Arrival in Australia: Darwin

We have made it to Australia.

Arriving from overseas, we knew would involve Border Force, as they are currently called,  Quarantine (AQIS), and in my case, as this was K'Gari's first arrival in Australia, and as I'm an Australian, it was going to include the importation of the boat itself.

To arrive in Darwin and to enable access to Cullen Bay Marina , also meant that NT Fisheries, needed to attend the vessel and 'treat it', to prevent potential cross contamination and introduction of foreign marine species and  pests.
This involves the application of ,an unknown, (to me),  substance up into all K'Gari's through hull openings, of which I have nine .

We berthed at the Quarantine berth just outside Cullen Bay Marina at 0830 to begin the process.

Before anyone else can come on board, Border Force, and AQIS need to clear both us and the vessel. Border Force arrived at 0850.  Four officers, and we were processed into the country, by filling out the usual passenger declaration forms found at airports, and the matter of the importation of the boat was raised.

Next AQIS, need to grant pratique- a clean bill of health for both the crew and the boat. Being a fibreglass cat, with very little timber on board, the boat was easy, as were we, both being evidently healthy, the most time was actually spent with the paper work and the removal of any food substances decreed to be on the "not allowed list". In preparation for this part and as AQIS are a cost recovery department, charging in 15 minute intervals, we had already laid out for removal, just about everything we could imagine they would remove. The obvious ones being meat, fruit and veges. Having lived our version of  the 'paleo diet' since Kupang ,  there was next to nothing left in those areas. The  majority of the contents of the freezer that disappeared surprised me a little, I had assumed that cooked meals, although containing meat, might have been allowed,but no.As was the answer to a container of  hummus- frozen, but which had been made from canned chickpeas in the first place! My frozen bananas disappeared as well. Ah well. Forty five minutes, one green domestic size garbage bag of quarantined for disposal goodies and a fee of of several hundred dollars  and one pratique certificate later  and we were done.

As AQIS were doing their bit, the NT Fisheries department arrived, to do theirs. Once the application had been completed it meant we couldn't move for 10 hours, nor could we use the salt water cooled airconditioner! We couldn't let the Fisheries guys on board until AQIS had cleared us and AQIS didn't arrive until 1145 , so we evidently weren't going to be able to enter the marina tonight.

Sure enough, we had to remain alongside the pontoon, outside the lock gates until the next morning, as the lock hours are 0600-2300.

Berthed outside the lock at Cullen Bay Darwin. All processed , just waiting for 10 hours to elapse .

Our seventh sea -the Timor Sea .

              

As the clearance procedure had taken us from 0800-1330, we decided that we would in fact  sail at sunrise the next day, as there were still things to do on board before we could finally depart, including  a final run ashore, for dinner and  some bread and some  anti scurvy greens to balance  those bacon and egg  butties we would be living on, in an attempt to arrive with hopefully nothing for Quarantine to take.

K'Gari off Kupang.Taken during our last Indonesian meal .
Another busy anchorage!

Everything was as they say, shipshape and we heaved up and were on our way to Australia by 0730.
Initially this was motoring for a couple of hours to the SW corner of Timor, during which time lure number 3 or is it 4, was lost. I must get some proper instruction on how to actually attach these things.I'm beginning to think on the lure loss front, it might be operator error.In fact it may be the traces I'm using- perhaps they are the weak point. Anyway I hope that it doesn't prematurely cause the demise of which ever pelagic  predator now has it as a body piercing decoration. It would be pointless to die for no reason, when whatever it was could have died in a good cause!

Once we rounded the SW cape of Timor, the breeze started to build and we were on our way, under sail alone. Course set at 103 degrees for Darwin heading into a  SE (135deg)-ESEly (112deg) wind.
Not exactly flying as it turns out,as we were attempting to sail impossibly close to the wind, 114nm the first day (24hrs), 106nm the next, getting worse as 103nm clocked up for the third day, but still going roughly in the right direction.

Kupang to Darwin

In the early hours of the third morning we crossed the magical line into Australian territorial waters.
I realised during the night that we had a minor issue. We had resorted to motoring during the night as the wind was so light and just for something completely unexpected, on the nose-again! So we had dropped the main and I had put a snotter -(device , usually rope,or, as quick fix, a bungy cord, to hold the halyard off the mast to stop it slapping. The quick fix snotter - (note to self, it's never really a quick fix- there is usually a price to pay for a speedy remedy) had detached itself from the main halyard. When I saw what had happened, with one of my random torch light inspections of the rigging in the dark, I tried to free it, but decided that waiting for daylight would be easier.
The reason it was mysteriously quiet, was that the halyard had somehow managed to flick itself forward around the mast and had entangled itself around the mast steaming light- something you couldn't do yourself ,for a bucket load of money!
A couple of fruitless attempts to un-entangle it in the dawn light also failed, so the easiest solution I could see , was to go aloft and free it.

Naturally a small debate about the sanity of this idea took place , much as it had about my midnight dip in the Java Sea.

I rigged up the bosun's chair, we altered course so that we were running with the swell, to give the most stable platform possible , and I ascended the mast. I was actually using the mast foot pegs, to climb the mast.These are positioned from deck level to the cross trees,  alternating on opposite sides of the mast. The bosun's chair in which I was "sitting" ( its a sort of soft seat which has a nappy like way of enclosing the user into it- culminating in three points meeting,one from each side and the third from between the wearers legs,at the point of attachment) , was attached to the spinnaker halyard, and Peter was taking up the slack in the halyard as I ascended. It took seconds to clear the mainsail halyard once I was up there.As usual, forgot the camera to get a sunrise shot from aloft , which would have been a change, from the other gazillion sunrise shots  already taken. I did a check around of the obvious things whilst up there and then descended back to the deck- a place I feel much more comfortable on , believe me. We resumed course.

At 0954hrs, it was welcome to Australia, as Border Force Patrol 55,did a low level surveillance pass . They then contacted us by VHF ,  asked how many on board,any animals, were we both well-in a medical sense ,not in an "at peace with the world/nature sense" ,confirmed the previously sent information about our arrival and updated our approx ETA into Darwin, which was still in roughly 40 hours time.

Eventually the breeze came away, lightly  from the ENE 070 degrees, which still wasn't that helpful, especially on top of the perpetual current which was now setting to the SW. We were carrying 30 degrees leeway at this point.

Check the sail set-pathetic.The bedsheet is setting better -
probably because its lighter and our forward propulsion was enough for it,
 but not the sails.(Note the footpeg steps on the mast)

The following day was fairly windless- completely in fact, but we did  witness the most stunning ballet from a school of dolphins which came  to entertain us as the washing dried.

Marine life has been fairly rare, to be honest throughout this adventure, so a school of dolphins playing in the bow wave was great to watch.

The booby bird that didn't keep "the pact"

Not so great, was the booby bird who decided that K'Gari was going to make the perfect roost for the night. Thus ensued a game of , let's move the booby bird along, until it became too dark for me to keep bothering to move it on each time it settled. In the end I thought we (booby bird and myself) had agreed that it could stay, but only on the condition of no pooing . Thus we left it alone on the foredeck. Not long after the truce, a second one appeared and decided that the safety line above the galley hatch was a suitable place to rest for the night- as if! After about 30mins of unbalancing ,flapping , repositioning and so on , it obviously dawned that the deck was more stable and so it settled for the night on the deck.
Daylight revealed that in fact, the pact between myself and BB1 was a farce- bird poop all over the starboard side trampoline and various bits of the foredeck. Luckily for it , it had flown the 'poop' just before dawn.Unluckily for BB2, who had, I admit, not pooed anywhere in the 8 hours it had travelled with us, and who was still happily slumbering on the deck by the galley hatch- until I shooed it on its way, before attacking the foredeck with a broom and the washdown hose.

When the wind had finally kicked in during the evening , K'Gari then,of course, became progressively unstoppable as the night progressed.

We arrived at the Darwin Port Limits at 0400, passing through the empty anchorages, which is such an uncommon sight off ports like Mackay and Gladstone, it seemed strange to see.

We had crossed our seventh sea. This crossing was 535 nm in 119.5hrs,which is only an average of 4.5kts, but its quicker than swimming and we used engines on and off for 66% of the voyage.

To date we have sailed  in, in order : the South China Sea ,  Andaman Sea, Java Sea, Bali Sea,  Flores Sea, Savu Sea and now the Timor Sea. There are of course many, many more to do.


Dolphins at play
       

https://youtu.be/HGxj7JUeVTs

 The freeloader

https://youtu.be/mXsGp-qmSAU

Clearing out of Kupang- in only 5 and a half hours!

Across the Archepeligo- not d.u.i , just "windblown and interesting"

If you have followed much of this to date, I have on the odd occasion made reference to checking in and out of various countries. Each country naturally is different to the last, but all generally require the same paperwork, passports , crew list, registration papers for K'Gari, some have needed to see the radio certificate,and Vietnam particularly wanted to see some marine qualifications. The only other country that has shown the slightest interest in actual qualifications was Singapore, and I suspect that was due to our spectacularly un-announced, agent-less  arrival, which was a no no, as we found out.

So only two clearances  to go. Clear out of Indonesia and clear into Australia.

The order in which you accrue your various stamps (chops) and collect your clearance papers varies from country to country and even within countries, especially Indonesia. I had read all the information I could find, but most of the information about Kupang related to arriving not departing. None the less having ascertained from some wonderfully informative posts on Noonsite that Immigration was near the airport and everything else was down at the port , and that we were in fact anchored pretty well equidistant between the two, the only thing to do was, through Ayub, engage William his friendly driver, to drive us around Kupang. Peter organised this at the end of the second fuel run the previous day.

The following morning at the appointed time we went ashore to meet William, and there with him was Ayub!  You may remember we had declined his offer to act as our agent  when we arrived and it had never been discussed again. We all piled into the car and off we headed.

Now at this point I realised that in all honesty had we been doing this without Ayub , we would immediately have gone to the departments in the wrong order. My logic, in light of nothing to the contrary, was that  the order we should visit the departments was that  Imigresen should be the last , as we shouldn't be free ranging around the town once our passports had been processed making us "departed" persons. Completely wrong! Further more all the information on yacht sites, for all over SE Asia,says take multiple copies of everything with you.I had long ago given this up as a pointless waste of paper and ink as nobody in two and half years had wanted more than an initial single copy. Wrong again! So that entailed a quick stop at a photocopy establishment, conveniently around the corner from Imigresen,  four sets of  copies of all the relevant papers were obtained and into Imigresen we went.

Arrival and departure- correctly stamped.

As we were about to go inside, it was suggested to us, that some cigarettes might ease our way through the queue- hmmmm! I gave up smoking years ago and Peter never has- Oh, not for us!- for someone in Imigresen! Well this was the first time that anything like this had been suggested, although I had certainly read about it enough times.OK, when in Rome as they say ,so 50000IDR ($5aud) was going to do the trick apparently.
Still not sure where exactly the queue was that we would be easing our way through, the building appeared remarkably deserted to be honest, but we were efficiently processed by a very pleasant officer and passports duly stamped.

Health Clearance

That achieved it was back to the car and a 25 minute sojourn across town to the port area. Here we visited in order, Quarantine, who were asking for a "green book" , which we had never been issued with on our arrival- never mind, they would supply one now. Minutes passed as the cupboard was searched , a book produced and then I have no idea if it was ever filled out , because it was never given to us when we left. They did want a copy of the original  MDH (Maritime Declaration of Health), which hadn't been returned when we  checked in at Nongsa, and I didn't have a copy  with me. It susequently appeared not to be an issue, I just filled out another one on the spot.
We departed with our health clearance, and another 50000IRP 'donation', which was perhaps for the green book, or the refilled out MDH, who can tell?

Next it was off to Customs- delightful and helpful officers.
Customs apparently need to come on board the  departing vessel before they can complete their paperwork, so it was back to the boat and we transported Samuel,the officer  (with his trousers rolled up and his bare feet) out to the boat in the dinghy.
Minor hitch back at the beach, with the now waiting customs officer, was that our dinghy had been efficiently moored offshore by Ayub's man, to preclude it being bashed about on the diminishing beach as the tide rose. Excellent plan. Alas, we had returned too early and there was no sight of the chap who was obviously going to swim out to retrieve it. In fact , his wife explained , he had "gone to the market, back later". So fully clad in my "suitable attire for visiting officials in a Muslim country"- long pants and long sleeve top, it was time for a swim to retrieve the dinghy, so we could in fact, transport the waiting officer to K'Gari to proceed with the clearance. Quick change of clothing for me once we were back on board and he filled out his paperwork and gave me a YELLOW copy which I thought was a receipt. We then took him ashore and it was back to the customs office, (this is a good 10 mins drive from the popular mooring off  Teddi's Beach). We gave him a 15 minute head start. Arriving back at the customs office, we then were given the appropriate documentation and it was off to the Harbour Master for the final all important Port Clearance.

The all important Port Clearance- don't leave town without it!

This took about 20minutes to obtain, and it would have apparently  been helpful if I had had the yellow copy  of the paper that Customs had given me, which I had filed already on board. However we left with the port clearance that we required.

The four sets of copies of everything were thus consumed, by all 4 departments. It is just a very long and  geographically spread out performance. We managed it in only 5.5 hours, which  is apparently  quite fast!

Preparing to depart Kupang

Once the decision was made that we were heading directly for Oz, only perhaps a month earlier than I had envisaged, there were a few things that I now needed to organize, not the least of which was going to be the importation of  K'Gari, to Australia.

The free trade agreement which exists between Australia and Vietnam, was the first thing I needed to deal with. Simple matter - well no, apparently not quite that simple. It turns out , un mentioned at the time I departed Vietnam , that yes there is  a free trade agreement , but whoopsie, it only lasts for 12 months. Particularly useful time to have that little gem revealed, when I contacted the manufacturer, to obtain the appropriate paperwork.
Looking on the bright side , I guess that the additional 5% I would be taxed when I arrived in Oz had saved me a few hours of paperwork- bargain - NOT!

Australian Border Force need a minimum of 96 hours notice and a few on line forms filled in, so that was done, but more pressingly I needed to find an import agent to assist with the actual importation side, of my arrival.

There are two ways I could have had K'Gari imported - have it shipped to Australia, when brand spanking new and simply hand over the document of sale, or the way I was doing it, sail it back myself, and upon arrival get a valuation of its worth by a qualified surveyor.
All I needed to do was find someone with suitable qualifications to do a survey and give me  a valuation -and attempt to initiate this  from Kupang, with dodgy internet.

An email to a friend gave me the name of the import agent, who in turn agreed to take on my importation.
The surveyor I would find when in Oz.

Half a day was spent obtaining the fuel we required. Peter took care of that, taking the gerry cans ashore and going with our man, to the fuel outlet- a service station, which boded well for getting clean diesel, although Peter was dropped off , discreetly within sight, but definitely not in the vehicle as the cans were filled. Two round trips, took care of that and we had full tanks and a spare 100litres to cover the 500 or so miles to Darwin.

Revictulling wasn't going to be an issue. We had stocked up with ham, bacon, salami products in Bali, when I had found then freely available, and knowing that the Quarantine regulations in Oz meant we would lose any uneaten fruit, veg, and meat products that were still on board, we were going to be on a fairly high meat, minimal veg and loads of fruit diet for the 4 or 5 days it would take to get from Kupang to Darwin.

Kupang

departing Lewoleba

Leaving Lewoleba we motored down the coast for the first 15 or so miles, past a substantial Christian statue on a headland and eventually rounding the SW corner  of the island  and setting course with a perfect breeze to take us to Kupang.

So perfect in fact, that we reefed down the mainsail so that we didn't arrive at 0200 in the morning.

The reef did the trick, at sunrise we were still miles away! Then of course, the wind died and it was back to the iron mainsail. We shook out the reef and as we had the engine going, we made water as were still undecided about how long we would be at anchor off Kupang.

Arrived off Teddi's beach- named after a local entrepreneur ,who it appears at one time was 'the go to man'. just after 1200hrs, with a full tank of water.

Teddi's beach. Fort Henricus out of shot to the left and 'Cholera Creek' at r.h.s.

Shortly thereafter we were visited by the very helpful Ayub, who offered his services as agent for checking in, Kupang being a very popular destination for arriving in Indonesia. Undeterred when we vouchsafed that  we were already an 'entered' vessel, he also mentioned that he could assist us with fuel,tours, victualling, in fact anything at all, and that our dinghy would be safe at his beach.
We took note of  his phone number.


Later that day we went for a bit of a peek at the beach that Ayub had indicated, about 400m further east from our anchored position, just for future reference.

When we decided to step ashore to go for a look around and to find somewhere to eat, we actually chose the beach immediately off where we anchored .In the yacht cruisers world, it is  referred to as Teddi's beach. Historically, it was the beach that Bligh stepped ashore on  at the conclusion of  his epic 47 day journey, when he was cast adrift from the Bounty by the mutineers , with  18 of his crew who were still  loyal to him, or perhaps just not "in" with Mr Christian.
Unlike Bligh, we were greeted by a couple of 'likely lads' whose speciality was apparently looking after your dinghy whilst it was beached.It didn't seem a particularly negotiable point, and as my idea was to return to the beach and find ones dinghy in tact , preferably with a still functioning outboard- call me suspicious if you want, it wasn't worth haggling about!
So for the equivalent of $5, an eye is kept on your dinghy. Its not exorbitant ,it's the fact that there seemed to be no question that every yachtie would be an easy target , and thus they had apparently "claimed" the beach for their own personal benefit. One wonders how they did it , but in reality I probably don't want to know.
They also could supply fuel,water,food, anything that was required and they were quite adamant that anybody else we might chose to deal with would undoubtedly be a scuralous rouge ,hell bent on ripping us off.

Thus we used Ayub, when it came time to getting fuel!

We had by now decided that with less than a fortnight  left on our visa, that we wouldn't bother to extend it. We had been looking to do so,back in Bali ,but the thought of days without my passport , whilst it was apparently processed, deterred me, having been passport less in Vietnam for 10 days , after the original stuff up at the launching of K'Gari. Then having left Bali, the more I read about visa extensions, the further east in the archipelago one wanders, the harder it appeared it was going to be.

We now  had two options at least from Kupang, which is on the island of Timor
We could clear out and head directly for Darwin, or we could clear out and then cruise up the north coast of Timor and enter into  East Timor at Dili. In East Timor we would be able to obtain a visa on arrival.
Studying the available weather charts , we decided we were actually going to get a better wind angle from Kupang direct to Darwin. So Dili remains on the "to visit" list for another occasion.

Lewoleba

When we left Kroko Atoll, we headed through a small strait, and then entered Boling Selat. Boiling  would have been an equally apt name. We went from glassy flat calm water to the boiling water after a short transit between two reefs.then it was "bumpy" for about 40 minutes as we beat our way south.Once we reached the next alteration the venturi effect of water pouring through a very defiantly finite gap between islands eased away and we entered the bay at the NW side of Pulau Kawula. The most interesting feature of the bay  was that it appeared to be the centre point of a rim of volcanoes.As we made our way across the bay we had a volcano ahead and one astern, and one away to the south- all looking quite majestic. The first two are apparently still active.

Gunung Ile Ape to the north -or Lewotolo

Having anchored off  Lewoleba, the next decision was how to get ashore. The answer we arrived at in the end was, why bother, so we didn't.
I  had read, in my friends from Adamant 2 log book, that hey had been here for 4 days. I must ask them why? I guess that as they were on the rally when they stayed here that there was undoubtedly a big turn out, with easy beach access. We couldn't figure out where exactly the best place would be, nor how safe it would be. It appeared that there was some sand and then as the tide went down, mud.Maybe we missed a great town, but as the access didn't appear welcoming, the obvious spot being near the jetty, from which nearby was bellowing some very very forgettable, but loud  "music", we stayed on board.

Route from Flores to Kupang via Kroko Atoll and Lewoleba