sv evi

We spent about 10 days exploring different places in Triton Bay. We anchored just north of Triton Bay Divers, and I did a refresher dive course there. I did my PADI course in Savusavu, Fiji in 2012, the summer that Riki and I met, and I hadn’t dove since then. (Oh, and I got Bells Palsy right after that trip — related to the diving? who knows). I was a little nervous for the refresher course — would I be able to clear my ears? My instructor didn’t speak much English, and we instantly went into the water (I had expected some classroom instruction first…). It was fine though. I practiced clearing my mask and retrieving my regulator, then Nino held my hand while we got progressively deeper and he pointed out all kinds of things to me. We saw a Wobbegone Shark (my first!), several nudibranchs, and several shrimp. Our maximum depth was 20 meters.

Riki and I did three dives over the next few days, and they re-filled our tanks for us at the Dive Resort for $3. My favorite was Christmas Rock — it was stunning! So many soft corals, hard corals, big fish, and a GIANT moray eel. We ate lunch a few times at the resort and had venison rendang, which was so tender and delicious. Our anchorages were gorgeous — we were pinching ourselves, and wondering why there were no other boats around.

In Kaimana Riki and I went to shore to provision in the pouring rain. We saw 2 rats scurrying about the streets. I got some venision, rusa in Indonesian, to try.

Riki, ever the prudent mariner, saw some Indonesians struggling in their boat, so he went to give them a tow.

We couldn’t resist swimming with the whale sharks again, since we had to go back to Kaimana to re-provision and get diesel fuel anyways. It was a super rolly anchorage, but worth it! There were four of them, and they were a bit pushier than the first ones.

We then motored 40 miles out to Blumpot Bay on Adi Island. The kids had a nice long play at a big sandy beach. I spoke with a few locals. One woman had a brightly colored bird on her arm. Its leg was chained to a bracelet she wore. She was chewing betel nut and her teeth were a deep dark red. She pinched Luz’ cheek, said “chantik, chantik” (beautiful, beautiful), and asked Luz if she wanted to stay with her. (Kamu mau tinggal dengan saya?) Luz shook her head in response. A two year old boy started crying and pointing at me. When I asked his mom why he was crying, she told me it was because he wanted my mostly-eaten apple. So I gave it to him.

We did an overnight sail to Turtle Cove, Werfa Island because our friends on SV Salty Finch said it was a glorious place. You can only enter at high tide, and it’s a narrow channel through the reef that opens into a blue hole. I didn’t sleep well on passage worrying about that entrance! But it was fine — the lowest depth we saw was 8 meters. Whew!

Tomu woke up at 5:30 am and wanted to play chess with me. After he and I played, he and Luz played.

Riki and I went for a snorkel and the kids took the paddle board to the beach. Then two fishermen came up and gave us 7 drinking coconuts and 3 baby turtles that they had caught! We gave them apples and some clothes for their kids. The kids played with the turtles for a little bit, naming them Salty, Sleepy, and Dash. Then once the fishermen left, they set them free.

The fishermen told us if we woke up at 1 am, we could see hundreds of baby turtles making their way from the beach to the water. The kids were keen, but Riki and I were too tired after the overnight passage.

It’s hot here! So hot that last night Jade and Luz slept on the settees in the salon so they could each have a dedicated fan.

I am learning how to cook again with the ingredients that I can get here. The chicken we have found is a whole frozen chicken. Riki is my butcher, who divides it into boneless, skinless chicken breast and the rest. So I get two meals out of every whole chicken. I made ‘beef and beans’ with the venison (a win for the kids). I made spam musubi (a win for T and J). I marinated tempeh overnight and cooked it in stirfry (a loss). We are now out of butter and down to a half block of Parmesan cheese. (I have heard you can get butter in Sorong, Raja Ampat though). I am making yogurt in the Easiyo, but somehow it comes out very runny here. We are loving the fruit: mangos, watermelon, dragonfruit, apples (Tomu said the apples we get in Indonesia are the best apples he has ever had!), pear apples, honeydew melon.