Into Indo

Kupang is quite a shock after the clean, neatly maintained towns of Australia. It is dilapidated, dirty, over crowded and noisy.

However, the local people are friendly and jovial and very welcoming of foreign visitors. We are participating in the Sail Indonesia 2018 rally. This year it's a group of 25 yachts sailing from Darwin and starting the Indonesian leg in Kupang and ending in Singapore after stopping at various archipelagos in Indonesia along the route. Not all participants will follow the official route from the beginning of August to the end of October.

Once Pegasus had anchored in the bay at Kupang, the yellow flag was hoisted and quarantine officials came to inspect the boat. There were 3 officials in uniforms and shiny shoes who arrived in another boat's small dinghy and when they got to our boat (which has no steps so one heaves oneself up) they all stood up in the small dinghy at the same time and tried to jump, unsuccessfully..... The poor little dinghy was completely submerged even its motor and the three officials were left dangling on the edge of our boat with their feet in the water. Robert had to grab one by his belt and drag him up. Luckily they thought it was funny and they were still giggling when they left - Robert took them back to shore in his dinghy which was low in the water with 4 people and the sea was choppy so they were all completely wet. And so began the endless filling in of copious forms and a visit to the customs clearance office took Robert a whole morning.

A lot of things get done in Kupang by someone who offers his services to "take care of all needs" - getting fuel, water, beaching the dinghy, laundry, etc all comes with a little commission for "Mr Fixer". There's these little "Mafia" set ups with a Mr Fixer running the show with his bunch of loyal employees. Beaching the dinghy is particularly hazardous as a group of local thugs insist on grabbing it in the water and pulling it up and demanding payment for "looking after it". Much like the South African self-appointed "car guards" just more menacing. It was easier to pay the daily rate of 50,000 Rupiah (about R50) to Mr Fixer and be left in peace.

We got around by using a bemo - cheap and popular. The crowded streets are full of them racing about and hooting, near misses being the norm. Again much like the South African mini-bus taxis except these are smaller and highly decorated mostly with themes of English football clubs or combinations of race cars and Christianity. Most of the drivers look about 14 years old and his tout hanging out the side door could be his 8 year old brother.

The Sail Indonesia rally is considered quite an event on the mayor's calendar and we were unexpectedly treated like VIP's. We had a welcoming address with various dignatories, presentation of traditional hats to the boat captains and enthusiastic line dancing.

On the last evening we were invited to a gala dinner - a huge feast and display of traditional dancing, presentation of woven scarves to all participants, followed by line dancing which is clearly a popular activity at any event.

We said goodbye to Robert's Polish crew who immediately started looking for a boat ride to Flores. We heard later that they managed to hitch hike across by ferry after telling their story to a port manager.

We also started our daily visit to ATM's as the withdrawal amounts are very limited and cash is king in Indonesia with very few facilities for card transactions. We needed to build up a kitty for our visits to remote areas. It's easy to be a millionaire overnight in Indonesia - the currency has so many 000,000's.

During our stay we were treated to a tour by guides from the tourism department. We visited a large traditional food market. The stalls in the open were surrounded by slippery mud and the crowded stalls under cover exuded such fine particles of spices and chillies that we all started coughing and my chest closed up. Not conducive to lingering purchases.

We visited traditional cloth weaving and it was most interesting. The process hasn't changed in hundreds of years and the different patterns are relevant to the places of origin amongst the islands. We bought a fabulous hand woven table cloth to take back home.

We also visited a palm oil processing to sugar site - unbelievably it's done in situ next to someone's home with an agile person climbing up the surrounding palms to collect the liquid and a constant furnace under a low thatched roof.

The driver did a quick drive past Lasiana Beach - only vaguely resembling the touched up photo of Lasiana Beach on the tourism website and on to the Kupang Museum which had many artifacts but no date attached to the exhibits so it was a bit of a guess for a novice like me.

There appears to be no garbage disposal service in Kupang and piles of accumulated garbage are occasionally burnt around the city but mostly lie around festering or floating on the sea. It brought to mind my sister in the UK doing her bit for the environment by using her non-disposable drinking straw. Sadly it is of miniscule difference when compared to the vast amounts of plastic casually disposed of daily next to the shoreline of Kupang. Later we discovered that this was the case throughout Indonesia. We had all been given a box of snacks on our tour and just as we left the museum, the driver collected some boxes of leftovers and tossed them out of his window as he drove off leaving the plastic packaging and contents to roll about the road. There are no bins in sight anyway.

It's clear there are not many foreign visitors to Kupang and it's a great pity for the city's inhabitants who are so friendly and eager to try out their English and so pleased to see visitors. The mayor's messages was to spread the word that Kupang welcomes tourists. Perhaps some of the money spent on the governor's office could have been spent on municipal services. There again - not much different to some towns in South Africa.

The start of the rally in Kupang was scheduled for 9.00 am on Saturday 4 August but we were the only boat who left. Perhaps we had missed the memo? We motored off anyway, glad to see Kupang behind us and excited to start our new adventure.

Not all participants go off in the same direction or to the same destination. We chose to initially follow the scheduled route which begins by sailing along the north coastline of Timor to the town of Wini. It's a long way from Kupang so we decided to day sail and anchor at night where possible.

There was very little wind and we motor sailed to Tangung Kurus (Tangung means Cape). It's a deceptive anchorage as the cape has large waves crashing on the surrounding reefs but giving a wide berth to the breakers it becomes calm beyond the rough surf on the point. It is a very pretty bay with lots of trees, wooded slopes and free roaming pigs on the beach. The pigs on the beach became a common sight at every stop - it's how the community deals with dumped garbage on the shore. What the pigs don't eat is taken away by the tide.

We went ashore for a walk and crossed paths with a local resident carrying a large live rooster over his shoulder. He had bright red lips from chewing betel nut - the juice is bright red and stains everything. We later came to understand that the red splotches on paths and roadsides was not blood, but spit with betel juice. Spitting betel juice is frowned upon but not the practice of chewing the carcinogenic dried nut which is sold everywhere.

The next morning we set off for Tangung Gumuk and anchored at the village of Naikliu. Our arrival off the beach brought out a group of excited children and our dinghy ride to the shore was enthusiastically received. We did our beach walk feeling a bit like the Pied Piper.

Two other boats from the rally arrived - whew! we didn't miss the memo.

The next hop to Wini was very long, over 9 hours with hardly any wind so we mostly motored. As luck would have it, the wind came up strongly for the last mile into Wini along with choppy swells and we rocked and rolled our way to the designated anchorage with the coordinates given to us. These were so wrong! Whoever did that deserves a big kick in the butt as there was a reef directly in the prescribed area. We saw the reef at the last minute and turned away quickly but not before hearing the awful sound of the boat scraping on rocks.

On our way in, one of the boats at anchor called us on VHF to us to warn us of the very deep anchorage. Well it was awful to anchor - much deeper than anything we had experienced before and very little room to manoeuvre. We eventually found a shallower spot at 17 metres. We could see another boat coming in and did our turn to call them up. He ended up anchoring a bit closer than we were comfortable with but he was lucky to be among the first arrivals. The other 5 boats arriving afterwards had to spend some time motoring around the anchorage and ended up quite deep. We had gone ashore and watched the 5 boats motoring about while the silly tourism representative on the beach waved them on in front of the reef. Luckily he was ignored by all. Wini officials would be doing their boat visitors a favour by giving out coordinates by someone who actually sails.

The water was too choppy for Robert to dive in after arrival but the next morning he went in to inspect underneath. Luckily it's only superficial scratches, mostly on the retractable keel. The bump had broken off a pulley for the rope to drop and raise the keel. Not too serious as we don't drop the keel often and it may still be managed for now.

We walked along the main road which appeared recently built with a decent sidewalk and four lanes. Two on each side with a dividing raised concrete centre. So one assumes it's two lanes for traffic on the left and two lanes for traffic on the right. It was quite disturbing to see that vehicles used any side for any direction and often not caring to be in the same lane as oncoming trucks.

The people we passed were very friendly, almost every passing vehicle hooted and waved.

We stopped at a cafe restaurant for lunch. The food was displayed in the window so it was easy to point out our preference as no one spoke English.

The food was taken off to be reheated while we were seated and was simple and tasty. Knives are not utensils used for eating in Indonesia and we learned to make do with the spoon and fork only.

   

The Wini tourism office arranged a warm welcome for the rally participants and we were treated to a very nice dinner by the regional government representatives and given woven scarves as souvenirs. We have a few musical talents in our group and it was good fun to see and hear them play music. It wasn't long before line dancing fever began so we went back to the boat for an early night as the next day was an early start.

We were up at 4.00 am and set off at 4.50 am, a little behind 4 other boats to cross Selat Ombai (Selat means strait or channel). There was enough wind in the beginning for Pegasos to catch up and pass most, being a lighter boat we occasionally have an advantage with the right wind. When the wind dropped we put up the spinnaker but eventually resorted to motor sailing. It got even more tedious when we reached the southern end of Selat Pantor, a channel between the high mountainous islands of Alor and Pantor. This channel is notorious for its strong current running north to south through the channel. We had approximately 4 knots of current against us as we battled along with the engine revs high sometimes doing only 1.5 knots.

The redeeming feature is that the sides of the channel is very scenic and we came across a pod of dolphins feeding in a nearby spot and saw a few jumping and twisting clear of the water.

The current eased off as we turned into a very long fjord like channel. The water is very dark and deep and we saw a couple of whales very close to the shore. Later someone told us that blue whales often frequent the deep channel. The sides rise up steeply into mountains and quaint tiny villages are dotted along the edge all with at least one mosque and one church as the dominant buildings.

We eventually reached the town of Kalabahi - our designated anchorage at 6.00 pm. All in all it was 7 hours of sailing plus 6 hours of motoring over 67 nautical miles. It was almost dark. There were 2 boats anchored already and 4 more close behind. What a deep, tight anchorage on a narrow shelf - we spent almost an hour locating a shallow enough spot in the dark only to find that the anchor wouldn't grip on the bottom. It took several attempts before it gripped almost on the shore. All the boats were very close to each other but it was very still and calm. And incredibly smelly. The smoke from burning rubbish and the smell of human poo wafted over the boat. Really awful spot and we decided to endure the night and leave. However the next morning we were visited by the harbour master and advised that another anchorage had been allocated to the Sail Indonesia yachts which was close to the port and more secure and we happily moved further up the channel next to Port Dulionong.

Before the harbour master's visit, we were visited by Ahmed wearing a Sail Indonesia shirt saying he was a tour guide and trying to sell us a tour. We declined and he said he also needed a crew list for his boss. Robert refused and although Ahmed was persistent, Robert saw no need to give over any details to the man balancing on a rickety boat with two other fellows peering through our open back window. Some of the other yachties had bought a tour with Ahmed and they dinghied over to the smelly disgusting shore and were shepherdered by Ahmed through some bushes. Later we heard that they enjoyed the tour and it was half the price of the legitimate tourist office tour.

During our stay in Kalabahi all the participants of the Sail Indonesia yachts who had arrived there were treated like VIP's and many special events such as traditional dancing, rowing competition, the Alor Nautical Festival, etc had been arranged by the town's officials to coincide with our visit.

 

We're not used to such fuss made of us and felt very VIP-ish. We were treated to a very good dinner at the Regent's quarters and presented with woven scarves. We were made to feel very welcome and the locals are super friendly. Again the message was that the area really wants foreign tourists. To us, the sea next to Kalabahi seems to be even more polluted and dirty than Kupang. One of our group brought up the subject at the dinner since we were being addressed on encouraging visitors. Although it's acknowledged as a problem and plans are proposed, there doesnt seem to be any current action.

 

All the anchorages near towns are very noisy with the mu'adhins calls to prayer through loudspeakers starting at around 4.00am and seemingly in competition with each other, so our day begins much earlier than we like. We decided to skip the last day of events with a farewell party and rather find a quiet spot and clean water to swim. The temperatures are usually around 30 degrees C.

We pulled up the anchor which had some rubbish hooked around it and set off back down the calm fjord motoring around the bigger bits of garbage also floating out to sea. People on passing boats and ferries waved and it was a very scenic breakfast ride down the fjord.

 

Four other yachts also left about the same time and while they went further on, we investigated a possible anchorage along a big reef on the north side of Pantar island off a small village, Pandai.

 It took a while to find but we could see a small narrow channel on Google Earth that opened onto a shallow sandy spot, big enough to anchor without catching the chain on coral. And what a brilliant spot! The snorkeling was super - warm clear water, lots of coral banks to explore and plenty of small colourful fish. We saw the most starfish in any one place and we finally found Nemo!

Fortunately the weather was calm and we didn't swing about too much as the surrounding reef is close. The spring low tide exposed big sections of reef and we could see local people walking on the exposed reef with buckets collecting edibles.

The next morning we carefully followed our track back along the gap in the reef and turned westwards to Lomblen Island. There was little wind but the sea was very choppy. We lingered along Batang Island as the water here is incredibly deep, 200 metres right up to the shoreline. The island has a nice beach but is surrounded by reef and we didn't see a gap. What we did see was a huge sunfish that surfaced very briefly next to the boat - a wow moment!

It was a strange sail, alternating between no wind when we motored, and full sails in strong wind that lasted briefly. We ranged from 2.5 knots to 10 knots in a bouncy sea for almost 8 hours. We turned into a long bay at Tangung Sirumerang and anchored off a big reef on a narrow shelf. It's a super setting with a view of an old volcano across the bay.

We jumped in the warm water and snorkeled on the reef. Just fabulous to have all this to ourselves. At night some fishermen went about in small boats without light and we could hear the plops of fish that escaped them. We decided to stay an extra day in the same spot. The next day one of the fisherman came past in his little noisy boat and showed us two large fish. We indicated that we wanted one but had no idea of the cost. We showed him 50,000 rupiah and he seemed delighted and so were we as we now had fresh fish for at least two dinners for the price of parking a dinghy on the beach in Kupang. Unexpectedly he nimbly jumped on board and peered into our cockpit intrigued with the set up. He was especially impressed with the binoculars and tried them out.

Later both Allure and Moonshadow arrived in the bay and anchored close by. After more snorkeling we were invited to Allure for sundowners with Moonshadow and it was a very pleasant evening with a beautiful sunset and the fishermen arriving on the exposed reef in the late evening low tide.

All three boats set off for Krakow Island the following morning. With very little wind we once again motored for 3.5 hours passing a large pod of approximately 20 pilot whales close to the boat. They were lying very close together almost motionless.

Most of the boats we already knew were at Krako when we arrived - nine altogether anchored off a reef enclosed tiny island. The snorkeling was fabulous, probably the best so far. Extensive reefs that dropped off suddenly into very deep channels. So many corals, so many fish, including a lion fish and the usual reef sharks and a water snake. We decided to stay an extra day and were visited by locals from a nearby village who sold fish, mangoes and bananas off their simple boats.

Soon we were the only boat left at the anchorage and it was with some reluctance that we pulled up anchor and motored down a channel to the next rally stop, the town of Lewoleba. We went ashore to top up on diesel - Robert got a lift on a ojek (a scooter taxi) with two jerry cans slung over the scooter. The fuel station had run out of diesel so the ojek driver took Robert to a small roadside fuel kiosk which had diesel and back they came bouncing along the potted road with Robert trying to keep one of the jerry cans off the hot scooter exhaust. Local festivities were in full swing on the harbour waterfront as the rally coincided with the Indonesian Day of Independence public holiday - lots of speeches on loudspeakers and terrible music.