Our first day in Jayapura brought pleasure and dissapointment. We did the rounds of the other yachts, catching up with the people we met at Bunaken week, the depressing news was that the best visa advice for PNG was to get one before arrival, and at Jayapura that apparently took five days, our Indonesian Visa’s expired on the 14^th of September so we had no time to spare, we were also advised that the local PNG consulate was less businesslike than they should be. They wanted to see all manner of documents and required a letter from us explaining why we wanted a visa and almost a hundred pounds for the two of us. I considered going through Papua New Guinea without a visa, but following further thought we decided to apply and see what happened. We took a mini bus to the consulate and filled in the forms, we then waited for them to enjoy an extended lunch, they then refused to give me a receipt for my cash, so we had to accept the situation. We returned to the harbour to wait, we went back on a similar minibus, which carried about ten people. One of the Papuans, who we had never met, got off and while paying the driver for his fare paid ours as well.

The town of Jayapura is very large by Papuan standards; this part of Indonesian Papua is known as “Papua” rather than Central Papua to the west. The first thing we noticed was the poor quality of the paving, originally block paved, no repairs have been done for many years, the result was even worse than Mozambique and there were red stains everywhere, due to the betel nut chewing. There is plenty of traffic, crossing the road is difficult. Vehicles do not stop at what are plainly crossings. And sadly litter is everywhere, plastic bags, bottles and filth in heaps. The streams and rivers are full of it, the locals to a man; think it is fine to throw rubbish into the water.

The shops seemed reasonably well stocked, every third or fourth sells mobile phones, I noticed that almost all phones or accessories could be bought, as in most of Asia. We shopped at a small supermarket and were delighted at what we found, bacon, rare in a Muslim country and a bottle of HP sauce for example. Alcohol could only be bought between 7 and 9 PM from back street shops. We found three or four internet cafes but the service speed was disappointing.

Our luck in rafting alongside local boats continued to pay dividends, the crews regularly visited us, sometime when we wanted privacy, but always they were well mannered. At last one came aboard who spoke a little English; he agreed to walk around the town with us as translator. I bought more fishing tackle and Charley bought fruit and vegetables.

A group of young boys played on the boats, about a dozen of them, aged from about nine to twelve, they swam in the water constantly. We could not understand why, as it was filthy. Whenever I went on deck they shouted “Hello Mister”

Another Bunaken yacht arrived, making five, this one had damaged its propeller on a floating tree, surprisingly to me, they carried a spare.  We did feel our prop strike something but perhaps its folding nature prevented damage.

While waiting for the visa I changed the oil and filter on the engine, the oil leak was slightly worse by now, I had a good look and concluded that there was more than one, the obvious one was from the injector pump, which I could not repair, but I found another from the sump gasket. I tightened all the bolts and cleaned the well.

The other yachties were becoming restless at the slowness of the PNG consulate; on Friday most of us gathered outside at the same time. This was not a good idea as we put them under pressure. It had been my intention to quietly ask if a little extra payment could expedite matters. One crew demanded their passports back, without the visa. I calculated that we would already incur a fine from the Indonesians so a few more days wouldn’t matter.

Over the weekend I changed the arrangements for the seawater intake to the water maker, it had shared an inlet with the engine but so much motoring made water making difficult. The solution had been obvious for months; I just needed time or an incentive to alter things. The works went well, I put a “T” in the toilet water inlet, one way toilet, the other water maker, we would of course never use both at the same time.

We had a good look at several grib files and discussed with the Australians, who were all going home, the best route, I tended to favour a shorter route than Solomans, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, but it all depended on the wind direction.

We made our way to the Consulate early on Monday, but were told to return in the afternoon, so we did some shopping assuming that we were about to leave.