More Magic Maritime Moments in Malaysia.

Just one of the things Gudrun and I love about Malaysia…..Our Second Home, is the abundance of opportunities to get out on the beautiful waterways surrounding this tropical paradise. Malaysia is a boating and yachting Mecca and it is easy to find beautiful well-equipped and well-run marinas within one or two days sailing from any port in the land. There are no fewer than fifteen different marinas throughout Malaysia with more on the drawing board. We are also blessed to have very professional and world-class yachting services in all major ports of call. We are both actively earning Royal Yachting Association (RYA) accreditation and whilst at the moment I am a qualified Coastal Skipper and Gudrun is qualified Competent Crew I am very interested to ultimately become RYA Ocean Yachtmaster and RYA Instructor within the next twelve months. Gudrun wants to be qualified and competent enough to sail our boat home should I keel over on one of our adventures! With this ambitious objective in mind we keep an eagle eye-out for opportunities to get new and interesting assignments as crew on boat relocations, participate in local yacht racing at the Royal Selangor Yacht Club whenever we can and pursue other assignments that will count for the crucial mileage required for the RYA accreditation.

Recently we elected to visit the delightful heritage town of Melaka, as we like to spend two or three days each month exploring more of our new home. We had a great time there and soaked up the different cultures and sights on offer. On the way home to Mont Kiara we decided to call in to the beautiful Admiral Marina at Port Dickson. It is very easy to find as you just stay on the freeway, ignoring all the Port Dickson town turn-offs, until you can go no further then take a right hand turn. The Marina is a short distance away on the left! Visitors are welcome here where there is always a brilliant buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner available every day which can also be enjoyed on the terrace overlooking some of the lovely facilities including a sparkling swimming pool.

The beautiful swimming pool at the Admiral Marina in Port Dickson

Our friends Simon and Ruby from SIMPSON Marine are also based here in delightful offices overlooking the Admiral Marina and the ocean, so we called in to say “Hello!” When they heard about us looking for some crew miles for our RYA certificates they offered us both places on a fabulous brand new SeaRay® 370 Sundancer® which had to be taken down to Raffles Marina and then to Marina One15° on Sentosa Island, the home of SIMPSON Marine in Singapore and finally to The Marina at Keppel Bay for the Boat Asia 2011 annual show which was held at Keppel Bay from May 12-15, 2011.

The SeaRay® Sundancer® 370

Of course we jumped at the chance so the following Sunday, May 8 we set off from Admiral Marina at 0800 hours with the very competent and likeable Raden Hasbullah, Simpson Marine Service Manager at Admiral Marina, in charge, most ably assisted by UniYati and of course us!

Here are Raden and Gudrun having FUN!

Wow……What a ride! The Sundancer® 370 is the flagship of the Sport Cruiser line from Sea Ray®. This beautiful boat was equipped with twin diesel shaft-drive motors and a bow-thruster to make berthing and mooring an easy task. Its fully equipped instrument panel incorporated the latest Raymarine® widescreen multi-function display including a fabulous chart-plotter that made setting our course and destination a breeze! The interior sports elegantly refined features with Ultraleather™ upholstery, maple and cherry wood cabinets and gorgeous wooden flooring. The beautifully designed head had teak flooring and a separate vanity and shower stall with hot and cold water on tap. A gourmet galley offers a hidden two burner stove, two refrigerators and abundant storage. Two eating areas are available, one in the cabin and the other in the cockpit where there is a lovely solid teak dining table. The cabin sleeps six in air-conditioned comfort making this very sexy boat the perfect get-away vehicle for idling around the river bend or running far down the coast with the whole family for a week-end’s fun on the water.

The last time I travelled from Port Dickson to Raffles Marina by sea was in March this year aboard the “Kay Sira” sailing yacht owned by Langkawi Sailing School and on which voyage I qualified at the RYA Coastal Skipper level. That voyage took us over thirty non-stop hours working in shifts of two crew members three hours on and three hours off! This time we had spectacular weather, calm seas and a fast boat that averaged better than twenty five knots and saw us tying up in Raffles Marina in an amazing five and three quarter hours! We knew we had enjoyed a really hot trip and this was underlined by the fact that the day we arrived at Raffles Marina was the hottest day in Singapore in SIX years! Such was the sizzling performance of this marvelous toy!

Yours truly at the helm

Every arrow head on the chart-plotter shown above is a huge cargo ship of every description imaginable, a container-ship or an oil- tanker either at anchor or in progress to and from Singapore, one of the world’s busiest maritime ports and this wall-to-wall traffic makes the voyage down the coast very interesting indeed. There are also many examples of “Tugs-in-Tow” hauling huge heavily-laden barges well over two hundred metres in length. Added to this is the constant vigilance required to spot the many very-active fishing boats and crews mostly employing very long nets stretching for hundreds of meters that have to be avoided, on the edge of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) or shipping channels.

Sunset at Raffles Marina in Singapore

We must thank SIMPSON Marine for this wonderful opportunity to add one hundred and seventy nautical miles in our log books. For Gudrun and I, what makes SIMPSON Marine very special are the extra-ordinary people who could not do enough for us wherever we went. From Mike Simpson, who founded SIMPSON Marine in Hong Kong in 1984 to Paul Whelan, General Manager of SIMPSON Marine SEA based in Singapore, to Sergio Loiacono from the Phuket office, whose wife presented him with a bouncing baby boy (Dino) on the first day of the Boat Asia Show, and a very special mention to Simon Theseira and Ruby Lee from Port Dickson and the rest of the marvellous SIMPSON Marine team…..thank you!

You can get all the details of the products and services offered by this remarkable company at http://www.simpsonmarine.com

The happy crew on safe arrival at Raffles Marina in Singapore

Posted in Maritime Articles and Stories | 1 Comment

Sailing School, another box ticked in my bucket list

See the post headed “Langkawi Sailing School” and the three posts under the menu item “Maritime Voyage Journals” to follow this adventure.

David at the helm of "Kay Sira"

The post RYA/MCA Yachtmaster Coastal Skipper Practical Journal is a diary of a recent sailing training voyage from Penang to Singapore and back to Langkawi through many interesting ports of call in the tropical paradise we call our second home….Malaysia.

Posted in Maritime Articles and Stories | Leave a comment

Neways “safe” cosmetics

Neways cosmetics products contain NO HARMFUL INGREDIENTS.

Look at this link to see what the products used everyday can contain and switch to using Neways safe products.

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | Leave a comment

The “DnG Detox Eating Plan” Shopping List

Here is a list of vegetables and fruit suitable for the “DnG Detox Eating Plan”. Remember to always opt for certified organically grown products. You have to take responsibility for your health, continually educate yourself, reverse years of abuse to your body, and invest in your body and your future. Your future good health is in your hands……………

Vegetables:

  • Artichokes         Carrots        Mushrooms   Spinach
  • Asparagus         Cauliflower  Okra               Sprouts
  • Avocado*           Celery          Onions            Squash*
  • Beans                 Cucumbers  Parsnips         Sweet Potato*
  • Bean Sprouts     Eggplant      Peas                Tomatoes
  • Bamboo Shoots  Endive         Pumpkin*      Watercress
  • Beets                   Kale              Radishes         Zucchini
  • Bok Choy            Kohlrabi       Rhubarb
  • Cabbage              Leeks           Shallots
  • Capsicums          Lettuce         Snow Peas

Fruit:

  • Apples                  Papayas*
  • Apricots               Paw Paw*
  • Bananas*             Peaches
  • Blackberries        Pears
  • Blueberries          Pineapples
  • Cherries                Plums
  • Figs                        Raspberries
  • Kiwi Fruit             Star Fruit
  • Mangoes*             Strawberries
  • Nectarines

* in moderation.

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | Leave a comment

The “DnG Detox Eating Plan”

©2010 G and DB Holdings Pty Ltd.

The purpose of this eating plan is to improve cell and enzyme function, assist the liver and kidneys with detoxification, and to decrease the body’s fat stores. As this is a detoxification program, any food or drink that typically causes sensitivities or increases toxicity has been eliminated. Over the next four or more weeks by following the “DnG detox eating plan” you will increase your energy and your cellular vitality.

Upon rising:

Drink one or two glasses of warm water with a squeeze of lemon or fresh lime juice.

Breakfast and repeat all morning:

Large fruit salad. Stop eating at least 30 minutes before lunch.

No oranges, grapefruit, melons or grapes (see notes below).

Lunch and repeat all afternoon:

Salad and homemade vegetable soup. Stop eating one hour before dinner. Eat all or part of the salad first as the enzymes from the salad assist the digestive process. Consumption of soup first may cause gas.

Dinner:

Weeks one and four…..

Fish, chicken or lamb with brown rice and vegetables and/or salad.

Weeks two and three…..

No meat—-brown rice or baked/boiled potatoes and vegetables and/or salad. You can add protein to your diet during weeks 2 and 3 by adding Tofu and/or Lentils.

Seasoning and dressings:

To season your food you can use Bragg All Purpose Seasoning, Tamari and Miso paste.

For salad dressing you can use Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Flax-seed oil. (Keep these refrigerated and never heat them.) Also you can use lemon and/or lime juice.

NOTES:

  • Eat until you are full
  • Never skip meals
  • Never allow yourself to be hungry so you don’t need to restrict yourself to three meals per day. Eat constantly every hour or two – the more you eat, the more you will lose
  • Between lunch and dinner you can snack on fresh raw vegetables such as carrot and celery sticks
  • Do not eat fruit in the afternoon except for an occasional apple if you must!
  • Drink plenty of water away from meals sipping throughout the day. You should consume the minimum recommended quantity of water per day, i.e. your weight in kilograms divided by thirty, plus one litre
  • All fruit and vegetables must be fresh (not frozen)
  • If you have a thyroid problem do not eat cauliflower, broccoli or flax-seed oil
  • On days four and five each week eat apples (three different kinds) for breakfast and no other fruit on those days
  • On day 6 each week eat only watermelon for breakfast and no other fruit
  • On day seven each week eat only grapes and no other fruit.

Foods to be avoided during the “DnG Detox Eating Plan”

  • Bread, wheat or gluten products
  • Dairy products
  • Soy milk, rice milk, almond milk and coconut milk
  • Grains except brown rice or occasionally basmati rice
  • Eggs
  • Pulses and legumes including beans and chick-peas
  • Alcohol
  • Caffeine
  • Salt and pepper
  • Spice but fresh herbs are OK
  • Processed food
  • Olives
  • Pickles
  • Unnatural sugars
  • Honey
  • Seeds and Nuts
  • Canned or dried fruit and vegetables
  • Fruit or vegetable juices
  • Soft drinks
  • Popcorn or rice cakes
  • Condiments
  • Vegetable oils
  • Preserved foods such as dressing, vinegar or pickled food.

SUMMARY:

Eat plenty! Do not consume small amounts. The secret to your success with the “DnG detox eating plan” is to eat until you are full! Do not worry about gaining weight, you will only lose it!

Note: If you are feeling hungry during the “DnG detox eating plan” you are not eating enough. The plan will only succeed if you follow it correctly. It is extremely important that you rethink your dietary values and learn new ideas that will change your attitude towards traditional dieting concepts based on calorie restriction.

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | Leave a comment

The Path to Health and Wellness

©2010 G&DB Holdings Pty Ltd

Every cell in our body is fueled by nutrition. Nutrition is the food we eat and the water we drink, the quality of which affects our very quality of life. Most of us eat the wrong foods, either because it is convenient to do so or we have trained our taste-buds to like junk. After years of eating the wrong foods and eating contaminated food our bodies build up excessive toxic residuals that can only be reduced or eliminated by following a detoxification process. This should be followed up with a healthy  life-style plan to keep you “in the pink”.

The detoxification and ongoing healthy life-style plan.

The process I would like to share with you consists of six parts. It is critical that each segment of the program is followed accurately. The program will help to optimize your body’s digestive function, detoxify your body and improve your metabolism and health and wellness.

The Six Step Health and Wellness Plan

1. The “DnG Detox Eating Plan”

  • provides complete nutrition based on holistic dietetics
  • supports the body during the detoxification process
  • assists the body to eliminate toxic waste from the bowels
  • no need for calorie reduction/counting or measuring portions
  • the more you eat, the more you detoxify and the better you feel, and
  • if you need to lose weight….you will!

2. Water.

  • The body is two-thirds water and requires continuous re-hydration and filtration especially if living in the tropics
  • Your normal water consumption goal, in litres per day, should be your weight in kilograms divided by 30. For example if your weigh 90 kg you should drink three litres of water per day.
  • Your normal water consumption in ounces should be your weight in pounds divided by two. For example if you weigh 130 pounds you should drink 65 ounces of water per day.
  • Whilst on the eating plan add one extra litre of water per day to your normal consumption goal.

3. Elimination.

  • The optimal number of bowel movements is two to three per day. Once daily is essential.
  • Detoxification cannot occur if your bowels are not moving.
  • A gentle laxative is recommended in the early stages of the eating plan in order to achieve the desired action. Consult your doctor or pharmacist for advice on this subject.

4. Healing and Breathing.

  • No strenuous exercise is recommended when you are on the eating plan. 35 to 40 minutes of walking, rebounding and light yoga are recommended three or four times per week. (Every other day)
  • The body requires plenty of rest to recover and allow proper detoxification. Try to get at least eight or nine hours of sleep each night.
  • Specific breathing exercises may be used to help increase lymph movement which assists detoxification.

5. Body Balancing and Nutrition Supplements.

  • A lot of our food today is grown in nutritionally depleted soil, sprayed with large amounts of insecticides and pesticides, over-processed, cold-stored for months if not years and injected with hormones or genetically modified, just to name a few modern day ills.
  • Where is the life force (Chi) in our food after this? Our food often ends up either nutritionally deficient or pumped full of toxins.
  • Always opt for organically grown produce. This means stock that have been ‘free range’ all their lives, fed only organic feed and not given any synthetic dips, drenches or vaccinations. The farm and stock are regularly audited and inspected to maintain the “organic” label.
  • We should be entitled to eat healthy food that has been grown naturally and not smothered with harmful chemicals, so organic produce should be the norm not the exception.
  • Unfortunately the majority of shoppers still opt for the “cheaper” non-organic products largely unaware of what they are consuming or the harm it could be doing!
  • It is highly recommended that a suitable regime of essential minerals and vitamins are taken every day together with anti-oxidants to help eliminate free-radicals. These supplements will ensure that your body extracts the maximum sustenance from the food you eat. We are proud to recommend Neways products that contain no harmful ingredients.

6. Ongoing Education.

  • Become aware of your life-style patterns, both good and bad.
  • Change undesirable or unwanted patterns through education and commitment.
  • Get help to stop smoking cigarettes. Did you know that nicotine is more addictive than heroin?
  • Reduce or eliminate your use of other “drugs” and excessive alcohol consumption.
  • Become more aware of your exposure to harmful ingredients in the household cleaning and health and beauty products you use.
  • Maintain healthy eating habits.
  • Reduce your carbon footprint by understanding more about how you can live a “greener” life-style.

Make these six steps a habit and you will find you have boundless energy and a vitality that shines.

In the next few posts I will provide more information on the “DnG Detox Eating Plan” and a suggested shopping guide for recipes that can be used in the plan.

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | Leave a comment

Detoxification: A reality check……

© 2010 G and DB Holdings Pty Limited

Why is it that most of us take better care of our car than we do of our body?

We take our car for a full service every 10,000km and get everything checked, re-tensioned, cleaned out and have the air and fluid filters replaced. When was the last time you decided to focus that kind of attention on your own body?

After most of us have given our bodies a hammering over the festive season with too much of everything, it is time to reflect on the year just gone and set realistic goals and objectives for the year ahead.

A very worthwhile goal is to take the time-out to give yourselves a proper tune-up program that will kick start your New Year and have you hopping into the Year of the Rabbit with renewed vim and vigor.

Our bodies are amazing machines which have the outstanding ability and potential to heal themselves, but there is only so much one’s body can do when it is constantly bombarded with toxic chemicals, internal and external pollution and weighed down with the stresses of today’s fast-paced lifestyle! Our modern world has provided many benefits and conveniences but an unfortunate side-effect is the detrimental impact evident on our health and wellness.

Detoxification is a relatively new concept to the Western world but has been part of the fabric of Eastern culture and philosophy for many centuries. We need to regularly repair and rejuvenate our bodies and NOW is the time for you to give your body a rest and give your insides a “full service”.

Why De-tox?

Flushing your body of accumulated toxins revitalizes your digestive system, boosts your liver function and if needed helps you to lose weight too! The most important thing anyone can do to ensure a long and healthy life is to undertake regular exercise and look after your “internal health”. If your digestive system is in good shape your health and well-being will also be in good shape and those who are overweight will lose weight!

How can anyone lose weight if their digestive system is only working half-time? How can anyone lose weight if they do not digest fat properly? How can anyone lose weight if their tissues are clogged up with waste and plaque that has built up over many years? How can anyone lose weight whose bowel is not eliminating effectively? The answer is simple…..YOU CAN’T!

However there is a fast and effective way to eliminate toxins from your body and revitalize your inner organs. It is called detoxification! The reason for detoxing your insides is not just to empty your bowels, which the process will do, but rather to draw into the intestines from every part of the body accumulated toxins, wastes and pollutants and eliminate them.

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | 1 Comment

The Magic Word

There is no doubt in my mind that the best kept secret of a “Healthy Life” is what Earl Nightingale called “the magic word”. The magic word is Attitude.

Good attitude…………..good result,

Bad attitude……………..bad result!

Listen now to the master himself, Mr Earl Nightingale, tell you about “The Magic Word” and how you can gain a good attitude!

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | Leave a comment

Home Truths from Andrew Carnegie told by Napoleon Hill.

Incredible as it may seem, most if not all of the secrets of “The Secret”, an understanding of the powers of the mind and the amazing power of attraction, have been around for a very long time. The amazing video below shows Napoleon Hill talking about his meetings with Andrew Carnegie, now more than one hundred years ago. Yes, more than a century ago!

These basic truths are as true today as they were then. Anyone seeking to step up, get out of the rut, become an achiever and therefore be successful, must believe that these worthwhile objectives or goals are possible and achievable. With that belief you can do anything you set your mind to do!

For those of you who are not familiar with Andrew Carnegie he is regarded as the second richest man ever in the world after John D Rockefeller. I hope you will enjoy and gain some secrets of success from this fascinating video.

The following information about Napoleon Hill and Andrew Carnegie is extracted from Wikipedia.

Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970)

Napoleon Hill was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature. His most famous work, Think and Grow Rich, is one of the best-selling books of all time. Hill’s works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. He became the advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933-36. “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve” is one of Hill’s hallmark expressions. How achievement actually occurs, and a formula for it that puts success in reach for the average person, were the focal points of Hill’s books.

According to his official biographer, Tom Butler-Bowdon, Napoleon Hill was born in an impoverished, one-room cabin in the Appalachian town of Pound in Southwest Virginia. Hill’s mother died when he was nine years old and his father remarried two years later. At the age of 15, Hill began writing as a “mountain reporter” for small-town newspapers in the area of Wise County and he later used his earnings as a reporter to enter law school, but soon had to withdraw for financial reasons.

The turning point in the writing career of Napoleon Hill is consideredto have occurred in 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous men, to interview the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, one of the most powerful men in the world. Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be elaborated in a simple formula that could be duplicated by the average person. Impressed with Hill, Carnegie asked him if he was up to the task of putting together this information with only reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses to interview or analyze over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success.

As part of his research, Hill interviewed many of the most famous people of the time, including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, George Eastman, Henry Ford, Elmer Gates, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Charles M. Schwab, F.W. Woolworth, William Wrigley Jr., John Wanamaker, William Jennings Bryan, Joseph Stalin, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Jennings Randolph. Hill was also an adviser to two presidents of the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Other famous works include The Laws of Success (1928) and Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960).

Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry, controlling the most extensive integrated iron and steel operations ever owned by an individual in the United States. One of his two great innovations was in the cheap and efficient mass production of steel rails for railroad lines. The second was in his vertical integration of all suppliers of raw materials. In the late 1880s, Carnegie Steel was the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke in the world, with a capacity to produce approximately 2,000 tons of pig metal per day. In 1888, Carnegie bought the rival Homestead Steel Works, which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a 425-mile (685 km) long railway, and a line of lake steamships. Carnegie combined his assets and those of his associates in 1892 with the launching of the Carnegie Steel Company.

By 1889, the U.S. output of steel exceeded that of the UK, and Carnegie owned a large part of it. Carnegie’s empire grew to include the J. Edgar Thomson Steel Works, (named for John Edgar Thomson, Carnegie’s former boss and president of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works, the Lucy Furnaces, the Union Iron Mills, the Union Mill (Wilson, Walker & County), the Keystone Bridge Works, the Hartman Steel Works, the Frick Coke Company, and the Scotia ore mines. Carnegie, through Keystone, supplied the steel for and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri (completed 1874). This project was an important proof-of-concept for steel technology, which marked the opening of a new steel market.

In 1901, Carnegie was 66 years of age and considering retirement. He reformed his enterprises into conventional joint stock corporations as preparation to this end. John Pierpont Morgan was a banker and perhaps America’s most important financial deal maker. He had observed how efficiently Carnegie produced profit. He envisioned an integrated steel industry that would cut costs, lower prices to consumers, produce in greater quantities and raise wages to workers. To this end, he needed to buy out Carnegie and several other major producers and integrate them into one company, thereby eliminating duplication and waste. He concluded negotiations on 2 March 1901, and formed the United States Steel Corporation. It was the first corporation in the world with a market capitalization over $1 billion.

Before his death on 11 August 1919, Mr. Carnegie had donated $350,695,654 for various causes. The ‘Andrew Carnegie Dictum’, speaks a lot about Mr. Carnegie’s generous nature. Here is what Andrew Carnegie said through his dictum, To spend the first third of one’s life getting all the education one can. To spend the next third making all the money one can. To spend the last third giving it all away for worthwhile causes. Andrew Carnegie was involved in philanthropist causes, but he kept himself away from religious circles. He wanted to be identified by the world as a ‘positivist’.

Posted in A Healthy Life-Style | 1 Comment