Sunday 28 July Arrival Indonesia

At dawn we arrived in the next country, our 34^th, on our RTW expedition and it felt 'foreign' once more. Australia was lovely, but it was never foreign; we spoke the same language and had the same customs. Our arrival port, Saumlaki, Indonesia is a mere 300 miles north from Darwin and a world away in language and daily life.

Saumlaki waterfront

with our 'helper' Nelis

The sail here was good; once we had motored through the wind free Van Diemen Gulf helped by currents up to 5 knots, we were able to pick up the ocean winds sailed the rest of the way and arrived in Saumlaki at dawn this morning. There were two yachts anchored, British Pipistrelle and Irish Saol Eile, and one sailing in ahead of us, German Lop To.

The harbour at Saumlaki is large. There's a large ferry wharf, shallow reef extending a long way out from the shore and a medium size patch with depths around 20m. After that there are deep areas, rusting wrecks on the shallows and a strange assortment of mooring balls which you'd never trust. And yes, there is plastic debris in the water and reportedly a resident crocodile which swims around. I thought we'd left crocs behind in Australia!

The officials from Quarantine and Customs came out to the boat after church to clear us in. It was quick and painless, less forms to fill in than Fiji and only a few photo copies of our documents taken, not the multiple copies we'd been expecting. For Immigration we went ashore and got more stamps in our passports, official stamps on each copy we gave.

Officially cleared in we could now go into town, or the Harkan Indah Hotel, for a meal. If in Indonesia what do you order first? The national dish of nasi goreng (friend rice with veg and a fried egg on top) of course. Our evening entertainment was a get together on Pipistrelle who we haven't seen since Fiji a year ago, and to meet Porrick and Myra from Amel Saol Eile and Kirsten and Helmut from Lop To. We were tired from our journey, but not too tired to enjoy the evening.