16th March 2026 - Darwin to Indonesia
Upon reaching Darwin last year around late
August I left Sea Otter at the Cullen Bay Marina supposedly for only two to
four months. I had a number of things to
do onshore not least of which was to visit my aging mother in Denmark with Nik. Nik came up to Darwin to help me mothball the
boat and we had a very pleasant couple of weeks taking it easy on the boat and
slowly packing all the gear away, decommissioning and making safe the various
onboard systems and enjoying Darwin sights in the evenings
Back in Perth a number of events conspired to
delay my return to the boat – we had a longer than expected, although most
enjoyable, trip to Denmark, then I had a run in with prostate cancer which had
to be addressed immediately. Christmas
and post op recovery followed and then early in 2026 sadly my mother passed and
a return trip to Denmark was necessary to attend the funeral. Given all this Sea Otter sat securely in her
berth in Darwin even surviving tropical cyclone Fina unscathed.
I returned to the boat in Mid Feb and started
to get her ready to sail again. There
was quite a list of work to carry out. Nothing
major though. I spent 10 days ticking off the items from my to do list and
slowly melting away. The heat and
humidity in the top end is constant and I was living onboard the vessel in the
marina so there is no respite. In
addition to that it was very wet just to compound the misery. The marina is sheltered so even any breeze is
mitigated by the marina surrounds. My
favourite time of the day was when I had knocked off in the late afternoon. I would wander across the road from the
marina and sit in a small park on the shoreline and bask in the cooling onshore
breeze while reading a book.
I flew to Perth for a quick visit with the
family and then returned to Darwin on March 4th. This is not the season to be doing a crossing
to Indonesia but I wanted to get the boat back out sailing and up to Irian Jaya
to start cruising. The North West
monsoon winds have kicked in and there is a steady north westerly flow across
the top of Australia and Arafura Sea which is far from ideal given that I need to get North.
There was a weather window coming up where the winds were more westerly
than norwest and that I hoped gave me an opportunity. Monday March 9th was set as the
departure date.
I scrambled to get the last of the onboard preparations
completed including stocking up with foodstuffs and essential spares. In addition I have bought all the antifouling paint for the next haul out which only just arrived in time given the flooding in the NT. Also had to complete the departure
formalities from Australia which were pretty straight forward and the arrival
procedures for Indonesia which are a bit more involved. I
hired an agent in Indonesia to assist in preparation and submission of all
documentation,
The immediate plan is to sail up to Raja Ampat
– an area of Indonesia near Irian Jaya which has some spectacular scenery and
marine life. Once at Raja Ampat Nik will
join the vessel for a couple of months as we cruise the islands. First though I need to get the boat across to
Indonesia and will sail initially to a place called Saumlaki on the island of
Tanimbar directly due north of Darwin.
On Monday the 9th March I threw off the mooring lines and moved out of Cullen Bay Marina onto the customs quay outside the marina lock gates. The Australian Border Force officials visited the vessel, had a quick look around and then presented me with my outward clearance documentation. Once formalities were complete they waited on the dock for me to leave. I cast off around 11:00am on a grey showery day and headed out into Beagle Bay making for the Dundas Strait between Melville Island and the mainland. That in itself is an 80NM sail through waters which are beset by strong tidal currents running up to 2knts to 3 knts at times.
The next couple of days were pretty taxing
being on my own and the fact that the weather was slightly more northerly than
expected which meant I had to sail closer to the wind which exacerbates the
movement of the vessel and makes it quite uncomfortable. Not having been on the boat for a while I was also seasick
– not debilitatingly so but enough to make you wonder why you do this. Overall apart from being uncomfortable the
crossing was pretty uneventful – had consistent 12 to 18knt winds from the
north west with gusts to 23kts, a 2m sea and little rain. I sighted Tanimbar late on Thursday afternoon
and found a sheltered cove to anchor in overnight. It is rare that I will anchor in a new
location after dark but I just made it in using the last of the dusk light. On the way in there were unlit fishing
boats which I could not see and only knew they were there when they shone a
flashlight at me.
The next morning I moved around the headland
into the bay and motored into the Saumlaki Port anchorage just as a number of
squalls moved through. Got the anchor
down on the second attempt and it held.
Saumlaki town consists of buildings lining the
shore and the sloping low hillsides behind the shoreline. It is home to around 50,000 people. There is a large passenger ferry jetty and an
obvious church and mosque. The island is
predominantly Christian and Saumlaki is the major town on Tanimbar island. It is also a dedicated port of entry hence
why I chose to arrive here. I am the only yacht here – apart from it being out
of season most yachts go to Ambon or Tual to clear in.
Once I got the boat squared away I launched the
dingy and headed in to meet my agent Ken at the Malabar Indah Hotel. Once there we met the quarantine guy at the
hotel and handed over some papers and got some stamped papers in return. Then it was off to immigration to hand over
some more photocopies of passport, vessel registration, visa documents
etc. Then we broke for lunch and Ken
took me on the back of his scooter to a local place for some Mee-goreng. After lunch we met with customs and I had to
ferry the customs officer to the boat where he had a cursory look around before
deeming everything satisfactory. Back to
shore we went finished for the day but still having a couple of official things
to do before I am good to push on which would not be completed until Monday.
Ken insisted on taking me to his local village
called Wodondo down the coast. We sped
off on his scooter for the 30min journey which gave me a chance to see some of
the island. Its very lush and green and
forested. The village was pretty big and
was all brick houses.. We met Kens' brothers and his father, sat and had some coffee and then sped back to the
harbour where I got back onboard the boat for some rest.
Ken works for a shipping agency based in
Tual. He is a really nice guy - super
helpful - and I am glad I decided to use
him. He was telling me that he recently
helped another sailor called Aaron Carrotta – this guy is rowing around the
world if you can believe that. So no
more whinging from me about sailing being tough. The locals seem very friendly from my brief
walk around the town. The infrastructure
is all there but pretty badly in need of maintenance. It reminds me of the streets of Samarinda
when I was working in East Kalimantan but there are plenty of shops, stalls
selling most of what I guess you would need.
I spent the weekend on the boat relaxing and
doing boat things – there are always jobs to be done. I had to get in the water and clean the hull
and prop which had picked up some marine growth from the time in Darwin. On Monday I met up with Ken again and finished
the last bit of official business with the harbourmaster. I was given what is called a green book which
needs to be carried by the vessel whilst in Indonesian waters and was then all
good to go. There was time for a final
lunch with Ken, some shopping for fresh vegetables and then I returned to the boat ready for a departure the
following morning.
My plan evolves as I go. Initially I had hoped for a big push to Saumlaki and then easy hops along island all the way to Raja Ampat. Given the prevailing winds and forecasts though I have decided to make another 250NM push to the next staging point on the island of Seram.
Hopefully the seasickness will abate.
