Darwin To Kupang Indonesia

    At 9:00 am we were in line in the Darwin sailing club to get checked out of Australia.  The customs officials had come down to the yacht club to check everyone out.  We soon had our departure document from Australia (Zarpe)  and our CAIT for Indonesia from the Rally rep. 
  We were underway by 11AM with no wind, but by 2pm were sailing along nicely.  Over the next four days we had generally good winds from behind, though a bit on the light side.  At night we had to motor for 6 or 7 hours except for the last night. We managed to do 110 to 115 miles a day even with the lighter winds.
The second night out we saw the lights of what we suspected was a Indonesian fish boat in front of us and as we neared I changed course a bit and then he shone a big spotlight on us so I assumed he did not want us to go that way as he probably had a fish net out back so we turned to pass in front of him and then he seemed to be coming  right for us so we had to turn again and were not sure which way to go and finally we did a big U and got away from him. Mean while we had to start the engine and furl the head sail to do all this.
   The last night we could see we were going to get to Kupang before daylight, so reduced sail  and then reduced again as we were flying in what was a bout a 3 knot current and 15 to 18 knot tail wind. What a waste of good wind and current, wish we had had this the previous nights.
   We now had a bunch of the bigger faster Rally boats catching up to us even though we had a 24 hour start leaving early.  By dawn we had about 7 or 8 Rally boats around us as they had slowed down too waiting for daylight.  Another fish boat had been flashing the boat in front of us so we all kept to the left of the channel  as we entered it to head up to Kupang.   We were now getting excited at our first glimpses of Indonesia.
  As we neared Kupang we could see many strange looking boats, nothing like we have seen before.  The wind had died right off in the channel  and then about 3 miles from Kupang the wind suddenly came up right on our nose and we were soon almost knocked to a stand still by wind and a short steep chop.  So with main up and engine we tacked up channel and a hour and a half later dropped anchor behind the first Rally boats to arrive.  We raised our Q flag and also  checked in with Rally organizers who said the Quarantine officials would be out to the boats as soon as they could find a boat to bring them out to us. Now that sounds like Indonesia I thought.  
  About 3 hours later the officials were making there way around to the boats in no particular order to first come first serve.  Eventually they came over to us and four men boarded our boat and one came below and said the customs official would come down also as soon as he finished his smoke.  The Quarantine guy gave us several forms to fill out  and then he did a few himself and then got us to sign some blank forms written in Indonesian.  We soon found this to be quite common.  I though at least the rally was here to protect us and we were being looked after by the top government in Jakarta. They kept the customs and immigration people under control.  The government through the rally is trying to make Indonesia more popular as a sailing destination.
   After the Quarantine and customs guy left and we were declared healthy they asked us to take down our Q flag and left.  Now we had to go ashore for the rest of the checkin. 
      As we arrived at the beach in our dinghy a bunch of young men were waiting us in to land in front of them.  We had already heard about the boat boys.  For 3500rp or about $4.00  they will help lift your dinghy out of water and guard it all day.  Read they will not steal it or damage it if you pay up.  The $4.00 is good all day for as many coming and goings as you like.  They are great and helpful as they beach is rocky and some surf on it. 
Customs etc. had set up a temporary office by Teddys bar to handle all the rally boats.  Inside was 5 tables that we had to go to one at a time. the first Customs  and then Immigration, then something else then port captain. Each desk filled out forms and stamped each one to death with many stamps.  Several asked us for our boat stamp, which some boats have. We hardly did anything except just hand them copy's of our documents. We went through 6 copy's of our crew list and 5 copy's of  boat registration and several copy's of our passports and Visa.  Now glad we made those 30 copies in Darwin.  Nothing is Computerised  and the different ports do not communicate, so all the paper work is carried by you which they may want to check at the bigger ports.  We left there two hours later with two big binders of paper work to be stored by us. It was a fun and interesting two hours. 
    Finally we were free to visit town.  We turned the corner out of the building and had a sensory over load at what at first appeared to be mayhem.  But soon realized it was orderly chaos with thousands of motorbikes and taxis and Bemo buses charged around on the narrow streets all honking horns and pedestrians all dodging cars and trying to move on virtually non existent side walks that had goods for sale on them and motorbikes parked everywhere.   The Bemo buses are just converted vans. Two bench seats down the side that they can cram up to 14 people in  and the windows are all painted cycadelic so hard to see out of. The drivers all have stuffed toys hanging in the windows. The ceiling is to low for me to sit up strait in.  Also under the seats is 6 large speakers that pump out extremely loud music, mostly just base, thump thump.
We bought a few veggies from a street vendor and then went to boat for a much needed rest.
    Anchored in 57ft at 10 09.72S   123 34.15E off Kupang.  The anchorage does get somewhat bouncy, but it never got any worse than Darwin for us.  The internet was suprisingly good here using our dongle in the anchorage.  At the rally meeting place on shore, a booth was set where rally people could get a USB modem or dongle and 3 months of unlimited use for about $75 total. The dongle is unlocked and we have used it in every country, just getting a new sim card each time.