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Firefly - Kupang, Indonesia and the longwinded 'check in'



Firefly arrived and anchored off Kupang, West Timor, Indonesia at 1700 on Monday 7th September. The 460 mile trip from Darwin was a light wind affair with just 4 hours sailing when we left Darwin and about 6 hours as we neared land for arrival at Kupang - the remainder of the time it was flat calm and the engine was on. Interestingly, approaching Kupang the thermal winds in the narrow channel reached 25 knots so for the final few miles we were now powering in at 9 knots.

The plan was to try and get the 'Indonesian check in' completed in the morning of the next day and be gone be late afternoon. This was somewhat ambitious as the formalities with Quarantine, Customs, Immigration and the Harbour Master were somewhat longwinded. Quarantine in particular should win a prize for 'red tape' - we were there for two hours and there was now downtime. All of the time new forms were being completed, stamped, photocopied.... unbelievable! We left with a book of certificates with Firefly written on the front in Tippex. In order to undertake the procedures we were assigned a great guy as our agent, known locally as Frencky Charles, and appropriately we had a guy called Elish as our skilled driver. Driving around Kupang is similar to previous experiences in Vietnam, lots of mopeds and very few rules - sadly, but not unexpected in the chaos we did see one spill but at low speed the rider was ok.

The hope was that Customs would not want to come out inspect Firefly. This proved wrong and once everything else was completed, 2 young Officers came down to small beach to meet us. By this time, the late afternoon thermal winds were blowing onshore and creating some surf. Their uniforms were going to get a real soaking if they joined us in our dinghy, but no matter how much whispering went on between them and Charles they were intent on getting on board Firefly. In the end a rendezvous at 0700 the next morning was agreed and we safely got off the beach, despite the surf and went back to the boat for some much needed relaxation. At 0645 this morning, the mobile rang (mobile, including data so far in Indonesia is superb and cheap) and they were ready to be picked up. All went well and by 0730 the Officers were back on shore after having a good look around the boat and of course, the completion of a further 3 forms!

Firely was soon heading north towards Flores on a starboard beam reach in about 15 knots (in the morning the thermal winds blow offshore) and it was a great feeling to be starting our Indonesian adventure and leaving Kupang. In hindsight the previous day rushing around the dusty city had been a very interesting experience and talking extensively with Charles we had already learned some things about Indonesian culture and a few words of Bhasa. As we sailed away we were dodging the numerous fishing boats the ply their trade in the bay - at night there are incredible numbers of them - the fish really don't stand a chance. We were not expecting the wind to last and after about an hour Firefly entered a calm patch and the engine went on. However the motoring was short lived as the wind changed by 180 degrees and we were reaching on port and have been since then.

Its now 1800 on Wednesday 8th September and we are sailing slowly north with about 48 miles to go to the entrance to Selat Boleng. Slow is good as this Selat (passage) is very tidal with currents over 5 knots and we need to time our transit, this despite the 'instructions' in our various pilot guides being somewhat vague. The most likely sounding information is to plan to head north through Selat Boleng 2 to 3 hours before the moons UT (Upper Transit - or highest point). Its actually totally black on deck at present as the small crescent moon will not be appearing until 0300. UT is roughly calculated as 0900 on Thursday morning so therefore we want to enter the pass at 0600. This is good as that is also when it gets light and it could well be full of fishing boats. So the required speed is 4 knots but Firefly wants to go faster - so the sails are set badly to slow her down and as the sea is calm we hope we are going to have a gentle night.

Paul and Susie



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