Friday 17 October – finally in Raja Ampat

I took over the shift around 3am and had a busy time avoiding fishing boats and their devices, they don’t show up easily on the radar, and with no AIS, we have to be looking outside for lights all the time. Even if you see the lights on the boat it is quite difficult to work out the distance in the dark, and then their devices are not lit up. I saw the fishing boat and changed course to avoid it, however the current was quite strong and I landed up getting pretty close, luckily I went out with the binoculars and spotted a big device of theirs in the water a good couple of hundred meters from their boat which we were heading straight for, so had to do some sharp turns to avoid it. Luckily all good, bust just means it is not the usual relaxed night shift. It was a wonderful sunrise though with the moon still shining in the sky.

It was a slow last 30 miles to our anchorage which is the nearest point on Waigeo island to us, the start of Raja Ampat. Raja Ampat is an archipelago off the northwest tip of Bird’s Head Peninsula in West Papua. Comprising hundreds of jungle-covered islands, famous for its coral reefs rich with marine life. We got in at midday having motored the entire time. It was a very pretty little bay with a fishing boat already there. It was not long before a local came out to sell us coconuts with his little granddaughter. Rowan asked him to de-husk the coconuts as they make such a messy stain on the boat. The little girl started crying on their boat as she was getting way too hot, so Rowan lifted her onto PolePole. She was dumbstruck, the two of them spoke no english, so very hard to communicate with. We loaded them up with our left over gifts for the remote islanders. The little girl was chuffed with her pencil crayons and wasn’t going to let them go, plus her coke and biscuit! It feels pretty remote here, there was a house at the beach in front of us, but looked uninhabited. The guy with the coconuts lived further down the coast. He had such a smart boat compared to what the islanders had in PNG and Solomons. He very sweetly wanted to give us about 10 coconuts but we had to stop him after 6, they start fermenting so quickly after their skin is removed, we can’t drink it fast enough. We gave him loads of tinned meat, a litre of petrol and some glasses, plus some money. He was very sweet and deserved it all.

We were pretty tired after our more exhausting night shifts, so we just relaxed in the shade of the awning until about 6pm when the heat finally eased up. We watched dramatic clouds form all around us. On either side of us we had had big waves crashing on the reef, it was a noise we haven’t had in ages. Talking of noises, the evening bird calls were magnificent, we are looking forward to doing a birding tour here in Waisai, main town on the island, gateway to Raja Ampat. They have both Birds of Paradise here with the incredible courtship dance.