We got to August and it seemed we were past the worst of the rain and wind and that maybe, just maybe, the sun would come out and we could go diving again.  But the Powers That Be had other ideas….

Our first August challenge revealed itself after we got back from a trip to Sorong. The bag of flour I’d left on the kitchen bench had a big hole nibbled out of it. Well, that’s weird – in the almost 3 years we’ve been here, we’ve never seen hide nor hair of a rat or mouse. Could it have been a lizard or even one of our cheeky coconut crabs? Then the bananas hanging from a hook got chewed, as did the plastic lid of the rice cooker. OK, it was definitely a rodent, no doubt about it. We removed everything edible, and then he started chomping through the silicon sachets we use in our camera housings, the lead pencils, and god knows what else. Knowing how much damage these rodents can do to electrical equipment and cables, we declared war! But – there was one small problem – we didn’t have any weapons: no rat traps, no baits, nothing.  As always, Google came to the rescue with several homemade remedies and ideas.  The bucket trap seemed promising, so we smeared peanut butter on an empty plastic water bottle and threaded it through a metal rod suspended over a bucket of water, even making a convenient access ramp for our ratty visitor. Alas, he was too smart – he managed to take the peanut butter off the bottle without falling in the water, and obviously enjoyed this particular “It’s a Knock-Out” challenge far too much. OK, time for Plan B. It’s a bit gruesome, but apparently if you mix instant yeast and flour and add a bit of parmesan cheese for flavouring it works a treat. The rat gobbles it up, but then the yeast ferments in their gut, and…well, let’s just say it’s not a good outcome for Monsieur Rat.  So we put out trays of the delicacy every night, and every morning they were gone…seriously, how much could one rat stomach??  Quite a lot, obviously.  But by the third day, the trays were untouched and we haven’t been troubled since, so we can only assume our dastardly concoction was a winner.  The war is over! Nevertheless, we’ve since stocked up on rat bait just in case we ever get another undesirable visitor…

Our fridge was the second August challenge.  We’d just got back from Sorong with enough supplies to last us a month, raring to have a crack at some consistent diving, and the fridge decided to kick the bucket.  I can’t begin to describe what a huge logistical problem this is when you’re living on a remote island.  We weren’t sure if it was the compressor, a refrigerant leak, or something else, but it definitely wasn’t something we could fix ourselves.  So I cooked up as much of the fresh food as I could and put it in the freezer, together with anything else that could be frozen, and the remainder we donated to Hans and his family before heading back to Sorong with the fridge on board (wrapped in a tarp and lashed down in the middle of the boat). Then it was (just) a matter of getting help to unload it at the other end, and transport it to the repairer.  Although our fridge is less than 18 months old, we’re rapidly learning that white goods bought in Indonesia (particularly the Aqua brand made in China) are, by and large, pieces of shit. Did I mention that we’re STILL waiting for our Aqua washing machine to be repaired nearly 6 months later? Apparently, the parts have to be shipped from China as there are no spare parts in Indonesia…..

We waited in Sorong for the fridge to be repaired – the technician reckoned it was the compressor, so he fitted a second-hand compressor (his reasoning being “why spend the money on a new one when the fridge will probably rust out in another 18 months”), re-gassed it, and four days later we were able to make our way back to the island with the repaired fridge on board.  A little help from Hans and Haja’s muscles to get it off the boat, and we were back in business with a working fridge.

OK, let’s get back to diving… We had a couple of nice dives and saw some cool stuff…

But, just as we were thinking we could explore some other dive sites further afield, the dive compressor filler head gave up the ghost. And then, just to completely stuff it, the fan belt broke.  We have spares for just about everything you can think of, but not, it turns out, a spare fan belt for the compressor.  It would have to be ordered from Jakarta and could take a week or more to arrive in Sorong….at this point I confess my patience with life in general was wearing a little thin.

And then, the final “coup de grace” of August’s gifts  – a small, somewhat innocuous-looking lump appeared on Bruce’s lower leg. It was still 2 1/2 months before we were due to head back to Australia, but given his history of skin cancers we weren’t sure it could wait.  I researched skin specialists in Sorong and elsewhere in Indonesia, but the reviews were pretty terrible. We emailed his specialist in Cairns and sent photos and the verdict came back that it was most likely a fast-growing squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) that needed to be dealt with.  We umm’d and ahh’d whether Bruce should fly back alone while I stayed in Sorong, but in the end we decided we’d both go as we didn’t know how long he’d be away.  So back to Cairns we went. Bruce’s specialist is great, and the surgery was done within a couple of days of our arrival. Unfortunately, it’s another large chunk gone from his leg, but better that than the alternative. As Bruce jokes, his weight loss program is working well because every time he goes back to Cairns he loses another pound of flesh.  We thought we might be away for 10 days or so, but it turned out to be nearly 3 weeks, so I’m very glad I made the decision to accompany him.  And of course, it was also an opportunity to spend time with Nick and Sally, who’re expecting their first baby (our first grandchild!) in November, so there was a definite upside to going home.  It would probably have been more cost-effective to have stayed in Australia rather than coming back here only to go again, but we have friends coming to caretake Toucan’s Retreat while we’re away for the 2 months in Nov/Dec, and there are several things still to be fixed and taken care of before they arrive.

So now we’re back on the island, the weather has settled and the sun is making more of a daily appearance.  My plants are coming along, and I’m learning to grow hydroponic herbs and veggies.  So far I have mint and kangkung that are doing well, and I’ve just started some basil and capsicum seedlings.

The grass is growing, and BBQ’s on the back beach are once more on the agenda.

And everything is now working, including the dive compressor. Yay! So all I need to do is shake off this nasty cold/flu virus I picked up in Sorong and maybe, just maybe, I can get back in the water again…

The challenges of August have been a good reminder to enjoy every day when you can, because you never know what’s around the corner…

Since we started living here almost two years ago, we’ve never been in residence in the “off” season – the months of June, July, and August.  This is traditionally the low season for tourism due to the rain and strong southerly quadrant winds, with most of the liveaboard tourist boats moving to Komodo for this period. In 2022, we were back in Australia selling “Toucan”, and last year we were once again back in Australia while I recovered from my knee replacement surgery.  So this is a first for us, and it’s certainly been an interesting change.

Continue reading “Life in the Off Season”

Over the past couple of years, there’s been occasional times when small clumps of grass have sprung up after the rain, only to shrivel and die once the ferocious sun gets to work. But gradually over the last two years, there’s been a bit of a grass revolution and we now have swathes of the stuff growing on the western end of the property.  So much so, that we’re going to buy a push mower next time we go to Sorong.  How crazy is that?!

The last time I wrote the blog we were about to pack up and head back to Australia for a short trip so Bruce could see his skin specialist and we could catch up with the kids and their partners. Unfortunately, Bruce’s misspent youth in the sun is catching up with him and in recent years he’s had multiple skin cancers removed, including three early-stage melanomas.  His specialist wanted to see him every three months, but we’ve been able to compromise on every 6 months. It’s too important to miss, and there’s no one else Bruce trusts as much as this guy, so go we must.

After six months or more on the island, I confess to occasional longings for nice cafes and restaurants with delicious food and excellent coffee, wicked ice-creams, or an ice-cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc. The grass is always greener on the other side!

Truth be told, while all those things are lovely and it was fabulous to catch up with the family, each time we return to ‘civilisation’ we’re more dismayed by the exorbitant price of everything, the weight we put on (!), the crazy traffic, the bureaucracy….the list goes on. So it’s always nice to come home to our beautiful, peaceful, patch of paradise.

The week before we left for Australia our old friend Murphy determined it was time for a bit of a shake-up. Early one morning I was out near the washing line when I heard a ‘pop’ like a paint can expanding, and then an acrid smell.  Always alert now to the possibility of fire, I raced to the battery house and the electrical smell was overpowering. Luckily no flames, but something had obviously shorted out.  Bruce quickly turned everything off and went to investigate.  It seems our inverter/charger had shorted out (at least the inverter part of it). A major problem when we rely on solar power for our energy. Luckily we’ve learnt to have back-ups of most things, so Bruce installed the old, more basic but still working inverter.  Now all we had to do was get the other inverter sent back as it was still under warranty.  Not so easy when it comes from Jakarta, so it would have to wait until our return.  Similarly, my washing-machine started playing up, giving me all sorts of error messages on the control panel.  As it was also under warranty, I thought I’d try finding out from the manufacturer if there was a service agent in Sorong.  The WhatsApp conversation was very amusing – despite telling them where we lived, I kept getting the same message – “we can send a service technician to your house if you give us your address”. Hahaha – yeah right.  So that one was also put in the ‘too hard” basket until our return. These are the challenges of island life, but of course still only first-world problems.

On our way back from our month in Australia we stopped off in Bali for a week to do an intensive Bahasa Indonesia course. We’ve both been frustrated by not being able to communicate properly with the locals, and our internet is too unreliable to do online study.  But wow – what a challenging week it was for us two oldies!  We had individual one-on-one tutoring for 4 hours every day.  By the end of it, our brains were exploding with information overload and there wasn’t really enough time to consolidate one day’s classes before the next lot started. I think we made some headway but it’s going to take a lot of practice which is challenging when most of the time it’s just the two of us on the island! 

Another upside of our stay in Bali was our accommodation at the Artotel in Sanur, an arty and quirky hotel with many sculptures and works of art from local artists.

It was just five minutes from the beach, so our reward at the end of class was to have a couple of beers and dinner at one of the many restaurants on the beachfront before we collapsed in our comfortable bed completely shattered.

And now we’re back home and re-establishing everything back to where we left it.  We’re now in ‘shoulder season’ with the weather so it’s been mostly windless for the last few weeks, and the heat and humidity have been off the scale. Fifteen minutes of gentle exertion and we’re dripping wet.  At least we have the ocean to dive into, although the water temperature is not much better at a constant 29 C degrees underwater.

Hans did a good job of watering my plants while we were away, although they’re still proving too tasty to the grasshoppers and mealy bugs.  I’m definitely not going to get Gardener of the Month any time soon – I’ve managed to kill both my tomato plants, one with too strong a garlic/soapy water mixture to keep the bugs away, and the other by overwatering. You live and learn….I’m hoping to plant some more seeds now that my enclosure is finished so we’ll see what the next few months bring.  Some time ago we also found an old traditional wooden canoe washed up on the beach, and Bruce has been busy plugging the holes and making a stand to turn it into a planter bed for flowers or veggies. Well, that’s the plan anyway…

Other than that, the only bothersome thing disturbing our paradise is a big fat gecko (or maybe it’s a lizard?) that’s taken up residence in our bedroom roof. Being woken up by a shower of stinky gecko/lizard pee does little for a good night’s sleep and makes a helluva mess of the sheets, so our challenge now is to flush him out and encourage him to move elsewhere. Could be interesting as we have no idea how to tackle this….

Life is never dull, and now that we’re adding Bahasa Indonesia to our daily tasks, the days are pretty full here on Pulau Dayan.

We’ve been back three weeks now, so it’s time to return to Sorong for our regular provisioning trip and try and get repairs made to our inverter charger and washing machine. Wish us luck!

We used to get this question a lot from non-boaties when we were cruising on Toucan. People assumed we would be bored and have nothing to do. Even now we get the same question, and ironically it’s often from yachties who are visiting the bay, who can’t imagine being confined to a small island.

Read more: What do you do all day?

Yes, it’s different to constantly travelling and discovering new places, but I can honestly say that so far we’ve never been bored on Pulau Dayan. There’s always something to do.

A typical day for me will usually start about 6.30 am (a bit later for Bruce!). First item on the agenda is a liberal application of mozzie repellant, followed by some yoga and stretching in the beach cabana watching the sunrise and sometimes the juvenile sharks and turtles in the shallows on the back beach.

Next is a cup of tea, and if we’re lucky enough to have some internet coverage, a look at the day’s news and a catch up on FB.  There’s the daily check of the meagre veggies and herbs I’m trying to grow and the endless battle to keep the grasshoppers, crabs, and mealy bugs away using a garlic and soapy water spray on the leaves.  We recently finished constructing a bench and a full enclosure to place the more vulnerable seedlings in, so I’m hoping that will slow the invaders down…

Inevitably, most days we need to do a beach clean-up of the plastic that washes up, from bottles to rubber thongs, toothbrushes, cigarette lighters and sadly even the occasional syringe. It breaks my heart to see the lack of care for the ocean.  Unfortunately, we have to burn the plastics as there’s no other way to dispose of them here.

We have the same regular household chores as any home, just slightly different. The bowls for rinsing the sand off your feet before entering the buildings have to be emptied and refilled with seawater, verandahs and floors need to be swept for the inevitable sand that still finds its way in, and there’s always washing and cooking to be done.  We do a major shop every 3-4 weeks in Sorong for food, fuel, and gas (a six-hour round trip in the boat) and then the boat has to be unloaded and everything packed away when we arrive back at the island. The cooking is a bit more labour-intensive than if we were in the city, as I make our own sourdough bread and toasted muesli, and we often have to make sauces and marinades from scratch. But with a functioning fridge and freezer we never go hungry.

Then, of course, there’s the snorkelling and diving, which isn’t just the time in the water but the setting up of the gear, the dismantling and rinsing of the gear and cameras, filling the dive tanks, downloading the images and editing where necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, it’s just time-consuming and often half the day is gone before we know it.  I’m loving learning how to take macro photos and it’s opened up a whole new incredible underwater world for me. Bruce likes the bigger wide-angle scenes, but sadly just as he’d recovered enough from his rib fracture to start diving again, his underwater camera housing failed which flooded his camera. It’s now been sent back to the States for replacement under warranty (another whole drama with DHL in Sorong but that’s another story), so in the meantime here are some of my recent macro shots…

Our watermaker is working like a charm, but we need to run it for an hour or two every other day, and it requires some monitoring during that time. And there are always ongoing projects to complete – our most recent was preparing and installing bigger signs to keep the tourists at bay. It’s a shame we have to do it as they’re not aesthetically pleasing, but they’re a necessity to stop the regular incursions.  Mostly, they seem to be working.

There are also the odd, unexpected projects. We have hundreds of hermit crabs everywhere and we try very hard to avoid stepping on them, but last week we accidentally trod on one and crushed his shell.  The poor little guy was beside himself trying to piece his home back together, so there was nothing for it but to go on a quest to find him a new home – which proved almost as difficult as finding a rental property in Australia at present, as all the shells we found were occupied.  Then I remembered I had a jar full of small shells I’d collected over the years, so we found a few potentials and laid them out for his consideration.  Before long, he’d taken up the lease on a brand new home and is probably now the envy of all his mates.  The things we do…! Here’s a short video of his re-homing:

https://youtube.com/shorts/COaJrxZm21U?feature=share

By midday we’re usually both a sweaty mess – the humidity is relentless and exhausting so after lunch it’s siesta time for a bit of a rest, a read, or a nap, sometimes in the hammock. And if we have the energy, we hack around on the guitars and ukulele for a bit before dinner and watch the sunset. We don’t have a TV or good enough internet to stream anything, but we can watch previously downloaded TV shows or movies on our laptop after dinner if we’re not too tired, or there’s always the option of thrashing each other at board games. However,  we still seem to adhere to the cruisers’ bedtime of 9.30-ish as by then we’re usually ready to crash.

It’s a wonderful life, albeit challenging at times, but there’s always something new to discover both underwater and above ground. We wouldn’t swap it for quids.

It’s just over two years ago that our madcap idea of living on a remote island in Raja Ampat started to take shape. During that time we’ve literally shed blood, sweat, and tears to get where we are now, but I think we’re finally at the stage where we’re really starting to enjoy this magical and spectacular location.

Continue reading “Two Years in Review”

It all started with a chance encounter when shopping at Saga supermarket in Sorong three years ago. A cruiser friend of ours, Carol, got chatting to a lovely local lady, Nurjannah Nana, a volunteer English teacher at Istianah Foundation school. She was very keen to have some native English speakers visit her students and so Carol agreed and asked me to go along with her.

Read more: Big Hearts, Empty Pockets

It was a fabulous experience (albeit a bit overwhelming) to meet all the students and staff, and we got to hear a little of the history of the school.  It was founded in 2014 as a charitable organisation to assist orphaned Papuan kids whose futures would otherwise have been very bleak.  The founder, Dr Karsiman, was a university lecturer with a big heart who wanted to help disadvantaged kids. He managed to raise the funds single-handedly with only a small contribution from the Government.  In order to raise more funds they opened the school to local fee-paying Muslim students as well, so it’s unique in that it caters for both Muslim and Christian students.

Sadly, Dr Karstiman passed away in 2020, and while the school is still running, they are struggling to make ends meet. 

Many of the staff, including Nana, are volunteer teachers and support workers, and the school’s now grown to include almost 300 children spanning elementary to middle school.  Of those, many are orphans and are given free lodging and education.  But their dormitories are extremely basic and always flood when it rains heavily in Sorong (which is often). A new dormitory is being built on higher ground, but progress has stalled due to the lack of funds. Similarly, many of the classrooms have bare earth floors and require tiling.

Since that first visit, Nana has become a good friend and I visit whenever I can to help the children with their English lessons, although their resources are very limited.  On our last trip back from Australia I was able to bring some English reading books, but we were hampered by our baggage allowance so it’s a drop in the ocean compared to what they need. Bruce and I donate when we can, and have recently agreed to sponsor the education costs for one student, which amounts to the very affordable sum of roughly AU $15 per month or $180 per annum.

Mam Nana as she is known to her students is still volunteering her time but is now the Principal of the school, and with the help of Mr Karsiman’s widow they are attempting to find more sponsors for the orphan students, and more funding for the capital works.

We’re so blessed to live where we are, and so fortunate that when our kids were growing up they were able to have such a great education in Australia with state-of-the-art facilities and an education system that we often take for granted.  On their recent visit, Rob and Teneile also came to visit the school with me, which of course was hugely exciting for the kids – they certainly make foreigners feel like celebrities which is a bit embarrassing, but their joy and exuberance is infectious and there’s always time for one more photo!

We will continue to do what we can to support the school, but I’ve also started a GoFundMe page in order to raise some money for the capital works so please check out the link here:

• https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-istianah-terpadu-orphanage-school?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet

Also, if anyone is interested in sponsoring the education of one of the orphaned kids (even if it’s just for one year) please get in touch and we can discuss the details.

Thanks guys, any donation no matter how small will be so gratefully received by the school and students.