Our first dives in Misool, Raja Ampat. We went with Lalelkai Homestay, 25nm in their dive boat out to the famous Magic Mountain dive site. Our second dive was at Boo Window. Lots of pelagics but no Oceanic Mantas unfortunately.
In between and after the dives, we stopped off at a couple of nice beaches.
After two very early morning starts to snorkel with the whale sharks of Triton Bay, here is a highlights reel of this amazing experience.
After exploring the surprising spectacular Triton Bay and all its beautiful anchorages and underwater life, it was time to start chasing waterfalls. First stop was a 50nm sail away at Karawawi. It was quite a challenging hike through a swift running river, over slippery rocks and logs, and along rock ledges. We were ably helped by 18 villages who came along as guides.
We are looking for some company to sail around Misool in Raja Ampat.
Anchoring there is deep and complicated so quite often we will need to run lines from the boat to shore. Whilst Dee and I have done this ourselves in places like Turkey, it is so much easier with a third.
But its ultra spectacular and every bit worth it. We expect to spend most of December there, up to just before Xmas when we will sail to Sorong where the airport is.
There’s a couple of options as to where you join us. You can make your way to Triton Bay by mid November to dive with the whales sharks, or later at Fak Fak to see some Birds of Paradise.
For Triton Bay, you would need to take a domestic flight to Kaimana (KNG). This often involves an overnight flight to cities like Sorong or Manokwari, followed by a short connecting flight to Kaimana.
For Fakfak, there is a short flight from Sorong. Sorong has flights from both Bali and Jakarta.
I know it’s a bit off the beaten track, but hey how often these days can you get off the path trodden by hordes of tourists.
If you want to know more about Misool and Triton Bay then hop on YouTube and search on Misool Sailing and Triton Bay Sailing.
Let us know if are interested.
What an awesome experience, diving with the Bull, Lemon and Nurse Sharks at Beqa Lagoon with AquaTrek. We had two dives where we went down to 17m and sat behind a wall with plenty of dive masters armed with long poles to keep the sharks away when they came a little too close. At the end of the dive, we swam over to a nice wreck with some nice coral.
A few of you have been wondering why the lack of posts on social media of late. But rest assured, we have an excellent reason for our radio silence as we have been busy, very busy, applying the finishing touches to Voila 2.0; and then sea trialing her; before finally getting her safely up to Fiji.
Voila 2.0 was always planned to happen – even before we purchased her. Our boat shopping expeditions to Cannes, Spain, US and Mexico failed to turn up the perfect boat. However what we did discover was that Fountaine Pajot’s Saba 50 was pretty damn close and with a few tweaks here and there, we would get our dream boat.
But first we had to be patient and sail her around for a few years, so that we could definitively decide and confirm the changes we wanted to make. This led us to Marsden Cove Marina in New Zealand, where the work began. The first item on our agenda was to lengthen the swim steps. The first ever Saba we stepped onto in Saint-Tropez had a set of beautiful extended swim steps and that set this modification in motion.
At the same time, we also decided to sex it up a bit and go for a (slightly) reverse bow. As well as obtaining a more modern look, we also managed to achieve a noticeably more comfortable ride and some extra speed, with an additional 75mm on the front waterline and 890mm on the back.
Meanwhile inside the boat we were busily ripping out the gas from the galley and going all electric with a new induction stove top and a Breville Oven/Microwave./Air Fryer combo. We’ve gone with a non-slip overlay for the induction cooktop which stops the pots and pans sliding, but as you can see it is a bit hard to clean. We also added a dishwasher (after numerous complaints that I was a lousy dishwasher) and turned some difficult to use cupboards into a nice set of drawers. The removal of the large gas oven gave us some extra storage room (which we needed as the dishwasher took two existing drawers away).
One of the things we loved about La Mischief (our previous Lagoon 421) was that the whole Port hull was devoted to the owners, with a bathroom at the front and a stateroom at the back with a sliding door for privacy. Fountaine Pajot did not offer this configuration in the Saba 50. So we had to do it ourselves by ripping out the forward stateroom on our side and put in a dividing wall so that we could have storage on one side and a new bathroom on the other.
The existing bathroom from the old stateroom was converted into a huge shower, with the head moved into the new bathroom from the old one. At the same time we added a bidet sprayer (obviously to remind us of our time in Japan – but not quite so fancy).
To connect our master bedrom to the new bathroom and provide privacy, we went with a perspex sliding door, which was bent into shape so that it curved across the top. We haven’t yet been able to source a suitable lock so it’s still a work in progress. The old shower and toilet cubicles in the Master Staterom were then turned into additional wardrobes for Dee (as a girl cannot have too much hanging space – evidently!). Whilst we were at it, we converted some cupboard space into much more usable drawer space in our master.
For the past three years, I’ve had to put up with a couple of steps pertruding into the master, right above where I slept. The newer Fountaine Pajot’s have done away with these, opting for floating steps at the back. So that’s what we did – cut out the steps and built some floating steps at the back, with a full length portlight for added airflow. So much nicer. At the same time we had a custom made pocket spring mattress from Brownies and now we sleep like babies.
One of the most exciting things for me was a new dedicated electronics cabinet, in a void we found under the cooktop in the Master bedroom. It’s really nice having the Starlink, the Pepwave router, the Synology NAS, the BRNKL security system, the Predictwind Datahub and the Sonos Port (plus some of the powertool batteries on charge) all in a centralised and easily accessible spot.
On the subject of accessibility, we also installed a hinged backboard for the saloon TV, so we could get easy access to the winch controllers etc. behind the TV. No more removing the TV every time we wanted to get in there.
This was particularly useful when we were taking out the one manual winch and replacing it with a Harken Flatwinder for the traveller lines. Now we just have to push a button to take the traveller to Port and the other button to take it to Starboard. Too Easy!!!! It turned out to be a bigger job than expected as the BMS had to be upgraded to take the extra load. We also had an issue with its thermal overload not playing ball and Harken are sending a new motor under warranty up to us in Fiji. In the meantime we are being careful as we are using it without the thermal overload working.
With all our new electrical appliances on board, we needed to up our Solar charging capacity, with two new 550W Sunpower bifacial panels out the back of the existing panels. At the same time, we added a mount for the Starlink.
Up front, we put in a couple of extra portlights, for extra airflow in the tropics, plus the biggest deck hatch we could find for access into our brand new storage behind the new bathroom.
Talking of hatches, we added a new opening hatch at the side of the helm station so I can now see the Port aft corner of the boat when backing into a slip. Great for communication and airflow is a bonus. The other thing we did was to re-route the genoa furler line forward on a frictionless ring, with a new easily accessible jammer at the helm so it no longer traps us in the helm station when it is partially furled.
We also redid the lazy jacks with frictionless rings as it was previously impossible for Dee and I to wrangle it.
We relocated the dive compressor to the one and only lazerette it would fit into (after cutting some fibreglass away) so that it doesn’t overheat in the engine room and is a lot easier to manage. One less lazerette meant we required some additional storage for tools, which we found under the BBQ and where the old useless icemaker used to live.
Lastly, we extended the stainless steel backrest on the lido deck to accommodate some extra seating, together with a new cushion to make much more use of the seating upstairs.
So that’s it. I’ve probably missed the odd item but you can see we’ve been pretty busy. Now we are looking forward to enjoying the fruits of our labour cruising Fiji for the next couple of months in Voila 2.0.
2024 have arrived and Dee and I are busy upgrading Voila with swim step extensions, a new pair of sexy bows, an electric kitchen and a new look port hull with the forward cabin converted to a nice bathroom with additional storage behind.
With this major upgrade coming to an end this month, we are starting to look at our sailing plans. As a starter, we are firstly looking for some experienced sailing friends to join us from NZ to Fiji leaving in early May. We will stop off in Minerva Reef to break up the trip, catch some crayfish and wait for a good weather window to Fiji.
This passage has got a bit of a reputation and once again we will employ John Martin as our weather router so we reduce the risk of running into any really bad weather (a la the infamous Queens Birthday Storm). Hence the need for experienced ocean going crew. Definitely not a training run as we will be leaving New Zealand in mid-autumn, which is the first opportunity after the close of the cyclone season.Â
So if you have the necessary experience and are interested in joining us then drop us a line.Â
There will be time either end of the passage to enjoy Opua in the North of NZ and Savusavu in Fiji. Overall its about 800nm (5 days) to Minerva as the crow flies and then another 500nm (3 days) to Savusavu. Plus you will need to allow a reasonable amount of time at the start as we will need to wait for a good weather window and similarly we will wait for our second weather window at Minerva Reef.Â
Cheers S&D.
Here is an interesting article on the Lightning Protection system that we installed on Voila from Dr. Ewen Thomson of Marine Lightening Protection.
https://loosecannon.substack.com/p/proven-lightning-protection-that
I’ve seen some pretty amazing things underwater in my time, but having 3 whales charge at me underwater takes the cake.
In Tonga, you have to go with a registered tour company and SV Second Wind put us onto Ilena Whale Tours, which turned out to be an excellent recommendation. They picked us up off Voila at 7.15am and we headed north out of the lagoon.
We had a wonderful morning snorkelling with several humpbacks including a baby calf. We were in and out of the boat lots of times as the crew spotted the whales each time they moved. We were lucky enough to only have three paying guests on board, so plenty of space around to whales and in the boat.
After a magical morning, we took a short break for lunch, whilst we relocated inside the lagoon. The tour went all day, which made It excellent value for $550 Tongan a person (about $215US).
No sooner had we gobbled down lunch, it was back in the water for some more interactions.
We’d had a couple of attempts at swimming out to another group of 3 whales inside the massive lagoon, this group having a calf that was much younger than the one we saw in the morning. This group was on the move and by the sound they were making, I don’t think they appreciated the close attention. Our professional guides didn’t seem too worried and assured us that they had seen similar behaviours before and all was cool.
There were just 3 paying guests on board and by this stage Dee and Casper were cold and tired respectively, and had left me to it – so it was just me and our guide in the water.
For this particular attempt, our guide slipped in first and the captain ushered me in straight after. I barely had time to orientate myself next to the boat, when I looked up to see the baby swimming directly towards me on the surface, flanked closely by the two adults. And they were going at a fair clip with lots of foreboding sound effects. I hadn’t even had time to switch on my GoPro. I sort of froze, wondering what would happen next, as just at the last moment, the baby dove straight under me, followed by the two adults. If I had the capability to actually move at that point, I could have reached down and touched them.
Having somewhat regained my senses, I managed to flick on the GoPro and capture them passing directly under me, blowing heaps of bubbles, before they circled around the boat. From what I’ve read since, humpbacks blow bubbles underwater to coral krill, so maybe this was a way of protecting their small baby by scaring us off. My heart rate indicated a certain degree of success in scaring the bejesus out of me.
On reflection, my emotions were somewhat mixed as Dee and I were both a little disturbed for overly intruding into their space. So in the end it was exciting, somewhat frightening and a little disturbing. An experience that will stick with me forever.
Footage and editing by Dee.
How we got to where we are….From leaving La Rochelle in April last year until arriving here in the Leeward Islands some 15,000nm later. Thanks to Romain Crozon, Alsino Ferreira , Jimmy Mathys, Maud Wierinckx, Tim Sandford , Barbara Groff, Joe Russo, Ken Robertson Jenny Thomas , Ann Clarke, Ian Clarke Annie Gardner, Eric Witte, Peter Yin, Penny Nash, Dale Rynvis and Irene Klemm for helping us on the various passages to get here.
A Little Bit of Mischief 