We motored to Biak (1.10.031S.136.02.842E), a morning trip, with Totem and Sea Glass on Boxing Day. We approached Biak’s waterfront, very colourful with the bright green mosque tower and silver, shimmering roof clearly visible, various large crosses, rusty container ships anchored in the bay, rickety, wooden, stilt houses lining the shore next to large, colourful buildings. Our main objective was to fill up with fuel, which seems to be difficult in this country, with many possibilities being frightened off by the police. Not sure what goes on there except that it is heavily subsidised so quite cheap! Behan, from Totem, speaks Indonesian, which makes life much easier as very few people speak English. We thought we were lucky when a man arrived in his long, bright green dingy, complete with two outriggers as they all have, who said he would help, but then never saw him again. A trading boat anchored next to us sold it to us, but only after dark, so not sure if that transaction was above board!!

Biak was a busy little town alive with the buzz of motor bikes and small, yellow, taxi vans. Colourful shops spilling onto the pavements sold anything from T shirts to small wads of straw for brooms. We enjoyed a bowl of delicious noodles in a small shack on the roadside where they washed the bowls in a bucket out the back and pressurized the gas for the wok with a foot pump. We bought a delicious dinner from a roadside stall. Teran Bulan; the dough is thrown from a small ball into a huge pancake topped with onions, meat and eggs all folded over and fried. His brother on the other side of the cart made the dessert, filled with chocolate or nut mixture.

 Willow described the cave they visited, where thousands of Japanese lived during the war, as dark and spooky! They were all killed after sheltering from the allies.  The bird park with a Bird of Paradise and various cassowaries was fun. Willow said, “The famous bird was plain while the not famous birds were brightly coloured!” There are many species but this Bird of Paradise was obviously a female and a little drab compared to her counterparts.

We left Biak yesterday morning and are now on our way to Sorong and the gateway to Raja Amput,a marine park  known for its marine life due to the convergence of currents to feed a very healthy ecosystem. We are due to arrive on New Years Eve day to celebrate the coming year and Behan’s birthday, no doubt with many fireworks and fire crackers. It’s a full moon morning, 3 am, and I am keeping watch on the graveyard shift, with a light breeze blowing. This is the sixth overnighter we have done this month, so we are all looking forward to slowing down and enjoying the sights at a relaxed pace. We will have reached our mission, getting west before the stronger westerlies and currents in January and February!