sv evi

My mom arrived Friday, December 6th to Sorong, after leaving Seattle on Monday afternoon!

The kids are so happy to have their Po Po here visiting. She has been seamlessly incorporated into our daily life.

We woke up one day at 4:15 am to go see the Red Bird of Paradise, which does a dance. It didn’t quite come out on video or photos, but here is Luz’ imitation of the dance.

We went back to visit the Blue River with Ma.

Jade turned 9! We had a party on a beach near Waisai. Our friends from SV Salty Finch, SV Motu, and SV Tayrona came to celebrate with us.

And we swam across the Equator! We stopped the boat and all jumped in.The kids and my mom went from pollywogs to shellbacks and Riki did an impersonation of Neptune for the ceremony.

We spent Christmas in Wayag, which is known as the crown jewel of Raja Ampat, Indonesia. It did not disappoint! The lagoon at Wayag is a nursery for juvenile manta rays, and outside the island there is a black tip reef shark nursery. On Christmas Eve we snorkeled with the mantas and stood in waist deep water surrounded by 20 black tip reef sharks. The mantas were somersault feeding, where they kept doing flips in the water. It was amazing to be so close to them.

Mom is the best Santa ever, and she wasn’t fazed by her long journey to Indonesia. We were all spoiled with thoughtful gifts. On Christmas Day, after stockings and presents, we had a potluck lunch and White Elephant gift exchange on the beach. We stayed until after dark and had a bonfire and fireworks. There were 5 other kid boats in the anchorage, so the kids had a ball for our whole time in Wayag. Tomu had his first sleepover on another boat (SV Motu) and he didn’t come home until 6 pm the following day!

We are now heading back to Waisai to re-provision, do some laundry, and eat out!