Monday 9th May 2022 – Kupang

We arrived at Kupang at 09:40 after an 18 hour/118 nautical mile passage and dropped the pick out front of the light house in the exact spot I was two and a half years earlier. We were both very tired and after having a shower, I went ashore to find our clearance agent.

I was blown away with the changes that had been made to the water front since I was here last time. Like Labuan Bajo, they had spent a lot of money beautifying the whole area and it took a little while to find my bearings.

It had a whole different feel to it, where as before it was rough and dirty, but had a relaxed character with little laid back bars and warung’s up under the palm trees, and now the whole area was paved, had street lights, park benches and fencing at the beach front and was all clean and tidy. 

The area was a big hit with the public now and there were well dressed people wandering about and lovers on every park bench, whereas before the area was full of hustlers trying to get your business, dodgy kids and pick-pockets.  

I found our agent and he had made arrangements for Quarantine and Customs to come down to the water front at 12:00. He wasn’t sure about Immigration and said he would let me know as soon as he heard back from them.

So, we had a few hours in the morning to kill. We went for a bit of a walk around to buy Luke an Indonesian flashing light for his boat and I wanted to buy some bread and fresh fruit. 

There were many stalls selling betel nut and tobacco, fresh fruit, machete’s and knives and it was very vibrant and cosmopolitan compared to what we have been used to since leaving Bali 24 days ago.

 

I headed back to the water front at 12:00 and met with two Quarantine officers.

I took them out to Sirocco and within an hour we had completed all the necessary documentation and they had done their inspections, so after the obligatory selfie, we all piled into the dinghy once again and I took them back to the beach.

I had another three hours to kill before our appointment with the Customs officers, so I decided to do a fuel run. We headed back out to Sirocco and grabbed all the empty Gerry cans and took them back to the beach where I had organised a driver to take them to the nearest fuel station.

After handing the driver a month’s salary in cash, as he drove away, I wondered if I would ever see him again? True to his word, half an hour latter he was back with 160 litres of Solar diesel and off we went back to Sirocco again to fill the main tank and store the remaining full Gerry cans.

At 16:00 I got a call from the agent to say the Customs officers had arrived at the water front, so I headed off in the dinghy to pick them up. There were three Officers who clearly hated the water and were scared of getting wet and I did my best to keep them dry and happy. 

Once safely on board, I issued them with the standard can of Coke and chocolate bars and they suddenly became happy and relaxed and we got stuck into the paper work. 

They too were done in about 30 minutes and once again after the obligatory selfie, we all piled into the dinghy and I took them back to the beach, then headed back out to Sirocco.

My agent called to say Immigration were not available today and we would have to try again tomorrow to get an appointment. I could only go to the Harbour Master once all other formalities were completed, so we could not be cleared out today and would have to stay another night to my frustration. 

After a shower, we headed in to shore for dinner around sunset. I wanted to go to the seafood market and get a good feed. The newly rennievated water front looked lovely at sunset and people were out everywhere.

The usual bemo’s were everywhere touting us for a ride with loud music blasting. They are unusual here as they have this thing about the more antennas they have, the cooler they look. No doubt they get bloody good reception on the wireless, they can probably even pick up 96FM in Perth.

Just take a look at all that shit in the front windscreen

 I bumped into my friend Ryley that I met here last time. He was happy to see me but pissed off that I didn’t use him as an agent. I explained to him that I had intended to ask him, but when I searched through all my business cards and contact details, I couldn’t find his number anywhere. 

He was a good bloke last time I was here so I invited him to have dinner with us. He came along but seemed like a different guy this time. I got the feeling he was down on his luck and struggling a bit as he wasn’t the same happy go lucky bloke that I knew. 

Dinner was fine but there wasn’t the same large selection of fresh sea food that I remember from last time I was here. After a few beers we decided to call it a night as Luke and I were very tired and we headed off back to the water front were thankfully my dinghy was still there. In busy places like this I usually slip someone five bucks to keep an eye on it so I don’t have to worry and it gives someone an income for the night.

 

We headed off into the dark night without a torch once again, but I did remember to turn on the anchor light and with the flashing Indo lights, Sirocco was easy to find anyway. We were both sound asleep by 21:30.

  

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