jus been through a 16-days journey of self discovery at OBS....very proud to say that it is a specialised professional leadership development course for SPF OCTs only...many hav the idea that this trip will be easy and something like your secondary 3 camps...but to our 'horror'...its something so MUCH MORE....
the 16 days were packed with activities and i m glad to say that i hav completed the course with no regrets and dare say i hav put my utmost efforts in everytin that we attempted...
we were divided into 4 watches namely Eng Soon, Rajaratnam, Dhanabalan and Ghandi...and im in EngSoon...we operated as individual watches for most of the time till the last expedition....
16 days are divided into 3 major phases :
1st phase - Land Expedition (3 days 2 nights)
trekked and hikked and climbed and walked all around ubin to complete our missions...it was like a routemarch packed with sit-test missions...and i swear...im not exaggerating...the weight of the backpack was equivalent to that of army field pack and with addition of jerrycans and our tents...activation at night jus like field camp where we had to shift our campsite...
the high point during this phase is definitely the makeshift 'oasis concert' at OBS Campsite 2...had a hell of a time and we 49th batch OCTs did what we are best at and tt is to party into the night...!
2nd phase - Sailing Expedition (3 days 2 nights)
after the land ex, we had a crash course on how to sail a cutter boat for half a day at base camp and we set off soon enough...this had to be the most memorable experience throughout the 16days for my watch and i...sailing was a first for us and we had no clue how to sail even after the crash course...everyting was learned from experiences on the boat itself after we set sailed...
for eg...the very first day, we experienced a thunderstorm on sea...and the scene was jus like the movie 'perfect storm' everyone was doing something to make sure we anchor in safely and beached up...
Semangat was the name of our cutter...she is a beautiful one and i have to say tt the daily morning routine of swimming around the cutter and kissing her bow had me feeling attached to her...
she did not fail us unlike the other 3 cutters...tt faithful evening where Hamish T broke her rudder and Endeavour's motor was down and drifted all the way to Bedok jetty and lastly, poor Vijaya who breakwater and had 3 major cracks at the hull disabling her from sailing for the last day...
3rd phase - Sea Kayaking Expedition (3 days 2 nights)
this was the last ex for us and we were given the freedom to do our own planning by our elected leaders and we were to complete this expedition as OCTs on the whole....
we kayaked halfway around singapore starting fr:
ubin to changi on the first dae
changi to sembawang to causeway (literally touched it!) and bac to sembawang on the 2nd day....(FARKIN' crazy day where we kayaked aprrox. 41 km and clockin 11 hours of kayakin on the sea...)
sembawang back to ubin on the last day
we were proud of our acheivement on our 2nd day where we exceeded our initial target of jus sembawang and instead, we pushed on to go straight to causeway and back...!!!
this sums up bout the whole 16 days for me...and of cos dere are so many little things that contributed too...jus that it will be too draggy to put them down into words...i will jus list them out in chronological order....
- Engsoon Team Charter
- Night trek in search of mr red riding hood
- Eating the soft and puffy rice we cooked
- 'Turn over a new leaf'
- Pulling the dipper rope for tackin n gybing
- Having to spend a night in the jungle during the Solo expedition
- Crazy mini race to the causeway
- Touchin the causeway
- Doin the jump for Peak Ascent on the East face...VIDEO-ed!!
- Engsoon's Presentation on the last night and the EMO song Kangsheng wrote...SUPER CREDITS to him...
- 12km commitment run with timing of 1:11:33
- Goodbyes to Naf on the jetty
and somethin in one way or another hav changed for the better in everyone...
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