off the Singapore to Sebana ferry. Way too long! But all of the flights were smooth and the luggage arrived when we did so no complaints. Except for one. We flew Lufthansa/United and had a 12 hour layover in Munich. Nowhere in the whole second floor of terminal H area was there a water fountain. And, of course, I couldn’t bring the water I’d had from the previous flight. So it was $5 US !!! for a cup of tea. A bottle of water was $1.90 Euro which was about $3 US. How can you not provide drinking water for free to airline passengers?
Saturday, Cliff and Ruth had borrowed cruiser John’s car and we joined them for a trip to Kota Tinggi for groceries. Everyone was having a good time until the car’s electrical system stopped on the way home in the rain. Miraculously John’s mechanic was traveling the road to Kota Tinggi and had been alerted to our predicament. He stopped and using his battery started our car. Luckily the rain had stopped so we didn’t need the wipers or lights or AC so the battery charge lasted until Cliff dropped us off at Sebana’s main gate and drove himself on to Sungai Ringget to the repair shop. We returned to DoraMac mid-afternoon and I slept until about 6 pm. Sunday we were up early. Lang and Douglas invited us to go with them to Sungai Renggit for lunch. We made a quick stop at the grocery store on our way home. I lasted about 1 hour before it was nap time again. I woke about 6 and Randal and I joined the C dock happy hour for a bit. Then it was back to the boat to cook chicken for dinner that neither of us was awake enough to eat. We were in bed and asleep by 9:30 pm. This morning we were up at 3:30 am and I figured it was the best time to work on storing all of the groceries and stuff we’d left strewn about the boat since we got back. Also, the Internet is working somewhat oddly so you have to use it when it works.
Our Plans……
Some time this week we will be joining up with www.sailmalaysia.net. Many of our cruising friends, including Ruth and Cliff will take part. We will cover about 2300 miles and see many parts of Malaysia we have not seen. The rally ends in Kota Kinabalu where we had spent time but quite like it.
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Passage To The East – Rally Schedule |
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IN SUMMARY, THE SCHEDULE IS AS FOLLOWS. DETAILS BELOW: 3 May – Penang 5 May – Lumut 10-12 May – Danga Bay, Johor Bahru 13-15 May – Puteri Harbour, Nusajaya 19-21 May – Sebana Cove, Johor 28-29 May – Tioman Island, Pahang 30 May-2 June – Kuantan, Pahang 9 June – Kapas Island, Terengganu 10-13 June – Kuala Terengganu 2-3 July – Kuching-Santubong, Sarawak 21-23 July – Miri, Sarawak 24-27 July – Brunei 1-2 August – Kota Kinabalu, Sabah I did take hundreds of photos while we were in the US and will try to post a few. We spent time with my sister’s family, Randal’s family and lots of friends. We made new friends too! We thank them for taking great care of us during our visit. Except with our friend Julia in Hyannis, we tried not to stay longer than 3 days! Time flew! I will try to share some photos if I have time before we leave. When we join the rally we will be anchored out a great deal of the time so communications might be sparse. Sorry. And any Internet connections might be very slow, so please save any emails with photos for when we are back at a marina. It is just very hard to download anything other than text. So that’s it for this quick update. Time to get back to packing up the boat. GO SOX!!!!! Ru MY DoraMac |
Randal makes biscuits
Hi Everyone,
Randal and I were up at 3:30 am this morning! Of course we spent most of yesterday afternoon sleeping and then were in bed by 9:30pm. Hopefully we’ll be on a Malaysia time schedule soon. And hopefully I’ll get used to the heat again. In the States we were COLD! Everyone else was enjoying spring; but we were used to summer all year round so rainy 60 degrees made us bundle up. Does blood really thin? I took photos or all of our family and friends; photos that are important to Randal and me. Some photos have additional stories so I’ll share those…like Randal’s sister Linda teaching him to make biscuits “like mama used to make.” Randal had tried making biscuits here in Sebana, but had little luck. They didn’t rise, they burned, and they were tough. Not good. He definitely needed help with his biscuits.
Randal and Linda in her kitchen. Looks just like the set of a Food Network cooking show. Linda is opening a bag of self-rising flour. Not sure what Randal is doing.
Mixing and measuring. Biscuits do best with Crisco and a very light hand while mixing the dough.
Biscuits in process
Perfect southern biscuits.
Ken, Linda and Randal
Just before we left Roanoke we had breakfast with Randal’s brother Eddie and his wife Judy and our friend Joe Deshiell. Judy made a huge southern breakfast with biscuits, sausage gravy, bacon, eggs, tomato, strawberries and lots of juice and coffee. Everything starts with a stick of butter! That’s how Randal’s mom had cooked and she lived to be 96!!
We had many wonderful meals with family and friends all along the way. Randal had requested a “lobstah dinnah” in New Bedford and our friend Harriet obliged. I ate wonderful fried clams at the Oxford Creamery in Marion, MA owned by Har’s niece. You could taste their time in the ocean….Yummm. I shouldn’t even start writing about the great meals because we had so many along the way and my fear is I’ll leave one out! Home cooked meals with family and friends were the highlights of our time at home.
Ruth Johnson
DoraMac
Back in Roanoke
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Hi Everyone, Just another quick update. Randal and I are back in Roanoke after a great trip north to visit friends and family in Virginia, Maryland, Philadelphia, Providence, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Coincidentally and perhaps appropriately, we spent our last night of travel as guests of John and Jerie Milici who live on their Diesel Duck docked in Stamford, Connecticut. Both Jerie and John will retire later this Spring: then they’ll throw off the lines and begin their cruising adventure. It was great to see everyone and hard to say good-bye. Part of our travels took us to New Bedford where I grew up and still have friends I’ve known since I was 4 years old! We visited college friends, friends from Roanoke who had moved north, newer friends, and even made new friends who felt like old friends when we said our good-byes. The weather didn’t always cooperate, but no monsoons or typhoons so it was OK. I did take lots of photos and hope to share some when I can. And we did get to watch several Red Sox games on NESN and the Sox won most of them! We still have friends to see and appointments to keep back here in Roanoke and so our time will be busy. All too soon it will be time to go. But we miss DoraMac and our pals back in Sebana Cove……..If we could only be lots of places at once! Ru and Randal |
Here we are
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Hi Everyone, Just a quick note to say hi and tell you where we are. Today we are in rainy Chincoteague, Virginia home to Misty the Pony and lots of migrating birds. Yesterday we saw egrets, a great blue heron, sand pipers, plovers, red-wing blackbirds, and an eagle. I even saw two of the wild ponies that live on Assateague Island which the wildlife refuge island here at Chincoteague. We arrived in the U.S. March 26th and have spent time with family, friends, doctors, dentists and accountants. We are heading up to New England soon to visit more friends. I’m taking some photos but have no way at this point to share them. We’ll be back in Roanoke about May 9th and will visit more friends and a few more doctors, though both of us are fine. Just the yearly routine stuff. DoraMac is back in Sebana Cove and our friends Cliff and Ruth from Icycle are keeping an eye on her. We’re loading up on books and a few boat things and lots of good memories. So for now, from Chincoteague, VA! Ru ps My poor Red Sox are not doing so well. Hmm. GOOOOO Sox! |
Singapore Misc 2
Hi Everyone,
One day I walked form the Dhoby Ghaut MRT to Chinatown. It was mostly a nice walk except for the parts where I can’t read a map really well and had to ask too many people who also don’t know North Bridge Road from South Bridge Road. And then it got really hot. And then I was almost 2 hours early for the “gallery event” I was going to and there was no library nearby to sit in and wait. And it was hot. So I took a detour to another neighborhood to explore and then got all turned around and sort of lost. A nice German tourist who had been in Singapore for about a day got out her map and luckily was going where I needed to go. And I was hot. I’d left the boat at 11 am and returned to the boat by about 8 pm. But I saw things I hadn’t seen and had a great popiah for dinner at the Maxwell Food Court. The “gallery event” was a small show at the art studio where I was taking my art classes so I really wanted to be supportive and take part.
The Dhoby Ghaut station is not far from Bugis and is on the direct line from HarbourFront where we catch the MRT. From the MRT station on Orchard Road I walked over to Bras Basha looking for lunch. I ate a great curry chicken wrap at the art museum cafe and then started walking, down Bras Basha Road and right onto North Bridge Road.
My first stop was at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. During our evening walk with Lang and Douglas we’d stopped at the church but weren’t able to look inside. We have a large St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke and I’ve never been inside that one either though it’s a Roanoke landmark. Maybe when I’m home I’ll go see it. I had first labeled the photo as St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, but luckily checked and found that it is Anglican. Since Singapore had been a British colony it’s logical that it would be Anglican and not Catholic. The description of the Padang below is even more telling of Singapore’s colonial past.
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
“Rebuilt between 1856 and 1861 by convict labour, after the original was twice struck by lightning, St. Andrew’s Cathedral is Singapore’s oldest Anglican house of worship. It’s also a truly magnificent example of Early English Gothic architecture, with spires that rise 63m to the heavens.” Streetdirectory.com
The grey sky made me wonder if I was going to get drenched at some point, but the rain held off.
Very light and white perhaps because of the tropical weather though they do have AC which felt good.
“Padang
If you’re wondering what the green field in front of City Hall is; it’s the Padang, the ceremonial green of the city. The first National Day Parade was held at the Padang on 9 August 1965, with Cabinet members proudly watching from the stairs of City Hall. Here you will also be able to see 2 distinct clubs:
Singapore Recreation Club
Look at the left end. First opened in 1905, the club was a sporting and social venue for Eurasian men. In 1955, membership was open to all male Singaporeans, with female members admitted the year after that.
Singapore Cricket Club
Across from it, is the Singapore Cricket Club, founded in 1852 as an exclusive bastion for British and European elite. The end of World War II also marked the end of this policy; membership is now open to all. Go past in the evening, and you may see a few games in progress at the Padang; football, cricket or rugby.
Singapore Cricket Field.”
Singapore River Walking Tour Guide, Route 3 Streetdirectory.com
You can also see the huge ferris wheel I’ll never ride off in the distance. The ferris wheel was visible from almost anywhere in Singapore. We saw it when we first cruised to One Fifteen from Sebana. We saw it on our walk around Sentosa Cove.
I got myself turned around leaving St. Andrews from the wrong direction. If I’d asked for directions to Chinatown I might have had no problems. But I kept asking for South Bridge Road and no one on North Bridge Road seemed to know which direction was north or south. For some reason I felt asking for “Chinatown” wasn’t so politically correct. I don’t know why; it’s labeled that way on the Singapore map as is Little India. Anyway, it should have been simple with my map. I had gotten myself around Singapore pretty easily; just every now and then I get stuck. Finally I did start asking for Chinatown and the problem stopped though many people told me that it was too far to walk which it wasn’t.
Wedding photo ops seem to be everywhere in Southeast Asia. Not sure if this is the old Post Office or City Hall.
Next stop Tanjong Pagar, Chinatown.
Singapore Misc 1
3/23/2009
Hi Everyone,
I have hundreds of photos from Singapore that I would love to share, but I’ll try to show some restraint and not send all of them. The Internet comes and goes…so we’ll see if this will work.
Bugis area
Singapore Art Museum with a “temporary” blue sculpture. It wasn’t there the last time I walked past surprising me.
My favorite bookstore. For 2 Singapore dollars I you can buy some really good books. I buy mostly fiction; lots of “Oprah” books. It was also 3 for S$ 5 but I could always only find 2 until my last visit when I made myself find 3. They had a copy of Beryl Markham’s West With the Night. That’s one of Randal’s favorites and he likes to have several copies so he can give them away and still keep his hardbound copy that Bill Kimley sent to him. And I found two that I wanted. There are two tables just to the left of where the cart of boxes of books is in the photo. Luckily it’s not so crowded when I go because only one or maybe 2 people can browse at the same time.
I went through our growing pile of books and collected some we no longer needed. They were mostly the fiction that I had bought, but some others too. I took them with me to the Bras Basha Complex that has lots of used book stores and started with my favorite so they could have first choice. “Two-fifty” the owner said. “Two dollars and fifty cents?!” I asked? “Yes.” I felt that was insultingly little so told her I’d rather donate them to the library! (The library is just across the street. ) I knew I wasn’t lugging the pile of books back to the boat; but I wasn’t going to sell the lot of them for S$2.50! I went upstairs to another book shop and he offered me S$3.00. I told him I’d rather give them away. Now in all fairness to the first shop, they do sell the fiction paperbacks for S$2 so they can’t pay much. But the hardbacks go for S$20 and up. The second shop sells paperbacks for about S$12 and prices go up from there. I donated them to the library which made me feel better even though they wouldn’t let me have a library card since we were only in Singapore for a short time. I still have some on the boat to use for boater book swaps and to leave in the Sebana Cove small library.
Down one of the side streets off North Bridge Road. I love the multi-colored winding stairways.
A modern day rickshaw with a semi-ancient driver.
Back in Sebana
Hi Everyone,
We made the half-day trip back to Sebana Cove today and it’s SO QUIET HERE!!!! It’s amazing how much construction noise we always heard and other boats and radio music and even sharp bird calls and screaming peacocks in the small rotary garden outside the marina.
We have lots of friends who are still here: Marie Louise, Cliff and Ruth, Aletea and Steve and others. Tomorrow we’ll take the van to town for some last minute shopping to hold us till Wednesday when we’ll leave for home. Well, shopping for me and a roti for Randal.
The Internet at Sebana developed issues while we were away and only works intermittently. Not sure if this will go.
That’s it for now.
Ru
ps since the internet is so slow, short notes back are great, but I won’t be able to get photos or anything long to download
Last day in Singapore
I was still trying to do EVERYTHING before we left. Not possible. But I did want to learn a little more about the Malay culture so it was off to the Malay Heritage Centre. www.malayheritage.org.sg The Centre turned out to be just one street away from Arab Street where I had been twice before; once with Lang and once with Randal. I ate lunch in the same place all three times.
Singapore Zam Zam on North Bridge Rd. Halal Muslim food.
I sat at a table on the other side of the glass window. These two men are making roti. I had the lamb roti for the third time. You can see the window of the mosque across the street reflected in the glass.
Gigantic roti cooked on a huge round griddle.
I could only eat about one third of this monster roti. It was hot and filled with ground lamb and very good. They also served me cucumber with catsup and spicy dipping sauce. I washed it down with a can of Coke Zero. Total cost 4 Sing $ about $2.60 US.
I had a front row seat too, to watch the sidewalk show go by. I also watched as one of the Zam Zam workers called to passers-by to come in for lunch. Many did just that. You can see him standing there in the long white shirt waiting to nab folks as they walk by. That’s why I ate here the first time; they come out and welcome you in. I was with Lang. When Randal and I were there it was a Sunday and the place was packed with families during lunch time. We had just spent all morning, from 7:30 am until 12:30 pm visiting Singapore Immigration (very frustrating interaction with them each time we had to renew our VISA) and then making a bus trip to Johor Bahru, Malaysia and back in the game called “get more days on your VISA to remain in Singapore.” Long story. Mostly happy ending. Anyway we were starving when we got to Zam Zam which was a few blocks from the Singapore bus terminal. We had 1 lamb roti, one order of fried rice and 3 Coke Zero between us. Because the restaurant in Halal they don’t serve beer which probably would taste wonderful with a lamb roti. We were Very full.
“Masjid Sultan at Muscat Street in Kampong Glam begun in 1924 and completed in 1928. This area of Singapore was reserved for the Malay and other Muslim people by Sir Stamford Raffles the “founder” of Singapore. I just love the term Glam. The area’s name is derived from two Malay words, Kampong, meaning “village” or “settlement”, and Glam (or Gelam) referring to a variety of eucalyptus.” from Wikipedia. My photo.
Arab Street where you can buy bolts of cloth and Persian Rugs. Randal and I saw some beautiful rugs and hope to actually buy some when we get to Turkey one day.
Cloth for traditional Muslim dress.
School kids and their teacher were also visiting the area.
A Malay sailing vessel at the Heritage Centre. And I can get scared on DoraMac. Imagine crossing the ocean in this.
Traditional Minangkabau Palace. West Sumatra Indonesia. The Malays have ties to Indonesia though I still don’t truly understand much about who they really are. Looks like something from “The King and I.”
Next email, inside the museum and batik painting.