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OCEAN VOYAGINGA localIndonesianfishing boatseen offKupang.choose to abandon it inIndonesian waters.In Indonesia, the whole“bond” issue seems to have beena creative way for a few cleverpeople to collect a little extracash by taking advantage ofunwary yachtsmen. The realityis that no one has figured outhow to enforce this recent regulationand everyone we talkedwith involved in the yachtingindustry agrees that this “bond”concept is really just a good wayto discourage people from visitingIndonesian waters.As Rod Heikell writes in hisIndian Ocean Cruising Guide:“the whole process is solabyrinthine that many chooseto go on one of the rallies fromDarwin to Indonesia,” insteadof trying to sort things out forthemselves. You can pay a heftyfee to join the rally and, yes, therally organizers will wadethrough the bureaucraticswamp for you but, in reality,it’s not that difficult to sort itout for yourself if you have thestamina and willingness to sendthe necessary e-mails and negotiatewith the locals in trueIndonesian style. It can actuallybe fun if you don’t let the myriadtwists and turns get to you!Noonsite continues to be a greatclearing-house and resource ofthe latest cruising info comingout of Bali and elsewherearound the world. In this case, itseems quite up-to-date so it iswell worth researching for thelatest information available.The first version of ourCAIT arrived via e-mail in lessthan a month following ouronline application filing and wewere able to pick it up inNoumea, New Caledonia, anice surprise, and ahead ofschedule. It was hand-typed onan old ribbon typewriter andstamped/signed by officials inJakarta. Very archaic, but officiallooking. No sweat.Changed crew listWhen our crew list changed enroute we simply sent new photocopies of passports to the goodfolks at Bali Marina and, for anadditional $70, the new nameswere typed into the document,scanned and e-mailed back tous again. In the end we had tochange, or actually add to ourcrew list, at least four timesbetween leaving New Zealandand arriving in Indonesia, butno one seemed to mind theupdates and we only had to paythe change fee once.En route between ThursdayIsland in the Torres Straits andIndonesia, we were advised by“Charlie” at Bali Marina thatwe might best stop in Kupangand contact their “agent” there,named “Napa,” who couldtake care of all clearance issuesand, in fact, give us a threemonthvisa instead of the twomonthvariety (or as little as 14days!) we might expect toreceive “on arrival” had wesailed direct to Bali.We heard horror stories in2008 about boats being“impounded” and fines leviedwhen the Darwin to IndonesiaRally used Kupang as theirclearing-in spot. We were nervousabout having the samething happen to us, but after along, slow, engine-dominatedcrossing from Thursday Island,and knowing we needed torefuel anyway, we decided totake the risk and drop-in atKupang first. We were told tosimply “call Napa on VHF” aswe made our approach, whichwe did several times receivingno response.As close as we daredEventually, the British captain30 OCEAN NAVIGATOR SEPTEMBER 2010 www.oceannavigator.com