Saturday 17 September 2016

A magical place. After visiting the 25 year old, Australian owned, pearl farm yesterday morning (regrettably for everyone but me and the piggy bank, they don't sell pearls plus they were in vacation mode) and a long visit with its French manager, we worked on the boat (really), then took dink out for a late afternoon stroll around the bay. Wonderful water clarity and a glassy surface gave the appearance of flying over fields of coral and fish. Above are towering green hills undercut from millennia of erosion that seem to completely surround the bay interspersed with the occasional white sandy beach. A beautiful sunset capped a charming day. Downside is that local village demands a million rupiah a week per boat (about 75 USD) to stay and enjoy the enchantment. This on top of the half mil. park fee assessed per person from which the locals get nothing. OK, it's worth it especially if money helps limit reef bombing, but annoying nonetheless. Look forward to returning when able to dive.

Some of day's warm and fuzzy was dissipated as it took 3 hours to watch 2 hour movie because apparently damaged disk kept hanging up. Wine and fruit cake helped over the hurdle and the movie was pretty good. Probably wouldn't do any good to complain. We paid less than a dollar and despite having no legitimate place to buy DVDs suspect the producers might be less than sympathetic.

Today is first of 2 relatively short ones to Waisai. Tonight's stop is Pef described as "one of the most photographed islands in Raja Ampat. Lush tropical jungles surround blue lagoons and many small mushroom islets are scattered around the bays. Raja Ampat's famous karst cliffs are located here and add a surreal Jurassic Park feel to the area." Don't think I could paraphrase that any better. Cruising Guide to Indonesia also mentions that charts are worthless. Great. Fortunately reefs, which come straight up from outrageous depths, are easily seen with good light. We'll tiptoe around so they don't jump up and bite us.

Jack