CNY Day 1: Southern Semakau

Happy Chinese New Year! Annually without miss, we will also be visiting the shores since the low tide and the Lunar New Year are both influenced or predetermined by the moon.

This time, we decide to visit Southern Semakau, a stretch that is not so reefy but has seagrasses and the associated animals that are found on them. We were blessed with good weather as we only had a short sprinkle of rain despite the pessimistic weather forecast.

Western Ubin with OBS

A team of us visited the Western part of Pulau Ubin near Outward Bound School. Many thanks to the kind invitation of Alex from OBS, many of us visited this intertidal shore for the first time.

We enjoyed the late afternoon with clear weather and blue skies. This stretch of Ubin is almost untouched and we were looking forward to surveying the shore, which Ria would call it as the mini-version of Chek Jawa.

Splashing good time at Eastern Semakau

Two weeks ago, a team of us visited Semakau East via amphibious landing. As we arrived early, we landed on the reef while the waters are still high.

Here's a photo of some of us after hopping off the dinghy. That was the start of our splashing good time!

Northern Chek Jawa survey

We are back at Chek Jawa for our intertidal survey, with permission from Nparks. We hardly have the energy and time to do the northern part of Chek Jawa as we usually get distracted by the coral rubble in the south.

Thus, it is good that we dedicated a not-so-low tide to properly look at the northern part. It was a bright sunny Sunday, perfect for taking landscape shots. And I'm glad to see the seagrasses expanding its territories.

Slugs explosion at Cyrene Reef

Happy Boxing Day! We are back at one of our most favourite shores, Cyrene Reef.

Thank God for the lovely and windy weather with no threat of rain. Cyrene Reef remains beautiful as usual with lots of sea stars and other critters.

Christmas with full moon at Terumbu Semakau

Merry Christmas from the reefs of Terumbu Semakau! There are not many good low tides towards the end of the year. It's nice that Christmas coincides with full moon in December, which naturally means low tide to go out and explore on this special day.

It's been a while since I last set foot on Terumbu Semakau, a submerged reef off Semakau landfill.

How to survive your first visit to Coney Island?

For those who have done their research or heard from others' experience before visiting Coney Island would know that this island is notorious for its sand flies. Sand fly bites are not to be undermined because they are extremely itchy and long lasting. So what should you do before your visit to Coney Island?

A small team decided to visit the intertidal shores of Coney Island since it is now made accessible to the public. What lies on this shore during low tide? And how did we protect ourselves from getting bitten by sand flies?