Into Indo
22/12/2019 Biak City, Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia
Biak City at last. We arrived early yesterday morning at 8:30am after a pretty crappy night of sailing/motoring. It doesn’t matter though, because we made it, mostly intact. The log that bashed into our bow also did some damage to our rudder by removing some of it. I’m sure we don’t need all of the rudder to keep going. Right?
It’s been an instant replay of our short stop at Vanimo. From the moment we arrived we were hurrying to leave. That means organising fuel, food, Xmas stuff and most importantly checking into Indonesia. The process was pretty straight forward. The only issue being that the 4 offices were spread out all over town. Thankfully, Igor, one of the customs guys spent yesterday and today driving us all over town to all the right places and waited patiently for us to finish. He then took us out to lunch to a local restaurant where we ate one of the most delicious meals we’ve ever eaten, all for $AU2.8. I think I’m going to love Indonesia.
Biak City itself is a big change from what we’ve been used to in PNG. Vanimo, which was the biggest town we saw in PNG only had small sections of tarmac and hardly any cars. Biak City in contrast is a bustling city with highways and more mopeds than people all jostling their way through the city. It is so cool to be back in civilisation! The local transport consists of mopeds ($1), buses ($2) and taxis ($3-$10). Mopeds are not only the cheapest, but the most fun. George and I caught mopeds to the local gas station with a total of 6 lpg bottles dangling precariously from various parts of the mopeds as we sped through town. All for $1 per ride.
Anyway, after 2 hectic days of preparations we are off tomorrow morning to a local atoll where we can finally relax for a few days and enjoy a nice Xmas celebration as well as through Vanja a bit of a party.
24/12/2019 Wundi Atoll, Papua, Indonesia
Hosting Vanja’s birthday in a protected secluded picturesque Indonesian Atoll? Check. Yesterday we pulled up the anchor and headed East to Wundi Atoll. We had the current with us for the entire 4 hour trip which was a nice change. Unfortunately there was no wind so we just motored the whole way. We arrived just before dark and Irena (ZigZag) and Sayo (Family Circus) came over to plan the next couple of days. Since it was Vanja’s birthday on Xmas Eve and the German’s main Xmas celebration is on the same day they decided to move Xmas Eve to the 25th and Xmas to the 26th. Yeah ok, why not?
So today we had a quick snorkel in the morning before moving the boats to a more protected spot for a couple of days of rest. Once anchored we started preparing for dinner tonight which was hosted on our boat for Vanja’s birthday. It was lots of fun as usual with everyone having an enjoyable time while the kids ran around causing havoc. Santa is coming tonight on our boat, we hope, while the other 2 boats will be visited the next night due to some timezone discrepancies. Funny how Santa works isn’t it.
Anyway, tomorrow on Xmas day we’ll be having Xmas Eve dinner on ZigZag, the on Boxing Day we’ll be doing Xmas dinner on Family Circus. Should be fun, and exhausting.
27/12/2019 En route to Supiori, Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia
Well the last couple of days lived up to the hype. The kids had a very nice Xmas morning with Santa dropping off all the cavity creating, insulin producing, sugary goods he is well known for bringing. As they devoured that and opened the one or two presents they got each, we commented on how happy they were with the relatively few gifts. Normally at our land based Xmas, the kids will open 10-15 presents + Santa and usually by the 5th gift they have lost interest and just rip the wrapping off and throw the item to the side. This time however they really got to appreciate the presents they got, which was a nice change.
We went snorkelling at a very cool cave today about 500m from the boat. The reef dropped off from 1m deep to several hundred in the distance of about 1m, and along the edge the reef cut back in about 50m. It was really cool with a huge number of fish and coral and a pretty cool “swim through” from one side of the cave to an opening in the reef another 20m in. Chris and his crew (Manteo and Juliet) took turns swimming through, but I thought it was a bit much with my limited free diving experience, so I watched happily from the sideline.
Other than that the last few days have been relatively peaceful, though it has been hard to catch up on all the missed sleep as we have had a social outing every night. Don’t get me wrong they have been great fun, but also very tiring. Xmas Eve dinner was very nice on ZigZag, the kids opened presents from all of us, and we have a snack dinner and Georg told us the story of Xmas. Then Christmas dinner on Family Circus was very nice with delicious food and good company. The only downer was our roast chicken that we cooked on the BBQ turned out like that turkey from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation Xmas dinner. Oh well, it can’t all be perfect.
We left our perfect little atoll today for the trip to Supiori, a spot on the North side of Biak Island we heard from a Biak City local that it was nice. We stopped at a little reef just outside of Wundi Atoll for a beautiful snorkel before continuing on to Supirori. I’m glad we did because we saw a bunch of cool stuff like 3 sharks, a spotted moray eel, some giant clams and some huge fan coral.
28/12/2019 Supiori, Biak Island, Papua, Indonesia
Today we anchored in a perfect little bay surrounded by mountainous jungle and tropical islands. I know, a very strange combination, but it works. The trip along the North side of Biak was pretty mundane, motoring the whole way with the wind turning just off the nose a couple of times to put the headsail out for an hour at a time. The ever present anti-current was there to annoy us, and there were plenty of squalls to dodge, but we made it in pretty good time since we used both of our engines.
We are so tired at the moment that we can’t be bothered to get off the boat to explore the beautiful islands. We’ll see how we feel in the morning. Plus Jake was up all last night vomiting. We thought it was just seasickness, but it hasn’t stopped now that we’re anchored, and tonight he is showing a 28° temperature. It’s been pretty bad really, he would drink a glass of water then 1 minute later the water would come back out, as clear as it went in. Poor little guy.
We had so much battery energy today from all the motoring that Vanja cooked not one but two delicious curries. I now just have to find some space in the fridge to store them. Not an easy task since both fridges are packed to breaking point already. I’ll have to remove some beers, cheese or perishables. Realistically, removing beers is out of the question, so it may just have to be the perishables.
Alright, I’m off to bed.
30/12/2019 En route to Manokwari, Papua, Indonesia
After a very nice short stay at Supiori we upped anchor last night to head to Manokwari where we’ll have a quick stop to refuel, resupply and organise ourselves with a bit of internet. We are at a bit of a crossroads with the other 2 boats at the moment. Family Circus needs to be in Sorong on the 4th of Jan to drop off and pickup crew, and they want to spend some time in a marina there to fix up a few things on the boat. ZigZag have no such constraints so are thinking it is better to head to the Northern islands of Raja Ampat first as that is most beneficial with the prevailing NW winds. We on the other hand need to get our rudder fixed at the first available haul out location. At the moment we don’t know where this will be. Sorong supposedly has a facility, but it can only cater to one boat at a time apparently. So, we basically need to find out if and when it can take us. Hence the need for internet.
Anyway, we set off at about 6pm last night and have been motoring the whole way so far with only a maximum of 4kts of wind at any one time. It was so calm last night you could see the reflections of the bright stars in the water. It was beautiful.
31/12/2019 En route to Waigeo, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
We left Manokwari last night at about 8pm for Waigeo, Raja Ampat. We have decided to leave ZigZag and Family Circus for a little while to get our boat fixed up. The potential rudder damage we sustained earlier is weighing heavily on our minds and Sorong has a lift out facility where we can get the boat out of the water, take the rudder off, inspect it and fix if needed. We will probably see FC in Sorong as they are going to drop off and pickup crew, including their 9 yr old daughter Aya. Lara and Jake can’t wait for that. ZigZag are continuing on through Raja Ampat as that is the ideal direction to sail at this time of year. It was incredibly sad to say goodbye even though we will be meeting up with them again in a couple of weeks.
Anyway, our short stop over at Manokwari yesterday was quite successful. If it wasn’t for the shocking filth in the harbour, we would’ve called it a nice stop. The people were amazing for a start and all they wanted to do was help us and take photos. It was great, we were celebrities! Lara warmed to it a little after a while, but Jake had trouble handling all the attention.
ZigZag had arrived already and were no where to be seen, so we made our way to the “dock” (the corner post of the stilt slum), tried our best to avoid the floating turds in the water and climbed up onto the makeshift boardwalk. We then walked through the maze of the slum with the help of people loitering at each corner, or in their beds, to the main road where a nice family waved down a van to take us to the fuel station. He was not a taxi, just a nice man. After filling the 4 jerry cans we had brought with us I caught a moped taxi back carrying 2 in my arms and 1 between the drivers legs. It was chaotic to say the least. The driver was a bit of a nut case talking to other mopeds as we went along and really putting his foot down whenever he could, not to mention the 40Kg of dead weight I was dangling over each side. Let’s just say I’m lucky to be alive.
After carrying it back to the dinghy where we also found ZigZag he took me back to petrol station to get the last jerry can and Vanja, Jake and Lara. Lara jumped onboard with me. She was a little nervous so I asked the driver to go slower which he did. Vanja and Jake followed us back as well on their own taxi moped. It was really quite an entertaining adventure.
Back at the “dock” we got the royal treatment from the locals, buying us food and offering us water while giving the kids toys and lollies. It was really incredible how much the locals enjoyed having us there. It was like we were the first boats to ever come along. Maybe we were! Vanja and Irena made a trip to the grocery store while I took all the kids back to our boat for a bit of a play outside of the chaos. I must admit that I was a little overwhelmed and was happy to get back to the boat.
When Vanja came back we quickly called the Marina in Sorong to check when they could haul us out of the water. Wick, the Australian expat, said they could do it on the 4th or 5th, which was perfect for us but meant we would be saying goodbye to ZigZag. So we did, with tears in our eyes.
So here we are on our way to the East coast of Waigeo in Raja Ampat where we will spend a couple of days before heading South to Sorong. The trip has been pretty uneventful so far with no wind or very little and one engine chugging along at a time. We should be there tomorrow sometime which means we’ll be ushering in the New Year on the boat. Not very exciting.
01/01/2020 East coast of Waigeo, Raja Ampat, Indonesia
We made it to Raja Ampat! Another milestone covered in this somewhat random journey of ours. Getting here was not without it’s troubles though. Whether it was the shit filled waters of Manokwari or the bug Jake had a week ago, both Vanja and I fought each other over access to the toilet all night and day. It has been tough. Definitely the worst stomach bug so far on this trip. I guess we were lucky that there was not much happening on passage, so we could just lie down pass the time until the next trip to the toilet.
Oh yeah, Happy New Year!