islandhippy

Following a serendipitous meeting in a bar, I was invited to join the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race crews in Marina at Keppel Bay during their stopover in Singapore. Sandy, the kids and I went aboard the Visit Finland yacht and were amazed at the sheer scale of the 68-foot-long racing yacht. The boats are large but they've been stripped out for racing with no luxuries at all. Ten canvas cloth bunks sleep up to twenty crew, in two shifts, and wet wipes make do for showers at sea. After a quick interview for a Nat Geo documentary on the race and a picnic on the grass facing the marina, I dropped by the race office to give the race office manager a gift from Monsoon Books: "The Boat: Singapore Escape, Cannibalism at Sea"!