We were again disappointed, we arrived back at the PNG Consulate at one o'clock, the visa's had not been prepared, worse still, I was informed that I must supply a full inventory of my yacht including food. I quickly wrote one out. We left frustrated at four pm, some of the others stayed.
At about six pm one of those that had waited came alongside in their dinghy, they had their visa but my hand written inventory was not acceptable, I was to type one and take it back the next morning.
I arrived just after eight o'clock, the inventory was fine, but the person that would have to sign the visa was not at the office until late afternoon. I asked for our passports back, we intended to check out with the Indonesian authorities and bring our passports back later. We went to immigration knowing that we had over-stayed our visa by three days. The official must have noticed this, but he then said that his colleagues in Bitung had made a mistake and that we did not need the visa we had been given, he then cleared us out and we walked away without having to pay a fine. I can only assume that the Bunaken comment in our passports swayed his judgement, I cannot believe that it was just charity. Next we went to find the harbour master, the first office we entered was actually the port authority including Pilots, they decided that we should pay for anchoring for a week in the harbour, the tariff they produced was for ships, when the calculator came out our bill came to US dollars just less than one cent, but they said round it up to six dollars, I said "OK, we will go and get some dollars" we walked out and looked for the harbour master, not intending to go back. It was not very far away, two of the other skippers were there trying to clear out. I detail the procedure to give a taste of the officialdom. To begin we had to check in, admittedly something we should have done before, but often it is possible to do both at once, The inward department wanted to see a crew list, stamped by immigration, a copy of the yacht registration, our passports, the last port clearance with the Bitung immigration crew list duly stamped, and a security clearance, something I had never seen. But before all that we had to get clearance from the Quarantine department, we soon found them nearby, our green book came into action, and we paid 20,000 rupees, just over a pound.
Having cleared in we could then see the Harbour master for our outward clearance, a similar performance followed, we were given our port clearance and all that remained was Customs. The Bunaken week organisers had prepared our paperwork, we simply had to hand it in and wait for it to be stamped, while we waited a pregnant cat wandered through the reception area, gave birth to a kitten somewhere and carried it past us again.
I would be unlikely to transit Indonesia again, without the support of a rally, or other organising body. The cruising permit, known as a CAIT was not asked for by any official, but at least I had one.
After the Customs we went back to the PNG consulate, a ten minute minibus ride, there was no sign of the person that signed visa's. We waited, Charley found a hairdresser nearby and had a new style, it came out rather well, and the cost was 35,000 rupees. We wandered back to the consulate and discussed the gentleman's non arrival with the receptionist; it seemed that we were going to be disappointed yet again. The next day, Wednesday, was PNG Independence Day, the consulate would be closed, and we were cleared out from Jayapura, which means we should have left within 24 hours of the clearance.
The next day was pleasantly spent shopping and preparing the yacht, the aspect we liked most was that we did not have to stand outside the PNG consulate that day.
Three more Bunaken yachts arrived from the west, I explained to them the problems we had experienced in applying for a visa, they seemed prepared endure the same and see how it went.
We went to the consulate the next morning, the receptionist was in a meeting, but when she did make an appearance she said we would get our visa that day. The newcomers soon arrived and asked for application forms, the receptionist handed them out but also advised that the next seven days were a Muslim holiday and the consulate would be closed.
They decided not to bother, I wished we had done the same, at midday we were handed our passports with a 30 day visa stamped inside. We had waited 8 days, we could have spent the time better.
We returned to the harbour and immediately waved goodbye to our neighbours and motored away.
Within an hour we had enough wind to sail and in a good direction as well, but not for long, the wind headed us so we began to tack along the coast. Pleasant sailing until it got dark, then clouds quickly formed and the wind strength increased, we continued like this for most of the night, making slow progress, at 2 am I noticed a small harbour quite nearby, there was thunder and lightening all around and with no moon it was not very enjoyable, the harbour looked good so we entered and anchored. After four hours sleep we woke to find ourselves in a substantial logging port, there were seagoing vessels and enormous log barges with tugs pushing them towards the ships. We quickly weighed anchor and motored out, I put out a line and soon caught a 4 kilo King Mackerel. The wind was from the east and only freed us to sail our proper course for a few hours before dusk, the rest of the day we tacked. The current was 2.7 knots at its worst meaning hardly any forward motion, on the first day we logged a hundred miles, poor by our standards, but due to the current we were only 35 miles from where we started. The next night was the same, strong winds, lightening, no moon, and almost no progress, we were lucky if we could make one knot towards our target and there was no harbour to shelter in, we both got wet through. The most wind was 27 knots, although it was 20 plus for most of the night. The combination of a confused sea and a large swell made sailing difficult, the waves slowed the yacht so much that occasionally we lost steerage and the yacht fell away from the wind, heeling over as it did so, before picking up speed again. At dawn I looked at the coast and could see where we were the previous day, we had made very little progress. This was becoming depressing.
I took new grib file via the satellite phone, fortunately there appeared to be an area of light winds approaching, we looked forward to motoring and hugging the coast to avoid the current. The third day was much better, some decent sailing at last and islands near the coast to deflect the current. Madang looked a long way away at this rate, although Wewak was approaching and that meant that there were a few decent anchorages to come. The coast that we had seen was remarkably unspoilt, hardly any sign of human activity, a few log huts and a couple of timber operations to spoil the tree covered mountains. Floating logs continued to be a worry, some of the rivers that we passed were substantial. The third night was delightful, light winds calm water and plenty of stars, although no moon. We made good progress with the aid of the engine.
We passed Wewak at dawn but did not pause, preferring to make use of the light winds to motor east. Within a few hours we saw flow from the river Sepic, The mouth was 35 miles ahead but we could plainly see the difference, the water was cloudy, full of debris and it flowed against our direction at over a knot, the clean water, nearer the shore flowed with us at half a knot. I altered to starboard to maintain the helpful current.
During the morning I ran the water maker at the same time as the engine for the first time, the extra voltage created by the engine gave a surprising boost to behaviour and output of the water maker. I estimate that it produced a quarter more fresh water during the same period.
The fourth night was another unpleasant one, almost total darkness then heavy rain and lightening for hours on end. Strong and variable winds made us put the sails away and motor, when it did ease I watched as we motored and then sailed past an active volcano, I could only see its shape when lightening lit the sky behind it, but I could just make out the smoke or steam coming from its peak. It was very impressive, between midnight and two am I stared at it while listening to my ipod, music by The Prodigy seemed very appropriate, next morning we could see a large recent lava flow down one side of the cone.
We were within a normal day's sailing of our destination, Madang, but the current had other ideas, we faced another night at sea.
The autopilot dropped of line a few times during the night, when we hand steered we noticed how slack the cable was. More jobs for the increasing list.
The next failure was the sea water pump on the engine, it began to leak water into the well, fortunately the amount was tolerable, another job to add to the list.
Late afternoon we spotted a catamaran ahead, one of the yachts that were at Jayapura, we spoke on the VHF and agreed to anchor in a small bay about ten miles ahead. As we arrived heavy rain reduced visibility, but we anchored in 8 metres. A local in a canoe soon paid us a visit, and suggested in excellent English that we move our anchor as the swell was bad where we were. We hoped to be fine where we were, but he was correct, an hour after dark during dinner and after two large gin and tonics each, we dragged. The swell made it uncomfortable and the usual evening wind pushed us towards the cat. We had no choice but to go to sea, I pulled up the anchor and we motored out of the bay. We were quite close to a headland around which was Madang twenty miles away. The current, swell and tidal rips meant that for the first two hours our speed over the ground was no more than a knot, but when we did eventually round the corner we found a counter current and sped along at over six knots. We entered a natural harbour around midnight and despite an electronic chart that was at least a third of a mile inaccurate, the lightening illuminated the islands enough for us to find a peaceful spot for the night. Next morning Charley removed three buckets of sea water from the engine well and then we sailed seven miles south to Madang.
Madang was more developed than I expected, we found a small wall to moor against, although the amount of water left under the keel was not as much as I would have liked. I went ashore and within a hundred metres had found an ATM and a supermarket with almost everything we wanted.
