Tuesday 30 June 2015

1st July - WINDY Waisai - Raja Ampat - Papua

Wednesday 1st July 2015

Snakefruit - very pretty but not very yummy...
Yesterday we decided to walk into Waisai along the coast road, maybe 3 kilometres or so.  Mad dogs and Englishmen…  It was very hot and sunny and although there were tall trees and vines lining the road, there didn’t seem to be any shade at all.

We followed a group of young chaps nicely attired for the heat of the day and for a fairly long wall… They were wearing hoodies and big yellow gumboots.  I felt faint with heat at the very sight of them and had to take a big swig from my water bottle.



There were some lovely looking new resorts along the road, but everything is closed at the moment – wrong season.


About halfway into Waisai we were able to walk along a new concrete track right on the coastline.  Much shadier!  But totally mystifying – why all the concrete?  And the large concrete block walls being built along the reef?


Pete was fascinated by the huge caterpillar digger; I think he was really hoping to get an opportunity to drive it around, picking up big concrete blocks and swinging them around in the air.



I was more intrigued by the groups of children, playing happily in the rubble.


When we got into town Pete got on a motorbike and went off to explore the possibilities of fuel purchase and delivery.  No luck today…he has to go back on Thursday.  I arranged to meet him at our favourite restaurant


but on the way I was attracted into the Randy Salon & Bridal.  My hair was in dire straits…I had had a bit of a go at cutting it myself but this was not what anyone would call a success. 


The young girl sitting in the otherwise empty salon showed me a poster and asked me to choose a hairstyle…

None of these hairstyles looked yacht-proof...
Well…I felt like the dumpy older woman in Educating Rita, who comes in, looking grim, with a photo of a radiant young Lady Diana Spencer, saying “This is how I want to look.”  So I said, in my best Bahasa, that I just wanted A LITTLE BIT cut off.  Please. 

After a little while my hairstylist du jour came out.  



She didn’t speak one word of English, or one word of anything, for the duration of the cutting process.  I was more than a bit dubious – how many BAD BAD haircuts have I had, here and there - Port Vila, Bicheno, Melbourne -  which have left me sobbing under a large hat??  She got out a razor and started while I winced faintly and tried not to look too terrified.  In the end it was all fine.  I managed to stop her from chopping a huge amount off my fringe, which would have made me sob, and we parted on very happy terms.  Her young grandsons had arrived to watch, with great interest.   I paid my not very exorbitant fee ($4.50…) and took a nice photo of The Team.



We walked home again, once again with not much shade, and as soon as we stepped onto 2XS, I put on my swimming clothes and plunged into the sea.  There is a little reef close by, with a fishfarm pontoon anchored to it, so I headed in that direction, without any great expectations.  To my delight, it was (mostly) very lovely, with quite a lot of coral, and some big clouds of beautiful small fish.  I also saw a very big sea snake, maybe 1.5 metres, and quite thick – black and white striped, with blue detail around its head.  Yes I know sea snakes are extremely poisonous.  BUT they have very small mouths and are not in the least aggressive.  Unless you actually attack one and try to poke a small body part into its mouth – maybe your earlobe, says J. Maarten Troost (read his travel books – great fun!) – or a particularly small pinkie finger, they will not hurt you.



Visitors to the boat today…Well the first one was Johnson, a Polisi officer, who had come to investigate the thefts on board 2XS – John’s fancy black torch, two masks, two snorkels, and a large bottle of shampoo.  This isn’t crime on a large scale, but Fikri, the tourism officer Pete has befriended, thought we should report it, and that the police should make a bit of a fuss, to discourage others with similar intentions.  Johnson was lovely.  He shook his head in disgust and disbelief when we told him what was missing, and he very loudly told everyone he met along the pontoon that Things Were Missing and that the police were Onto It.



In the afternoon, when I had just come out from my swim and was on the deck with  my head covered in shampoo, when on leapt a very enthusiastic Mey, closely followed by her seven year old daughter Eca and her sister-in-law Fony.  


Mey and Eca
I gave them some afternoon tea, printed off some photos for them (I AM SO HAPPYYYY! shouted Mey, who was a wildly enthusiastic young woman) and then, with a teensy bit of encouragement, off they went.  (There’s only so much nodding, smiling, showing of photos on iPads, printing of photos on Selphy, that one can reasonably be expected to do.)


Pete and Fony
Last visitor of the day, invited and expected, was Fikri from the Tourism Department.  He is a delightful bloke, with a radiant perfect smile – no betel nut chewing for him!  I took a few photos but…photos are a SERIOUS affair. Apparently…  Fikri speaks excellent English and we bombarded him with questions.  Why so much infrastructure in Waisai – eg large concrete parkland, full of beautiful toilets, finished but lacking water and therefore…yucko, deserted kiosks, enormous concrete dolphins, already broken but not completed.  Well…Waisai gets a huge government grant to encourage tourism, with the Raja Ampat sailing rally as its centerpiece.  (I think there are a maximum of 25 boats in the rally…)  He also explained about the concrete works along the reef – it is a breakwater, to prevent erosion. 


Pete and Fikri
Last night was not very pleasant.  It blew, as Pete would say, like a bastard, so it was very noisy.  But we were also worried about poor 2XS, tugging away rather too enthusiastically on the mooring lines.  We got up several times to attach yet more ropes – it now looks as if 2XS is tethered to the pontoon with a big strong spider web!  If we take off to sea, we will be taking the whole marina plus boats with us…(No of course this isn’t even a possibility, but in the dark early hours I managed to do a whole lot of useless catastrophising.)

Monday 29 June 2015

30th June - Friwin to Waisai - Papua (Raja Ampat)

Tuesday 30th June 2015

0 degrees 25.991S
130 degrees 48.394E
Waisai “marina” (Duckpond)


Yesterday morning we left Friwin Island, with its beautiful reef and clouds of fishfriends.  I was very sad to leave there.  I was able to swim for hours every day, up and down the ref at high and at low tide, seeing different things, and familiar landmarks.  On my last swim I was accompanied by a large, slow turtle, which swam just below me.  It hadn’t seen me, so we just pooled along together in the clear blue water in total harmony.


 Pete gets so terribly bitten by this and that invisible creature, every time he goes in the water.  He needs a stinger suit!  (Such a thing is not to be found in Western Papua, unfortunately…)  I am very lucky and never get bitten but he comes out covered in welts.

So he spent his time at Friwin Island gently rocking on the wave…



But we have things to do…Waisai called.  Our berth at the end of the marina jetty was still free so we tied up, with a teensy degree of difficulty because the wind wave and tied were pushing 2XS away from the pontoon as hard as we were trying to pull it in.  But here we are, all tied up, and providing a lot of entertainment and photo opportunity for all passers-by.


Pete has gone into town because the fuel shop opens early (7am.)  he is very much hoping to find someone who will deliver fuel out to the boat; otherwise we have to leave for Sorong.  We can see whitecaps out there and we would rather stay here, thank you!

I am quite happy on 2XS, in the cabin away from curious onlookers.  I don’t like having my photo taken at 7.30am!  It is overcast and there is a blissfully cool breeze blowing through the boat.  NOT as good as Friwin…but it will do! 



In the Kabui Channel I got a photo of another osprey, drying itself in a tree.  I rather think it s the same one as the one John and Pete spotted on the beach at Friwin Isalnd but…how can you tell?  Whatever…he is very photogenic!

Saturday 27 June 2015

27th June - Kabui Pass -Raja Ampat - Papua

Saturday 27th June 2015


0 degrees 25.405S
130 degrees 34.400E
Kabui Pass
14m


We left the World of Wind and had a day of wind and waves to get to the Kabui Pass.  It is very beautiful here, and much more peaceful.  We have no idea if there is still wind out there…but we are very much enjoying the gentle breeze here!



There is a little hut nearby with a perpetual flow of beautiful fresh water.  Occasionally a little fishing canoe turns up, and out hop some fishermen, with soap, to have a shower.  I was so very thrilled to be able to do a big bucket of washing without scrimping on the rinsing process.  Bliss!  



Pete also got a nice cool wash.



I had already had a long swim.  We went through the channel (1.5 nautical miles) in the dinghy, against the strong current.  And then it was my turn for a bit of an adventure - into the water and back WITH the current!  Pete was poised with the camera but he said I disappeared too quickly…It was like being on a moving walkway – or rather, a moving swimway!  I swam so fast!  Very thrilling and satisfying.  I had expected to be swimming through coral gardens but I had obviously misunderstood my friends who had raced through the channel last year – there wasn’t any, until we were nearly back at the boat.  By then the current was turning and I was a teensy bit tired so…Pete towed me home!



Sunday 28th June

We have left the peaceful Kabui Passage and we are making our way back to beautiful Friwin Island.  With a bit of luck the internet will work as we go past some towers but…maybe not!  It is, alas, very windy out of the passage…


Thursday 25 June 2015

24th - 25th June - Selat Sele - Makbon village - Papua

Wednesday 24th June

01 degree 03.133S
131 degrees 07.236E
Anchorage between Warir and Batimee (mangrove) islands
16.6m, very sheltered

Our decision to explore Selat Sele, absolutely unknown territory in that nobody we knew had been there, did not lead us to glorious new waypoints to put on the internet.

Not quite true…We wound our way through a wide mangrove maze and finally dropped the anchor in what looked like a nice peaceful place.  And it was that – very sheltered and calm.  But…I absolutely couldn’t even think of getting into the water.  It looked so very crocodile-y!  And yes there are saltwater crocs here…


Nothing but mangroves
Thursday 25th June

00 degree 46.059S
131 degrees 32.531
Teluk Dorehum
Anchored 6.4m

So we left there early in the morning and headed for an area a bit north west of Sorong.  We are anchored near a road, and a village of 100 people.  Not a croc habitat, so I have been able to swim a bit.  Dying beige reef, a bit sad…I acquired a dear little petfriend, however.  A small yellow stripey fish, about an inch long, which attached itself to my mask and whizzed back and forth frantically.  At first I thought it was actually inside my mask, which was a bit puzzling, but no, it was outside, but only just!  It stayed with me until I got heartily sick of it and swam back to the boat.  It is probably still there, desperately looking for me under the hulls.



We had one canoe-load of visitors – a large imposing man, with tribal scarring, and his four boys.  They didn’t really speak English, or Bahasa, but they were wreathed in smiles and very happy to drink iced tea.  Our large man was thrilled to hear we came from Australia.  He twined his two pinkie fingers together and indicated that Papua and Australia are not only close neighbours but also great friends. 



The boys were very interested in my mask and snorkel.  They have made their own, out of soft wood, and bits of clear plastic – nifty!



Our plan was to spend the day here and go on to shore, to visit the village, and possibly get a ride into Sorong and back so we could have a better look at Papua – there is a road right along the coast and we are only 30 kilometres from Sorong.  But oh deary me…it is horribly windy!  We had such a noisy night.  The boat stayed rock-solid – what’s not to love about a catamaran?? – but it was very hard to sleep.  I don’t think we will be lowering the dinghy, or swimming, in this rollypolly sea!

10am – a few hours later

We moved not far down the bay and it was lovely, peaceful and pleasant.  Dogs and boys on the beach – this indicates – no crocs!  We can see the wind blowing the clouds fiercely across the bay but – not here!

5pm

Well we have done a bit of everything.  I swam for about an hour along the beach and back again, over what must once have been a very splendid reef.  Once again I had a speedy little yellow fishpet right in my mask, all the way there and back.  Maybe it is the same one??

This afternoon we went in to shore in the dinghy and walked along through the mangroves and the sheltering trees on the beach until we reached the village.

There were dozens of dogs, all very vocal in their acknowledgment of our arrival.  They were not in the least menacing but there certainly were lots of them.  A big pack!

Some of the dogs
As for the villagers…they couldn’t have been more welcoming if they had tried.


They called us over and asked to be photographed, with Mister


and with Missus.



The village is very neat and tidy, raked and weeded within an inch of its life.

As we were leaving a mother and son sprang out of the jungle with glad cries – another photo opportunity please!


Pete with Angus and Omi
Tomorrow we will leave this windy but lovely place.   Maybe Waisai to buy potatoes and fuel?