On a sunny Saturday afternoon on 30/06/18, 27 of us (staff and their family members) were picked up by a luxurious coach bus to One Degree Fifteen at Sentosa for an outing to Singapore Southern Islands.
All of us, especially the young children, were excited to spend the day on a rented private yacht.
“Kingdom”, the 53 foot catamaran had a covered living room area, 2 bedrooms, 2 toilets and an open dining area on the deck. Almost everybody gravitated quickly to the front deck of the yacht to enjoy a good view of the pier. The yacht sailed around the waters of Singapore, passing the city skyline before it started drizzling.
It was just as well, as our halal lunch was on the dining table, and at that time, all the children were famished!
We sailed for about an hour and a half, ate, chit chatted and enjoyed the skyline. The yacht then reached Seringat Island, and by this time, the rain had stopped and the sun was bright and hot. There were many other yachts around the pier at Seringat Island. We were welcomed by the resident stray cats.
We walked to the beach area and played at the beach. Serene, from Senserene , our events organiser organised games for us.
The group was divided into 2 teams with Dr Wong leading one, and Dr Lam leading the other. The first game was “Caterpillar Walk” where our legs are tied to each other and we walked in a line towards the beach, the winner being the first group to reach the finishing line. It was tough as it involved much coordination by everyone!
The second game involved passing a big ball around and the speed kept getting faster and faster so we had to concentrate hard. The winning team was the one with the least number of ball drops. The final game was “charades”, and of course the words / phrases that we had to act out were all related to infectious diseases! We had a hilarious time!
Some remained at the beach whilst others went back to the yacht to have tea. Almost all the curry puffs, sugar rolls were eaten up as all the children were hungry after playing at the beach. Some of the children had a go at sea kayaking.
Too soon, it was time to set sail again. “Kingdom” sailed around the islands, like Kusu Island, Sisters’ islands etc. At about 6. 15pm, we saw a display of helicopters and some fighter jets looming above us, practising for the National Day Parade flypast.
As we got closer to One Degree Fifteen, the sun was beginning to set and it was a wonderful sight against the skyline! It was a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing family day for all of us!