Tarakan
Sea Topaz
Duncan Briggs
Thu 6 Sep 2012 13:34
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03.17.746 N 117.34.448 E
We were very sorry to leave Tawau. We made many friends
and our last night was memorable with live music and Duncan singing and me
playing the electronic drums.
But it was time to move on. We made one overnight stop
on the way to Tarakan. Different story here. We arrived late afternoon on
Tuesday 4 Sept. I informed the agent of our sponsor Raymond that we had arrived.
We had to stay on the boat until the next day when officials from Quarantine and
Customs had arrived. The first lot came on board at around 9 o'clock. More
people arrived at around 11. When they were finished we were told we had to go
ashore to see Immigration and Customs again. At around 2 a boat arrived to take
us ashore, where we met the agents Dewi and Roy. They took us by car to customs,
then immigration, then customs again, then port officials and customs again.
There was a lot of paper work involving importing our boat into the country. We
were told to come back tomorrow. By now it was getting dark. Dewi and Roy took
us to a warung to have something to eat and then to buy simcards for our phones
and dongles. We were finally back on board at half past seven.
Today we were picked up by boat again and then by car to
go to the bank, get some food, do a bit of sight seeing and go back to customs
for the final papers. This was all done by about 2 when we were back in the
harbour masters office to get our final papers. We then had to have all these
papers photo copied for future officials before returning to the boat. Before we
got on the water taxi we were presented by an emormous bill, which we refused to
pay. After several phone calls and re-calculations we came to an agreement and
parted company with the agents.
So all in all 2 exhausting days, but we have all the
paperwork now. Time will tell if it was all worth it. Tomorrow we'll set off
before day light for Derawan Island, another divers paradise.
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