Tual #2, And On Our Way West...

After getting re-supplied and re-stocked, we decided not to rush off from Tual before getting our first "taste" of Indonesia.  First, English is RARELY spoken here and Second, (for the most part) Indonesians are the friendliest people we have encountered on our journey so far.

You can't go anywhere or do anything around her without a wave and a smile followed by a "Hey Mister!"  They are not trying to sell us anything, they just seem genuinely happy to see strangers...

Tual is predominantly a Muslim community and mosques are everywhere.  The biggest mosque was located in the center of Tual and we could hear prayers over the incredibly LOUD speakers 4 times every day, beginning at 5am...

Notice the HUGE drum on the left side of the picture.

There is food everywhere! From the small family kiosks selling fresh everything, to restaurants with today's menu ACTUALLY in the window.... 

 We had lunch here which consisted of rice, noodles, chicken and iced tea for a total of $7 ($3.50 each!).

We never did find out why they dye the chicks here.  Shelley thought it might have been a way to separate the boys and girls...  If that is the case, what is going on with the red one???

The same guy who put the electric wires up in Cozumel must have come here too....

Did i mention they like bright colors?

 On the other side of a large bridge was the city of Langgur.  which is predominantly Christan (mostly Catholic with about 30% Protestant).  It was here we were able to purchase a case of beer (you gotta like Christians) and it was here we found a grocery store that was in a small way similar to something we would find in North America.

Our driver and new best friend, Tucan.  He drove us everywhere we needed to go and spoke passable English.  We paid him $10 per hour which by local standards is quite a windfall.  We were both happy.

Just outside Langgur was a Catholic shrine located at the highest point on the whole peninsula.  Christians here often make pilgrimages to the top of this hill (mountain?) especially around Easter.  As we slogged our way up I couldn't help wonder just how difficult it must have been to get all that concrete up that "hill".

Along the way the whole story of the "Passion of Christ" is depicted in art and statues....

The journey culminates with the resurrected Christ at the top of the hill looking out over the "world"

 

Shelley decided to climb to the very top of the statue, while I was content to take her picture from below...

At least the trip down was easy... but by this time we were all pretty thirsty... Someone selling cool drinks would make a fortune here!

From Tual we headed southwest.  After a boisterous overnight sail we arrived at a small village called Tutumetal.  It was here we visited our first school in Indonesia.(Story HERE)

From there we travelled along the south eastern chain of Indonesian islands eventually arriving here at Lewoleba the largest town since Tual where we are anchored so we can re-provision a little before continuing west.

Along the way we have encountered some very small settlements where people pretty much subsistence live.  We traded and have given away so many thing we take for granted in our world...  Things we had were ball caps, t-shirts, perfume, rice, sugar, school supplies, reading glasses and fishing stuff.  What we received were smiles, waves 2 shells and 2 lobsters!  We were also offered some taro root and coconuts, which we declined.  Did I mention these folks have nothing!

We also saw countless fishing boats who were either harvesting seaweed or fishing.. (We have heard, but not yet seen them use dynamite for the latter... :(

Over the last 4 days we have sailed for 3 days and had to motor the last 24 hours into Lewoleba.  Unfortunately, I stupidly forgot to turn off a valve after I had used the watermaker the other day and it backwashed almost all our fresh water off the boat....  So, in the last 24 hour run we were able to make enough water to re-fill the tanks....

We arrived, anchored in the bay and went to town for provisions.  Again, we had one of those amazing lunches.  This one included soup and was $5 for the two of us!.... At these prices, Shelley may never cook again!

A local school "bus" with ALL the kids yelling "Hey Mister"!

No such thing as navigation lights, but very colorful during the day...  Makes overnight passages very dangerous...

More soon...

Tual, Indonesia

We departed from Port Moresby at daybreak on Tuesday, August 28th.  The whole trip was a down wind sail and the first three days were super fast with 20+ knot winds.  We sailed through the Torres Strait over 30 or so hours and were contacted by the Australian Boarder Patrol who firmly, but politely asked us what we were up to...  After we cleared the shallow water of the Torres Strait the winds subsided down to 10-15 knots for the rest of the journey.

Our last day in Port Moresby....

We had some luck fishing and caught a good size Wahoo.  We also (unfortunately) caught a small shark and had an awful time getting back in the water without hurting it, or it eating us....  We also had company for most of the trip from a young Noddy Bird.  He (or she) would arrive late every day and roost somewhere on the boat overnight.  The next day, he would take off and do whatever Noddy birds do, only to return the next evening for a rest.  He stayed with us all the way to Indonesia, and it was only after we anchored did he not return....

As we approached Indonesian waters we began to see large numbers of unmarked (and often un-lit) fishing boats. Our digital radar came in very handy as we navigated through these waters.

There are times when technology really does make what we do safer!

Over 21 vessels and not a single one had AIS!

After 7 1/2 leisurely days of downwind sailing we arrived in the beautiful city of Tual Indonesia. We are anchored about 200 meters from the main shipping wharf in a calm bay.  Our main reason for being here in Tual is to check in and get settled for what we hope will be a 3-4 month visit in Indonesia.

Checking in to Indonesia has been a fairly complicated exercise, but thankfully not futile.  We were given our 60 day renewable visa before we left PNG, however, our boat paperwork got held up by a computer glitch in the Indonesian yachters registration system...  After 2 wasted weeks of failed attempts in Port Moresby, we finally hired an agent to file our paperwork and headed off for Tual... 

When we arrived, we still did not have the paperwork we needed...  We started the check in procedure knowing it wasn't until we reached customs that it would be a problem.

The procedure for checking into this country is quite complicated, but everyone we encountered were friendly and professional.  They even found someone to help us in English wherever we went.

Our day started in Quarantine where they asked all the important questions like were we sick, or are we bringing a disease into Indonesia...  We ferried an inspector out to our boat who looked everything over and photographed all our prescription medicine.  From Quarantine we hiked up a big hill to Immigration so they could do whatever they do...  We sat comfortably in an air conditioned room (the only one all day) while they worked on our visa which had already been issued in PNG...

We were now on our way to Customs where we knew we would have our problem with our unregistered yacht....  They listened politely to our long story about our failed attempt to preregister, and even tried to help us get online in their office...  Fortunately, they failed too.  In the mean time someone else contacted our agent and he forwarded our completed documentation to them....  We were now on our second trip to the boat with two young customs officers who thoroughly inspected the vessel.  After returning to shore we went back to customs where they declared we could stay! 

All we had to do now was visit the Harbor Master, for one more clearance....  So back down the hill we went only to find the Harbor Master out for lunch, and that we should return at 3...  So back to the boat for some lunch and a short siesta.  Promptly at 3 we were at the office and our paperwork was started....  One of the first questions we were asked was for our clearance papers from Port Moresby.  Unfortunately, Customs wanted to keep that document, so we no longer had it... Fortunately, my wife is a genius and took a picture of it before she gave it to customs!  Good enough, all we did was hook up to their Internet and we emailed the picture to them...

In the end, we spent 8 hours checking into Indonesia!  To be clear, this was not an unpleasant experience, just very involved and long...

Today, we found Internet, got local currency, bought some groceries, and got a bit of a tour of Tual and Langgur (the town across the bridge).  We met Tukan who speaks passable English and drives yachties around for $10 per hour including fuel.

YES, Shelley and I are MILLIONARES here in Indonesia!

 

Government Building

 We will likely stay here for a few more days before we set out to explore this very different (to us) part of the world.  The two words that come to mind so far are COLORFUL and FRIENDLY.  Eveywhere we go we see vibrant colors and incredibly friendly people....

More soon...