Back in October 2024, we sailed Escapade from Australia to Indonesia.  We cleared customs at Tual and spent a few weeks exploring up to Waigeo before my crew flew home.

We left the boat tied to a dock at a diving resort in Waisai.  Since then the local birds have enjoyed perching in her rigging and pooping all over the decks.  

The NW monsoon has been rinsing her with regular rain squalls, but she’s safe.  There are no cyclones up here, too close to the equator.

Meanwhile Dawn and I were enjoying some Hawaii time.  We moved back in to our favourite pad on the North Shore of Maui and I lived a windsurfer’s dream for three months, sailing the Kuau waves in front of the house. 

Dawn was busy running the Aloha Classic windsurf contest and organising wonderful birthday parties. 

The conditions were consistently good and I windsurfed most days, with a bit of surfing, winging, foil-driving and even some sailboat adventuring round the islands.

Then in January the swells were often too big to play at our place.  Pe’ahi was breaking a couple of miles away, Ho’okipa was closing out, giant swells shook the boulders below our lawn.  Party season was in full swing though!  Dawn surprised me with mystery guests flying in from around the world.  The surf relented enough for me to windsurf Ho’okipa on the morning of my 60th birthday.  Celebrations also included Auriane’s 30th, Sam’s 40th and Dawn’s 50th!  I think I’ve never enjoyed Maui so much as this trip.

But by the end of January it was time to get back to Waisai, wake up Escapade from her hibernation and start scrubbing off the bird poop.

It’s always a magic moment when the boat is all ready to go again, the fridges are loaded with fresh local goodies, and we have a whole new archipelago to explore.

Indonesia is big.  2,800 nautical miles east to west, 18,000 islands, 700 languages.  That should keep us busy for a while.  

This trip starts in Raja Ampat, the islands off of West Papua, a remote province of this huge country, a thousand miles from the bright lights of Bali.  

This area is not really on the tourist trail, but it is a well known destination for diving.  The ‘Indonesian Through Flow’ is an ocean current that washes clear Pacific waters past these islands and may be helping to maintain healthy reef systems.  By today’s standards there is still plenty of coral up here, which supports a wild diversity of marine life to keep this place on the scuba bucket-list.

The only missing ingredient for this sailing trip so far has been wind.  We island-hopped up to and over the Equator and the weather was as you would expect in these latitudes: hot, sultry, very light breezes, lots of rain showers.  The Doldrums.  Some days the steamy heat builds giant cumulus clouds and we set the anchor well in case of a squall in the night. 

Anchoring is a different game here.  The islands are mainly steep sided limestone ‘Karst’ formations, often with those distinctive mushroomy undercuts where the waves have eroded the base.  

The water between them tends to be too deep for anchoring, or too shallow, with beautiful fringing reefs. 

Twenty five metres seems to be a normal depth for a Raja Ampat anchorage in my pilot book, which often suggests adding stern lines to trees or rocks, or even skipping the anchor altogether and just tie all four corners of the boat to something attached to an island.  I much prefer a shallow sandy spot, and we have found some of those too.

In one labyrinth of limestone formations we just squeezed our dinghy through this tunnel to a completely enclosed, hidden lake beyond. 

Then peered through a hole in a cliff to see these bats sleeping in their cave.

We have spent two weeks now alone in the islands, apart from the occasional encounter with an islander wanting some drinking water, or to trade their kelapas (coconuts) for some of our fishing hooks or collect a small ‘mooring fee’ in cash.  Other cruisers say they never pay these, but I find it hard to negotiate when I’m on a big yacht and the smiling islander is paddling a dugout canoe.

The seas are full of life.  Whole shoals of fish jumping around the lagoons in formation.  We have been joined by turtles, dolphins and dugongs.  A couple of encounters with big whales, one of which swam right past the cockpit to have a look at us before blowing and sounding. (We think a Bridies Whale.)  The trolling line has even produced a couple of fish for the galley.

But the seas are also full of trash.  We have never seen so much plastic waste floating on the surface.  It seems so out of place here, much of Raja Ampat is a protected marine reserve.  There are also lots of timber hazards to avoid, large floating trees and logs, easy enough to see in daylight, but definitely big enough to do some damage.

We have anchored alone in silent bays surrounded by towering rainforests and woken to an exotic dawn chorus. We passed countess beautiful islands, beaches, reefs and sandbars.  Snorkelled through the aquarium reefscapes.  This place is a cruising yachtie’s paradise.  Except that there is no wind!  We don’t need much wind to get Escapade going with her big sails, but there has been none.  Apart from in rainstorms.

I haven’t hoisted the main or pumped up a wing in two weeks!  

I’m sure that has to change soon, but for now we’re on our way to find some more diesel.