Monday 27 October – anchored at Yanggelo Island

We went for an early snorkel all the way from the corner of the island all the way back to near PolePole. The coral and fish were fantastic, the current was roaring so we drifted effortlessly with JeldiJeldi all the way. It was a great way to start the day. Mid morning we were off our mooring ball and heading to a sandy submerged spot near a tiny island that is the main Manta Ray spot. Oh my the current was phenomenal and we tried but really scared ourselves, there was no way we would have been comfortable on anchor and there is nothing to tie onto. We decided to go elsewhere, and we will go on a Manta tour to the island, most probably better anyway as the tour guides know where to go.

We headed north to a little bay on an island called Yanggelo, between two islands, it was quite a narrow path in. We have been warned that everywhere in Raja Ampat is deep anchoring, all 20m and over, plus a lot of stern tying onto land because of the currents. The little bay had a lot of wooden walkways and an abandoned Homestay. We got the anchor down and then found a mangrove tree to tie on a stern rope, which always takes a bit of engineering. The water was incredibly clear, an idyllic little spot, but unbelievably hot, with not a breath of air blowing. We were all settled by lunchtime, we soon decided we needed to cool off with a snorkel. We went to a Homestay on the other side of the bay that has great reviews, to see what we could book through them. We had a very welcoming reception, with a German lady who is helping the locals to run the Homestay. She was sleeping in a hammock, recovering from Dengue fever, which was rather worrying. We booked onto a Manta tour and supper tomorrow night. She also told us to check in with the owner of our bay, we tried to find him unsuccessfully, so went and snorkelled the reef. Again we just drifted with the current around the point into our bay. The coral was fantastic and loads of fish again, some huge ones, the coral diversity was the best we have ever seen. So heartening to see.

Afterwards we tied up to the wooden walkway looking for the local owner. We found some rickety planks leading off the walkway, Rowan went down it and finally found the guy, who couldn’t speak a word of English but made it clear it was fine for us to anchor. Rowan promised him we would bring him some goodies tomorrow.

We had a relaxing evening with Alex cooking us the most delicious pumpkin and green bean Indonesian curry. We then had a dry run game of 5 Crowns, a card game Alex brought with him. Tomorrow night will be a competitive real game.