30th July - Darwin to Kupang

Tuesday 30^th July

Sunset at sea – SO pretty!

John fished relentlessly all the way from Darwin to Indonesia.

First catch

Not so impressive although John has it tucked into the fridge and swears he is going to eat it.  And, to tell the actual truth he didn’t even catch it – it flung itself onto the deck and died a solitary death.

Next he caught a very nice little bonito, which I have been enjoying, lightly dusted with Cajun spices and stir fried in olive oil, in cubes.

And then

Spanish Mackerel – whacko!!

We are so tired, the three of us, that we can barely speak.  I have no idea what time it is; my DarwinTime is 7.30…and the sun is setting here so it must be evening!

And yes we are in Kupang!  Until very recently I had never heard of this vibrant little city on the edge of West Timor, but – here it is, full of cheery, smiling people SO happy to welcome the fleet.  We arrived this morning, about 10.30,but whether this is Darwin time or West Timor time I have no idea and neither do I care…

There are about thirty boats in from the rally by now.  We were among the first to arrive and therefore among the very first too be boarded by a veritable swarm of officials.  Thirteen of them!!  I took a photo of five of them; they were all very nice but oh goodness they took up a lot of room on the boat! 

And I kept having to take them, one at a time, to peer into our cupboards and hidey-holes  “Now I want to see your bedroom, Madam,” said one of the youngest and softest of them.  “And the medicine cabinet.”  Up and down the stairs, pushing through the swarm, into the galley where he proceeded to count our cans of XXXX.  “Any other alcohol, Madam?” he asked, peering into a cupboard near the sink which is suspiciously laden with bottles, at least two of which were very obviously sauvignon blanc.  “Oh yes,” I trilled, merrily.  “That one is a sort of wine but this!  Oh look at this – it is so delicious, Bickfords Lime Cordial!!  Would you like a glass?”  I mixed up a lovely concoction, with lots of ice, and he had a sip or two then…he turned green and said, “I have motion sickness!”

I rushed him upstairs and told him he needed fresh air, and very soon all thirteen of them left, having obtained duplicate and quadruplicate copies of all of our documents, all of them efficiently imprinted with our 2XS self-inking stamp.

There is a sequel to this story…the Customs boat took off for Footloose, a very nice monohul inhabited by John and Irina.  When we met up with them at the welcoming ceremony John was looking very crabby.  Apparently TWO of the officials had been very sick on his lovely boat, and one of them had also had…diarrhea…oh dear, oh no…Poor dear John and Irina had had to spend quite a lot of time, energy and water sluicing out their hitherto pristine little toilet area…

After we had finished, or so we thought, with our official proceedings, we went in to shore in the dinghy, where we were greeted with great enthusiasm by a horde of strong young men very willing and able to lug our dinghy out of reach of the waves.  It costs about $5 for this service, and they fiercely guard the dinghies with their very lives.

The jetty is lined with festive flags with snap like artillery in the brisk breeze.  It is all GO in Kupang!  Every street has huge banners welcoming the fleet:

All we had to do, they had told us, was stroll into the sailing club building office and see Immigration.

And Customs.  And Quarantine.

Again.

More forms in quadruplicate, more rubber stamping.  (Actually the same forms as earlier…why oh why??)  It all went at glacial speed. And it was very VERY hot in the room… One of the officials had his little by sitting up at the desk with him.  The little boy did LOTS of happy stamping with our stamp, and then built a tower with it.  We all wilted just a bit…

I have lost the plot a bit…BEFORE we queued for our ordeal by photocopy, there was a welcome speech by the Mayor of Kupang.  And a ceremony involving dancing and singing.  This is what I saw:

Some of us were given traditional hats, others got woven scarves…

No I am not being snooty; I had to hold my head high to keep the sharp spiky hat from slipping down onto my nose…

FINALLY we had finished with our proceedings.  John had to hang around to get a visa; Pete and I went for a walk down the street to buy local phones, and to get a feel of downtown Kupang.  

Sorry meant to get a photo of the shops; got the footpath instead...

We were so impressed with the friendliness of he people.  They were all wreathed in smiles as we went by, and not one single person came out and shouted BUY BUY BUY!!! at us.  Wonderful!

Lots more to write but…I am flagging…