To complete our circumnavigation of Borneo and Sulawesi we left the ‘Back Down Under Rally’, which is really designed for those returning to Australia. The cyclone season that affects Northern Australia starts in December through to March so they have to be out of the Timor, Arafura and Coral seas and down toward Brisbane or across to Darwin before it all begins. We sailed on westward through Indonesia during November having extended our Visas and cruising permit. We hardly saw another yacht for two months, from North Sulawesi and the Togean Islands down to Makassar and west to Belitung then up the coast of Java and Sumatra we were the only cruising sailing boat around. Needless to say, due to this lack of visiting craft, most Customs and Immigration officials as well as Harbour Masters don’t have a great deal of experience dealing with yachts unless they are part of a rally when all paperwork is dealt with by rally organisers. Of course, this varies from harbour to harbour and that in itself is a problem as Kalimantan will do things rather differently to Sumatra and so on as Indonesia’s big islands seem to operate like separate countries in some circumstances.

 

By and large, on our own, customs officials have tended to deal with us as though we were a ship not a cruising boat. That, together with all forms being in Bahasa Indonesian and few sometimes no officials with any English, created enormous problems as we tried to leave the country at Batam in the Riau Islands. Enlarging on the detail for processing our departure would be convoluted to say the least. Suffice to say that in order to fulfil their requirements the skipper had to journey to the Customs Office on 4 separate occasions, a round trip of 50 miles with hefty taxi bills. Fortunately we managed to arrange an English speaking taxi driver – Arief, a contact given by a previous yacht crew who had already experienced the exit from Indo problem at Batam. He stayed with Chris for each long visit.

 

The first visit we went together, the officers didn't speak English and made no attempt to root out anyone who did as the office seemed to be in upheaval thanks to the coming New Year. We got nowhere except being given a list in Bahasa Indonesian of information and forms required, they could not supply the forms and were not able to explain where to get them. Arief was unfamiliar with the documentation so although he understood the language it didn’t help much. We got some small help from the manager back at the marina so Chris arranged the taxi to go back next day.

 

Bizarrely this time he was not allowed in because he had sandals on! Not wanting to drive back 25 miles to find shoes, the taxi driver offered his which were far too small but had to be worn for 6 hours whilst ploughing through paperwork with the officials. Still not completed because apparently some additional forms were missing. Phone calls to Kalimantan’s Tarakan Customs, who checked us into the country, and to the organiser of the ‘Back Down Under Rally’ helped us some more but two more visits were needed before we got our clearance papers. On the positive side, apart from a rather surly couple on the first visit, the customs officers were helpful and friendly even when struggling with their own paperwork.

 

We have had many procedures to deal with as we have cleared in and out of countries around world but this has been a nightmare. We really love Indonesia and had a wonderful time there again as it has so much to offer but we wouldn’t want to go through this cumbersome bureaucracy again and feel that Batam is not a good place to check out. We would recommend other yachts who want to leave from Riau to get clearance through Tanjung Pinang on Bintan Island which we have since heard is much easier. Oh well, we did it and we’re out! Tra la, la, la.

 

The most important thing in the Singapore Strait is to keep out of the way of ships, it is busy, busy, busy.

There are ships at anchor, ships dropping anchor, and ships hauling anchor as well as all the ships on the move. Tugs and supply vessels and fuel barges are everywhere guiding and manoeuvring ships, supplying ships, transporting crew, filling fuel tanks and generally meeting all that ships at anchor need. There are lots of cargo barges, particularly from Indonesia as this country with its archipelago of islands cannot rely on a road network. Massive barges toting timber, minerals, containers, and whatever needs transporting in bulk are towed through Indonesian waters and use loading vessels to transfer their cargoes onto ships. To add to the mix there are fast ferries weaving about which keep up their speed even when it rains so hard that visibility is almost nil.

 

There are almost no yachts in this maelstrom of shipping and it is easy to worry if most of the vessels on the move have actually seen you. The Automatic Identification System Radar (AIS) we have on board ensures we see them. It gives a ship’s name and call sign, speed, direction and distance so even in poor visibility one is aware of what ships are around. The shipping lanes have a continuous stream of ships going east and west, they are constantly on the VHF radio either politely requesting passing or manoeuvring room of each other or brusquely informing their fellow captains what they are going to do. This is all in English so we can tune in to the info and sometimes have a smile when they occasionally rub each other up the wrong way.

 

The shipping lanes have to be crossed when going north from Indonesia to pass Singapore and into Malaysian waters. Including the separation zone in the middle, they are only 1½ miles wide where we crossed. Motoring at right angles it only takes 15 minutes before one is in the relatively safe inshore zone and as a result in some ways it is easier than the English Channel on a busy day. Nevertheless there is a sigh of relief when through and moving on to negotiate the miles of anchorages around Singapore and Johor.

 

 

Since crossing into Malaysian waters the clouds have cleared, the sky is bright and the wind has dropped. The sea has calmed down and we have had some good sailing as well as a fair bit of motoring. There has been one magnificent rainstorm which kept us below, pelted hard and scoured the already clean decks. A couple of overnight anchorages in the southern islands of the Melaka Strait were fine and we had good tides pushing us on to Port Dickson’s Admiral Marina where we had 5 days rest and recuperation by sending off the laundry, wallowing in the swimming pool, enjoying the food and the yachties’ bar. A very good marina just a bus or taxi ride from the town, we checked in with Immigration, Harbour Master and Customs all within a couple of hours. Checking out to leave for Pangkor was even quicker and we are on our way.