Leaving Darwin the harbour was full of the rally participants, was a good site to all be sailing off together to the same place, excitement was in the air but not too much wind.
It was a 2 day passage and then we arrived into Indonesia and got all of the formalities away of customs, immigration and quarantine in Indonesian style -Mayhem with 100 ~ 130 boats worth of people turning up at the same time.
Another crew member got on the boat in Saumalaki, her name is Lydia and apart from being Australian and a ranga she is a good sort. She helps her dad organise the rally every year and decided this year to see where it goes she speaks Indonesian and can order me donuts in a whiffy.
Saumalaki is a small fishing town and it’s not normally a port of entry into Indonesia and so they don’t normally get a lot of visitors. I have had my photo taken here more than I have taken photos.
I spent time walking through the back streets of the villages meeting locals, all and all they are bloody happy people. They all think that we are wealthy wealthy, and I guess compared to them we are. They find it difficult to understand that the boats are peoples floating houses.
We all managed to get a tour and went to a village with a stone boat, we had to take two bottles of soapy which is the locally brewed alcohol made of coconut sap sent though a primitive distillery. Toxic toxic stuff. You can get number one or number two which related to the purity, if during the distillery steam comes out it is number two. Nasty stuff you could run an engine on...... they drink it mixed with beer.
Independence Day in Indonesia is August 17th to celebrate the independence after the Dutch left and the world war finished. To celebrate a government house was opened up and stalls setup with school fair type activities like horseshoe throwing with one small exception. Instead of a horseshoe a plastic ring, instead of a pin in the ground a live ducks neck running around and yup you guessed it, the prize is the duck. Im goin get me a duck, yeah ha.
Oh and Happy birthday bro.
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