Shootin Through

We finally left the Boat Harbour and headed back out to explore. All stocked up and with a very dirty boat we are ready to avoid civilisation for a while. First stop is a little anchorage not too far from Sorong but far enough to be secluded and peaceful. I have never seen so much rubbish as we saw on the journey over here, it is just heartbreaking and really feels like we are fighting a losing battle.

We had a long day motoring against the currents to get into Sorong. It was amazing the amount of rubbish in the water along the way up the river. I know it is a problem but never really saw it in its full extent. We enter the Marina and were guided in by an image sent via WhatsApp. We are snuggly fitted between a Trimaran and a Cat, Med style with 2 stern lines. We are right in front of the dingy dock, and the kids are jumping around, swimming and having a ball. We are considering going for an explore and hopefully finding a beer or whether we just stay put and relax.

We had a fairly uneventful motor over to Seget. We expected to motor the whole way as there is no wind predicted for what appears to be weeks. We encounter a lot of fishing boats, which keep you on your toes. The anchorage is in a little inlet off the side of the river that leads to Sorong. Rather than push into the night we stopped here to rest and enjoy e will get moving again in the morning for another 40nm motor. Might take a little trip into the town to check it out, but we will wait and see what the weather is doing as these parts are renowned for their daily storms at this time of the year and the sky is currently pretty ominous.

Our wonderful Aussie friends have joined us this morning for a motor up to the Jellyfish Lake. Calm and raining all the way. Dropped anchor about 16m and 2 stern lines. We are right in front of the walkway to the Jellyfish Lake. Our friends windlass has died so they have had to only use line to devote them. We offered to raft up to us, but they probably don’t want to deal with our circus. 🤡

Very short motor around to a new anchorage. This place has some amazing caves, and a lagoon. So we will be heading off to check this all out. Longest part of this journey is untying the stern lines and retying at the next spot. Anyway, time to get our swimmers on and head out for an explore.

We have finally entered The Raja Ampat Archipelago. She has not disappointed. We have also come across 2 other sailboats, which is exciting. The trip took longer than expected only because I forgot to stop the tracking when we dropped the anchor and it has now taken ages to tie all the ropes off to shore. Now time to relax and unwind for the next few days.

We missed the wind on Monday as it was predicted to be ok for both Monday and Tuesday, and given the lovely location we wanted to stay as long as we could. However on Monday after we decided to stay, the wind was no longer any good for Tuesday. So today was a long motor as this was going to be our longest stretch for a while. We were motoring along on glass off conditions, a few fishing boats with long lines out but nothing to troublesome. We had been tossing up whether we go a little further to Misool instead of stopping today. As we went through our usual process when suss out our plans we almost forgot to check the radar, and thank gosh we did. Some massive storm cells are beginning to form and roll through. Given our next anchorage was in the middle of reef and we had to tie off to shore we thought we should just stop at the original anchorage. Oh and it appears we would have been getting in right as the storms arrived. So here we are safely anchored at this cute little gap in two islands. Time to crack a beer and jump in for a swim before the storms.

We left our anchorage a little later than normal as the wind was meant to improve as the morning went on and thankfully our gamble paid off. It was the first time in Indo that we actually sailed the entire way at a comfy pace with no engines. We had the main sail and head sail up and had a lovely calm journey into our next anchorage at Turtle Cove. We were actually greeted by a turtle upon entry to the little cove. We headed into between the heads and dropped anchor in about 21m with 30m of chain and tied 2 lines off to the shore. I jumped straight in when we finished setting ourselves up and checked out the beautiful fish, then headed to shore to explore. This place is yet another degree of paradise. Every place has been so amazing.

After an interesting evening at Fakfak, we decided it was not worth staying another day, mainly as there was nowhere to anchors safely. We have overhead powerlines and the anchorage went from 25m to 1.5 in what felt like an instant. The Pilot Boat for the Harbour had told us to move beyond the powerlines, which would put us in 1.5m of water, so we made the call to leave. Whilst it had some charm, it was a very big and noisy city and after so long in remote areas it was a little too much to manage. The supermarkets really only stocked junk food, and the fruit and veg markets were a cab or motorbike ride away. Not quite what we were expecting. Anyway, we are back to the lovely peacefulness of remote West Papua.

We sailed approximately half the way today, as the winds were kind. Then it turned to a lovely glass out and we motored the remainder of the way into Fakfak. We were greeted with so many kids and people waving and yelling at us from the shore. Our friends are also anchored in this little port arranging Visa extensions and provisions. We will attempt to get some fresh fruit and veg and some other groceries if we can. It is very busy in here and after being away from any form of civilisation for so long it is a little overwhelming to be honest.