Tual, Indonesia

We had arrived at the Kai group of Islands.  This is where the check-in port of Tual is located.  It was a Sunday and no check-in till Monday so when we spotted a lovely quiet anchorage at the top of Kai Island, we thought we would spend the night (under quarantine) recouping from our passage before heading into the press and congestion of Tual to check.  We anchored, and just a dusk was upon us, we were boarded by a Customs boat that demanded we continue on to Tual…another 2 hrs.  As it was now almost dark and our experience thus far had shown us that the Indonesian boating community does not necessarily adhere to the international rules of vessel lighting at night, we asked if there were any shipping or unmarked hazards en-route.  We were assured there were none and it was a straightforward passage. 

Two hours later, in the dark coming into the harbour of Tual, we ran afoul of a Bagan.  What is a Bagan you ask????   It is a floating derelict without any lights or navigation systems, somewhat akin to a tree house and tent on a raft…but they tie themselves to any old piece of angle iron and there they squat.  Right in the middle of the navigation channel.  To make a long story short…I next found myself in the water in the dark…with a knife, cutting away old tangled lines that had snagged our keel/rudder as Kaija did her best to fend us off.  Our friends on Jams who were right behind us narrowly avoided the same fate. 

Free at last, we inched forward into the first anchorage available.  No sooner had we got the hook down, than a local ponga roared up demanded that their lines be replaced.  I thought it 'interesting' that they knew exactly where to come looking, especially, since there had been no lights or persons on the Bagan, and no offers of assistance from anyone nearby.  They were upset and I wasn't exactly thrilled, but we agreed that they could come back in the morning and we would sort it out. They found my offer to replace their old lines with lines of equivalent length (and age) from my ships stores, unacceptable. 

We finally agreed (with the assistance of the Port Captain, who was no doubt related) to replace their 2 old lines measuring perhaps 50 meters total with an entire spool (200 meters) of heavy floating line...Rp1,000,000 (not exactly a million dollars but almost everyone in Indonesia can claim millionaire status when their currency is Rp10,000 to $1.  So for those following in our wake...a word to the wise from someone who has gone before..DO NOT TRAVEL IN THE DARK UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT IS OUT THERE!

As it turned out this was somewhat fortuitous in that it gave Murray and me and opportunity to buy a spool (200 meters) of floating line.  We had heard and would soon discover that Indonesian anchorages are most often very deep with major coral bommies and the best solution is to secure the boat fore and aft with long lines to the surrounding terrain.

We spent the next few days in Tual, our first exposure to the culture shock and hustle and bustle of Indonesia life.  The streets are crowded with with cars, motorcycles, people old, small, young old, stray dogs, the overpowering smell of drying fish...all manner of vendor.   Customs and Immigration were easy enough to deal with and seemed to enjoy the respite from their office work to come out and inspect our boats.  Despite our inability to speak the language, Carol on Jams had been studying the lingo and did quite well at communicating with the locals. 

This is a Muslim country and so it takes a wee bit of getting used to some of their distinct traditions.  One is the morning, noon and evening calls to prayer.  These are broadcast by load speaker located on the top of each Mosque.  The Mullah starts slowly and ramps up until it is a veritable Mullah Karaoke as each Mosque appears to be competing for the air waves and your undivided attention.  You can set your watch by them...sooo, at 04:15 am…you can expect a wake-up call as the Mullahs from the surrounding Mosques compete for the air waves.  I do not know how many Mosques there were...but there were a LOT!  While I have no quarrel with the anyone's right to practice their religion...I admit to not understanding the need to overpower anything or anyone within hearing distance especially, when that distance is included only thru the use of high power amplification...but alas, When in Rome!

I will admit to looking forward to finding some of those quiet quaint isolated anchorages I had been reading about.