Bellingham Yacht Club

1 degree 15′ above the equator and there’s no wind. I also burnt the bottom of my feet on the deck of the boat because it’s so hot here. It hurts to walk.
We went from the small island of Pulau Aur, which had nobody living on it, just a small beach bungalow resort that was getting ready to close up for the monsoon season, and now we are here in a massive city in Singapore. Quite a change from what we’ve been used to. We are staying in a marina on the island of Sentosa which is nice because we don’t have to have an anchor watch. Tomorrow we’re going to the Singapore Aquarium where we are going to be diving in a shark tank! I’m a little nervous, but the skipper thinks it will help me overcome my fear of sharks.
A few nights ago when we were still on the island of Pulau Aur we had a “night out,” where we all went and had a BBQ on the beach. It was so much fun, and when we got back to the boat at midnight everyone either jumped off the boat to go swimming or we were thrown in. Either way it was a lot of fun.
The diving has been great. I’m learning a lot and I’m working towards my advanced certification, I still get nervous getting in the water but once I descend I calm down. I’m also learning a lot about navigation plotting courses on charts.
I’m having a great time and I think it’s going to be really hard to come home. As always, I still miss everyone and I look forward to seeing you.
-Ashley

Each holiday season the officers of the BYC choose a charity to support with our annual “Sink the Dinghy” fundraiser. While this fundraiser runs the entire months of November and December, the main event is during our annual Lighted Boat Parade, when we will have representatives from the chosen charity at the club to give our members an introduction to what it is they do.

This year the BYC has chosen Lydia Place as our charity. Lydia Place is a transitional housing program for homeless women and children, located in Bellingham. They have capacity for 18 people at any given time, and currently are almost at capacity with 17 people overall – including 10 children under 9 years of age. (more…)

Hey I’m here in Pulau Tioman, another beautiful island in Malaysia. After Terengganu we went to two other islands that were very remote and we were basically the only people on them. We’ve been doing a lot of Scuba diving and right now I’m working toward my advanced certification. Two nights ago I did my first night dive! I was so scared, my dive instructor Eliot had to calm me down before I could even get into the water. But it was really cool, and I am loving diving. We’re having a really great time on the boat, and we’ve been swimming a ton. The water is crystal blue. I’ve got to go but I’ll write more later. I miss everyone!

-Ashley

Ashley sent these pictures from her voyage. Keep an eye on her entries in Ashley’s antics to hear about what she is up to as she completes her SeaMaster.

Well, we had a three day passage from Ko Samui, Thailand to Terrengganu, Malaysia. Passage is a lot of fun, and it always seems to go by really fast. I’m on a really cool watch team, and we always find ways to stay entertained at 3 o’clock in the morning. All the days on passage just seem to run together and the next thing you know you’re in a different country.
Malaysia is very hot, even warmer than Thailand. Here in Terrengganu it’s a very Muslim state where the women wear scarves over their heads. We are required to wear long pants and t-shirts, which doesn’t help us overcome the heat at all.
Although it’s a very Muslim state, they are very welcoming of us Westerners, and everyone is very friendly. They’re trying to make Terrengganu a yachting destination, so they were really happy to see us.
Last night, our skipper, Boomer, invited a guy that he had met on his last trip here, over to visit after we had dinner. The guy is from Germany, but he is living in Malaysia trying to revive an ancient Malay tradition of building wooden sailboats. They didn’t use any measuring instruments or anything, they did everything by eye. It’s quite amazing. Tomorrow we’re going up to his shop to see what he’s doing.
I hope everyone is doing well. Bellingham is always on my mind.
-Ashley