Ariana Time

We are anchored in Sorong harbor in the northwest corner of Papua, Indonesia drinking some of that great Indonesian coffee. The sun is coming up and we preparing for departure to northern Raja Ampat after finishing up with the bureaucratic paper work that is so very much a part of Indonesia. It supports a whole mini economy. What a difference from the laid back (understatement) worlds of PNG and the Solomons. We crossed the border between PNG and Indoensia between Vanimo, PNG and Jayapura Indoensia. It is only 40 or so miles but it is like light years of travel.
Jayapura is a true cesspool (literally) of a harbor. Very nice people but it is supported by subsidy from the central Indonesian government to prevent civil war for succession, or so we were told. It is increasingly populated by asian Indonesians. You don't see many native Papuans walking the bustling, noisy streets filled with horn blaring teksi. Vanimo is just a two street sleepy logging town with not very much on its supermarket shelves. Jayapura has the tallest buildings we have see since Fiji and western hotels and very well stocked supermarkets and........
The 650nm passage from Jaypura to Sorong was one that offered little sleep. Headwinds (when there was any), weird currents, really nasty squalls that usually hit at 0300, and masses of floating logs that threatened to punch a hole in your hull or rip off your rudder. Of course at night you can't see the logs. I am glad that is behind us.
We sailed to Vanimo from Kavieng via the Lavongai Lagoon off New Hanover (recommended) and then the Hermit Islands. The Hermits were a little bit of a let down after all the hype. To be fair, we had some pretty unstable weather while there so this prevented us from diving and getting out to some of the outer islands as there are not many good anchorage, if any. I think the ITCZ was passing at the time hopefully heralding the arrival of the SW monsoon/SE trades. We did get to swim with some pretty huge mantas while we were there.
Kavieng is a great cruising areas. It brings to mind another why question, one of many we have had over our months in PNG and the Solomons. "Why hasn't this area become a tourist mecca?" Awesome surf, off the charts fishing, awesome diving, really beautiful lagoon cruising.
We are off to Raja Ampat to the north and then south to Flores, Komodo, Bali.....