Triton Bay - NOW WE'RE TALKIN - A DIVERS PARADISE AND WHALESHARKS!

Stocked up with provisions enough for the next couple of months we departed Tual to sail northeast to the part of Indonesia known as Triton Bay.  We had heard the diving/snorkeling was world class and also I was very much looking forward to swimming with the Whale sharks.  Our overnight passage easy enough but unfortunately we, arrived in the dark.  One minute I was sailing along approaching the coastline, the next it seemed there was someone standing the bow flashing a light in my eyes.  It was unnerving and given our Bagan experience in Tual we immediately apprehensive. Over the next few minutes it appeared that no matter what direction we turned, there were random flashing lights. We did not know it at the time, but these are local fishermen out in small boats with nothing more than a flashlight...they could see us, but we could not see them.  Welcome to Indonesia! However, not knowing this, we diverted course and sailed an extra 15 miles south to avoid this unknown hazard.  It was worth it…as we arrived, we were met by a Humpback whale, a Whale shark, a very large Giant Manta and a pod of dolphins.   This is what we came to see.

We anchored in a well-protected bay in shallow sand bottomed water outside the Triton Bay Dive Resort.  This is owned and operated by a lovely lady named Lisa and her partner.  It is a beautiful setting with only 8 cabanas which are fully booked.  They are quite cruiser friendly and were happy to share local knowledge where to dive/snorkel and see the sites.  Lisa introduced us to their resident Couscous, a tree kangaroo rarely seen in the wild.  One of their dive locations proved to be absolutely outstanding.  So many fish of size and healthy hard and soft coral made the experience all that it could be.  We spent days just enjoying the local dive locations and found the house reef in the anchorage worthy of repeated dives…and enjoyed a night dive to see the elusive Walking shark.

We crossed the bay to a lovely anchorage and celebrated Carols Birthday

Next stop was Lobo where we enjoyed a pleasant hike thru this wee village.  Note the Gas station...the row of plastic bottles in the fence.  

From here a short hop to Muawara Bay.  This was a small anchorage that just fit our three boats. 

We enjoyed a spirited walk up (726 steps) to a surrounding lookout and while us older folk caught our breath Matt and Annie flexed their Drone flying muscles and entertained us with their aerobatic skills. 

 The snorkeling was fantastic and here Kaija discovered her first Spiny Devilfish and and Upside Down Jeffyfish...Who Knew?

We sailed north Raf Bay.  Here Kaija found only the second seahorse she has seen in our 15 yrs crusing, (the first in Porto Lytton in the San Blas Islands of Panama).  This little creature is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

We also discovered ancient drawings embedded high above the water line, begging the question...how did they get there and who was the artist.  They used an indelible Ocra colored paint and many of these unique pieces are still easy to discern.

It was time to find the Whalesharks.These amazing creatures are huge...growing up to 60 feet.

We dinghied to the north end of Triton Bay Channel and found two large Bagans.  They were feeding and caring for a baby Whaleshark.

They tag the baby Whale sharks and by feeding them daily they are assured of a financial resource as they charge a small fee to cruisers like us for the opportunity of swimming with them. 

It was well worth the small fee as the next hour was for me, a true life highlight. 

The baby turned out be approx. 30 feet in length and weighed??? 

and although at first somewhat intimidating…

I quickly discovered that he enjoyed the tactile contact of human touch as much as I enjoyed the up close and personal experience.

I have done a few exciting things in my lifetime...this is certainly one of them!

We will long remember our time in Triton Bay and recommend this beautiful place to any and all who can find it.

Tual, Indonesia

We had arrived at the Kai group of Islands.  This is where the check-in port of Tual is located.  It was a Sunday and no check-in till Monday so when we spotted a lovely quiet anchorage at the top of Kai Island, we thought we would spend the night (under quarantine) recouping from our passage before heading into the press and congestion of Tual to check.  We anchored, and just a dusk was upon us, we were boarded by a Customs boat that demanded we continue on to Tual…another 2 hrs.  As it was now almost dark and our experience thus far had shown us that the Indonesian boating community does not necessarily adhere to the international rules of vessel lighting at night, we asked if there were any shipping or unmarked hazards en-route.  We were assured there were none and it was a straightforward passage. 

Two hours later, in the dark coming into the harbour of Tual, we ran afoul of a Bagan.  What is a Bagan you ask????   It is a floating derelict without any lights or navigation systems, somewhat akin to a tree house and tent on a raft…but they tie themselves to any old piece of angle iron and there they squat.  Right in the middle of the navigation channel.  To make a long story short…I next found myself in the water in the dark…with a knife, cutting away old tangled lines that had snagged our keel/rudder as Kaija did her best to fend us off.  Our friends on Jams who were right behind us narrowly avoided the same fate. 

Free at last, we inched forward into the first anchorage available.  No sooner had we got the hook down, than a local ponga roared up demanded that their lines be replaced.  I thought it 'interesting' that they knew exactly where to come looking, especially, since there had been no lights or persons on the Bagan, and no offers of assistance from anyone nearby.  They were upset and I wasn't exactly thrilled, but we agreed that they could come back in the morning and we would sort it out. They found my offer to replace their old lines with lines of equivalent length (and age) from my ships stores, unacceptable. 

We finally agreed (with the assistance of the Port Captain, who was no doubt related) to replace their 2 old lines measuring perhaps 50 meters total with an entire spool (200 meters) of heavy floating line...Rp1,000,000 (not exactly a million dollars but almost everyone in Indonesia can claim millionaire status when their currency is Rp10,000 to $1.  So for those following in our wake...a word to the wise from someone who has gone before..DO NOT TRAVEL IN THE DARK UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IS OUT THERE!

As it turned out this was somewhat fortuitous in that it gave Murray and me and opportunity to buy a spool (200 meters) of floating line.  We had heard and would soon discover that Indonesian anchorages are most often very deep with major coral bommies and the best solution is to secure the boat fore and aft with long lines to the surrounding terrain.

We spent the next few days in Tual, our first exposure to the culture shock and hustle and bustle of Indonesia life.  The streets are crowded with with cars, motorcycles, people old, small, young old, stray dogs, the overpowering smell of drying fish...all manner of vendor.   Customs and Immigration were easy enough to deal with and seemed to enjoy the respite from their office work to come out and inspect our boats.  Despite our inability to speak the language, Carol on Jams had been studying the lingo and did quite well at communicating with the locals. 

This is a Muslim country and so it takes a wee bit of getting used to some of their distinct traditions.  One is the morning, noon and evening calls to prayer.  These are broadcast by load speaker located on the top of each Mosque.  The Mullah starts slowly and ramps up until it is a veritable Mullah Karaoke as each Mosque appears to be competing for the air waves and your undivided attention.  You can set your watch by them...sooo, at 04:15 am…you can expect a wake-up call as the Mullahs from the surrounding Mosques compete for the air waves.  I do not know how many Mosques there were...but there were a LOT!  While I have no quarrel with the anyone's right to practice their religion...I admit to not understanding the need to overpower anything or anyone within hearing distance especially, when that distance is included only thru the use of high power amplification...but alas, When in Rome!

I will admit to looking forward to finding some of those quiet quaint isolated anchorages I had been reading about.

Thursday Island to Tual - 5 days, Fishing Fleets Galore, 4 fishing nets and a Fish and !/2 later!

We departed Thursday Island with a brisk easterly which was exactly what the Doctor ordered.  However, getting away from the island is a matter of planning. 

You are advised to wait for the current/tide to be in your favor...or you will be a month of Sundays.  Fortunately for us...the wind and the tide were going our way.

Traveling with a buddy boat is something we have seldom done in our 15 years of cruising.  But if it is something you are going to do,

the good crew of Sv Jams, Murray and Carol Clarke are about as good as it gets.  They are just flat out good people.  They are caring and sharing and despite the unfortunate fact that their boat is undeniably faster and Capt. Murray is hands down a better fisherman…(both facts are not always easy to admit). 

 

Murray and Carols  beautiful aluminum hulled Van Der Stadt, Jams, despite a shorter waterline, has a taller rig and therefore  more sail area and the coup de gras a New Code Zero sail…so just do the math.   

The good news is that KaijaSong was always within hailing distance and knowing that there was a friendly voice on the VHF to check in just somehow makes the hours pass quicker. 

The first three days were quite uneventful.  Winds lightening the farther west we sailed and by day three we were motor-sailing.  It was day three that things started getting interesting.  We had heard from friends who had made this trek to stay south of PNG to avoid the fishing nets.  We determined early on to follow the advice and set a course that would keep us a minimum of 60 miles south of the coast.  

 This proved to not be enough…we ran over our first net with some consternation and luckily saw it pass behind us.  We immediately altered course farther south.  We continued south until we were now 100 miles south of the PNG coast.  It was like sailing thru a mine field.  There were fishing boats everywhere.  Luckily Carol on Jams was able to tune in her radar to spot boats and floats we were not able to see.  Despite using radar and their guidance, we still managed to run over and collide with three more nets before running the gauntlet into Tual.   

We had been dragging lures for 5 days we only managed to catch 1 fish, a lovely Maui Maui, 

and a half a tuna...it appears that some bigger fish got him faster than I could reel him in...oh well...you can't get em all! 

Given the number of fishing fleets, vessels, mother ships, smaller liners and netters it is no wonder that there are so few fish available for us cruising anglers.

In the wee small hours of Sunday November 11, we sat bobbing in the dark outside the channel leading into the Kai Islands.  We could just make out the shape of the boats blocking the entrance and it appears they had strung their nets across the entire channel.  They were unlit and showed no signs of moving.  After a couple of hours of zig zagging back and forth they finally collected their nets and we transited thru.

We had arrived in Indonesia!