s/v Field Trip

From Tual, we had a rocky sail back east to Triton Bay, an up and coming diving area that offers gorgeous beaches, daily hornbill sightings, and diverse marine life.  The best part about Triton Bay, in my opinion, is the shallow, sandy-bottomed bays whose calm waters have provided me with the best nights of sleep I’ve had in a long time. Each morning, I’d awake refreshed, grab my coffee, and sit out on the deck watching the birds fly overhead in their daily migrations as the sun came up.  Ahhh.  What a sweet way to start my day!   Field Trip 'On the Hard' The first place we anchored was near the mouth of a shallow lagoon where we’d later beach the boat to dry out the bottom.  Lately, the nutrient rich waters that feed so much of Indonesia’s marine life had created a stubborn coating of flora and fauna below our waterline.  The shallow (2.0 m) lagoon lowered to 1 meter at low tide, leaving the boat sitting up on its keels to dry out.  Unf...

Soto Ayam Since arriving in Tual, high winds have kept us hunkering down on board for the first three days, but now, the calm has come.  We are desperate to restock our produce stores, as we’re down to one yellowing cucumber and a few precious refrigerated green apples. The market in Tual consists of a maze of alleyways, crowded with individual stalls.  Sure, we could find what we needed eventually, but when we took a local bus (4,000 IDR per person or 30 US cents) to the neighboring island just over the bridge, the vast fresh market wowed us.  I felt like I’d died and gone to whole foods heaven! While we were out and about, we decided to enjoy a local meal.  Our friends on SV Adamastor highly recommended one alley that was lined with food carts.  Jess specifically encouraged me to try the Soto Ayam.  One older woman was the only one brave enough to call us over to her cart, so that made our decision for us.  We ordered a few dishes - one bakso...

Cabin fever has infiltrated Field Trip, and I nearly have a mutiny on my hands.  Since being in Misool, Mark and I have been diving maniacs.  Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s sinus cold is still lingering, which is keeping her above water, and Michael isn’t quite ready for the diving here.  That means they’ve had a lot of boat time.  The deep anchorages and steep rocky islands don’t offer any chance for shore or beach play either, so the natives were getting restless! This afternoon, I decided to break the onboard rut they were in and demanded they hop in the dinghy with me to get some fresh air and new scenery.  The first island we approached was atop one of the dive spots Mark and I had dove a few days earlier.  We found a reasonable place for the kids to disembark along the spiky, limestone wall and were careful to keep the dinghy from the sharp edges as they clambered ashore. Weathering on the surface had created a craggly minefield of sharp, protrudi...

Before coming to Misool, Matt on SV Perry emailed the Eco Resort to get information on any available moorings.  The response was friendly, but unfortunately, our time in Misool would coincide with their busy season.  The resort was at full capacity, and due to their conservation efforts, they would also be responsible for coordinating the number of divers visiting on the numerous dive liveaboard boats in the area.  Each night at 5:30 pm, someone from the resort makes a call out on VHF channel 16 to each liveaboard to find out which dives their guests will be doing the following day and at what times.  In an effort to protect the reefs and limit the diver traffic, the resort only allows 16 divers on one site at a time.  Of course, talking and comprehending a foreign language via radio is always more challenging than an in-person conversation where we can use gestures to communicate.  I’m sure the radio operator from the resort struggled just as much to und...