Favourite Places

Thursday, January 19, 2006

That Infamous Boat Trip

Well i was just telling harti just now as we were strolling back fr the 20 cent drink machine that once again our blog has fallen silent...and it always takes harti the mother blogger to revive it for a while with a sentimental & heartfelt piece before hamid & i add in sth (as u've noticed we 3 are e only ones blogging! oi asrie!) & then the poor thing lapses back into silence. So...i am taking the initiative for once & i would like to put up sth abt our recent adventure in the high seas!

ok it was sometime in late dec when the twins, jit khong, hamid, nurul, harti & me set off on "The Adventure That Went Wrong!" so the story goes...

7 young Singaporeans stranded in Sea - Police Coast Guard to the rescue

A group of university students from NUS & Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine were found stranded about 60m off the coast of Big Sister's Island, allegedly due to the sudden stalling of the powerboat they were in. According to an eye-witness, these young Singaporeans had docked the boat at Big Sisters Island and spent some time there. "They looked happy & even shouted HI! to us as we walked pass them", said Mr. Joe Bright, a rich American boat-owner who coincientally was on the island with his family for some fun time. "A few hours later, as my family & I sped off on our expensive & luxurious pleasure craft, we passed these same people in a rickety looking boat anchored in the middle of the sea. So we enthusiastically waved BYE! to them to return their previous hospitality. How was I to know they were in trouble?"

Well, they certainly were in trouble. Stuck at sea with no hope of restarting their stalled engine, the captain, Mr. Goh Jit Khong, 20, resorted to swimming to shore to get help, despite his fear of what lies beneath. His decisive action resulted in the elite Singapore coast guard circling in to rescue these stranded souls. "We were highly amused when we saw them in their boat. Normally we try to be as professional as possible but this was just too much. In fact, my colleague forgot to turn off his loudhailer while laughing, " said Sergeant Mat Dodol, while doubling up in fits of laughter before this reporter. With a reproachful look on his face, his superior, Captain Lim Tee Keat Peter Jason Ishwari, claimed that they had to be forceful in handling this unusual situation. "Nowsaday, you never know who might be masquerading as terrorists or illegal immigrants. Following strict protocol, we took down the names & ic numbers of these people & then turned our boat around to get a safe distance away while we checked up their identities in our dangerous people list. Thankfully, they were not in either the Terrorist Alert or Wanted Pirates database."
Sergeant Ramly Berger could not resist adding his two cents worth. "How can they be dangerous lah sir!" he laughed. "Ask them which island they came from, they shout with gusto - SINGAPORE! That one my grandmother also know lah!"

Jokes aside, grim & angry faces greeted our Coast Guard heroes as they returned to the stranded boat to continue this rescue mission. Particularly incensed was Ms. Ho Hui Lin, 20. The added strain of seeing to her twin sister who had just thrown up resulted in her labelling the Coast Guard officers as "useless". "They come to us, laugh, then ask us to shout out our ic numbers while laughing some more. Then they go way, we expect them to do something like tow us back but they say the Maritime Port Authority will be coming to help us." Indeed, officials from the MPA did drop by, but unfortunately claimed that they could not help as the students "did not have insurance". By then, it was late afternoon as a day of fun was turning rapidly into a bad dream. The bad dream became a nightmare when the students were told that their only way back was to engage a towing service, with a charge of $200 an hour!

A hefty price to pay perhaps? Or a lesson well-learned? Whatever it is, these 7 young people certainly got more than they bargained for when they set off on their proposed boat trip around Singapore's southern islands. In the end, they became an island themselves, an island of 7 inhabitants, that existed in the middle of the sea for an endless 3 hours.

- ST, 28 Dec 2005

haha i couldnt resist adding the last corny bit...hope u enjoyed my little article...fotos later...hee hee

Posted by Adila :: 9:17 PM :: 0 comments

Post a Comment

---------------oOo---------------