Chilling & Diving Heina Atoll

Heina is a small reef atoll on the eastern edge of Ninigo. The entrance is narrow but we made it through with a few centimetres up our sleeve at low tide - definitely one for good light. The water here was crystal clear and we wasted no time in getting our feet wet.

A bit quieter here, our lazy days were spent diving, swimming, eating crayfish and collecting coconuts.

We had varying techniques and degrees of success on the coconut tree climbing, including one tree being felled under the weight...

 Not content with eating turtle - we decided to move onto another precious species - the coconut crab. They might look bad, but wow, they taste incredible. Besides if they make us as cut as Rellen and his brother, bring me more!!! After a final BBQ we were waved out of the atoll and sailed south east to the Hermits.

Ninigo Islands

The tall tales of the wonderful Ninigo group were all true! We've truly reached the South Pacific. We were welcomed on arrival by Slim and invited to anchor off Mal Islands where we befriended Steven and family. Our friends here were unbelievably hospitable - we thought we might stay forever.

We were always invited to share in treats - one morning this happened to be freshly caught turtle. Caught by spear - vegos be warned - and while the butchering was a little startling, the taste was really delicious. The Ninigo Islanders have been eating turtle since forever, with such a small population to feed, turtles and food are in abundance. Not one part of the animal was wasted too - even the intestines were used - as balloons for the kids!

One day we were invited to sail with Dominic and his father aboard their hand built sailing canoe. With logging on the increase on mainland, stray logs washing up on the Ninigo beaches has brought about a resurgance in the use of traditional sailing canoes. This boat could move - even with the 4 of us we were skipping over the water at over 10knots.

Mr Krein took us on a tour of the local school, traditional style buildings with wide open windows looking over the clear blue sea. Not sure I could focus on the blackboard here!

The launch of a newly built canoe was a big affair including Steven, our host on Mal Island blessing the new boat, singing, flowers, a feast and a canoe race in which we featured as guest crew. What an amazing day spent with beautiful people. Steven even gave Simon the shirt off his back - the one he is wearing while blessing the canoe.

Steven's fmaily taught us how to make coconut milk and oil, grinding the coconut then squeezing the grindings. It was hard work but the oil was delicious, flavoursome  and super useful - cooking, oil lamps, the body... Like I need an encouraging on the benefits of a daily coconut! Thyme was now bursting at the seams with fresh food too. Everyday piles of produce would be rowed out to us, while the families expected nothing in return we had stocked up on some supplies for trading and basic goods are in desperate need here. I hate to confess for fear of backlash but a packet of ciggies buys a lot of crayfish!

A supply ship arrives only once or twice a year, and as you imagine money on a small atoll a few hundred miles out to sea is not easy to come by, nor much use most of the time so trading was well received. Max and Nadine's bag of clothes has finally run out.

Tears were definitely shed departing Steven and his family on Mal Island, Ninigo, but with no wind on the near horizon we had better bite the bullet and keep moving closer to our destination - next stop Heina Atoll.

Into the wild, Cendarawasih Bay

Our brief stop in Manokwari was extended as we made the most of the friendly town facilities restocking at the local market, sourcing fuel and getting some locally made Batik fabrics. In between awaiting the delivery of fuel we were accompanied by a steady stream of children who swam out to the boat on various flotation devices to visit. 

Worth mentioning, fuel can’t be purchased from the service station in jerry’s. Locals have devised an ingenious method of getting government subsidized fuel and making a buck by fitting their large 4x4swith an easy access tank taps so you can fill up at the servo for 4,500rp, cross the street and empty it into jerry’s which you can sell to the fisherman and us for anywhere up to 7,000rp depending on your bargaining skills and demand This often means a long wait for fuel as each vehicle is only allowed to fill up once per day.

 The afternoon whiteouts and cloudy skies did not stop us exploring once we reached Rumberpon where our Google Earth images came in handy for finding our way thru reef in the rain squalls. Cendarawasih Bay did not disappoint, with steep jungle clad mountains to our right and countless islets fringed with reef on our left, we found mangroves and deserted white beaches with the odd dugout parked in the trees. Finding water shallow enough to anchor in was the only challenge.

As always there are plans and then plans when sailing and as we stumbled upon a small islet group south of Rumberpon we couldn’t resist exploring. A recon reef snorkel was so surprisingly beautiful we were encouraged to dive the drop off. We also took time meeting the local farmer and exploring the surrounding beaches for climbable coconut trees.

We managed to squeeze in a small hike to the top of a nearby hill, giving great views of the surrounding area. Jean survived the first of our walks, but needless to say returned hot, sweaty and covered in dirt. We thought we had better break out Thyme’s fine Kentucky Bourbon to aid recovery.

Jean must be a magician, as along with the copious amount of boat goodies she carried from the Kentucky in the US for us in her super small bag, she also managed to squeeze in this personalized fifth of Kentucky Fine Bourbon Whiskey.

Continuing south deeper into the remote, Jean and myself explored beneath the water, finding all sorts of interesting fish, sharks and critters while Simon rested, recovering from yet another infected cut, this time with fevers! What are we going to do with him? The locals were so friendly but being this remote we were keen to remain cautious and created a fictitious male, swarmee (husband) of Jean called “George”. Unfortunately when locals visited, big strong George was resting so they couldn’t come aboard. Many ignored this and at times we had over 10 people on the boat at once, all very curious as they never have kapal layer (yachts) visit.

In Nusaneer we met a lovely man who climbed the coconut trees and returned with no less than 14 fresh green coconuts in exchange for a packet of Malboro 20s. He ended up spending the afternoon onboard before showing us the local waterfall and washing area… Jean and I were in hair washing heaven! I’ve included a photo of Simon trying to light a beach fire. As most of you are aware Simon is not renowned for his fire lighting skills. Needless to say he’s pretty handy with accelerants.

Sailing onto Palau Roon we dived a Zero Japanese aircraft wreck one afternoon. We got some great photos with Jean’s new toy – the GoPro underwater camera. She quite cleverly catches Simon giving the wreck a thorough once over, luckily there was nothing he could pry off by hand. I was more interested in the Crocodile Fish sitting in the wing crevice.

It was here we came across the lovely Cedrick and the Black Manta tour boat. Given we had jumped straight in and dived the wreck first with our hookah unit we were quite surprised when Cedrick approached, inviting us to visit, supplies and assistance if we needed anything. He was free with sharing info on the Whale Sharks and I as I write we are headed south ready to look below in pursuit of the big fish – fingers crossed!

Wonderful Waigeo - Raja Ampat

Our stop at the equator involved more diving. This time some high adrenaline dives with swift currents and some big fish – we even managed to spot the Raja Ampat walking shark. Out of the marine park the boys couldn’t wait to get out the spear gun and catch some crays for dinner.

Instead of fireworks, our equator party included a call from Daryl on Metana advising that he had to administer CPR to Toni after she had suffered some kind of fit and could we get some assistance on the radio. Thru the trusty HF, we put out a PAN PAN and got NZ radio, who called Australia, who called Indonesia who sent out their Sea Air Rescue boat to assist. Nice to know someone is out there in emergencies.

Setting sail for Aus, we farewelled Metana and Gadfly for the last time and headed for a leisurely tour of Alyui Bay, sailing between a narrow karst cliff lined channel, diving with hundreds of solar powered nidibranchs at the White Arrow dive, visiting the local pearl farm, navigating through the mangroves to fresh water streams, collecting fresh oysters and checking out ancient rock art. We even squeezed in listening to the Sydney Swans win the grand final on the HF radio.

After a hot tip from the Pearl Farm and keen for some land adventures, we headed further into the bay for a walk up a mountain. We were surprised to find pitcher plants.

Unexpectedly, we've not seen a store now for about 2 weeks. Fresh veges were becoming a memory, lucky we like coleslaw and baking was becoming our favourite past time, homemade crumpets were a hit one morning. We were even resorting to desperate measure with the coconuts – taking from fallen trees!

With Simon suffering from the mystery illness again we made a push for Sorong.  At one point his fever reached 39.8 and he was delirious and shaking. Thank goodness Scotty was aboard, his calming influence was greatly appreciated – Simon spent 3 days in bed, arising only for entering or exiting anchorages or winching the tricky dinghy up before returning to his death bed. Simon awoke on day 4 with no idea as to where the boat was or how we got there! While you were sleeping, we saw no reason not to mix travel and nursing with exploring – Scotty and I dived in mangrove lined reefs, drift dived narrow channels with names like Citrus Ridge & Palau Yum where I spotted a huge sleeping Wobbygong, enjoyed bird watching and forest walking and visited a small island which resembled the south pacific more than Indonesia. Wish we could share the amazing diving but with no underwater camera – you’ll just have to come and see it yourself to believe it!

Famous in Talaud

Arriving a day early, we managed to be the first yacht in town. The towns people helped carry the dingy up the beach and our photo was taken 100’s of times.  As the other boats began to turn up the activities started with demonstrations of the local traditional dances. I was hoping for an island that historically was big on blow pipes and big spears instead of basket weaving and pottery and wasn’t completely disappointed they brought out the big knives.

While Sloop was enjoying the no movement sensation Chamois and Basia headed off the change some money.  Uneventful you might think but not so. The staff had especially been trained for the rally – this being their 1^st money change customer ever -  so they were first personally introduced to the currency calculator, then the counter, then the paperwork filler outer and finally the money hander overer who insisted on having a photo taken with all the staff next to their new sign. Chamois felt like he had won lotto rather then changing 50 euro when receiving his envelope. Chamois also wanted to change from his Polish bank to an Indo account with service like this!!!

After then evening dinner where each boat was given a very nice hand made ebony ship as a gift we were given the details of a lunch time BBQ that was to take place on a nearby island. The official time was of the event was 1pm so we sailed over the next morning. Not sure if we had the right island we wandered over around 12 to find the BBQing in full swing. The fish, squid etc was awesome and by the time the other boats turned up by speed boat around 2.30 we were fat and sleepy.

With plenty of wind we left the following morning at a sparrow’s fart we left to do the 130 miles down to Moratai. The gods were somewhat smiling on us with the autopilot working all night however Chamois was once again struck down with the sea sickness bug.After another night of pumping the water from the leaky stern tube, we arrived at what Amanda named Paradise in company with Metana and Gadfly.

With celebrations planned for Sail Morotai 2012 including the Indonesia President arriving, we headed for Daruba Harbour where we fare welled to Poles to land travel and Nasi Goering with almost 1,000nm under their belts and now expert hand steerers!

Aussie Scott, our new crew luckily arrived just in time for the lobster bake off, where BBQs lined the streets as far as the eye could see to cook over 2,400 lobsters - yummy!!!

Diving with Bavarians

 

With the window job finally completed, the feta made,  4kg of smoked pork (a great recipe from sv Braveheart), and our new crew Max and Nadine we upped anchor for the last time in KK and headed out to Gaya to introduce our crew to hookah diving. What better place to start then scrubbing the hull.

With a few dives under our belts and a covert mission to the canopy walk behind the resort followed by a swim in the pool at the royal villa we began the trip to Sandakan with a stiff following breeze.

 

Our arrival in Kudat brought with it the usual jobs, fuel, gas, and ships stores. We did however manage to fit in a legal swim at the resort and catch up with Sarazan the golf caddy from last year while taking Sloop for an early morning stroll through the sand bunkers. Max and Nadine trying to escape the heat from in the boat slept on deck much to the delight of the resident mosquitoes.

Pulau Silk looked good on the chart and was chosen as the next stop. The residents of a water village were also the lucky recipients of some second hand cloths Max and Nadine had brought with them to give away

Tibakkan a sand cay on the way to Tigabu made a great afternoon stop. My lips are sealed…  We were also pleasantly surprised by the recovery of the reef. Snorkeling here was like swimming in a huge aquarium.

Amanda had printed some good photos from last year featuring the local fisherman who took us under his wing and showed us around. We gave them to a passing boat and an hour latter had a visit from a very impressed local clutching his photos. Unfortunately he was on his way out fishing so we only caught up briefly.

A snorkel in the area where Amanda had previously been sprayed with squid ink turned up a huge turtle scratching its back on a lump of coral.

We’re off southwards in the hope of finding turtles laying at Tegapil in the coming days.

Bintulu to Miri with the Yii's

After leaving the mouth of the Lassa at the very civilized time of 11am we traveled through the night to our next stop at Bintulu. After hearing about yachts before us having stuff stolen off them while anchored in the river we opted for the secure port 10 miles further north. From here it was a pain in the ass to get to town involving a long trip in the dingy through the Port before, in the words of the port official, hijacking out on the main road. The 24hour security made up for the inconvenience.


The weather being unsettled we stayed 3 days. When in town on day 1 we got sausage-making ingredients and filled in the other days making sausages. Hippy Amanda went all out even attempting to make Feta cheese as well as other things.

Another overnighter saw us through to Miri, arriving early in the morning with a blood splattered hull after catching 2 fish and running into a 35 foot long log in the middle of the night. After walking into town we found that Miri does not have anywhere to hires a motorbike. Everywhere we went I asked the locals if I could hire their bike for 4 days until we found a spare one. With wheels we found a great electrical shop that should have Avalanche danger signs posted and of course the friendly local Butcher.

Yii, the Butcher was a little surprised when we turned up wanting Pig intestines but after explaining what they were for he ordered them for an early pick up the next morning. He must have mentioned the crazy tourists making western sausages to his wife as we then got a message inquiring if we could do a sausage making class for her and her friend. Sounds like fun.

After a batch of Old English Pork Yii and his family took us under their wing and couldn’t do enough for us. We mentioned taking our bike the 100kms down to Niah Caves, but they would not hear of it insisting on driving us down.

After only 1 wrong turn we found our way through the cave system to the paintings on the other side.

Being a weekday not many people were about therefore the bats, cave Wetas etc were relatively undisturbed.

Once back at the marina we thought since the Miri Marina was full of boats, a taste test evening would help present our superior product to the marketplace. It ended up being such a success we did the same the following evening managing to sell out (24 half kilo packets) as well as back orders. This caused a delayed departure to make more sausages and Amanda was keen to go out with Yii’s wife and family while I got the boat prepared. Their plan of sneaking over the bridge to Brunei had its problems I believe.

A week later with sausages in the freezer again we headed off for Brunei. Thanks Yii and family for the great time we had while in Miri.

Bugs, Turtles & Monkeys - Setang Besar to Bako

Much to the disappointment of the local mosquito population I’m sure, it was time to leave our safe haven in the river to start moving north again.

Not getting to carried away for a start we decided to do the 10 miles to Palau Setang Besar, an island where they have a breeding program for turtles. The idea is to wait for the turtles to come up the beach at night and start laying their eggs. The Park Rangers then tag the turtle, measure it and remove barnacles etc. Once the turtle has gone, the eggs are dug up and relocated to a fenced area out of harms way. After anchoring and lunch (Jungle fern – the local specialty) we headed over to find out what the deal was.




The Rangers informed us that the previous night 3 turtles had come ashore and after encountering problems during the hole digging process had headed back to sea without laying. We were welcome to come over at 10pm - high tide. By the time 10pm rolled around it was raining and the waves made it feel like we were trying to sleep on the back of a rocking horse. After discussing the pros and cons we bit the bullet and went over anyway.

The ranger greeted us on the shore with the news that a group of Hawks Bill turtle eggs had just hatched and we were welcome to take them down to the shore and set them free.

The rain then stopped and 2 Green turtles came ashore and started digging. One hit a log in it’s first hole and roots in the second, so went back to sea however the second one laid its eggs.




The laying went smoothly after a long and protracted hole digging. After being tagged, etc it headed back to sea.




After a sleep in we donned our snorkeling gear for some barnacle removing of our own on Thyme’s hull. A last stop at the beach revealed our Green Turtle had laid 114 eggs which were now safely buried in a chamber under the sand. In 60 days from now hopefully these baby Green Turtles will scurry down the beach to start their life at sea!




Next on our nature hit list was to find the Proboscis monkey, so we headed further north to the Bako national park. Once anchored we could see them in the treetops on the mainland. The following morning we set out on our search but surprise, surprise it rained forcing us back to the boat.




The next plan was to try our luck on Palau Lekei, the island we were anchored next to. Again the Proboscis could be seen in the treetops but we couldn’t get close. The island did have some nice short walks through different varieties of Pitcher plants and down to a creek. Here the myth has it that an ancient warrior engraved the script in the creek bed with his finger 100’s of years ago. Nobody has been able to translate the writing.




Our next stop will be the mouth of the mighty Rejang, Borneo’s jugular, and the main trade artery for all of central and southern Sarawak.