16.09S  145.32E   Monday 8^th September   We felt really sad to leave Port Douglas today having woken up early, collected the laundry, filled up with diesel, shopped for groceries,  topped up the mobile phones and generally stowed. 

We are all alone, not another vessel in sight, sailing at just over 2 knots past Snapper Island at 1600 hrs and thoroughly enjoying the serenity of the day – opera on the sound system – a game of Scrabble on-going in the cockpit - warm afternoon sunshine that gives that marvellous glowing light and just a faint breeze to glide us along…….We are probably heading for Cape Flattery and Lizard Island now as we won’t reach the Hope Islands in time for an overnight stay (at this rate we won’t get there tomorrow either!) and we’re not keen to stop at Cooktown.  The pilot book reads

‘ Cooktown Harbour is the mouth of the Endeavour River which, during neap tides and light to moderate winds, can fool the visitor into believing it is excellent in both security and capacity.  But, when heavy trades are associated with spring tides and their resultant two to three knot run, an anchored craft will sail around her anchor, heel to gusts, jerk upright to lulls and at all times be a danger to herself and other boats when conditions are crowded.  And, unfortunately, conditions are very often crowded nowadays.’ 

Enough said!!

Snapper Island has many graves, said to be the consequence of men shipping out from Port Douglas overindulging on the fine fare aboard and dieing as a consequence.  Once deceased, their bodies would not keep in the tropical climate so were hurriedly buried ashore - hence the island became known as the ‘Garden of Death’…..

What I hadn’t realised yesterday was that near the Low Islets reef we swam  over was where Steve Irwin, the quirky wild life television presenter, died two years ago when filming bull rays.  An unlucky accident, it is thought a stingray barb directly pierced his heart; it all looked so benign when we were there it is hard to believe……..

If we thought Darwin was going to be tricky I don’t think we have seen anything yet compared to Indonesia.  We have received this email from Richard Bolt, Blue Water Rally, which sounds a logistical nightmare for any organiser;

If you thought Darwin was a minefield, Kupang offers twice the chance of falling foul!!

You may have heard that the recent Sail Indonesia Rally 2008, had all 110 yachts impounded at Kupang on arrival, from Darwin, just 5 weeks ago.  This is the first time such an event has occurred.  The ARCW aim to avoid the problem by missing out Kupang and going direct to Bali as their port of arrival.  This means they miss out the gorgeous Spice Islands, Lombok etc and some lovely day sailing en route.  We have no intention of falling foul of the authorities or of forcing you to miss out on SE Indonesia.  So we are working with the central government in Jakarta and local government in East Nusa Tenggara (capital is Kupang), plus with yacht agents in Bali and Kupang.

However, the Sail Indonesia experience has shown that the Indonesian authorities are now enforcing a law, which has been in place for the past 10 years, but has never been implemented for pleasure craft before.  This states that foreign vessels should pay a temporary importation bond on arrival, and recover it on departure.  This is VERY expensive, and we are not at all confident that it would be easily recovered on departure.

However, one can escape the imposition of this bond if one has a central government sponsor/guarantor and the appropriate authorisations are passed to, and accepted by, the local staffs of both the local government and customs officers.  We are working toward this end on your behalf.

At this late stage, this has thrown up a requirement for additional administration and we need your swift co-operation in order to comply.  The Indonesian authorities are asking us to provide both information and photographs of each yacht.  So please could you get out the digital cameras and send me JPEGs (i.e. the usual format for digital photos), compressed to below, say, 300KB if possible, and complete the information they have asked for.  If this could be done at your earliest convenience, it would be much appreciated.

1.  Photos required of the boat: 1 front, 1 right, 1 back and 1 inside.

2. Information: 

1. NAME:

2. CALL SIGN:

3. CLASSIFICATION:  YACHT

4. OFFICIAL NO.:

5. PORT REGISTRY:

6. FLAG:

7. IMO NO.:

8. YEAR BUILT:

9. BUILDER:

10.OWNER:

11.SHIPMANAGEMENT:

12.GROSS TONNAGE:

13.NET TONNAGE:

14.DEADWEIGHT:

15.LOA/LBP/BM/DEPTH:

16.DRAFT:

17.AIR DRAFT (i.e. Mast Height):

18.MAIN ENGINE:

19.SPEED/CONSUMPTION:

20.VALUE (C.I.F) FOR CUSTOM ONLY:  

We had all the required photos and information on file so a swift response was possible………thank you Richard for all your troubles on our behalf.