27 Mar 2011: Shark-oholic Attack

After MIA for sometime, we finally found some time to make this trip.


Captains: Chee Wai & Dave
Crew: Boon San, Liang Fong and James


Another bloody hot day with North Star V at sea today.
Finally a chance to test out my new weapon - xZoga TakaSi, Type S, a nice birthday gift from my beautiful colls.

In summary, we had many surprises today:


1) Shark Attack!!!
The day started slow and we caught 4 sharks in a row!!! It just came one after another (not sure if it was a same one we released though), and stole our prawns. Poor Chee Wai got 2...

2) Cat Attack!!!
The second wave of attack was launched by Ah Seng battalion. And Poorer Chee Wai got 2 hits... He was the 'Cat-Man' of the day...

3) Ambushed!!!
I was the lucky man. After patiently waited under the scorching sun, my prize was a wild KBL. My first wild KBL too...I think this front scout was darn unlucky and got ambushed.

4) Ambushed 2!!!
Dave was even luckier. Somehow managed to hook this Spanish Mackerel without a bait. Simply brilliant!!!

Final Report:
4 coral sharks (I think this is the right species) - CnR
2 Ah Sengs - CnR
2 baby grunter - CnR
1 KBL
1 ACK
1 Spanish Mackerel


Last but not least, a short video of Cpt CW in action today, steering North Star V...

6th March 2011 - North Star's 'post surgery' test

After MIA for more than 2 months due to festive and work commitments, I have managed to find some time out to test North Star after her 'surgery'. She had some minor problems with the engine and we finally got it fixed.

It was supposed to be just a test run, but Boon San brought along a newly purchased rang-gong double hooks to test out.

North Star seemed to be back in shape and we anchored at one of the old spot to test out the rang-gong.

Boon San was the man with 4 fishes (1 x double hook up) in less than 30 minutes:
2 x ACK
1 x Stone fish
1 x ah seng

The rang-gong worked beautifully!

Just a short CR to share with everyone...

2 Jan 2011 - Shagged out at Gym Workout at sea

What a way to start the New Year with North Star V!
We went against all odds and decided to push our luck at sea, even though sea intelligence reported unfavourable fishing conditions...

Captain: Desmond
Crew: Robin, James and Princess Y

Woke up darn bloody early at 5am as we needed to catch the early high tides.
We hit all the right spots but the fishes simply did not want to touch our lively prawns...

Adding to our misery, the anchor wrench did not work!!! Darn darn darn.
Robin and I huffed and puffed all the way pulling up the anchor numerous times, and fought with the strong currents... No joke, man...muscles, back and legs all aching after the trip.

At the end, we were 'rewarded' with 2 fishes...I've gotten a small ACK and Robin got a jumbo sized Ah Seng...

JC out.

11 Dec 2010 - The 'Return'

I'm hitting the SG waters again after 'MIA' for more than 2 months.










And this is possible after all the hard work put in by our skippers and seamen - Dave, Chee Wai and Boon San who have done a fantastic job in:
1) Repairing the anchor windlass
2) Cleaning up the bilage pump area
3) Stunning paint job on the window sills
4) ....the list goes on and on...
I would also like to acknowledge the good efforts from Preston and Francis who have contributed to the 'Spa' job for North Star.

Captain - 2LT Dave Ang
Crew: Francis, Edwin, Preston & Denise, James
Area of Ops - Ubin and Tekong
Weather - Fair, sunny and windy

We also tested our 'new open air toilet' on North Star and tester Preston was very very pleased...










We were all zero-fighters at the first spot...hence Francis decided to reveal his secret spots and make our way there...
He said many many at low tide and he was the first to get a silver fin Ah Seng - CnR.

Edwin followed with a 2nd - a yellow fin Ah Seng and we decided to keep that for our reliable maintenance staff at MCC.












The secret spot was full of booby traps and we lost heavily - prawns, weights and leaders...And the anchor was almost a casualty too!!!

Edwin ended up as the overall winner with a good Jack.










There were many misses too, esp. so for Francis.
Although the catch is poor, but nice company and catch up with friends on North Star.
Another fun day!

18 Sep 2010 - Broke Back Boating

This was my best trip on North Star V to date.

CR:
Robin (aka fat Uncle Oh) - 2 grunters & 2 ah sengs
Ben - grunter & 2 ah sengs
Desmond (aka Captain) - ACK and Gao
James (aka fatter Uncle) - ang kway, Gao and Cuttlefish
Misses: 4-5





LOTS of learning points/funny from this back-breaking, muscle aching but rewarding trip:

1. Cut waves at 45degress and not perpendicular.
2. Reading echo sounder graphs for productive fishing spots
3. Parking the boat at the correct spot, taking into consideration of current flow and wind direction.
4. Tying apollo hooks
5. Wear gloves if you are going to pull anchor manually for the day
6. Kids really like to ask WHY...Princess WHY got her nick because she never stop asking WHY the whole day...amazing! I have problem keeping up with answers to her WHYs...

We have Captain Desmond's daughter Princess 'WHY' (Y for short) to entertain us today and she is sure a hyper active girl...Ben and I were busying baby-sitting her for the entire day. Fun!
Princess Y was very busy snapping pictures the whole day with my camera...she really likes photography..

Ben started the day with a nice table-sized grunter.

My turn was next with a nice size fighter - Ang Kway. About 1kg plus accordingly to the 'accurate' vision-to-speech 'ROBIN' brand weighing tool...

Robin was the only Zero fighter till 4pm and finally he was rewarded with a huge grunter. Happy man at last but still lost out to my Ang Kway...

To view more pictures, pls visit my facebook group Fun@Kayak & Boat Fishing:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo_search.php?oid=134581443235184&view=all