By Michael Willette
Jacki and I took three days to complete the trip from our home in Lake Tahoe to our destination in West Papua, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea.
It went like this: Reno to San Francisco, board one of the world’s longest non-stop flights to Singapore; lose a day; wander through the orchid gardens in the Changi Airport; fly to Jakarta for an layover in an airport hotel until midnight before boarding a Garuda Air connection to the port city of Sorong in West Papua. Here, we boarded SeaTrek’s Ombak Putih, a 135-ft two-masted schooner that would carry thirteen passengers and fifteen crew.
Meet with Ombak Putih, The White Wave
The Ombak Putih is a pinisi, a traditional sailing craft native to the Indonesian archipelago, identified by an impressive two-masted array of seven sails. Our crew would raise the full inventory of sails, but only once as a demonstration since the boat had destinations to reach on a schedule and couldn’t do it under sail.
But that did not take anything away from the experience on the Ombak Putih, a handsome vessel hand-crafted by native boat builders on the island of Sulawesi without the use of power tools or nails. Seatrek integrated elegant and comfortable onboard accommodations, making our pinisi, recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, accessible and enriching.
This trip connected two passions for us. We are recreational divers. The coral beds and sea life in the Raja Ampat archipelago are fabled to be the healthiest and most beautiful in the world. We have 17 countries in our dive logbooks and 35 years of diving in remarkable underwater environments all over the world, but we’ve also had a front-row seat to the stress and consequences of climate change on coral reefs. Raja Ampat’s reputation built up excitement in both of us, but also a hopeful caution because we’ve witnessed enough coral graveyards around the world.
Our Snorkeling Experience in Raja Ampat
Our first snorkeling excursion was not particularly auspicious because we found ourselves in a current swimming with plastic debris from some unseen village. A few of us busily and futilely stuffed our bathing suit pockets with plastic bags, but our tour leaders, Nita and Tinae, were on top of it and moved us away from that location.
That first experience proved to be an anomaly, and the richly thriving reefs that SeaTrek took us to by the end of our first day gave us confidence we would not be disappointed. SeaTrek’s engaging guides took us to new environments every day, and what we experienced went from encouraging to spectacular. Raja Ampat was going to be as advertised.
The reefs we visited on our nine days aboard the Ombak Putih were heartbreakingly beautiful. The heartbreaking part was the feeling that we had gone back in time to a place preserved in an enchanted bubble that escaped the ruination of warming oceans. The first revelation was the variety and health of the coral.
The sites were perfect for snorkeling. The shallow reefs allowed sunlight to illuminate the colors of a stunning variety of coral, profusions of beautiful fish, a few ugly ones, and some that could only have been imagined by Dr Seuss. Gravity is suspended so you’re horizontal, and you kick, drift, hover, and sometimes pump your fins to try to stay alongside a languid manta ray or a green turtle swimming weightlessly. Good luck with that.
Another Adventures That Meet Us
SeaTrek offered other adventures as well. We walked inland to ‘jellyfish lake’ for a swim with masks and no fins. The jellyfish were virtually transparent and as cute as a non-vertebrate can get, and much cuter than the one long, big-jawed fish that swam inches in front of my mask.
“I saw the biggest pike … or something …”
“That was a barracuda,” said Nita.
“In a lake?” I asked.
“Yes, a saltwater lake Michael. There is an underground channel from the ocean. ”
“Oh right. Jellyfish.”
The next day we swam deep into a cave system, this time with fins, no snorkel. I was Batman and Aquaman in the same adventure.
Meet Our Friends in Local Village
There was another excursion to an indigenous village on the island of Batanta. The locals were expecting us and the village talent performed a little native song-and-dance. If you were willing to follow the excitable and curious kids to their schoolrooms you were rewarded with universal charm of childhood.
Here is a travel tip when visiting a village that I can share: if you like kids and there is a language barrier, learn to draw Disney characters, at least the heads. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy will get smiles when they can’t understand your words.
Meet the Crew
The first night aboard, we mustered on deck to meet the crew. One by one, they introduced themselves, telling us what island they were from. All Indonesians are island people and separation by sea and distance over centuries meant that many of the crew came from different cultures and religions, and were probably conversant in one of the 700 languages spoken across the archipelago.
But what lit us up were the musical instruments and the singing voices the crew brought with them on deck that first night. Once the crew told their origin stories and their positions on the boat, the entire ensemble broke into a musical set.
The Ombak Putih had both a crew and a fifteen-member band’ rolled into one. They treated us to a medley of upbeat local music and catchy tunes. We had our very own Indonesian ABBA, and just maybe there would be a disco night, after all?
Dancing with Our Indonesian ABBA
Sure enough, one evening at the mid-point of the cruise, the crew motored a zodiac to a slice of white sand beach on an empty island. We watched from our offshore anchorage as they lit the beach with strings of lights and set up a stage for the crew musicians.
After dark, we all took the zodiac to their impromptu Desert Island Disco. Summing the night up, the boys didn’t know Jumpin’ Jack Flash but otherwise we all rocked bare feet in the sand to an Indo-beat. All except our favorite Australian, sweet Sue from Mel-bin, who couldn’t quite haul herself out of her bean bag chair to dance despite a couple of us on each arm. “Oooo nooo darl, I’ll jeest sit heah. Thanks heaps!
Thanks heaps Seatrek
