The Chilians in Raja Ampat

Before Scotty continued West on his travels, Simon had one more treat up his sickness sleeve for us. One morning, while eating breakfast outside I saw some bright blue gelly type liquid on the deck. Curious as to what it was, I asked Scotty if he had any ideas. Also curious by nature, he got down on all fours, dipped his index finger in it and took a sniff. It’s of quite an oily consistency he says, yes I agree bending down to get a better look. We put it down to one of lifes mysteries and carry on until shortly after Simon arises from his death bed with a blue stain on his foot. Further enquiries were made and it turns out that the medicine he is taking has turned his urine bright blue.  During the night while shivering and shaking and delirious with fever he must have missed and got the rail. Gross !!!

This is Simons humour in case you can't tell and being sick I've let him have his way - he's re-created it for your viewing pleasure!

Simon’s health was up and down like a yo-yo – dying one minute and feeling ok the next. After talking to our doc in Aus, we headed to the hospital for some tests, fearing the worst. It sounds terrible, but we were almost relieved to hear he had malaria – we could put a name to it, and this is something they treat everyday, being an endemic malaria region. We were anchored right next to the ferry terminal, only a short bus ride to the hospital.

Too late to let our friends Mane and Cristian from Chile know about Simon's health, they arrived and decided to stay aboard and see what happens. With drugs in hand, we headed a short way to an island where Si could take some R&R and we could explore. Sorry Scotty, after you jumped off we seemed to hit the mackerel sweet spot and Cristian was hauling them in – his first pelagic catch!

Cristian and Mane tried Scuba for the first time in the shallows of Palau Yum, before we headed back to Sorong for some more tests.

With Si still positive for P.Vivax malaria, we stocked up on a new course of drugs – supposedly to clear the parasite from blood and the liver stages and we headed back to Waigeo to explore the narrow channel between Palau Waigeo and Gam. We thought we might snorkel the channel so did a bit of a dinghy recon one afternoon – the current was so swift we struggled to get back to the boat.

The next day we braved the current and jumped in for a snorkeling joy ride past bommies and rocks covered with soft corals and sponges, critters, turtle and fish swimming in the depths and caves to explore.

This bay was a karst island fantasy with pinnacles, islets and narrow channels to weave in and out of. Secret bays could be accessed thru small holes in rocks and caves filled with bats abound. You could explore this area for months and still not see it all!

With Si’s health heading downhill despite the new drugs we decided to return to Sorong. Cristian and Mane jumped off and returned to Bali before heading for Chile. It was such a shame their visit co-incided with Simon being unwell – but we still managed to show them some of the beauty of Raja Ampat and even squeezed in some sailing, Cristian taking on role of skipper and Mane first mate. Unsure what to do next we returned to the hospital with Si where we decided to admit him for 3-4 days of treatment.

Just in case you have no idea where we are - that's us on the right hand side of the screen.

Amazing Wayag - Raja Ampat

After an awesome night sail of stars, dolphins and steady breeze, we fought the current into the picture postcard inlet on the western side of Wayag - in northern Raja Ampat (or West Papua if your still lost). Not far into the first bay we spied a small hole in the rocks which Thyme would fit through and entered a maze of clear turquoise water and small karst islets. You could get lost in here! 

The scenery in Wagieo is spectacular – an afternoon walk (read scramble and climb) up Mt Pindito says it all.

Dying to get in the water, we couldn’t wait for the weather to clear and headed out to some outer rocks where Scotty and I were lucky enough to dive with mantas while Simon manned the dingy in the swell and rain. A morning was spent weaving Thyme in and out of the small bays and lagoons while Scotty played spotter from the spreader with Gadfly in pursuit.

The weather soon cleared and our blissful days were filled with exploring – diving, kayaking, hiking, eating coconuts, waving about heavy artillery… The local policy paid a visit – Simon doubtful as to their true identity asked where their gun was. When they brought out a nice big machine gun, Simon asked if he could hold it – “Sure!” was the reply as they happily handed it up.

Stern problems seem to be catching and with some recent experience a boys afternoon was spent making some repairs on Metana. With so much more still to see we dragged ourselves away and headed for the equator.

Thirsty in Dinigat

With no information on the area except the vague arm pointing from some people in the drunk town we flipped a coin and deiced to head north. The chart showed a long finger that looked to be a good anchorage. There we found two ladies fishing one of which spoke English. Once they had finished inquiring if we had come for the treasure she said that the owner of the land (Peter) could guide us to a lake and cave nearby the next day. The whole family and a puppy turned up in the rain with breakfast the following morning and once that was over with we set off. When inquiring about Peter it transpired he was long dead and was guiding us in spirit. That’s not Tanduay Robins drinking with a sprite chaser at 10 in the morning.

The whole area is Lava rock… very sharp Pontus. It made for great exploring with caves everywhere some we could drive the dingy in and others we had to swim in. Any with dirt in them appeared to have been excavated. Fishermen in the area told it was foreigners looking for the treasure.

With so many good spots to explore our travel time each day was not more than a couple of hours. Plenty of time for monkeying around.

After 3 days we found a pond that we could just squeeze into amongst lots of small rocky islands to anchor in. The chart showed us well onto the land.

Most of the islets had small huts on them where the fishermen stay.

This so far has been my favorite anchorage in the Philippines. There were heaps of places to explore. We only allowed a week for the area and have decided to come back next year to spend more time here. That’s the only thing that made me feel good about lifting the anchor to head back to Leyte… and the need for a Red Horse.

Why was there no beer in Dinigat?

In 1965 Ruben Ecleo founded the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Assoc (PBMA) on Dinigat Island. After his death in the 80's his son, Ruben Jnr who followers believe is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ continued leading the Assoc receiving an estimated $35m in entrance fees from the million or so followers.

In 2002 Ruben Jnr was accused by Police of murdering his wife placing the body in a bag and throwing it from a cliff in Cebu. He fled Cebu to hide out in Dinigat. When Police attempted to arrest him for questioning his house was surrounded by PBMA followers ending in a shoot out which killed 17 before he gave himself up.

Apparently the PBMA has healing powers. Also it's believed Jesus Christ was baptised in the lake we visited. Try listening to that with a straight face!

Still to this day the island is largely governed by the movement resulting in alcohol and cigarette restrictions. We did however get to taste some underground local palm spirits - strong stuff!

To the Bright Lights of Boracay

Leaving Coron behind we headed over to Tara Island catching a Tuna along the way. Sloop was pleased to be back into the quieter Islands where a run around was possible.

We found ourselves anchored off a deserted beach and hatched a plan to have a BBQ. Renarta marinated pork (Schaschlik from Russia with love) to have with baked potatoes and salad.

Looking back maybe we should have stayed another day, but unaware it was Friday the 13th we headed off for one of the worst trips in ages against the current and straight into the wind across to Mindoro. Finally after averaging 3.2 knots (5.7km) we reached a bay on Ambulong Island well after dark. A stripy tuna also had an unlucky day. Not game to enter the bay in the dark, which was full of seaweed farming and reef buoys we anchored out the front only to have security turn up on a jet ski with their guns. It turns out they only wanted to guide us in and show us around the Grace Island resort which was starting to take guests. The next day after our tour we had them out on the boat for a visit before we headed off to Masin Island.

With the weather now on the improve Masin Island was a great place to stop with loads of kids on the shore waiting for us. We took balloons over which was a great hit.

It’s a wonder the kids didn’t injure themselves running in the wind bare footed over lumps of coral to catch a balloon I let go. After seeing that we just handed them all 1 each.

After we got some coconuts and Marc threw some kids about we departed for the big smoke of Boracy to get more time on our visa.

Feeling left out, Marc joined the Balut club. Our unregistered vendor had to usher us off the beach into an ally way to avoid the police. A Philippine rocker dressed in doc martins, stockings and a kilt provided after dinner entertainment.

As well as us trying to convince a security guard to point his 9mm at Amanda. He even objected to holding Marcs water pistol.

Enough of the big smoke – let’s head for Tablas!

To El Nido - the scenic route

Once Anchored at Boayan Island fishing around the many rocks was high on our agenda with Robin landing a great Tuna and all of us getting loads of Barracuda from around what we called “Barracuda Point” These were gratefully received by a small group of people living in the bay. The making of Sushi rolls the next day in the rough conditions ended up being to hard for poor old Robin.

The remaining of the fish was shared with Tim and Barb of Rubicon Star at Teodore Point BBQ style.

From Teodore Point we headed to Liminangcong a small town where Robin again hooked up this time a Brassy Trevally later to be had as Cevice, (Lunch). The following day put us in the Bacquit Archipelago. Cathedral caves were the nearby anchorage attraction. Tim took Robin and I took Pontus for a fishing competition. Our team recorded 1 bite, 2 bottom hook ups and a net around the dingy prop in the dark. Tim’s team got nothing but was halfway through a bottle of rum by the time we got back. Who were the winners? The galley was also closed on Tim’s boat when we got home leaving him to cook his own dinner.

Robin also managed to climb into a cave after a few dips in the sea only to find bird shit mostly on his hands. It entertained us anyway.

Since the weather was on the improve, a trip around some of the outer Islands was decided on before heading to Coron Coron for new years eve. Small Lagoon was the first stop.

The mosquitos were fierce at Big Lagoon where Sweden’s TV program Robinson was filmed.

With the loss of only a pint of blood each we headed around to secret beach, a hole in a rock wall that you swim through to enter a small lagoon. Anchoring in 25 meters over rocks wasn’t the highlight of my day.

With New Years Eve fast approaching, our house clean to be done and maybe a nap to fit in we headed to Coron Coron our nights anchorage for the festivities.

Sailing around Phang Nga Bay

With Christmas fast approaching Trevor had to travel south to Ao Chalon to collect new crew and drop off existing ones. Us wanting to avoid the chaos for as long as possible were not planning to arrive in Nai Harn till the 24th. One of his crew was keen to stay on the water till the New Year so we put up our hand and offered to take her north with us. Our first stop was to be James Bond Island. Getting right into theme, we even bought the The Man With Golden Gun DVD only to find the high quality pirated copy got stuck half way through!



Ignoring all the domes dayers who said we would run aground (like that hasn’t happened before) we opted to go further north to a Muslim stilt village.


Here our missions were to find some paintings believed to be from the Neanderthal era, a hole through a rock and of course Internet. The Paintings were the easiest to find.

The Internet was a little more trouble some however Amanda did find some good clothes on the mission. And the hole through the rock was an 8-mile dingy ride into the mangrove river system. If there had not been fishermen along the way to continually point us in the right direction we would never had made it.

The place was full of friendly locals.

Having visited the tourist hot spots it was time to go in search of cleaner water. This meant leaving Phang Nga Bay and heading to Koh Racha Yai, south of Phuket. Here swimming was back on the menu.

Unfortunately so was walking. I did however get to make some new friends

The 24th had arrived so we put Miss V (identity not disclosed as she is very shy) on the wheel and we headed off to Nai Harn for Christmas.

Phang Nga Bay

We dotted our way north West checking out what’s hot and what’s not, finding bats, Hongs and calm waters.

What we didn’t find was a doctor. Amanda was a little nervous about some stomach pains she was experiencing (not pregnant) and after taking various medications on board wanted professional advice. We were still traveling with Gadfly at this stage and he had a friend in Aussie who was a doctor. Next problem, phone service. We headed into the bay in search of reception.

After having no real success we headed back to the boat with the plan of heading to Phuket in the morning if no improvement was felt. Fortunately things were much better so we decided on Ko Hong for a day stop.

We bumped our dinghies through the 100s of tourists in kayaks to visit the numerous tunnels through the island. We even bumped into National Parks who wanted money for visiting the area. We advised them we were just leaving and headed off to Koh Ping Kan for the night. This was a much quieter spot and we found a long tunnel that cut right through the Island.

Once getting to the center of the Island things shallowed up and one of Trevor’s crew went forward to investigate the lay of the land reporting back “impassable”

We headed back to the boats for a meal of prawns procured from local fishermen.