West Timor
After a 4 day passage, we arrived off the island of Timor around 9 pm. We never like to arrive at a port in the dark and our books had warned of many unlit fishing vessels and fishing traps in the area so we held offshore until first light. In the middle of the night, a fishing boat drove straight 
at us until it was 100 feet away and then turned abruptly away from us, then drove over to another sailboat nearby and did the same thing to it. I had read that the fishing boats do this so that any bad spirits that are on their boat get thrown onto your boat so I didn‘t panic and just held my course confident they wouldn‘t hit me. The other sailboat however did panic and turned away just as the fishing boat turned away. Unfortunately, they both turned the same direction and almost collided. I‘m not sure which boat ended up with the bad spirits in the 
end but I think the captain of the sailboat had to change his pants.
Other than that incident, the passage to Indonesia was very pleasant, light wind sailing. We flew the spinnaker quite a bit (which I never get tired of looking at) and motored when there was no wind at all.
Once we arrived in Kupang in West Timor, the bureaucracy seemed to multiply before our eyes. Since marine tourism is a very young industry in this country, the rules are still evolving. The first step was to pass quarantine. The quarantine officials came on our boat and declared that we were neither rat infested nor suffering from scurvy so we were cleared with no problem.
The next step was clearing customs. This did not proceed as smoothly. We had joined the rally
with over 100 boats so that the bureaucracy would be sorted out for us but the rally team messed up somewhere along the line which resulted in all the boats in the rally being IMPOUNDED! The customs people stuck a huge sticker (1‘ x 1‘) on our boat that said we couldn‘t leave Kupang until we paid a very large bond (several thousand dollars). Understandably, some of the boats became very upset. We just went to shore and carried on for 4 days while it all got sorted out. It has been resolved and now customs is going through the process of going back to over 100 boats to remove these stickers (which are not designed to be removed easily). After that, clearing immigration and checking in with the Kupang harbour master went smoothly.
Kupang is a city of 250,000 people. It is very poor but the people are very friendly. Most people can not speak any English except the ones fortunate enough to attend university. Some of these university students acted as guides on our trip inland to a traditional village. The bus ride was a bit scary as we made our way through the rice patties and mountains to the other side of Timor to a village called Boti. The village and the surrounding area is presided over by a prince and princess (the king died almost 3 years ago and the prince has to wait 1000 days before he is king). Here the people spoke a different language, had a different religion and 9 days in the week. It was the most primitive living conditions we have seen anywhere. They lived in small huts and wore only clothes made of the cloth they wove from the cotton they spun. Of course they chewed lots of betel nut which gives them that lovely red smile. It was 15 hours later before we arrived back in Kupang and braved the surf on the beach to ride our dinghy back to Toboggan.
at us until it was 100 feet away and then turned abruptly away from us, then drove over to another sailboat nearby and did the same thing to it. I had read that the fishing boats do this so that any bad spirits that are on their boat get thrown onto your boat so I didn‘t panic and just held my course confident they wouldn‘t hit me. The other sailboat however did panic and turned away just as the fishing boat turned away. Unfortunately, they both turned the same direction and almost collided. I‘m not sure which boat ended up with the bad spirits in the 
end but I think the captain of the sailboat had to change his pants.Other than that incident, the passage to Indonesia was very pleasant, light wind sailing. We flew the spinnaker quite a bit (which I never get tired of looking at) and motored when there was no wind at all.
Once we arrived in Kupang in West Timor, the bureaucracy seemed to multiply before our eyes. Since marine tourism is a very young industry in this country, the rules are still evolving. The first step was to pass quarantine. The quarantine officials came on our boat and declared that we were neither rat infested nor suffering from scurvy so we were cleared with no problem.
The next step was clearing customs. This did not proceed as smoothly. We had joined the rally
with over 100 boats so that the bureaucracy would be sorted out for us but the rally team messed up somewhere along the line which resulted in all the boats in the rally being IMPOUNDED! The customs people stuck a huge sticker (1‘ x 1‘) on our boat that said we couldn‘t leave Kupang until we paid a very large bond (several thousand dollars). Understandably, some of the boats became very upset. We just went to shore and carried on for 4 days while it all got sorted out. It has been resolved and now customs is going through the process of going back to over 100 boats to remove these stickers (which are not designed to be removed easily). After that, clearing immigration and checking in with the Kupang harbour master went smoothly.Kupang is a city of 250,000 people. It is very poor but the people are very friendly. Most people can not speak any English except the ones fortunate enough to attend university. Some of these university students acted as guides on our trip inland to a traditional village. The bus ride was a bit scary as we made our way through the rice patties and mountains to the other side of Timor to a village called Boti. The village and the surrounding area is presided over by a prince and princess (the king died almost 3 years ago and the prince has to wait 1000 days before he is king). Here the people spoke a different language, had a different religion and 9 days in the week. It was the most primitive living conditions we have seen anywhere. They lived in small huts and wore only clothes made of the cloth they wove from the cotton they spun. Of course they chewed lots of betel nut which gives them that lovely red smile. It was 15 hours later before we arrived back in Kupang and braved the surf on the beach to ride our dinghy back to Toboggan.
posted by tobogganride at 5:51 PM
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