Kupang, Indonesia
Jackamy
Paul & Derry Harper
Mon 18 Oct 2010 04:08
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10:09.485S 123:34.467E
Monday 18th October
We arrived at Kupang at 16:00, in time for
quarantine to come and board and complete their paperwork. This didn't involve
much apart from signing papers and not filling in the information and finally
using our boat stamp that we had made before we came away. We were beginning to
wonder why we needed it, now we see, they loved it!
 A scene I think we should get
used to, all the boats lined up at the beach
  We've only just realised that
the picture on the left is actually of a truck on a boat
 Hundreds of fishing lines
dotted in the channel for us to navigate our way around
  And then finally this greeted
us around the corner......Kupang
 Once the quarantine men had
finished with us we were free to dinghy ashore and have a look around, although
we haven't checked in with customs yet, that is another story though! A load of
boys/men kitted out in Blue Water Rally shirts greeted us on the beach to assist
us with our dinghy's and they'd then look after them for a fee. We get the
feeling anything and everything will be done for a fee here.
It was a short stumble to the bar
to find everyone sitting around chatting about the hot topic, customs! Some
boats have been here since Friday and have still not been allowed to clear in to
Indonesia as the customs officials are not playing ball. There's talk of a fee
of $600 to be paid by each boat as well as other solutions but they just aren't
being helpful at all. Their fear is that we are going to sell our boats here or
something so they also try to get you to pay a huge percent of what your boat is
worth to them. It's crazy! Richard is working hard to resolve the issue but so
far no good.
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