157. Raja Ampat

I spent my first day on SV Kismet catching up on some much-needed rest from traveling and also catching up with Kevin and Sean. The last time I saw them both was in Fiji last year and since then, Kevin had sailed to Australia and then up to Indonesia, with Sean joining for the longer passages. Sean planned to stick around for a few more weeks to cruise and explore some of the excellent diving that Raja Ampat is famous for and planned four dives for my first day onboard.

Raja Ampat is also famous for its current, so instead of trying to dive on our own, we felt it safest and easiest to hire a local guide and boat for the day. Our dive guide picked us up in the morning with a bright red smile, stained from betelnut. Our first dive site was also Raja Ampat’s most popular: Cape Kri. We descended into warm, clear water and arrived at our maximum depth of 100 feet, only to be greeted by a school of sweetlips. A medium-sized fish with bands of black and white and yellow fins and, you might have guessed it, big lips. Schools of these fish are iconic for this region since they are typically overfished elsewhere.

The diving was excellent and I had never seen that level of life underwater before. We had our 1-hour surface interval at a beautiful sandy beach then dove back into another dive site to see even more underwater. After our first two dives, the boat dropped us off in the town of Waisai to have lunch. Then another two dives, including a night dive. I found the night dive most surprising since we descended on a sandy slope where, normally, I wouldn’t expect to see much but our flashlights found the most interesting creatures including many small octopuses and cuttlefish.

The next day Kevin, Sean, and I rented a car and driver for some provisioning and prepared the boat to leave the marina the day after. Kevin briefed us on the general plan for the next couple of weeks with Sean onboard. Each day would take about 4-8 hours of transit, eventually making our way up to an island group called Pulau Wayag. I asked about the weather forecast and Kevin responded that we were too close to the equator to predict much, the weather models weren’t very accurate here but he didn’t expect there to be much wind. Sounded great to me!

We woke up early the next morning to prepare the boat and I was met with a very familiar feeling: anxiety. I was anxious about the wind, being on a new boat with a new captain and crew, and making sure I could add some kind of value. Luckily, the trip went smoothly and we each took turns resting but Kevin and Sean did most of the navigation. In the afternoon we arrived at Pulau Pef which was my first glimpse at the peculiar land masses famous in this part of the world.

We navigated into a well-protected bay and found two mooring balls available to take. There is one resort on the island and Sean had coordinated with us ahead of time to use the mooring and rent scuba tanks. We took the dinghy to a dock and then followed a path through the mangroves to a stunning resort on the other side of the island. The resort was closed for a few weeks and we had the entire place all to ourselves with excellent snorkeling right off the dock.

After staying two nights in Pulau Pef and knocking out a couple of local dives, we headed to the next destination which wasn’t on any cruising maps. We spotted a potentially protected bay and made our way inside, hoping for a sandy bottom to drop the anchor. There was a small sandy patch just big enough and we carefully added floats to prevent the chain from laying too much on the seabed.

The water was crystal clear, full of life and interesting underwater topography. We decided to name the location the “Secret Snorkel Spot” and decided not to mark it on any cruising maps, keeping it all to ourselves. We spent hours snorkeling and I filled up my memory cards with videos exploring the underwater world. I was sad to find out that we would only be here one night before arriving in Wayag the next day. I tried to convince Kevin to stay longer, from my experience, when you find a good spot, it’s worth staying. I’m glad he didn’t listen to me because the next place we were arriving was about to be the most beautiful place I’d ever been!