Manado to Raja Ampat
We said goodbye to Sulawesi on the 4th of October and 9 lives and ourselves headed for a tiny speck in the middle of the ocean called Gureda island. We arrived in the late afternoon, 9 lives had already entered the reef and given us details to enter the lagoon. Its preferable to enter these reef areas when the sun is over head so as to get a clear view of reefs and bombies. We would never attempt these entrances in the dark. Catamarans get away with a lot more then us mono-hulls having only a couple of feet draught, so we’re very polite and always let them go first. There were actually a couple of rudimentary channel markers too which helped and sailing sites such as noonsite and zulu, often have info placed by other cruisers with really helpful navigation and anchoring tips. As we entered the lagoon, we headed for a sheltered arm of the lagoon which looked like something out of a postcard, it was idyllic. Look at the video below.
One of those rare places untouched by tourism, you feel like you’re miles away from the big world. There was a small village onshore and the next day we visited a coconut plantation owned by the local pastor. The islands main income is from coconut oil and all things coconutty. The pastor was a keen spear diver and proudly displayed his home made fins to us. Get a load of these in these in the photo below. Warren gifted him a nice pair of slightly larger, more normal looking fins and a rash suit which made his day. The day before a dugout with two teenage girls came out to the boat and we gave them a bag full of girly clothes and a box of stationary, which they were very excited about. One of them Desi, was quite enamored with Morgan and invited him to come live in the village and attend school there. He politely declined despite my encouragement. Although I could think of worse places to grow up thats for sure.
It was also Morgans 15th B-Day on the 7th of October, so I baked a necessary chocolate cake and invited Mariposa and 9 lives for lunch. Michael (The crazy German) brought an amazing cake- layers of thin cake stuffed with vanilla custard topped with strawberries and raspberries in a red glaze topped with whipped cream laced with Lemoncello and Cointreau. It was deeeeeevine. Better then anything I had tasted from a bakery. It was gone in two seconds and I hid my very average chocolate cake under a tea towel and told it to keep its head down. So Morgs birthday was celebrated that afternoon with mountains of food and champagne and great gifts .
We ended up staying in this remote paradise for a couple of days (again a week would have been nice).
Next stop was the volcano island of Ternate. As part of Morgans B-Day present, 9 lives had offered Morgan a free sail across on a “real boat”. For reasons unexplained, Morgan has never liked catamarans, but still, he looked forward to a ride on another boat and you never know, it may change his view a little.
Kanaloa arrived in Ternate in the late afternoon and anchored across the passage on Todora, guided by Mariposa. It wasn’t until dark when 9 lives arrived and found that their windlass was on the blink. They rafted up with us and the next day was spent finding out the problem by a process of elimination. Again the benefits of cruising in company. A repair was done and we all motored over to Ternate. We organised a tour of Ternate and saw some interesting old forts and a crater lake at the top of the mountain with a resident white croc, who occasionally nibbles on the odd human game enough to enter the lake. Not sure whether this is a mythical creature, although there have been several “sightings” and a mauling last year.
Ternate was a good place to provision with a huge fruit and vege market. From Ternate we sailed up to Dedola, stopping at Laloda for a night on the way, The next morning the boat was covered in gritty ash from the nearby volcanos, we could see one (Mt Umi) of them blowing ash as we sailed away. There had been quite a lot of volcanic activity in this area recently.
Dedola is a small resort island surrounded by reef so Morg and I were on mast duty going in through the reefs. I can still manage to free climb to the first set of spreaders and my goal is to do this until I’m 60, or before if I fall off.
We were the only boat around and enjoyed good snorkeling on the outer reef where we saw a few curious black tip sharks. That afternoon, Morg, Warren and I went ashore and wandered around the now abandoned resort. We weren’t sure if the resort was a victim of Covid, but the place was now inhabited by a few fishermen who had set up camp. We strolled around the island and I lay down on one of those shaded outdoor platforms common in resort areas, a place where you have an afternoon siesta or massage. I felt some bitey things on my shin, and picked off a few tiny crustation like things squishing them between my finger nails. Thought nothing of it and luckily I decided to swim back to the boat.
The next morning I woke up covered in horrible bites that over the next few days blistered and turned a deep ruby red. Nobody else had succumbed to whatever plague it was that had infested the island and me. A search on google resulting in the exact image of the beast I had squashed in my fingers, revealed that they were Cimex lectularius, aka bed bugs. And man did they itch. I thought BB’s were solely the proprietors of hotel beds, but nope, they quite like the outdoors and fiber too. The skipper was ready to put me in isolation in the dinghy, but I’m happy to report that none got onboard, probably owing to my decision to swim back to the boat.
We stayed here for two nights, and then did an overnight sail to Wayag island, finally reaching our dream destination of Raja Ampat. For years we have dreamed of getting here, and finally we could see for ourselves why this area has a reputation for spectacular scenery and diving. Wayag covers a total area of 155 000 Hectares, with hundreds of breath taking atolls, with pristine beaches and unique karst islands that look like mushrooms sprouting from the sea. Their near vertical walls hang over the sea which have undercut the razor sharp rock below. Below is the view from the top of a climb we did.
You can dinghy for miles between these wee islands and get totally lost. Its the equivalent to a maze on water. No one lives here and again, apart from a hand full of cruising boats, you have the place to your self. Bliss.
Unfortunately due to time constraints, we could only spend a few days here. Adrianna needed to get a ferry to Sorong so that she could make her flight back to Italy. So we continued on our way south coming across some big, fast moving over-falls just out of Wayag. This was possibly where two currents may have met resulting in an area of disturbed surface water in an otherwise flat, calm sea.
We headed the 55 miles to Pulau Pef which reminded us of sailing through the sounds in the South Island with steep forested hills right down to the waters edge. There were a couple of moorings here owned by an upmarket Swiss resort. We hoped there might be the chance of getting Adrianna on a resort boat to Sorong, but no luck. But what we did find out is that the mooring cost 20 Euros Per-person per-night. Most cruisers don’t have a budget that allows for a hundred euros per night mooring fees unless you are in the Med. So we high tailed it out of there early morning, it was a beautiful spot and one thing we have noticed since being in RA is the return of bird song.
The dawn chorus is loud and magnificent here as there has sadly been a lack of bird life throughout SE Asia, or in places we have anchored anyway. Off the coast we see the odd sea eagle, hand fulls of frigate birds and boobies, and the occasional flock of working terns. We even had a stray swallow hitch a ride with us for half an hour, but that was pretty rare. We also noticed that no seagulls have been spotted on our travels through SE Asia.
We sailed down to Waisai where there were regular ferry’s to Sorong, and farewelled Adriana. We didn’t stick around as it was an uninviting place and we headed for an anchorage at the start of a narrow passage between Gam and Waigeo Island. This channel boasts a thriving ecosystem and here we had a lot fun. The current in the fjord like passage roars through, so we dropped out of the dinghy at one end, tumbling along a kilometer stretch through the passage to the other end. Nothing much grows in the middle of this passage because of the current but around the banks its akin to diving in a jungle river thanks to its lush mangroves and rainforest lined banks. Giovanni, Morg, and myself spent six hours snorkeling around the banks viewing the spectacular coral and big fish in the small pockets of slack water.
Giovanni was in his element as he could spearfish here and managed a good sized sweet lips only to have a bastard shark come along and bite it in half. He was devastated as he had been stalking this fish for 32 hours, well maybe half an hour anyway. If that shark understood Italian, his ears would be bleeding.
The next day however he was rewarded with a great catch of coral trout and a big lobster, yum yum.
Thats an evil smile Giovanni
The next few day we based our selves off Pulau Friwin and did a few days of diving with Biodiversity, a resort across the water on Gam, which was run by a friendly young couple who organised several nice trips for us. We dove at numerous sites, but the most outstanding for me was Cape Kri, it was like diving in a mammoth aquarium. The water was crystal clear and abounded with sea life, from near microscopic pigmy seahorses and six foot long wobbygongs. We saw cuttle fish, octopus, lobster, morays, crocodile fish, scorpion fish, vibrant nudibranchs, and tropical fish of almost every colour, size and shape. It was mind blowing. Melissas garden was also an exceptional display of never ending corals in shallow water where hundreds of brightly coloured fish mooched around. Below are images that divers kindly shared with me on our trip. There was some sophisticated camera gear around!
We were having a chat to some of the dive guides over a beer one evening telling them of the great snorkelling and fun we had in ‘the passage’ a few days before. The guides looked at us like we had grown another head.
Apparently there are quite large crocs in the passage, and the dive guides refuse to take tourists there. Probably explains why we were the only boat. Morgan did comment on it looking a bit crocky. I wonder if Giovanni was telling us the truth about the shark.
Wonderful to see that there are still parts of this world that havnt’t been too badly scarred by man. RA is an out of the way destination and fairly expensive so I’m hoping it stays that way,which will hopefully deter the extremely destructive mass tourism that we have experienced on our travels. While yes, we too on Kanaloa contribute to tourism on our journey,we are very aware of our impact and do our best to take with us and leave only memories.
Sadly this is the end of Morgans and mine journey for a while as we head back to NZ for some school and family time. Warren and Giovanni will carry on to The Phillipines via Palau and hopefully find a typhoon free place to settle Kanaloa for a few months before our next adventure. We had a great journey this year and fingers crossed will be back next year.
Thanks for sharing our journey x
Would you take this guy sailing with you???
Warren loving the early mornings.
Bird of Paradise seen during early morning hike, This ones for you Des!
