Saturday, February 23, 2008

Singapore Air Show 2008

As promised, I have blogged about the Singapore Air Show and it is available on my other blog here, check it out.

If time permits later this week, I'll blog about my visit to Cessna's Aircraft manufacturing facility at Wichita and Independance, Kansas. I am taking delivery of the first Mustang for Asia in late March and I'll record that event as well as document the ferry flight.
Cheers.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Blue Blistering Barnacles

Sea dog, pirate, sea cucumber, billions of blue blistering barnacles, ten thousand thundering typhoons...anyone who's familiar with Tin Tin comics will surely know what I'm talking about. I did feel a bit like Captain Haddock but wasn't cursing like him for sure. Would have loved to swear like that, but I had guests on board the new yacht (yacht is pronounced as YOT-most Indians say it like "hatch" but with a "Y" and a dear friend in Mysore suggested I make this clarification for the benefit of interested Mysoreans and Indians in general) that we acquired and that would not have made a good impression for sure. I wrote briefly in my last post about us acquiring a yacht on my new company called SEAJET and here I am going to crow about it a bit more.

(Our Yacht)


The yacht is a Carver Cruiser, made in the U.S.A. and just less than 60 feet in length. That makes it a good sized boat but not nearly the size that captain Haddock would have commanded. I did not have Tin Tin and snowy on board but I did have my colleagues and a few guests from overseas, Cessna chaps in particular, who had come in early for the Air Show. Now the Airshow is just two days away, opening on the 19th of February and I'm going to be making a splash with Cessna. Like I'd mention before, the Citation Mustang will be making its first entry into Asia when I bring in the first one. I'm taking delivery of the new Aircraft at Cessna facility in Independence/Wichita in late March. So, how's that for a first?

(Me and colleague director Selvam)


Back to the yacht story and we launched in the evening from One Degree Fifteen Marina located on Sentosa Island, south of Singapore. The sea had turned a bit choppy and most of us decided the upper deck was the best place to be, to have the wind blowing into one's face and for acquiring some "sea legs". Haddock would have shouted obscenities for sure. The yacht has a living room with sofas and chairs, cabinets, Television and so on.

(Living room sofa)

The dining area has a nice kitchen and seating area with a dining table. There are two bedrooms, one is a master bedroom with an attached toilet and shower and there's a guest bedroom that has access to the common toilet as well. There's a mid deck with outdoor lounge sofa and an upper deck where Captain Haddock would sit, in this case it was Mr. Razak (and he wasn't swearing!). The upper deck has some sofa style seating as well.

(kitchen, dining and gest room entrace in the background)
As the sun set, I had the captain head out to sea, rounding out over the southern islands of Singapore. We first went past the turtle island, so called because one can find many turtles there and legend has it that a turtle saved some fishermen who had fallen into the water. They've built a Chinese temple on the island and the temple is dedicated to-what else-turtles!

(Captain Sea Dog on deck!)


(Some of our geasts taking in the sights of Sentosa from the sea)

Heading out further, we aligned ourselves in parallel to Sentosa southern coast where the "Songs of the sea" lazer show is organized every evening. The waters here were calm and it was time for the drinks to come out. We served some nice "St Julien" grape wine and seafood canapés. Every one took to the wine although I had stocked the fridge with Heineken beer as well. There was no whiskey on board and Haddock would have been livid and called me a sea urchin for sure! Maybe he’d have me thrown off the deck too.


Heading back to home base after watching a bit of the laser show from the boat, the sea had calmed down, making it nicer for people to relax outside and consume more wine. A sit down dinner at they yacht marina finished off the evening. We are all steady, as one can be after a yacht ride and drinks, making it back home elated and relaxed. The guests were boaters in the States and loved doing the same in the tropics. They'll carry good memories from their first trip to Singapore. I needed to have this casual meeting with them and it was a chance to catch my breath, the last few weeks has been hectic. I'm doing exciting stuff though, so I won't complain. Next one's going to be about the Singapore Air Show and I'll try to blog while the event is mid-way. Cheers...hic!