1st June - back in CyberWorld - equator - Waisai - Wayag - extreme beauty

Monday 1^st June 2015

Gorgeous Wayag - photo nicked from internet…we did NOT climb the steep hill

0 degrees 26.559S

130 degrees 47.010E

Waisai - mooring

Smooth sailing

 WHEW 

We are now back near communication towers and connection with the world. 

We are tied up to a big fat mooring just around the corner from Waisai Town.  It is overcast and it has rained and POURED today, for which we are very thankful.  We will miss the extreme beauty of the islands we have been visiting on our (long…) trip to get here but…we will go back!

26^th – 29^th May 2015

0 degrees 9.815N

130 degrees 1.467E

Pulau Wayag – mooring

32 metres depth

For the first time in days we have arrived at our destination by lunchtime.  Usually we arrive between 5-6pm, just in time to drop anchor, cook dinner, and collapse.  NOT sure why it is exhausting, crossing this balmy sea, but…it is!

Our wake

So, for once, I have a bit of energy left over to write a bit of bloggery.  There is no internet – we haven’t seen a single boat, let alone a tower, for many days.  But it will all keep, until next we arrive in CyberWorld.

Wayag is a place of extreme beauty.  We are not sure why it is not better known.  We are entirely alone here.  There is a nice big solid mooring in a blissful, glorious, sheltered internal bay, and there are no people for many miles, no other boats to be seen or heard.

The past few days the sea has been as smooth as silk.  We saw one or two boats early on, but for the most part our only companions at sea have been flying fish 

flying fish

and the odd opportunistic bird.

Yesterday we anchored right on the Equator, at Pulau Uta. 

0 degrees 0.210N

129 degrees 37.868E

Pulau Uta (28^th May)

4.3metres – coral

It was yet another beautiful little flat coral island, uninhabited, as far as we could tell.  Did we perform ceremonies to King Neptune??  Well…we had a very nice evening G & T, and a snorkel in the crystal clear water.  Our swim turned into a bit of a battle – there was a deceptively strong current and instead of enjoying the serenity and the beauty, we had to swim swim SWIM just to stay within reach of 2XS.  This morning I washed all of the bed linen – can this be seen as a tribute to King Neptune??  Well yes, I do think so!

One of the few boats we saw was - loaded! 

0 degrees 33.972N

128 degrees 36.914E

Pulau Inggelang- Halmahera

6 metres, sand, sheltered anchorage (27^th May)

24th-25th May - Pulau Doi - Pulau Morotai - beautiful reef - dead reef x2

Sunday 24^th May 2015

2 degrees 17.469N

127 degrees 46.565E

10.9 metres depth

Pulau Doi

Indonesia

Evening view from Doi Island

After an overnight sail, with each of us doing 6 hour shifts, we arrived this morning in a beautiful tranquil anchorage.  (I did midday-6pm, midnight-6am so I saw the sun set, and rise.  Very nice it was, too.)

Pulau Doi

with a lovely reef and many MANY fish.

We had visitors, who sat silently and happily on the deck, drinking iced tea.  I took a few photos and printed them off on my little Selphy and they were wreathed in smiles.  And then we encouraged them, gently, to go home…we were VERY tired…

(Yes I know it was only one over-nighter…Some of our friends are about to embark on a FORTY day/night trip across the ocean.  But I assume that as the days go by one gets used to this rhythm of sleeping and waking in shifts.  One night…I didn’t really sleep at all, was too busy anticipating my wake-up call at midnight!)

Monday 25^th May

2 degrees 03.027N

128 degrees 16.424E

Doruba, Pulau Morotai

7.5m

We are now anchored near a little town on Pulau Morotai.  It has a nice sturdy tower and – internet!

2XS is creeping ever closer to the Equator and…it is very very hot…

Dodola Br

We stopped for a while this morning next to a beautiful little island which my Navionics chart calls “Dodola Br” – not quite sure what this means but…it was pretty!  I of curse spent about twenty two seconds deciding whether or not to go for a swim RIGHT NOW.  The water was clear and warm; it was just glorious except…not.  Nearly all of the coral was dead. A barren landscape…a few little colonies of coral here and there, a few game little fish trying to live a cheery life in what remained of what must once have been a most fabulous reef.  Sigh…

2 degrees 05.967N

128 degrees 11.333E

Dodola Br –swim and lunch stop

10m

Doruba

Our present anchorage is very serene and secure.  The water is lovely, clean, clear, turquoise…I went for a beautiful swim and – oh deary me…even deader than Dodola Br.  WHAT has happened here??  Dynamite fishing?  A very savage storm?  A nuclear explosion?  The fish at Pulai Doi should be very grateful indeed that they have such a lovely reef, full of LIVE coral, in which to live.

22nd May - last day in Tahuna (Sangihe, Indonesia) - boys

Saturday 22^nd May 2015

Tahuna is so pretty

Yesterday was much less adventurous. I rather had the stuffing knocked out of me – it is THE HEAT, I declare, not the fact that I am UNFIT!!

Firstly though I have to report a very sad thing.  I am, as they say, totes devo.  (Totally devastated for those who do not speak ValleyGirl.)  My big iPad has gone AWOL.  Yes I know I have lots of devices: a MacBook Air (laptop), an iPhone 5, a mini iPad and my big iPad but…I need and love them all.  They all form part of my support system.  Captain Pete cannot meet all of my needs, wonderful though he may be.

Something is missing…oh Big iPad, where are you??

WHERE is it???  I had it in the afternoon, after I got my internet simcard, because I spent a very happy time co-ordinating things on my Kindle app, onto both iPads, from my computer.  It should be on he table, with its friends, or on the couch.  Just MAYBE I had it in the cockpit in the evening, when I was reading and watching the sunset while the dinner was cooking down below.  So maybe I left it on the seat…this has happened in the past… The only thing I can think of is that someone crept on board at night and took it.  NOT really likely – why would they just take this, and not the very good binoculars only a metre or so away from the iPad??  So at the moment it is just a Mystery of the Sea and I am bereft.  (I love my electronic devices more than most people do…)

While I was doing the washing in the morning, I heard cries of joy from outside.  “Hello!  I love you!”  And there in the water, not far form 2XS, was a gang of cheeky boys, wreathed in smiles.  They climbed aboard (without an actual invitation…) and one of them said, “We are VERY hot!”  I took this as a request and made them each a cold drink of Tang and then off they went, shouting THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

We went shopping at the market in the middle of the day - Mad Dogs and Englishmen, yes I know… I bought two new umbrellas because I left my very best favourite colourful one from Coron in the rental car.  (Not totes devo; I am always losing umbrellas and they only cost about $2.  I am a bit devoted to whichever is the current one but…not the way I am to my electronic devices…)

I also bought…a new plastic rectangular container, to act as washing up basin.  Anyone who has been on 2XS in the past few years will recognise the faithful but by now ghastly blue ice cream bucket which has served in this role for far too long.  I am inordinately happy with the new one and am very happy for the stinky blue one to go to the tip!

Pete got more top-up for his phone in Tahuna.  This took FOREVER.  Fortunately they provided me with a nice little stool to sit on – I am very pathetic, today…

I did manage to take a few photos in the streets.  Looking at them, I think Tahuna looks a bit like…Wynyard (Tasmania)!

There is an inordinate number of churches on the island.  Some mosques, but mostly Christian churches of various flavours.  Very big ones, too!  David said if you want to go to church on Sunday, you will always find a seat!

Last stop was the market.  I had comlpletely lost my powers by then, so I found an unoccupied wooden table against a wall, asked permission to use it, and hoicked myself up for a peaceful wait while Pete went shopping.

“Hello Mister!”

Two cheeky boys soon became six.

I gave them each a 2XS card and they were thrilled to bits.  They also thought it was the funniest thing in the world when I pointed at a nearby cat stealing a bit of lunch

and said MIAOW!  These boys were very easy to amuse… Eventually someone told them I wasn’t a Mister but I was a bit sorry when they changed, more correctly, to Miss. I enjoyed being a Mister!  I am easily amused too.

A man from a nearby stall came up saying, Photo!”  He had the aforementioned cat cradled in his arms and he posed very nicely for the camera, and beamed when he saw the result.

The man who owned the table I was sitting on came up to ask if I was American.  When I said “No, Australian,” he replied, “Aha!  Bali Nine!  No good!” and made a throat-slashing gesture.  “No,” I said sadly, “No good at all…”  (I think we were at cross purposes…)

Off to sea today!!  6 hour shifts...