19th May 2026 - End of Raja Ampat and onto Flores

Nik and I made a call after Waisai to start heading west as we believe we had seen enough of Raja Ampat and the remaining places we wanted visit could be seen on the way out of the area over the following couple of weeks.  The overall plan has to take into account the other places we want to visit and the dates required to meet seasonal winds for voyaging past Indonesia.

Not to say there is not a lot more to see in Raja Ampat but it all revolves around island beaches, limestone karst formations and underwater life and we had seen a lot of that over the last 6 weeks. Originally I thought I would cruise here for up to three months but I guess I get impatient for the next destination.  Also there are a couple of areas here which are iconic but which are off limits due to issues with the locals who are annoyed at the government closing down a nickel mine in the area.  

After the Blue River we headed to the island of Gam.  Gam looks like part of the main island of Waigeo but is actually separated from it by a large bay called Kabui Bay leading to a very narrow channel called the Kabui Pass which we understood was navigable for a vessel of our dimensions.  We wanted to explore the bay and transit the channel.

First stop was on 9^th May at an island in the mouth of the Kabui Bay called Pulau Ura where we wanted to stop for a couple of days to rest up.  There is a resort called Katembe on the island and we contacted them out of courtesy and got permission to drop anchor in a small protected bay just around the corner from the resort.  

Sea Otter at Anchor - Palau Ura

Now when I say “resort” it is not a 5 star hotel type place but more an upmarket homestay consisting of nine over the water bungalows and a main restaurant bar /socializing area.  All the structures are wood and thatch.  It does look very comfortable if a little basic.  There is also a dive charter business on the island to cater for guests who wish to dive.  There were only three guests at the resort and so on one night we went in and had a beer and dinner with them and a couple of staff who are the resident coral rejuvenation techs. 

Katembe Resort - Palau Ura

After two days at anchor we transited further into the bay to the start of the Kabui Pass and anchored amongst a scattered collection of small karst islets.  The area looks a bit croki (as in saltwater crocodiles) so there was no swimming but we did have a look around in the dingy through the channel and visited a big cave full of large bats that you could wander into.  The karst islands are classic Raja Ampat and provide a spectacular backdrop for the anchorage.  As usual there were no other boats around except for the locals moving through the channel and across the bay.  We had one visit from an old fisherman with a couple of small fish on offer which we passed on but we did get some fresh water from him.  All in all it was very peaceful and serene.  Have had to plagiarise the picture below from the internet as it is best viewed from above.

Kabui Passage

Kabui Passage Anchorage

The transit of the channel was a bit nerve wracking as it narrows to maybe 20m at its narrowest point and has quite strong currents swirling along its length.  The minimum depth was reported to be 7m but we found shallower. 

Our next stop after an overnight stay in another secluded bay was Airborek Island.  Airborek is a very small island of 200 people located in the Dampier Strait and surrounded by coral reefs.  Its main claim to fame is, of course, the diving around the island but also has two manta ray spots nearby.  

Airborek Island

We stayed three days here and it was fantastic – probably one of our favourite places so far.  The first day we we hired a local boat and a guy called James took us out to Manta Ridge.  Within 10minutes in the water he had us snorkelling over a manta being cleaned.  It was amazing.  We stayed watching it for about 15minutes until I guess he figured he was clean enough and swam off.  That evening we had dinner at James’ homestay with his other guests.  Another plus for Airborek was that there was a beach bar.  This is the first bar as such that we have found and it was just a shack with a fridge right on the waters edge near the town jetty.  Once discovered Nik and I had our evening ritual established.

James, our Manta Guy

Nik at the Airborek Beach Bar

The rest of the time at the island we spent snorkelling or looking around the island.  The snorkelling just meters from shore is some of the best we have seen this trip.  The island itself is very neat and tidy with a couple of really basic shops.

From Airborek we travelled to the Fam Islands about 15NM further west.  This was to be our last stop in Raja Ampat.  Again we anchored off a homestay and we had previously arranged with the owner Ridwan to do a trip with him to the nearby island of Pyanemo which is iconic Raja Ampat.  There are a couple of lookouts and the views are incredible.  When we got back to the boat the heavens opened which was actually welcome as we both needed showers and we managed to collect some water.

Pyanemo Lookout

The next day at first light we started the passage to Labuan Bajo at the western end of Flores.  This is a journey of over 800NM and Nik is very bravely doing it with me.

10th May 2026 A Reprovisioning Stop in Waisai

We had one more stop before Waisai.  On Saturday (2^nd May) we slipped our mooring off the Palau Dive Resort and sailed/drifted across the channel to a small island called Frewin to try and get a look at some dugong.  

Nik had done some research and apparently there is a small group of them that frequent the shallows around the west side of the island and which have been chaperoned by a local guy named Otto who is now an unofficial guide.  Nik messaged him on WhatsApp to make arrangements for the following day.

We dropped anchor in a small bay off a decent jetty late in the afternoon and went ashore for a look around.  Otto came out to confirm our trip for the following day and gave us a short tour of the island.  The island is small, neat and consists of essentially two dusty dirt streets running perpendicular to each other and houses along the streets and the periphery.  Of course there is the obligatory religious building which in this case was a church.  There are a few different home stays on the shore.  These homestays are very basic.  Normally they consist of thatched huts near or over the water.  There is only power at certain times of the day or night when the genset is on.  Meals consist of basis fish/chicken and rice dishes.  The main attraction for visitors is the access to dive sites.

Kids Playing in the water at Frewin Island

Next day Otto picked us up at 0700 from Sea Otter and we went around to the other side of the island to try and spot the dugong.  Ultimately we were not successful but we spent the morning snorkeling in a couple of spots which Otto took us to.  Back at the boat Otto was very taken with the electric Torqueedo outboard I have.  Not sure if he had seen one before but he was very impressed and amazed at the same time .  That night we visited one of the homestays for dinner.  There were four other European tourists there and we chatted to them over dinner and a beer.

Nik on the lookout for Dugong

The following day we completed the last few miles to Waisai.  Waisai is the main town on the biggest of the Raja islands called Waigeo.  It is the gateway to the other islands and most tourists would arrive through here and then be ferried out to the islands by small boats.  There is a ferry running twice per day which connects Waisai to Sorong on the mainland.  There is also a small marina development called the Meridian Adventure Dive Resort which was where we headed.  The marina was very quiet with only one other boat berthed there.

Local Warung in Waisai

The primary reason for coming to Waisai was for me to extend my visa for another 60 days.  I had an appointment with the immigration people in Sorong for Wednesday and so the following day Nik and I boarded the 0900 ferry.  We had decided to splash out the extra 12 bucks each to travel in air conditioned comfort in the “VIP” class however immediately regretted it when the aircons were set to arctic conditions.  I spent most of the trip outside the VIP cabin and we both opted for warm "steerage class on the return leg".

With immigration formalities taken care of we re-fueled and provisioned the boat.  We had trips to town to find supermarkets and scour shelves for essentials and also to the markets to get fresh fish, vegetables and fruit.  In between we tried to make use of the marina facilities including the bar, restaurant and pool.  

Given the issues with the watermaker, we also had to take on water however there was no piped potable water on the jetty so this had to be delivered to the boat in 19litre containers which were then emptied into the vessel tanks. It is amazing here that whilst certain tasks seem very difficult there is always a way to get things done.  It usually involves a lot of manual labour or someone with inside knowledge but you can get by.

We departed the marina on Friday (8th May) morning and headed east up the coast.  One of the staff the previous night had told us about a spot called the “Blue River” about 15Nm away.  This was a fresh water river / pool which takes on a vivid blue colour.  There is a large inlet in Waigeo island and we headed up this towards the anchorage which we did not make until the following day as we anchored midway to ride out adverse currents.  Next morning we anchored near a river mouth in a spectacular setting and set out in the dingy like two later day explorers in Teva’s. 

The Anchorage for access to the Blue River

We drove the dingy as far as we could, then hauled it further up the shallow part of the river to a pebble beach.  From the beach we left the dingy and waded upstream and found a jungle path which took us to the Blue River.  The path was easy to spot as a bloke at the waters edge asked us for 100k rupiah as an entrance fee.  Once we arrived it was a truly beautiful spot with clear clear, fresh, cool water to swim in.  It was like a little oasis with the dense green forest surrounding the blue water running over white pebbles.  We had the place to ourselves for the first hour and then more people arrived and we retraced our steps back to dingy and to Sea Otter.

The Blue River - Waigeo

Sometimes we have to walk

Nik making friends

The scenery around here is spectacular but there are only so many limestone karst formations or tropical beaches you can anchor off before a change is required.  As such we will probably look to spend another two to three weeks around Raja Ampat and then start to head SW towards a place called Labuan Bajo, the gateway to Komodo. I realise that I have a mission focussed approach and as such am happiest when we are moving towards a specific destination rather than just cruising around without a itinerary.  This is a bit contrary to the image of the carefree cruiser but its the nature of the beast.

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 24^th 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.

Secluded Bay on Batanta

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,

Palau Tapok

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. 

Making our way to the waterfall

Batanta Waterfall

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.

Palau Dayang Homestay

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.