2nd May 2026 – Batanta Island - Secluded Anchorages, Islands and Manta Rays
In the end we spent a couple of days at Ayemi
Island. It was a nice spot with a reef
which we had a look around but again there was too much garbage floating around which kind of spoiled the location. It depends on the tides and the local
currents as to how much garbage you see.
While we were here I took the opportunity to put on one of the
scuba tanks we have onboard and once the tidal current relented, to go in and
clean the hull from a fairly decent covering of barnacles which had been there
since Darwin. Luckily they come off
pretty easily with just a hand scraper, however, to do the whole of the hull plus
all the appurtenances takes a good hour.
The next morning (Friday 24th April)
we decided to push on to the North side of the Batanta Island. We went to retrieve the anchor and after
recovering about 10m of chain the windlass stalled and nothing we could do
would dislodge the chain. Clearly we
were snagged on something. It is one of
the many anchoring perils here – you anchor and put out sufficient chain to hold you, (typically three times the water depth), but then as the tide and currents swing
the boat about the chain is dragged around the seabed and can get wrapped
around coral or rock bommies on the seabed. We were in
15m of water which is too deep for me to free dive so I put the tank back on
and went in. The chain as suspected was
wrapped securely around a coral head.
Once you can see it, it is relatively easy to unwrap it and then recover the
remaining chain and anchor but without the ability to dive we would have been
in a real fix.
Batanta Island forms the southern side of the
Dampier Strait, the body of water running through Raja Ampat and named after the
English buccaneer William Dampier who sailed here in 1699. The north side of the Strait is bordered by
the island of Gam/Waigeo.
Batanta is roughly 30miles long running
east/west and about 5 miles wide. It is
densely wooded/jungle and the terrain consists of a ridge of high hills running along
the length of the island and attaining a maximum height of 1180m. The hills fall steeply to the shore on all
sides and the seabed rises just as steeply for most of the coastline. As far as I can tell, there are no roads and
very little in the way of infrastructure.
All transportation to and from the island is via speedboat. The northern shore is riven by short fjord
like bays and there are some islands offshore.
We started in a secluded bay at the NE just
around the corner from our last anchorage which we had been told about by an
Australian couple we had met. Even
though it was a short transit we threw a line in and managed to catch a decent
sized fish – unfortunately it was a barracuda which we threw back as I have a
dread of ciguatera - a toxin that builds up in reef fish and which causes really serious effect on humans if ingested. The bay we ended up
in was completely secluded. We anchored
up and took a line to shore secured to a tree to hold the boat in position
about 10m from shore. The bay looked a
little croccy so there was not much in the way of swimming but we had a look
around in the dingy and generally relaxed onboard. It is so peaceful with no noise and no one
about. We had a couple of really heavy falls
of rain during which I introduced Nicole to Sea Otters’ outdoor shower.
After a couple of days we headed offshore to a group of three small islands
approx. 5 NM off the coast in the Dampier Strait one of which disappears at
high tide. We anchored off the north side
of Palau Tapok and essentially had the island to ourselves. There were a couple of visits from day tourists
but they did not last long and we had the islands to ourselves at night. It’s a spectacular setting – small white sand
islands with minimal shrubbery and a couple of small trees clinging to the
surface backed by the turquoise waters of the Strait and the green skyline of
the main island beyond. The anchoring is
marginal at times but given the general benign weather patterns its usually safe
enough. We spent the days swimming, snorkeling,
lounging around the boat and dreaming up ever more interesting dinner
concoctions using the same ingredients that we have onboard,
Next stop was back on the main island of
Batanta and down one of the fjords. We
anchored in a relatively small bay and went ashore to a small wooden
jetty located up a mangrove lines creek. From there a path took us through
the mangrove swamps and into the forests where there was a waterfall. Diving into cool fresh water after so long on
the boat and swimming in salt water was an absolute treat. Again we
were the only ones there. We stayed for
a while enjoying a number of dips and then returned to the boat. The bay where we had anchored looked like it
might get a bit buggy so we moved to anchor off a small village with a big
church called Yensawi about 3NM away.
At Yensawi we put the anchor down on a steep slope in approximately 10m of water. As we swung in the tide we went from 5m water depth to 28m. The situation was not comfortable and so we moved just before sunset to another location which was marginally better. That night around midnight I was awakened by the grating of the chain which signalled the anchor moving. I got up and when I got on deck was horrified to see that we had dragged and were now bow onto a pontoon which was moored in the bay. All hands were called and we proceeded to recover the anchor and back away from the pontoon. Luckily our anchor did not foul the pontoon mooring which could have made the situation a whole lot worse.
We motored out into the bay to get some room
and then rather than try and anchor again we shut off the engine to drift.
The plan had been to head west towards a place called Palau Dayang about
13Nm away in the morning. Given where we
were, we decided to just drift through the night and let the currents push us
towards our destination. There was some
wind and so we put up sails and made a comfortable average 2.0kts – 2.5kts
towards our destination throughout the night and during which Nik also baked
some fresh bread.
The reason for coming to Palau Dayang was
because it is a recognized cleaning station for manta rays. There is a channel
between two islands and the mantas swim down the channel and cavort in the
bay. It’s a beautiful spot with a couple
of homestays located around the periphery. Homestays
are local low key holiday accommodation usually comprising a few simple thatch huts
built over the water which offer diving and other excursions. They seem to be quite minimalist and rage
from a couple to a dozen huts. If you want
to see Raja Ampat you either stay in one of these or join a liveaboard boat.
We anchored up and then visited the nearest
homestay to say hello and to confirm that we could join them for dinner that
evening. There were only two other
guests and they were happy to accommodate us.
Next we jumped into the water and started looking for the mantas which
had been spotted earlier. After an hour
or two with no luck we called it a day. That night we
had a delightful dinner of fresh fish (speared that afternoon) with rice, salad
and other veggies at the homestay and chatted to an American couple who were
staying there.
Next morning we watched the mantas splashing
about from the boat but once again when we got in the water we did not see them
– this time we even had a local guide with us!
We resolved to get into the water earlier and so the next day at 0730 we
were again in the water looking for the elusive mantas. We had seen one from the dingy as were drove
to the site but alas again there was no joy seeing them in the water. There are a number of places where mantas are
common in Raja Ampat so hopefully we will still get a chance to see them in the water.
Our timetable at the moment is dominated by an appointment with the Indonesian Immigration Authorities. I have to renew my C1 visa which means a trip to the nearest immigration office which is in Sorong. The date of the appointment is May 6th. We have decided to put the boat into a marina for a few days in a place called Waisai which is on the island of Waigeo across the strait from Sorong. We can then take a fast ferry to Sorong and save us the transit across the strait in Sea Otter. Waisai is about 25NM away from Palau Dayang and so on Friday (1st May) we started back towards Waisai. To break the journey we pulled in at the island of Kri and picked up a mooring off one of the resorts which allowed us to go ashore and enjoy a couple of beers on their deck in the evening.
We plan to have one more stop before Waisai and arrive at the marina on Tuesday 5th May.
