Highlights and Raft-ups
27/02/2020 Air Borek, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
This morning’s activity is officially a highlight of the trip so far. Air Borek is famous for it’s manta rays and today we found out why. We all jumped in our dinghies and headed out on the beautiful calm water around 9am. It was a bit overcast and drizzly which was a shame, but the water was so smooth you could see the reflection of the clouds in it. We followed the others out to the outer reefs where they had gone yesterday. We spotted a couple of other dive boats with tourists up ahead and went in that direction. As we came close you could see the fins splashing about in the water. Everyone jumped in.
We saw maybe 2 or 3 gliding along underneath only momentarily coming to the surface every now and then. The current was quite strong so we were all trying to swim against it to keep up with the mantas, but it wasn’t really possible. I thought I’d jump back in the dinghy and pick everyone up and take them upstream so we could drift back past them, but when we got out the guy from the dive boat was pointing at another group of mantas about 200m away. We decided to head over there as you could clearly see there were many splashing about. Once we got there we all jumped in again. This time we were surrounded by at least 10 of them! There was a massive plankton bloom and the mantas were going absolutely mad for them. It was like watching a litter of baby goats being bottle fed at a petting zoo. One would scoop up a big mouthful all the way to the surface while another one would come up behind them and jump on it’s back. At one point Jake had 3 all around him playing with each other and one even whacked him accidentally on the shoulder with a giant fin. I watched manta after manta majestically swim toward me, mouth open, then turn away just at the last second before sweeping around to do it again. It was absolutely incredible! We stayed with them until we were all shivering and pruney. Everyone had big smiles on their faces on the trip home.
After lunch it was decided that we would go to Penemu, about 3-4 hours West of where we are. It has some nice diving and snorkelling and makes sense to head there now before going South to Misool which is our next destination. We prepare the boat, get everything put away, strapped down, locked up, tied off, etc. I go to start the starboard engine and nothing happens. The lights go red and make that annoying buzzing sound, but the engine does not start. What the hell? Of course we are the last to leave, so there is no one around to help us out. I let them know on the radio what’s happening and Chris has a few bits of advice to diagnose the issue. Does the engine crank? No. Does it make a click sound when the key is turned? Yes. Ok, well it’s most likely not the solenoid. It’s either the starter motor is not getting the energy it requires or it is dead. Great.
I move all the crap out of the engine room and have a look around. The negative terminal on the back of the starter motor is corroded to all buggery. So that is my first thought. It makes sense that it could be that since the engine did get a dusting of salt water in the past when the pump hose exploded. Maybe yesterday’s startup was just it’s last hurrah. I grabbed a pair of jumper leads and attached them to the same points as the cable and asked Vanja to fire it up. Click. Ok, maybe it’s something else. I pull out Nigel Calder’s Diesel Engine guide and find the relevant pages. It starts going into detail on starter motors and solenoids, something I know nothing about, yet. After reading through and noting various methods of testing things with plenty of warnings of sparks and recommendations of well ventilated areas, I thought that maybe I was about to be a little over my head. One of the tests says to just jump the solenoid using a screwdriver! Sure, a couple of hundred Amps going through your hand can’t be too bad for you. The book also talked about different kinds of starters, and that they could have different issues, so I pulled out the Yanmar manual to see if I could find out which kind of starter I have. The manual didn’t provide that information, but it did have a small troubleshooting section which turned out to be all I needed. Does the engine crank? No. Is it in neutral? It looks like it, but let me just put it in gear and back to neutral again. Does it start? Yes. Idiot.
By the time I figured all that out it was too late to leave if we wanted to get there before dark, so we decided to stay another night and leave early in the morning.
28/02/2020 Penemu, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
Got up early this morning, fired up the engines and headed to Penemu. After half an hour the wind picked up to over 8kts so I pulled the main up and we started to motor sail at 5.5kts. No, that’s not all that fast, but at least it’s a knot faster than if we were just motoring. We arrived at Penemu at 10:30 just as we saw 2 dinghies zooming away. I radioed on the usual channel to see if anyone was still around to help us tie up. Thankfully Irene and Big Chris were still on their boats and Irene gave me the low down on the anchorage. I was to go past all the boats and drop the anchor on the other side of the bay, then back it in next to ZigZag, raft up and tie off a line to the wall. Simple.
Thankfully there was no wind and not much current at the time. It could’ve been really difficult otherwise. After we were settled there was time to admire the raft up. Here we were, all four boats tied together, in a huge canyon with cliff walls shooting straight up out of the water in front and behind us with a small reef all around. It looked amazing. Something you might see in a tourism brochure.
Vanja jumped straight in for a snorkel, and I went under the boat to check the keel again now that we had some sun and it was calm. It has definitely taken a bit of damage and there appears to be a 15cm crack in the fibreglass along the bottom. There are also some chunks taken out, but those don’t look like they go through to the wood. The crack on the other hand looks like it is exposing the wood. I get out the underwater repair kit which consists of a tube of underwater epoxy and read the instructions. When Vanja gets back, I give her the not so great news and she helps me patch it up. I think it worked pretty well all things considered.
After lunch I was over on FC trying to help diagnose and fix a problem with he compressor, when the wind started up. It leapt from nothing to 20kts in the space of a couple of minutes and the boats started bucking wildly against each other in the small choppy swell that was coming through. Just as we were talking about how quickly it had come FC’s anchor started dragging. This was not ideal as FC was the first boat in the lineup facing the wind so a lot of strain was being put own their anchor and aft line to the wall. If they both failed we could all be in serious trouble. We decided to reinforce the raft up by tying a line from FC’s bow to the wall on the opposite side and another stern line to the wall. The problem with all this is that our boat had the longest line and it was already being used as our stern line. So, after a bit of heaving and swearing and yelling, and some help from the engines we managed to take off our stern line and put another, shorter line in it’s place. We tied off FC’s bow and another line to the wall and everyone was happy again.
02/03/2020 En Route to Misool, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
The last few days have been so much fun. The 4 strong raft up was epic, especially for the kids. They woke up every morning and just hopped over to whosever boat they wanted. Or some kids would just turn up on our boat looking for our kids. It was great fun watching them having such a good time. Probably the funniest thing to see was how the kids were playing ‘school’. The eldest girl Nialla (12 yrs, from Rainbow Safari) would take on the role of teacher and her students would sit and do the work that she dished out. They did spelling, maths and some writing. As much as we’d like to take credit for this, it was completely of their own doing.
We went for a pretty crappy dive as far as I was concerned, but everyone else loved it. My goggles fogged up the whole time so I didn’t really see anything apart from Vanja telling me underwater to look at this, and look at that. Shark here, shark there. I couldn’t see a bloody thing! Chris also didn’t enjoy it as he cut his hands and feet up trying to tie the dinghy to one of the small rock islands. He ended up not going for the dive as his wounds were so bad. He was bleeding everywhere. Hmmm, maybe that’s why there were so many sharks.
Apart from that we just hung out, chatted, rested and of course did some boat projects here and there. It was a great couple of days.
Rainbow Safari said goodbye yesterday. They were originally going East to PNG, so we have been not so subtly trying to get them to come with us down South. Not sure it has worked though. Either way they had to go to Sorong to get something fixed, so unless they change their minds, we may not see them again. A few tears were shed as we all said goodbye. The kids were understandably very upset as well. Hopefully they change their plans and come back our way.
FC and ZZ left for Misool yesterday as well. We decided to stay behind as Stefan from Rainbow Safari said that there is very little internet in the direction we’re heading. We had some business to take care of that required said internet, so we went back to Air Borek for the night to take care of it. We left quite late and arrived at 8:30pm in the pitch black. Thankfully there was a liveaboard charter boat in the anchorage with all it’s lights blazing so the area was nicely lit. That’s probably the only time I’ve enjoyed seeing all those lights on . We dropped the anchor close to where we were the other day and had an early night.
This morning we got up to try and catch the mantas again, but either we were too late, or we just couldn’t see them in all the chop that had been produced from the windy morning. Oh well, can’t win them all.
We got on with the day and by 2:30 we were ready to go, so we pulled up the anchor and headed South to Misool. We had a slight breeze just off our nose for the first couple of hours so we motorsailed with the headsail out until about 5:30pm. The wind then died to nothing leaving us to motor along with the sunset reflecting in the water. It was beautiful. Some dolphins even came to say hello in the calm water, swimming around the boat while Vanja tried to speak their language.
03/03/2020 Balbulol Island, Misool, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
We made it to Balbulol Island. It was quite a nice trip for the most part, until around midnight when the squalls started to hit. They were no where near as bad as we’ve had in the past, mainly just rain squalls, but it still made for an uncomfortable night. At 4am a massive blob appeared on the radar up ahead and the wind kicked up to 20kts coming from directly behind us. I put out the genoa and switched off the engines and we had a lovely sail for a little over 2hrs, albeit wet and rainy.
I went to bed at around 6:30 and when I woke up the sun was out and we were motoring again through a beautiful calm meadow. The wind was coming from directly behind us at 4-5kts which makes for a pretty horrible time since we travel at 4.5kts. It basically means there is no wind on the boat and we all slowly roast in the morning sun. We arrived at 12:30 to some of the most dramatic island formations we’ve see to date. I hope Vanja took a photo on the way in, because I didn’t. The short mountainous structures looked amazing from a distance. I bit like Wayag, but sharper and more rugged. As we got closer you could see the detail of the black eroded rock and it was nothing short of spectacular. The water was as blue as we’ve seen it and the the reefs stood out like emeralds just below the surface. We were back in paradise!
We drove through the ancient waterway looking for our friends who were supposed to be here somewhere. You could easily get lost in the labyrinth of cliffs and crevices. We poked our heads around the 10th corner and there they were in the most spectacular of spots. It really is impossible to describe the beauty in some of these places. There are just no words that will do it justice. Try and imagine a dead calm triangular bay 100m wide at the widest end, with shear rock cliffs slicing straight up out of the water 50m into the air on 2 of the 3 sides, with a coral reef as beautiful and healthy as anywhere in the world growing around the base of the cliffs just metres below the surface. We are tied off to the walls nice and comfortably in the middle of all that. It is breathtaking.
After tying up we all jumped straight in for a snorkel, and to cool off as the heat is so oppressive. Vanja and Lara found a cool underwater bridge and many nice coral fans and domes.
After a bit more of a rest I went on a dive with Chris, Irene, Big Chris and Sayo. We dinghied over to the spot marked on Chris’ dive book. There was already a dive boat there, but they were packing up to leave. Excellent. We all jumped in and dove down to the top of a 20m wide pinnacle sticking up from the dark depths below. It was incredible! The coral was amazing, but the number of fish, big and small was mind boggling. We went off the side of the pinnacle straight down in to the dark depths below where we found an underwater cave with fish swimming upside down. It was really weird. We then slowly moved back up and around the pinnacle seeing some of the most amazing schools of fish I’ve ever seen, all with a backdrop of the pinnacle with it’s colour exploding off of it all around us. It was a beautiful dive, definitely one for the archives