A REAL JEWEL

I anchored among the emerald limestone islands of Wayag in Raja Ampat for a week. That place is a real jewel, a wild beauty, a tropical treasure. I can’t really describe it, I heard someone say, “trying to describe her is like trying to describe the beauty of a rainbow to a blind person, it’s impossible.” That’s how I feel about describing Wayag. It’s too exquisite for words.

Just imagine a lot of blue water- deep blue blue and shallow water blue and mermaid blue- and fish and turtles and sharks, and sharp green triangular islands of all shapes and sizes gum-dropping down around you in every direction. And there are birds high and low and they sound like baby dinosaurs and a little black bird started living inside of my boat. I think he was lured in by my fresh-baked oatmeal peanut butter cookies. I caught him hanging out in my v-berth many times and he pooped in a thousand undesirable places- like the galley and my bedspread and my bathing suit.

I read a lot and hiked and swam. I watched the monitor lizards crawl, and stared at wild flowers, and I saw a needlenose fish and it was all alone and so grand that it had pilot fish living beneath it. I’ve never seen a needle nose like that before, normally they swim in schools and are small and slender and I’ve only seen pilot fish on monsters like sharks and whales and dugong. Anyway the whole scene seemed shockingly abnormal, but I’m no marine biologist, so I don’t really know anything beyond what I’ve seen.

The word for baby shark around here is “ochi” – that is not how it’s spelled, but it sounds like it’s spelled like that. Anyway you can’t take one stroke underwater without seeing an ochi. And beyond the ochi there are manta rays, and beyond the manta rays there are schools of fish that flip flop around on the surface of the water and they sound just like that candy Rock Pops that pops in your mouth sounds. Sometimes I would swim around and they would swarm me with such vigor that I would go temporarily blind and I felt as if I was smack dab in the honey hive about to regret the bee’s sting. In truth the swarm of fish scared me so much that I would swim fast away and you would find me foolish for it because these fish are just itty bitty little things, but they move synchronistically in immeasurable numbers and that makes them feel more vast than the ocean itself.

At night I could hear the baby dinosaur bird sounds of course, and water lapping into the underbelly of the limestone islands, and the moan of the wind that was often gusting with a force that hit my ears like a ghost rattling it’s chains. Other than that, it was silent. Nobody lives in Wayag except the park rangers and they’re way over on the other side of archipelago. The only other people I saw were out there on long boats doing day trips.

There aren’t a lot of humans, but there is a lot of rubbish floating in the water and along the shore. And if you look too closely, the place looks just like a junkyard jungle. That part is a real heartbreaker. Plastic bottles and flip flops and buckets and toy guns and lord knows what else. All that crap that people buy and throw away and I’m guilty of it too. Wanting more and more and more and then what.

I got to know the park rangers due to more sickness- not mine, Libres. My Giardia aka Beaver Fever- I can’t believe that is another name for it, from now on I’m calling it that- anyway my Beaver Fever healed after five days. The charcoal pills helped and changing my water source. I realized I gave it to myself because. Upon inspection one of my water jugs was starting to sprout things with legs and wings. Anyway I was all cured, feeling greater than an alligator, then Libre got sick, which made him a real bore.

At first we thought he got the Beaver Fever from drinking some of my weird water, but after five days of chills and a temperature so high that you could start a fire with his skin, he took two malaria test and both were positive. A malaria test is just like a Covid test, but instead putting a swab up your nose and halfway to you brain, you have to prick your own finger until it bleeds enough blood to squeeze out onto the tester. Do you know how hard it is to make your own self bleed? So very. Anyway, he had some expired Malarone onboard and I flagged down the rangers and they took us to their cabins and gave him some mysterious blue pill and now he seems to be on the rise.

Still, we are easing back into life at sea and sailing slowly away from Raja Ampat. I adored the jeweled islands but I did not have one dream while I slept there- which is suspicious, and I was ready to depart days before we actually did. The wind and fever kept us there. I’ve thought about this a lot and I reckon it’s better to leave a place when you feel like you’ve done it all, rather than having to rip yourself away from it and crying buckets as you go.

Our first day back on the water was 22 knots on the nose with a swell coming straight at us. We had to tack and tack and tack and on the starboard tack there was a fierce current against us and we moved like something with little legs moves.

Along the way I flipped one of my cockpit cushions over and there were grey mushrooms growing on it! Like a lot of them. So many that I could make you some cushion mushroom soup and maybe something exciting would happen. Anyway, I did not want to eat my cushion mushrooms alone, so I put them in the sun and hopefully they are shriveling and shrinking.

I had all of my sails up because the wind was above 20 knots and I was hard on it. I’m getting really good at tacking with all three sails up again. I switch the staysail sheet first and then the genoa. I don’t know if that’s right, but that’s what I do and it works.

You won’t believe it, but we sailed all damn day and only made it 15 nautical miles. We anchored on the northeastern side of an uninhabited island called Palau Balabalak. I only saw it for a few daylight hours, but it had nice rolling hills and white sand and a rainbow and there were these miniature glowing neon blue bubble balls all over the water that I’ve never seen before and found fascinating.

Yesterday was another wind on the nose day and there were patches of shallower water that made the sea lumpy and wavy and quite uncomfortable. There were some squalls too and the wind was all up and down and around. We made it 22 or so nautical miles and are now anchored in front of Tuturuga Beach on the west side of Gag island and it is a real looker of a place with holiday vibes ; mountains, sand, palm trees, rocks jutting out of the water, people laughing that have come here on decorative long boats from who knows where.

P.S. I regret to inform you that after June 29th I won’t be able to write to you from the water due to my inability to afford the cost of the satellite service, but I will keep writing to you when I am near land and I will tell you about the time at sea as I have done above and don’t worry because I am getting close to Malaysia where I will be on land for a long while refitting Juniper for the 2026 GGR! I should be there by mid-August latest 🙂