Cruising Notes – Indonesia
Charts & Guides:
Here’s where you can use all the magazine articles and
SSCA notes you have been collecting – things change here so up to date info is
important. Search the Net, too for notes other cruisers are putting out there,
some are really excellent. There are lots of
notes floating around out there, many with good detail – other cruisers
will have copies on disk so just ask around and you will find them.
We used:
Cruising Guide to SE Asia Vol II – get the update on the Internet at www.imray.com
Cruising Guide to SE Asia lacks much detail but in all fairness, it covers a big area, and there are still areas being explored
For the rest of Southeast Asia:
Indian Ocean Guide by Rod Heikell – is probably good enough if you are doing a quick trip through and are planning to stay mostly at marinas. Get the update from the same website above. But it looks like a really excellent guide for the trip across the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea or Africa.
The Phuket & Malacca Straits Cruising Yacht Guide by John Batt is just a little spiral bound guide, and has really been superceded by the SE Asia Guide. I don't think it is even published anymore, but you may run into someone with a copy. It has all kinds of little hand-drawn chartlets and notes.
Sail Thailand – we don’t have this one
but I would get it only if you are thinking of doing really extensive cruising
of Thailand, otherwise it is just overkill.
The place names in SE Asia defy pronunciation, to say
nothing of the difficulty of finding them on the charts! Allow yourself lots of
time to pour over the charts and read the Guides to familiarize yourself with
the possibilities for anchoring and sailing routes.
Cruisers reported that the electronic charts for the Indonesian islands east of Bali were not detailed and some touched reefs. Paper charts would be a good idea for this area.
We found the electronic charts for Bali were only
approximate and would not be accurate enough if you wanted to come in at night.
Same for the Kumai River on the south coast of Borneo - the electronic chart was
only marginally accurate and you definitely need to come in here during the day.
There is a radio net each morning at 8AM Bali time on 14323 USB, a Ham net with Richard as net controller. He gives a roundup of the weather for southeast Asia and takes the usual checkins and information exchange. A good net.
Entry formalities: 
Clearing In - You must get a “CAIT” cruising permit in advance to visit Indonesia. This takes at least 6 weeks, so plan ahead. I guess you can do it yourself (look up how on the Internet, perhaps in Jimmy Cornell’s site www.noonsite.com) and it is a lot of complicated bureaucracy. Bali Int’l Marina - email bbsyacht@idola.net.id will do it for you at $150.00 US (info as of Aug 2003) but the easiest and cheapest way we know of right now - $150.00 Aus (the Aussie dollar was .64 US at the time we entered) is to take part in the Darwin/Bali or Darwin/Kupang or Darwin/Ambon race/rally which leaves Darwin Sailing Club every year near the end of July or early August. Start checking the website - www.darwinbalirace.com in March or April. Don’t delay your decision to enter, as there was a cut-off at 30 boats for each destination the year we entered. Maybe not every year though. For your 150.00 Aus, they do all the CAIT stuff, throw a free bbq including beer & wine at the Darwin Sailing Club, and do a briefing session. The organizers are also very knowledgeable about Indonesia cruising, and can answer all questions. In addition, when you arrive at Bali, the marina gave us up to 5 days free docking (usually about 15.00 US per day), AND they throw an awards dinner including a big keg of beer all for free. Its really a pretty good deal.
To pay for the rally, we had to do a money transfer to an Aussie bank account (no Visa or cash) so think about how you will do this – we had trouble doing this from New Caledonia so friends in Aus did it for us and we paid them back.
Customs, Immigration and the Harbormaster were all taken
care of by the Bali race organization (Using the Bali Marina agent). In addition
to the lower rate for the CAIT we got 5 free days at the marina and a couple of
free meals, which helped us to meet the other cruisers. This is the way to get
into Indonesia!
NOTE: It is no longer necessary to clear in and out of each port/harbour in Indonesia. The commodore of the Royal Bali Yacht Club has settled the matter with the officials, and a letter is available (in Indonesian & English) from Dick at the Bali Marina which you can use on the officials throughout Indonesia. It seems that the ‘policy’ of checking in and out at each port (with the accompanying sneaky little ‘harbour fee’ ) was never ever really an actual law, so this practice has been stopped. Get the letter or download it here.
Clearing Out is usually done at Nongsa Point Marina
on the island of Batam, just across the Singapore Strait from, you guessed it,
Singapore. But we heard over the radio ham net
Safety & Security:
Pirates. Yeah. It is a concern and you need to get up to date on the danger areas – again, check the Internet and talk to others, but keep in mind stories are exaggerated and there is a lot of fear out there. Find a little group and sail in convoy seems to be the answer, and sail in the daytime as much as possible.
The biggest security problem seems to be the hundreds of little fishing boats out there, some with no lights – these seem to stay near the coasts and if there is a sizeable village, there are correspondingly more of them. Out from the islands, the fishing boats are bigger, but almost always shine lights, albeit not proper navigational lights. Usually you will see a single white light or a single green light. They move pretty slow, and we found that if we held our course steady, and made only a few very clear course changes, they tended to avoid you. They are more used to this traffic than you are!
We also saw brightly lit structures. These are bamboo fish aggregating devices, made of bamboo and anchored to the bottom - quite deep at 150 feet or more - they are closely surrounded by little fishing boats shining the little white or green light. Just stay away from these - they are easy to see and avoid. We have heard, though, that sometimes they abandon one of these structures, and they remain where they are, unlit! So if you see a bunch of these lights, try not to go among them.
Ports & Passages:
Passage – Darwin to Bali
We made the passage starting Aug 2, apparently the best
time to go. We had light winds for 200 miles, and started our motor. If you wait
for wind it probably will come.
Lombok Strait currents were 3-7 knots contrary, run to the
south and to the east. Strategy would be to stick very close to the south coast
of Lombok and get a favorable counter current, then cross the strait to the
south shore of the little island between Bali & Lombok, then close to the
east coast of Bali to avoid the worst of the current – look for smooth water.
There are overfalls, whirlpools and we were even swept backwards at 2 knots in
spite of motoring forward at 7 knots! If the wind is strong the seas build up
quite big and break, as the wind is against the current.
Bali Marina - Don’t enter at night whatever
you do. Electronic charts are not accurate enough to navigate the narrow
channel, and there are lots of boats anchored all over. There are also breakers
along the beaches to both sides at the entrance to the channel and a strong
onshore current. Even the local boats hove to and entered at first light.
Here’s some waypoints based on our actual track: Use your eyes and common sense!
Buoy at approach: 08’45.2118”S/115’14.5486”E
Channel entrance: 08’45.3944”S/115’13.8027”E
Along channel: 08’45.1717”S/115’13.4298”E
08’45.0629”E/115’13.0987”E
08’44.9145”E/115’12.8601”E
Marina slip:
08’44.4230”E/115’12.7990”E
Stay close to the red markers and away from the greens.
Don’t cut the corners. When you see the commercial dock and the big boats,
stay close to them, they have deep water.
You can proceed past the long marina dock and anchor just
past where you would turn left to go into the marina entrance. There is room for
perhaps 8 boats, face into the wind and put out a stern anchor so you all lay
parallel to each other and so that you don’t swing onto the shallows. There are no
moorings. The marina is decrepit and expensive, but it is the only game in town.
All the usual services are here at the marina – laundry
can be done for you, very cheap. There are showers and a book exchange and a
little store where you can get local charts. Water is available on the dock, but
don’t drink it, in fact it is sometimes so dirty at times you might not want
to use it to wash your deck, body or laundry! For drinking water, you have to
order it in by the jugs, purified or RO. We got RO since it was only marginally
more costly and it was still only about .50 US cents for 20 liters delivered to
your dock. Fuel is available on the dock, (by jug or bring the big boat
alongside) cheaper that we paid duty free in Darwin, but everyone was Baja
filtering it. Our Baja came out pretty clean, just a half cup of water in 202
liters. But filter anyway!
Bali is economically poor because of a downturn in tourism.
People are begging you for work. There seems to be a set fee (more or less) for
men to clean your boat – good reports on stainless cleaning.
The manager, Dick, can help with most things you need, or
befriend the long term boats moored across from the docks and they can probably
find you a better price. Ask around for the going rate for taxis and costs of
things because the name of the game here is to fleece the tourists as much as
possible, and everything is negotiable!
There are a couple of big grocery stores (with fixed
prices) in town, but full of cockroaches so watch out. Beer is the same price
here as it was duty free in Australia. Wine is far too expensive and poor to
bother with, according to the wine drinkers we talked to, so bring your own.
This is a great place to get your DVD’s – we paid about
$1.50 US for movies. There are also movies on CD called VCD’s (video CD’s)
that play on your computer, though you need some software to do this – just
get a copy from another cruiser – but these are a whole dollar or two
each. Pirated software is also available for about $3.00 US a CD. That
includes Windows XP, Office, Autocad etc etc.
Kalimantan (Borneo) - We only visited one port on
Indonesian Borneo, and that was up the Kumai River to the town of Kumai. The
sole purpose was to visit the National Park and have a look at the Orangutan
research facility where they re-introduce orphaned and displaced Orangutans back
into the wild.
The trip up the river is a little complicated, and even with detailed cruiser notes and waypoints, we nearly went aground and only the presence of other river traffic showed us the proper channel. Here are the waypoints we used, and we saw anywhere from 30 ft to 12 ft of depth:
Approach: 03'10.000" S / 111'37.000" E
02'58.300" S/ 111'40.460" E
Off Beach 02'56.411" S/ 111'41.852" E
End of Point 02'54.250" S/111'42.500" E
River 02'53.500" S/ 111'42.100" E
02'52.000" S/ 111'43.100" E
02'51.380" S/ 111'43.290" E
02'49.900" S/ 111'43.500" E Thereafter, stay in the middle of the river till at about:
Anchorage 02'44.300" S/ 111'44.100" E
Don't you dare try to sue us if your boat runs aground by blindly following any of these waypoints, river conditions may change, and anyway we don't have any money. Use your eyes and your instruments, particularly your depth sounder.
Kumai is no thriving metropolis, but basic supplies &
services are available. There is a small town at the waterfront where you can
get basic tropical fruits & very few veggies like cabbage and long string
beans. There is no ATM but the bank will change other currencies like
US. Leave your dinghy safely at Harry's - a little yellow roof on the
waterfront. They will watch out for your dinghy and no need to lock it, and
nobody is holding out their hand for a tip. Harry will draw you a map of how to
get to the bigger town by 'bemo' bus. It cost 4000 Rupiah or 40 cents US
(1/2 hour ride) but 20,000 Rupiah on the way back - no amount of negotiating
could reduce it! So maybe better to arrange a round trip fixed price. In the
bigger town are ATM, a very slow internet cafe and so-called supermarket.
Probably not worth going in unless you need some local cash and/or a local
adventure.
We used the services of Harry from Borneo Wilderness
Travel. Having received a little leaflet in Bali about him, we looked him up when we arrived, and were really impressed with his
gentle professionalism and obvious love and concern for the disappearing wildlife habitats of Borneo. He is trying to make a go of
ecotourism, and also trying to encourage loggers to build themselves boats in
return for him getting them customers. He doesn't want any monetary return, just
for them to stop cutting down the forests. What a guy.
There is also a guy by the name of "Majid" who runs tours, and he is providing competition to Harry and keeping the prices down. He will come around in his boat or you can ask for him in the little waterfront town.
Once you have picked your tour operator, they can help you with services such as fuel & water, and laundry etc.
After negotiation (we were the first boat of the season) we paid 350,000 Rupiah per person for a one day tour. This included 2-3 people per little speedboat, a guy to sit on your boat for the day to guard it, drinks (juice & water) and lunch & snacks, park entrance fee and tour guide. Another boat in the anchorage booked with Majid for a day/night/day and paid 700,000 Rupiah per person.
