We motored across from Batam to Singapore. It was very busy, ships everywhere. We negotiated the shipping lanes carefully. There are a couple of anchorages full of huge ships. We went into Raffles marina. It is a very nice marina with good facilities and a lovely swimming pool. It is quite expensive but we needed to repair the boat and decided Singapore was our best bet.

We lost reverse gear going into Nonga point marina in Batam and were still without it when we arrived at Raffles. It makes mooring a little more challenging but I informed the marina of our problem before we arrived and they had plenty of help on the dock. William came in as slowly as possible and I passed the lines to the men on the dock. We stopped without doing any damage.

We decided to have the boat bottom cleaned and when the diver went down she found a big piece of rope wrapped around the propeller shaft just in front of the gearbox. We must have picked it up on the way from Kalimantan to Batam. We saw lots of debris floating in the water. Anyway it had damaged the gear box, which had to be removed and fixed. The in mast reefing is still broken so we have no mainsail. Oyster were very helpful with that and ordered the parts for us. William flew back to the UK on Christmas day to attend a family gathering to celebrate his dad's 80th birthday. I stayed with the boat. He is bringing the spare parts back with him.

Despite all the boat problems, we have had time to look round Singapore. The MRT railway is a good way to get around and much cheaper than the Tube in London. Ann and Gordon who we met in Bali arrived a few days after us and we went into town together. We went to the famous raffles hotel and had a Singapore sling in the Long Bar. A Singapore sling is a cocktail containing among other things a good measure of gin. After this we went to China town for a meal. Having been fed and watered we went to look at the Christmas lights in Orchard road, the main shopping street. Singapore has as many if not more Christmas lights and decorations as we do at home. Every shopping mall is beautifully decorated and there is a huge Christmas tree in Orchard road. Very festive.

We were only allowed to stay two weeks in Singapore. Because we arrived on a yacht, we are treated as crew and fall under the rules pertaining to sailors on commercial ships. We went to immigration at Marina South to extend our stay for a month. William also had to sign off as crew before he could fly to the UK and sign back on again when gets back.

Singapore is a shoppers paradise, especially if you have a lot of money. I went window shopping in Paragon shopping mall in Orchard road. I saw a nice diamond ring in a jewelers window for $450,000 and ear rings for $1,5 million. There are loads of shops full of expensive hand bags and shoes which no one could possibly walk in. I suppose that those who can afford such footwear don't need to walk far.