Monday 14^th January

After a rocky night on a mooring near a pearl farm, we woke to a clear, sunny, hot day. We passed through the channel between two islands. Deep blue 60 metre water and steep cliffed mountains with greenery emerging out of the rocks was an impressive sight. Glassy water was replaced by ruffled water with small waves as two currents met. At 10.40 am we crossed the equator. Jeremy as King Neptune in his paper crown and his mermaids jumped in the water to pay homage to the king of the sea, a tradition long held by boaties. Also a good chance to cool off on the hot day!

Wayag  (00:10.049N 130:00.867E), our destination, is the most stunning spot, well another one! Turquoise water in the shallow, white, sandy areas gives way to a deep blue between the islands. Steep rocky mountains, covered in trees dominate the landscape. In previous geological time this area was uplifted and the soft limestone rock has eroded into the most amazing formations. Palms, shrubs and small trees heroically grow out of the carved rock and it’s very clear where the tides and seawater has eroded the pinnacles from below.

We are anchored just near a lovely white beach the girls are able to kayak to. They are enjoying exploring it and playing with the Sea Glass boys, who we have met up with again here. Sand castles and games for them have left Jeremy and me plenty of time to snorkel. Amazing soft coral like reindeer antlers gives way to those like elephant ears in the deeper water. Many species of tiny colourful fish mass on the branch coral while the beautiful and orange fan coral wave in the tide. The Sea Cucumbers loll on the sandy floor cleaning the sand as they filter it for the microorganisms they require to sustain them. A drift snorkel through a cutting from the ocean between two islands was fun being swept by the current.

Wednesday 16^th January

We’ve had a very relaxed couple of days with some rain yesterday, a good chance to fill the water tanks and enjoy some games and art activities. Lots of exploring around the islets has made the place more interesting. Vertical sides with tree roots dangling down their sides shows how tough some plants are. Vertical drop offs into the deep blue were only  metres from the islet’s underwater edge. Crumbly limestone has fallen in slabs into the water in places, now supporting trees and grasses. A bay and an anchorage perfect for a storm had a narrow opening only 10 metres wide with steep sides most of the way around. Water so clear we didn’t need a mask, led to a great channel heading out to sea with an amazing diversity of fish. Sand Gobies guarding their hole with the shrimp living and cleaning it inside were great to watch. A lovely coloured nudibranch perched on its coral while Reef lizardfish lazed on their under fins watching the surroundings. Polka dot grouper, Oriental Sweetlips and Emperor Angelfish dashed under or into the coral for protection when we went too close but the little black and white striped Humbug Dascyllus when on flitting around its small branch coral.

One great sadness we all feel here is the amount of rubbish when we are 180 NM from the mainland. With the incoming tide comes the mix of plastics,  old shoes, nets and ropes. I cleaned the little beach near the boat today and picked up quite a pile of rubbish but the small particles, washed with time, are impossible to collect. These are what are ingested by sea birds and marine life which will finally kill them and the plastic and nets suffocate the reef. Where it comes from is anyone’s guess, but with the amount of rubbish littering the cities here and apparently all over Asia, you can see why the world’s gyres are so full. The North Pacific has one is the size of Australia and three metres deep! I have posted some photos on our new photo site, http://www.flicker.com/photos/levosafloat .

Sunday 20^th January

After a few quiet days of games due to grey weather and cleaning the hulls on the boat, we enjoyed spending time with an Italian family and the crew on La Cardinala, a mini super yacht where the skipper was enjoying having his family on board. The girls loved sharing their kayaks, building sand castles on the beach and building hermit crab houses. We all enjoyed the thrill of weaving through the breathtaking rocky pinnacles in the clear azure water. We arrived at a coral lined channel full of fish leading out to the breakers of the ocean. It was exhilarating being carried along with the strong current, watching a school of huge hump headed parrot fish zipping below. Not much time to enjoy watching the details of the reef!

Drinks on the beach and a good adult conversation, with Italian made Focaccia was a great way to enjoy the setting sun. I loved the view from the top of a mountain which I climbed with Alisa and Bev. Palms and other leafy green plants were growing out of the pitted, white, limestone rock which we climbed to get to the top. Jeremy and the girls cooed from the top when they climbed it later which reverberated around the bay. Views of many little pinnacle islets, turquoise water studded with the dark patches of reef and the dark blue of the deep water was an amazing sight.

More snorkelling and rubbish collecting has kept us busy. Fisherman’s Beach, obviously where the locals camp and where the currents through the islands flow, was a great collector of rubbish.  Bucket loads later were collected and burnt left the beach looking much tidier, a small way we can contribute to cleaning up the world! Maybe my next job can be a ‘Clean up Asia’ campaign! Snorkelling, we have been concentrating on having ‘critter eyes’ and looking at the diversity of a small area of coral and its associated environment. It’s amazing how many species live in such a small area and the disguised creatures that inhabit the reef we don’t see at first glance. The girls have had fun looking in the identification book for the new species they find and drawing sections of the reef they’ve seen.