Wednesday 31 December – seeing in the New Year in the Piaynemo inlet

We had breakfast on the way as we had about 3 hours of motoring to Piaynemo. This is one of the best diving areas in Raja Ampat, but there are no easy anchorages, so it is tricky for yachts. The only area suitable for yachts to anchor is in a bay which has a defunct zip line that we and most yachts cannot fit under. The only other place is a narrow inlet that is very deep and space for a couple of boats, you have to tie up front and back across the fjord like steep sides of limestone walls. We had been watching on our app to see if it had a boat in it, and over the last few days it has got up to 4 boats, so we expected little chance of fitting in. We have met most of the boats on our travels around, Rowan sent a message to them and asked if it was possible to get another boat in, they welcomed us in and said they would raft up to make space. We arrived around midday, it was so impressive, there were 3 catamarans rafted together, another Cat plus a big monohull. We were told to wait outside while the fourth cat offered us their floating lines and they moved to join the raft, making a total of 4 cats rafted together. Incredibly generous, they then tied us onto their lines. All the floating lines are attached to chain that goes through holes in the limestone rock. It looked like a spiders web of lines tying everyone up, our two out the back were crossed over to stop us moving with the tide too much and one long one out front. It really saved us a huge amount of effort and was an incredible spot to be moored. The guy on the monohull was obviously a little nervous about being hemmed in by us, he we went through an emergency drill with us in case a squall hit and anyone needed to leave. Nobody can leave without us dropping our lines. It was definitely a good idea to think about an exit strategy.

We had a lovely afternoon cool down snorkelling around the edges. The drop off was dramatic, loads of colourful coral, the visibility was great too which helped. Just the odd shark wondering through in the deep water. Everyone had such a great snorkel and so nice to swim out from PolePole.

Phoebs and Dani made a delicious supper of chicken and steak wraps, finished with some delicious Fortnum and Masons florentines. Such wonderful treats for us. Sound 9pm we headed to the Cat raft and had drinks and charades on the first boat, before moving onto the South African (who lives in Australia) Cat where he had an enormous Karaoke set up, plus an amazing dressing up box. Our kids brought down the ages substantially and got stuck into the karaoke. Milly is a great singer, as is Phoebe so they were a formidable two on the microphones. The NZ monohull has an english wife who also enjoyed belting it out. It was very entertaining and the night slipped by. At 11pm three of the men went to set off the fireworks they had bought. It was a really dramatic display, seriously impressive. Luckily one of the guys was a fireman, which was reassuring as they set them off on a tiny beach near Polepole. By the time they got back it was nearly countdown to midnight. The first time we have seen in the New Year in ages! We left shortly afterwards, as we have a busy day of sightseeing tomorrow before Luke and Milly head home. The party continued for a while, it was very kind that they let us gate crash their New Year’s Eve celebrations.