Return to Misool - New anchorages, The Cave and Kalig

Early on the morning of Nov 4,2019 we set off for our south bound day-sail to E. Misool.  We had 1 kt of current with us most of the way on an easy beam reach.  the sun was shining, the water, wind and waves were in perfect harmony. 

We were looking forward to checking out a new anchorage we had read about in the Delos Cruising Guide.

 It was in the SE corner of Tamulol Bay, well protected soft water in 25m of good holding sand.  The setting was idyllic, with rolling hills in front of us, numerous water inlets and light water traffic. 

There was an wee island just east of us where they were drying fish, luckily for us, the wind was blowing the right direction which kept both the smell and the flies at bay.

There were numerous opportunities for dinghy exploration and we spent many hours gunk holing and snorkeling.

The anchorage was a fair ways from Goa Cave, a Muslim Holy site, but due to the numerous Pearl farms located on this northern coast we were not able to anchor any closer to the cave.  We had a 4 mile dinghy run to get to the caves, but it was well worth the ride and only then did we discover that we could have anchored much closer, but it required either local knowledge or a scouting trip to determine the route thru the pearl farm nets.  No harm done, we enjoyed the dinghy ride and it was a worthwhile stop.

The final leg of the adventure to the cave wound thru Jurassic Park like surroundings and any moment we expected to see prehistoric creatures on the shore.  Alas, no such creatures but at the final bend we did find the Caves. 

There was no one there but us…it was quiet, almost reverently so.  We just stopped and enjoyed the beauty of these majestic surroundings and tried to grasp just how long they have been there and the historic value to the Muslim nation making it this valued Holy site.

We enjoyed our time here, it was a place you can easily spend many days before running out of new things to do and see. We highly recommend this stop.

From here we continued south for a return and final visit to a great wee anchorage on the Island of Kalig we had previously shared with our friends on Jams.

 

During our last visit there had been a mooring that we used, rafting up with our friends as space is limited. 

We were surprised to find the mooring gone, but replaced with a large floating diving platform.  We were reticent to use it and dropped our hook in the middle, and later on a much larger local fishing boat came in and tied on to this platform for several days.

This is an excellent stop for snorkeling and diving with the Misool Eco Resort only 2 miles away. Other than the fishing boat, we had the place to ourselves. We dove and snorkeled, and lazily took our time with last preparations for our first overniter in many months.  it was time to say farewell to Raja Ampat and set sail for Ambon and the Spice islands of Banda.