The heart shaped Karawapop Lagoon is a world famous landmark here at Misool, attracting the tourists travelling in the traditional Indonesia tourist ships known as Phinisi.

Our anchorage at Wayilbatan is about three miles west of the Karawapop lagoon, but is the safest place that we can leave the yacht in order to visit Karawapop. The sea outside the anchorage, and all along the chain of islands is around 40 metres deep in the shallowest of places, and we can not carry sufficient chain to safely anchor in those depths. The general rule of thumb, of letting out 5 times as much chain as the depth, is difficult to attain here, as the anchor chain is too heavy for us to safely carry more than the 100m we have on board.

We are now sharing our anchorage with two other Australian yachts (people we had previously met in north Queensland on our first trip in 2016), and we travelled in convoy in our dinghies to Karawapop this afternoon.

The scenery was again stunning.

As we travelled east along the northern edge of Wayilbatan Island, fish were jumping from the water, driven along in schools by fear of our approaching boat. At times the fish were little, maybe only a couple of centimeters long, but porpoising in waves that covered the water surface for 50 metres in front of us. At other times large schools of large fish would scatter, porpoising their way to safety. At one time a large fish jumped right over our heads as we sped along. It speared by, many meters above the glassy surface, landing maybe 30 metres from where it jumped on the other side of the boat.

Once we reached the eastern end of Wayilbatan, we turned south and did an anti-clockwise loop through the Karwapop Lagoon, exploring the coral encrusted coastline that dropped vertically into deep water.

The walk up the rickety stairs was steep, with the steps spaced unevenly and sloping precariously, but well worth it for the aerial view of the lagoon. In places the stairs are like a ladder, with the vertical rise much greater than the size of the treads. It has been our longest walk for weeks now, as elsewhere the islands are inaccessible, being constructed of razor sharp rocks and covered in a tangled mass of jungle vines.

After a refreshing swim and a speed boat ride back to the yacht in the dinghy, it’s time for an early night.