Enjoying the Diving in Wakatobi

August 26, 2015

We are anchored in a natural lagoon by the island of Tomia in Central Indonesia (lat 05deg 45S long 123deg 54E). The lagoon has the narrowest pass we have ever seen and it must be entered at high tide, but once inside it is a beautiful and well protected spot. And the best part is it is close to the Wakatobi Dive Resort that we have been thoroughly enjoying.

We left Banda Island in late afternoon for the 200 mile trip to Namrole. The first night we experience something we have never seen or heard about. It was a moonless night and the entire sea glowed an eerie green as if it were radioactive. It was like floating in a cloud. We contact other boats in the area and everyone was freaking out.

Namrole has just opened up to cruisers and the entire Buru southern province was geared up to show how excited they were to have us. We had four days of planned activities that included feasts, dancing, a river crossing on bamboo rafts, swimming in a sacred pool, village tours, and ceremonies. Everyone wanted their pictures taken with the yachties and the children were wonderful as always.

For our next stop we opted out of Wanci and its packed schedule of activities and went to the quiet island of Hoga in Wakatobi. We enjoyed relaxing dinners with fellow boaters and some diving with the Hoga Island Dive Center. We heard great things over the radio net about the Wakatobi Dive Resort on Palau Tolandono so we motored 30 miles to windward to check it out.

The Wakatobi Dive Resort is a luxury resort that welcomes yachties. A few of us spent an evening at the resort having drinks on the end of the pier at sunset followed by the best dinner we’ve had in Indonesia, or forever! The next morning we did a 3-tank dive with the dive center that lived up to all the hype. We were given hot moist mint-scented towels after each dive along with a dry beach towel while they served us food and hot drinks. Before the final dive we returned to the resort for a short nap on chaise lounges overlooking the water. At the end of the day we had hot showers back at the resort and more food and drink. This is a life style we could get used to.

The diving in Wakatobi included both pinnacle and drift wall dives that were the best we’ve seen since Namena, Fiji. The dive master apologized for the poor visibility that was still 60 feet; the water doesn’t become crystal clear until October. Who’s complaining?

There have been several accounts of poisonous sea snakes getting into dinghies. One boater was stopped from getting into his dinghy by some local children who saw the snake climb into the boat. Another friend had one slither across her bare foot. We now take care to search our dinghies before getting into them.

The next leg of our journey takes us south and our landfall will depend on the wind which will be forward of the beam. We find that mixing planned rally stops with remote anchorages best suits us so we are keeping an open mind. We will post again when we have Internet.