Little Joshua - a month old

hello all...

I am Joshua Alexander Schmeja... yesterday was my first month old celebration at my home. My mummy and daddy said I slept most of the celebration.... I really had a good time sleeping away.

p.s Sorry... the photos didn't appear yestersay. Just managed to upload now.

The Uniquely Singapore site

After many months of waiting and procrastination, our very own web blog for the Uniquely Singapore is finally up. Yes, it was up only after the race started and even then.... our site is not actively blogged by our own crew. It's so different from Victoria's Blog... in fact, I get most of the interesting life experiences onboard from their blog. I hope by the time they reach their first port at Cascais, Portugal our diary person will be able to update our very own blog.

So for those who are following our race, you can visit those my race dailies sites on my blog...

as the days pass

I've been wanted to blog for a few days to update on our boats positions but have been pretty tied up with other matters. I'm not exactly that busy but just never got round to blog.

We haven't really been doing very well ... we've been hovering around 7th-10th positions. The boats are expected to arrive Portugal today... But based on the positions we might come in say 12-20 hours behind the leader... Durban.

As days passed, I am actually getting jittery as I read about the team onboard US. Most seem to be suffering from seasickness. I'm probably one of those who will suffer big time ....argh...

Here's what our skipper wrote in our diary on day 4...


Dear Diary,

Today is Wednesday (or as we like to think of it aboard Uniquely Singapore day 4).The dawn broke with a lovely colour scheme this morning but most were too busy too notice as we were occupied with a change down from #2 yankee as the wind built in intensity for 15 minutes. As quickly as the gust had arrived it departed and we were back up to our #2 with staysail and double reefed main.

Since the start we have carried out something like 15 sail changes. Some of those with as few as 3 people as the majority of crew were disabled by seasickness for 36 hours. The weather abated yesterday and we had a lovely days sail averaging 3 to 7 kts whilst many boats around us fell into wind holes.

That allowed us to move from 10th to 7th place over a 12 hr period but alas a brief lapse in concentration overnight has seen us slip back to either 9th or 10th. However, as we like to say on Singapore "the race isn't over until the umpa loompas dock"!

Morale improved markedly once the majority of the crew stopped throwing up. Yesterday was like watching a feeding frenzy at the zoo as we all tried to replace the lost calories from the previous 36 hrs.

To date we have been fortunate with no injuries or breakages and hope that this will continue. Earlier problems with the generator have been resolved after a sterling effort by our two engineers over a 3hour period yesterday.

Fingers crossed for some better luck today as we see whether our gamble to place ourselves well west of the rest of the fleet pays off.

Cheers,

Richard Falk - Skipper
Uniquely Singapore
22

Another new birth

Introducing baby Tashiro Remi.... who was born on 6 September 2005 in Yokohama. Looks like year 2005 is a year for not just marriage but also birth. It's forth baby popping out in the last 2 months.

Well, it gives me more reasons for me to visit Japan again.... I was very lucky to be able to spend some time with my friend and her hubby in Yokohama last year when I was there for work cum holidays.

Remi-chan... welcome to the beautiful world!

isnt she kawai-ne?

Race started yesterday....

The day is finally here.... the Clipper 05/06 Round the World Yachting race has started at 1200hrs GMT+1 on 18 September 2005.

The excitement was all taking place in Liverpool and we received no news of the start at all. No one sent news or updates to us in Singapore...how sad! I could only look at the time and wondered how they crossed the start line and sailed out of English channels...




















After the first hour of racing in the 05-06 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, Liverpool 08 was leading the fleet towards the Irish Sea for the first race towards Cascais, Portugal.

Liverpool 08 rounded Brazil Gate in the Mersey at 1301 BST, with Jersey Clipper, Durban, New York and Cardiff all less than five minutes behind at the start of the 1000-mile race. Jersey Clipper passed the start for the second time in the lead just ahead of Liverpool 08. But Liverpool 08, sponsored by the host port and buoyed by the local support, managed to pull away into the lead as she cleared Brazil Gate.

After crossing the start line in the lead at noon, Qingdao was overhauled by the leading five boats, pushing her into the bottom half of the fleet as she passed the final control gate before the fleet leave the Mersey. Danny Watson and his crew on the Clipper 68 sponsored by Qingdao, the host of the sailing at the 2008 Olympics, reached Brazil Gate at 1307 just six minutes behind Liverpool 08.

Glasgow, Uniquely Singapore, westernaustralia.com and Victoria, Canada brought up the rear at Brazil Gate, but with less than 13 minutes separating the fleet it is very close racing for the 10-strong fleet as they prepare to head south towards the Bay of Biscay.

Fluky, light winds left the fleet to tack around the marks in front of the crowds of spectators lining the banks of the Mersey, as the aerobatic display team flew overhead.

Race Director Tim Hedges said: “The crews will be glad to get out of the Mersey and settle into the watch system as they head towards the Irish Sea. After all the excitement of the start they will be keen to get on with the race and it looks like a very close and exciting race at the moment.”

Fleet positions at Brazil Gate (All times BST)

Liverpool 08 1301
Jersey Clipper 1304
Durban 1305:20
New York 1305:48
Cardiff 1306
Qingdao 1307
Glasgow 1309:22
Uniquely Singapore 1309:40
Western Australia 1311
Victoria, Canada 1314

Virtual friends...

I received yet another email from a long lost friend. This is the forth in the last 7 days. I have not seen them for many years too. In fact, in this new technology world, we probably have more virtual friends than "physical" friends. Which is better...virtual friends or friends whom you meet? In my context, virtual friends are seen in your radar probably once in 2-3 months if you are lucky. If not, their names would probably appear in your mailbox once in 6 months to a year.

Handphone short messaging is fast replacing emails. I wonder if this would be the "mobile friends" era.

This weekend had been a weekend of losing all my contacts in my SIM card. Silly me.. tried to fiddle with my SIM card security password and I ended up having SIM card lock twice. The first time, I managed to save all my records but on the second time, I am not so lucky. My SIM card is damaged. Thankfully I had a free replacement by M1 but... all my contacts in my SIM card are all lost - may be not so thankful after all. I have not backups, no records whatsoever now ... sigh..now, I have to wait for my friends to contact me...

so friends...drop me an sms so that I can have your numbers again.

I've got a new phone....

I finally changed my phone... I've faithfully used this nokia 6100 for 2 years. Actually I could have missed this opportunity. M1 sent me a voucher of either buying Samsung Z500 at $359 or a $150 discount off any phones....and I only opened that mail last night.. the expiry date was today. *phew* luckily I didn't waste this voucher.

any ways... here's my new phone... still a nokia user. Other phones didn't catch my interest all...
















Photos: courtesy of Nokia and Eleen Lim

8 days to race start....

It's getting closer.... the latest news announced is that the last boat is sponsored by "Cardiff, The capital of Wales"... I wonder what happened to Ireland though, they were supposed to come in as the last city boat.

Well, at least all ten boats are now commissioned and the boats are all ready to compete...

Introducing the ten boats - missing Qingdao and New York cities logos though....

Whimsically

It's been three weeks and I am still coughing like mad. I'm not exactly working very hard, work schedules are not as crazy as before...and I have been faithfully going home after work every day since last Friday and eating soupy non-fried non-oily food. I'm beginning to miss my fried hokkien mee and fried oysters... I think I'm losing my taste buds for such delicious food already... sigh

Like I told Ken... strange things happened yesterday. It all started from a conversation that I had with my colleague in the afternoon. I've passed the initial 'shock' and it's accepting the fact now.

In the last one week, 3 guy-friends whom I have lost touch for few months to 2 plus years are back on my radar again.... losing them in my radar seem very often partly because of their jobs. Any how, it's still nice to have surprises in life once in a while...

Race starting on 18th September

THE DAY is approaching... as I look at my calendar, counting down to race starts ... 9 days!!!! I am excited but yet getting a little jittery. Perhaps I still can't believe that it's all happening ... Announcement of crew in Feb... training in July ... and now race is starting...

I picked up some latest news on Clipper website...

"Seven of the ten yachts are now moored in the Albert dock and the final three will arrive on Friday, 9th September. The most striking difference of the new yachts is the mix of international cities that are represented in the Clipper 05-06 race. First to make an impression on the river was the Chinese entry from the port of Qingdao where the 2008 Sailing Olympics will be held."

Nothing was mentioned about Uniquely Singapore but I managed to pull out a good picture of her flying our flag proudly sailing into Liverpool.




















and finally here's a picture of the Team Singapore...

Little Joshua

Here's cute little Josh ... It's a pity I won't be able to meet him when he comes to Singapore in December. By then I would be sailing on Indian Ocean on my way to Fremantle. In any case, if all goes well, I should see the Schmeja family in Jan in Melbourne!! I can't wait to meet this gorgeous-looking boy.