Dampier Strait

After a couple of months out at the northern islands of Raja Ampat, we are now heading back to the south east to find more food and to reprovision SeeBeeZee.

We’ve come around the west of Gam, and keeping Gam to the north turned into Dampier Selat (Dampier Strait) to head for Waisai on the big island of Waigeo. Named after William Dampier, an English “buccaneer” who explored these water in the late 17th century, we believe that there is a strong current permanently running from east to west through this gap between the north of Papua and the island of Waigeo.

After leaving the bird viewing platforms on Gam, we hugged the coast and found a little breeze to sail again, and headed into the currents running down from the Pacific Ocean. It was surprising how many “homestays” there are along the southern shore of Gam. Homestays are low key accommodation facilities for western tourists, usually made from timber on stilts over water with thatch roofs.

We have been in the Dampier Strait on four occasions now, and have found this east-west current runs at all states of tide, and often flows with a heavy ribbon of debris on the tide line. This debris contains many logs and fronds, but is totally choked out with plastic waste. We have had to stop on numerous occasions now to clear our propeller or rudder from plastic that wraps itself up on our boat.