Back in Singapore

In June we returned to from the UK to Sea Bunny, which we had left at Puteri Harbour Marina in the Johor Straits. A good, very sheltered, place to leave a boat but fairly remote, with surrounding facilities still under development.

After a month there, more boat jobs, we checked out of Malaysia and in to Singapore, intending to spend 2 weeks in One15 marina before heading on to Indonesia. The main purpose of the visit was to have a major service on the engine.  However, various issues were found which kept us here for an extra 3 weeks.
The extended stay meant that Richard had to extend his landing pass. On entry into Singapore at least one person must be declared as crew; this person receives a crew landing permit stamp, which is valid for 2 weeks and does not permit leaving Singapore, in the passport. Passengers receive a visitor visa, duration according to nationality, 90 days for the UK. Until a few months ago extending the crew pass was a simple matter of taking the papers to immigration at the ferry terminal at Marina South Pier and getting a new stamp, costing MRT and bus fares. No longer! It is now necessary to hire an agent to do this at a cost of, in our case, SGD 150.

We also needed some engine parts, which could not be found in Singapore. Marking the package "Ships spares in transit" allows, in most countries except Thailand, importation free of duty and VAT/GST, under an international customs agreement. It does apparently also allow this in Singapore. Unfortunately, according to UPS, to benefit from this it is necessary to complete various forms and guarantees and possibly to hire an agent (again!) to carry out the clearance. In the case of our parts the fee was almost equal to the GST.

Sea Bunny dressed overall for National Day

Singapore National Day was on 9 August, just after the end of Ramadan holiday (Hari Raya/Eid-el-Fitr) on 8 August so there was effectively a 5 day holiday from Wednesday to Sunday. This did not affect us much as boat work continued, including fixing the boat central heating, which has not been used since Australia but may be needed as we head further south out of the tropics. Richard managed to flood the system with diesel which resulted in large clouds of dense white smoke when it eventually fired up, causing major concern to the marina staff and a reprimand from the marina manager for not informing them in advance.