July 25, 2005 - Darwin to Kupang Rally-Day 3
by George Backhus

Greetings from Indonesia!

After an excellent day of sailing in good breeze (finally!), we arrived safely in Kupang about 2130 hours last evening. After a few rums, dinner on a relatively motionless table and a nice bottle of wine, we all fell into our berths, exhausted.

As we made landfall earlier in the day, Timor Island's dramatic landscape provided a welcome change to the low-lying and flat topography of the Northern Territory of Australia. We reached Oisina Point on the southwest tip of the island just after sunset and were challenged by the last leg of the trip, a northeastward run up the Semau Strait. Semau Strait is wide, deep and well charted, so it would normally be a no brainer. But throw in darkness before moonrise, an unfamiliar patch of water, confusing lights on the shoreline and literally hundreds of local fishing boats working the channel, many with poor or non-existent lighting, and it gets a bit interesting. With Todd and Graham spotting from bow and stern, Merima on the chart plotter and radar giving me ranges and bearings of our course and targets, and me making almost constant course adjustments on the autopilot remote, we managed to weave our way through this fishy Indonesian minefield to the finish line at the open anchorage off the city of Kupang.

We were expecting a quaint little village; Kupang is a full-on city. In fact, there are some 2 million Indonesians on the island of Timor. So, we're back in to bright lights, noisy vehicles, pollution and all those other wonderful things we thought we had left behind. At least it's warm, and apparently the beer in Indonesia is cheap.

As we anchored, we were welcomed on the radio by Rally Control, a guy on the radio with a distinctively American accent, who invited us ashore for a cold beer. We declined for the moment in favor of a rum and a late dinner.

This morning we awoke refreshed and waited on Indonesian Customs and Immigration for clearance. They apparently start at 0800, but we were the first boat to be cleared, starting at, oh, about 0930-ish. The entourage of ten boisterous officials in two tenders boarded us, some with sharp uniforms, some with tattered remnants, but all with very dirty shoes and feet. I'm glad we hadn't cleaned the boat yet. While they were very polite and friendly, they couldn't have been more disorganized and confusing. We filled out the paperwork, and, of course, stamped it with our obligatory "official stamp," then allowed them to search the boat for contraband. After opening a few drawers and lifting a few seats, they were satisfied that were not part of an Australian drug smuggling ring and shuffled off to check in the next boat. The last of the group, a little man with a scraggly beard and a very old uniform, quietly asked for beer or whiskey. I politely indicated that the boys had consumed it all.

We completed the 470-mile rally course in 58-1/2 hours for an average speed made good of about 8 knots. All in all it was an easy and gentle passage, and it was nice to be the first boat to arrive. The wind gods were not entirely cooperative, so we ended up motor-sailing about two-thirds of the way.

Meanwhile, as we were cleaning up today, the rest of the fleet continue to arrive, and about half of them are now in Kupang. Guess there will be a big party tonight at Teddy's Bar on the beach. It's time for us to clean up and be social.

Cheers, George, Merima, Graham and Todd