Welcoming committee!

Just entered & departed our last town in Indo.
Maybe one or two small islands still to come, but we're pretty much out of here.
It's been fun.

Two days from Raja Ampat to Manokwari.
Mainly sailing -very pleasant - but assistance from Little Red Devil last night.
The West Papuan landscape rather grand. Mountainous and jungly.
Bush looked pretty much intact.
Large swell crashed against rocky shoreline with huge eruptions of spray.
Sometimes the waves looked like perfect surfy pipes.
Three lots of accompanying dolphins, and huge clouds of little white terns going crazy over surfacing fish, while the frigate birds - distinctive white heads & chests - dived & swooped amongst them.

This one filled the tanks!

Well, we arrived in Raja Ampat with Boggus on 12 Oct, so we're just one week shy of two months. And have loved it. So beautiful both below and above the water line that sometimes you're not sure where to plonk your head. Although can breathe more easily above the waterline.
And it was here in Raja Ampat that my reputation as a Fish Whisperer was truly cemented, taking the sport of fishing to a new exalted level, without employing line or lure.

Wonderful nature, and met lots of lovely fellow yachties too.
Another great dinner last night with Villa G & Blue Star a nice way to finish off.
Didn't get to know too many locals - because there aren't too many! - but their big broad grins are certainly conspicuous across those dark hued faces!

Monday's rain squall didn't clear in 5 minutes as they usually do, but stayed all day. We explored the narrow fjord-like channels just north of Teluk Alyui, the bay we'd been evicted from. Sublimely beautiful karst cliffs, bush & palms. The rain rather added to the atmosphere. Dolphins and turtles in the passage too. Then not far out of the channel we came across more mantas. Biggies. The pic below is not terribly clear, but whitish shape in the middle is an open mouth. Then to cap off a good day, we caught a tuna for dinner. It was the first time we'd used one of the lures Petal & Green-Eyes gave Jackie for her 50th (what a fine gift!) and immediate success. You may wonder why we waited a year to try them. Cos they were too special! But we'll be using them from now on.
And another last burst of being social before leaving Raja Ampat. We shared him with Villa G and Blue Star.

A quiet week, and finally we're on our own again. Which feels good, though we do miss our 2nd Mate. We're keen to get going on our big journey east. But we're still just a little bit early. Cos there ain't none wind. We're hoping the NW monsoon will kick in soon. (When you guys up in HK get the NE monsoon, it's NW down here). We did our first sail change yesterday. After 21 months! A bit different from Saturday racing, when sometimes we'd nervously change the headsail a couple of times before the race, and sometimes between races. But we've had our no.3 working gib on the whole time. Which we're very fond of. And we haven't done much sailing in light winds. It's been more a case of decent winds, or none at all. But hopefully at this time of year we'll get some wind behind us before too long. After our eviction from Alyui Bay, we went back across to Kawe Is, and found a pretty spot in the north bay. Very mangrovy, and the water was murky. Still lots of fish & turtles though. And mantas again. Just 2 or 3, and smaller. But one of them spent some hours circling us at anchor, sometimes right alongside, and that was pretty cool. Then we went round the corner to an abandoned mine camp and filled up with water. Of course since then, we've had 2 or 3 heavy downpours. We explored the Equator Islands nearby, situated straddling the - yep, you guessed it - which were very spectacular but didn't have the mooring buoys we were hoping for. So we went over to an inlet Nth of Alyui Bay, hoping it would be as pretty. Wasn't quite, cos not the same karst formations, but a whole bush clad inlet to ourselves, so can't complain. Well, we thought we had it to ourselves, but were surprised the first night to see a small light across the bay. A family in a hut. The next morning they de-camped and came our way. A man, woman, boy, 6 mangy dogs and a parakeet. The chap asked for petrol, but I didn't give him any. If someone has an outboard 7.5 times as big as ours (ours is a Yamaha 2) I reckon they can source their own fuel!

---------- radio email processed by SailMail for information see: http://www.sailmail.com