The Jakare by Quillian

The Jakare

A few days ago my family and I went on a boat in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. This boat was called the Jakare. It was a live aboard as well as a dive boat. We were on the Jakare for nine nights. So it was a good thing it was 26m, much bigger than the kayaks at home. We shared the boat with 12 Indonesian crew, a French woman, two Scottish kiwis, and two Greeks. And I’ll tell you all about it from the beginning. DUN DUN DUN!

We flew to Sarong, Indonesia on a red eye so we slept through the day and the night. When I woke up I had to get dressed and run downstairs with my family so we could get picked up to go to the boat. We drove in a car the the busy streets, all the way to the dock and then hopped on a skiff and rode to the Jakare. We had to take our shoes off to keep the boat clean. When we got on the boat, some of the crew gave us watermelon juice. It was delicious! When we were done with that we were shown to our rooms. They were small, but they were also cozy and nice. Once everybody saw their rooms we got a tour around the boat and learned about safety precautions. Then we had a delicious breakfast. There was waffles, fruit, coffee, tea, eggs, and even toast if you wanted any. After breakfast we started cruising. Then we went on our first dive/snorkel. For the snorkelers it was pretty wavy so we had to get picked up and the divers didn’t see much either but had a great time. And like many of the dives there were tons of jellyfish. For the rest of the day we chilled. 

        The schedule for the day. (but we didn’t have a BBQ all the time only for that day).

We went on five walks. On the first one we were going to see birds of paradise in the forest. It was short but challenging. It was so slippery! I had to hold on to the railing and scramble up. But some railings had ants on them so I couldn't hold on to them! On the second hike, we went up a bunch of steps to go to a view point. On the third hike, we climbed up a limestone wall. On the fourth hike we did a few river crossing and scrambled across slippery terrain. 

On the first hike, Papa stayed and went on a dive instead. He saw a guitar shark which is very rare. But we don’t know what type it was. He said underwater it looked like a shark with a flowing cape draped over it.

Like I said, small but cozy

The funniest but also annoy-ingest walk was the first one because we were afraid all the future hikes might not work out. We were going on a birdwatching tour to see the red bird of paradise at five in the morning, but our guide didn't show up on time. We were required to have a local guide because the village people need jobs and this encourages them to help preserve the forest. When another guide finally did show up  his motor wasn't working. When it finally got working we rode into the river. Then he had to stop the motor to hear what someone was saying and then we couldn't get the motor started again. Jack, the dive guide from the Jakare, had to rescue us. By now it was already pretty late, so we were doubting if we could get there to see the birds of paradise in time. However we were still going to see these birds! Ha ha ha! Now, we were on a rubber skiff which was slowly traveling so as not to get stuck in the shallow water. When climbing onto the rickety dock, the steps were falling off and we had to step in the very middle of each step. If we stepped on the side the steps, we would fall off and we would fall into muddy water. When we got to the trail, we saw Alfred Russell Wallace's hut (see my brother's post about the Wallace Line).  We had to scramble up a muddy slope and we fell over multiple times. We were all sweating a lot and complaining how hot we were. By the time we got to the top of the mountain to see the birds dancing, we were all ready to go, but we stayed. We waited for an hour and we could hear the birds of paradise all around us and the guide was trying to scare them up our way by imitating the sound of a cockatoo, but they never came. All that hard work and discomfort and the birds never came! But, it's all about the story, right?

Jack and our local guide at the back of the boat after the rescue

The Wallace hut. You can red about it on the sign, but it is hard to see and I bet you would much rather read Tre's post

Fake smiles while waiting for the bird of paradise

The rickety dock

The first super cool thing I saw that I hadn’t seen before underwater was a cuddle fish. It was hiding under a piece of coral. I couldn’t see it because it was so camouflaged, but eventually I saw it. It was right in front of me!!! It looked like a cross between a squid and an octopus. It has a football shaped body with short, octopus-like tentacles. We looked at the cuttlefish for a while and then the snorkeling team started to branch out and get more separated. So, Papa and I started going a bit shallower and he spotted another really big cuttlefish.  We weren’t sure if it was the same or different cuttlefish but I’m pretty sure it was different. It was about two feet long! We were looking at it for a while when it started coming up to me. Papa moved his hand and the cuttlefish backed up because it was scared of him. So, Papa held very still and the cuttlefish started to approach me again.  It was a brownish color but then it started to change color to match my yellow swim suit.  It swam very close to us and seemed very interested in me.  Perhaps it wanted to hide under me like I was coral.  It was a really fun experience.

On another snorkel, Papa spotted a wobbegong shark, which is also called a carpet shark. The shark was moving along the bottom on its way to hide under a rock. We called out to the other snorkelers and they came over, but a most of them couldn’t see the Wobbegong shark. Our snorkeling guide kept diving down to point it out. Eventually the team saw it. If you want more details about the wobbegong shark then read my blog article about it.

On another day, we went to a ranger station on a beach.  The rangers worked for a National Park. At the ranger station we saw a bunch of black tip reef sharks! These were all juveniles and swam in very shallow water.  They like to hang out at the ranger station because people often feed them. One shark swam so close to me that I screamed in surprise and the shark got scared and jumped right out of the water! After swimming with the sharks, we started jumping off an old pier. When we jumped in, we kept scaring the local fish under the dock. It was really fun.  

On a different day, we went to a BBQ on the beach of a tiny island.  The crew set up a square of lights with sand steps leading into it.  They brought big beanbag chairs and even a table with an umbrella.  The adults hung out there while Tre and I went out to the beach and played with hundreds of hermit crabs. Later, when the sun went down, we ate a bunch of food like tuna, chicken, and tons of fruit.  We had a great time.  

On the last day, we were the final guest on the boat.  Our host Audrey asked me to come back so she could teach me how to scuba dive and get my first certification.  I’ve been begging my parents to go back ever since we left.