BiO. Now HERE's the climb.

Back in Office.

I reckon that the remaining rest of the year, and the year ahead, will be a steep learning curve for me. Now I'm onward into attempting to finish my research paper the best I can, then there's some fill-in-the-job for someone who's leaving my team to further her studies (wishing her the best of luck and best wishes!), and then there's the Annual Report and Financial Stability Reports coming.

As for details about sailing.. Having two regattas back to back, my memory has jumbled itself up. When someone asks, 'how did it go?', I am unsure on which regatta to describe. 'Did i win?' is also.. subjective.

So I'm prolly not gonna describe about my experience and adventure until someone asks me about something which is 'blog-worthy' in my opinion :P

Here's my silliness from a few months back for not applying sunblock on some skin :P

Yes, it hurt. :P

Does reality bite?

It's a Sunday. And tomorrow is a work day.

It's been two weeks since I've been in the office, and away sailing. Now on this fine Sunday morning, I've just completed my laundry, and currently settling my bills. My credit card bill is > 1k.

Sailing can indeed be expensive. Thankfully the charges came mostly from the first regatta, and I had sponsors for the match racing the following week. So anyone looking for sails, do checkout Quantum Sails ;D They're amazing! Our team got some of the nifty items from this page:

• Q Short Sleeve Cotton Tee Shirts
• Small Sailcloth Duffel Bag

Thanks to Ai Li for the photo!

The expenses incurred during the Raja Muda includes and not limited to:

• Accommodation @ Pangkor & Penang
• Entry fee (RM300)

What other expenses did I incur during the month besides the usual phone bills and such? Car servicing: RM400

Nevertheless, I am thankful :)

I can afford it ;p

Back to 'normal life'

I arrived back in KL about 5 hours ago, and just finished unpacking most of my stuff.

By this time, I've pretty much forgot stuff that happened, whatever it may be, during the Raja Muda Regatta :P

Anyhow, updates later, I'm now gonna enjoy my loooovely own bed!

When the night has come

"Stand by me" was the one song that I kept thinking off while I sailed through the night. Especially the part 'when the night has come, and the land is dark'.

There's so much to tell about the Raja Muda Race that I participated in, but being a no good story-teller, I've no idea how to tell it in a non-boring way. So here goes anyway.

The facts first:

• There's three main passages to race. Port Klang - Pangkor Island - Penang Island - Langkawi Island
• In all three passage races, we started off around 1 pm.
• We arrived in Pangkor Island at about 8 am the following day, Penang Island about 4 am the following day, and Langkawi at about 9.30 pm the same day (yay)
• I sailed in a Hunter 49 boat
• I threw up a total of 4 times: thrice on the first passage, once on the second, and none on third!
  

One thing for sure, is that I learned a LOT from my first offshore racing. I really don't know if I'll do this again. Not next year for sure. Nevertheless, I certainly do not regret going for it.

To be continued...

Here we go!

Just waiting for Rudy to come by in about 35 mins, while eating my breakfast and doing some quick browsing around the internet before I'm offline for a week.

Then fly back to attend BNM's annual dinner (50th anniversary, woohoo!) and then fly off to Terengganu Sunday morning (22nd) for match racing! (my first match racing competition, whee!)

Last night, I didn't sleep soundly. I guess the nervousness has turned into more of excitement now. Really can't wait to experience this off-shoreness stuff.

Off we go!

When's the last time I've been as nervous as this?

Next weekend (14th onwards), I'll be in a big race. It's gonna be my first off shore racing, and definitely will be racing through the night. I've already started dreaming about it when I sleep at night.

I'm so damn nervous about it.

Kinda sad that after all these years sailing, I've only started keelboat sailing this year. The sailing I did in Syd, even tho it has a keel, still felt more like a dinghy. (A very fun one that is! Wish they'd be available in Malaysia someday)

I'm quite anxious too, to get started. Part of the reason I'm rather nervous is that last I heard, there's only six crew altogether on board manning a 49ft yacht. Shifts? Perhaps none =p I reckon there'll be more people tho!

I remember while in Sydney, since training was from 4 to about 7 pm, I get a little nervous as the day starts to darken, and we're still out on the waters. Now I'll be sailing through the night!

Yet after this experience, I'm certainly eager to do more offshore racing. It feels like I'm 'completing' my being a sailor somewhat!