Thursday 9 October – we arrive into a new continent, Asia

At about 4 am Rowan got us just outside the reef at Biak. With rain and a squall or two we circled outside until we had light and calmer conditions, which was just before 6am. The pass was all very clearly marked to navigate our way through, then it was a couple of miles inside the reef to the the dive resort where the anchorage is. It already feels like we are somewhere completely different, just the mass of humanity, crowded town and mosques along the shoreline. This area is quite Christian, so a lot of churches too. We quickly got the quarantine flag up as well as the Indonesian flag that Grant and Judith brought out for us. The anchorage is run by a dive resort with a very helpful guy, Ahmed, who sorts out all the immigration palaver. Two boats were in, the one boat has a German couple on it, and the other boat belongs to a South African family, we can’t believe it, yet another South African boat! They are not on board, they have left the boat here, while they return to SA with their two teenagers. What a great sense of relief we are safely here in a new continent, anchored, nothing broken and still have plenty of fuel!

Just after midday, after Rowan managed a little snooze, Ahmed arrived at the boat with 8 immigration officials. All very jolly with the usual pile of forms to fill out. The only thing they were interested in looking at was our medication, I took two guys downstairs to show our medical drawer, which they photographed enthusiastically. I think their only concern is drugs. They asked if they could photograph our bedroom, they were just so curious. They do not get a huge amount of boats here, it is really off the beaten track, the vast majority of yachts go south of PNG through the Torres Strait. It was all extremely friendly and polite, they had no interest whatsoever in food we were bringing in, or plants. So different to a lot of countries that make an issue out of it, understandably to keep out invasives and disease. Which by the way Han, we have a much bigger gecko on board that I saw on my night shift. Goodness knows where we picked it up, but I’m going to let him live here, as the Indonesians are not bothered, he can chomp away at all the bugs to his heart’s delight! Rescuing our Fijian gecko before heading to NZ was a real mission, which we did finally accomplish.

After they had finished they circled PolePole taking photos, maybe they don’t get many catamarans here. We then had to go into town to do our biometrics. We dinghied to the resort dock and headed into town in the resort bus, which would wait for us at immigration, then take us to the supermarket and ATM, all part of Ahmed’s check in service. Immigration was the same bunch who came to the boat plus others. We were the only people checking in, a lovely airconditioned room with comfy chairs. Their computer was struggling with its connection, so we were encouraged to go and help ourselves to a free ice cream from the freezer while we waited. We had a couple of delicious mango ice lollies and finally had our photographs and finger prints taken, which then produced a little sticker with our visa on it, which was stuck into our passport. We were free to go and have 6 months to explore Indonesia.

The supermarket was such a shock after being in the islands for so long. It was in a very fancy shopping mall with aisle upon aisle of various processed food in garish packaging, that was totally foreign to us. We managed to get eggs and a few essentials, it really was a lot smarter than we expected. The supermarket is part of a department store, it even has an escalator going upstairs! We returned to the resort and decided to have an early supper there. On the waterfront they have a whole lot of food stall holders, you chose food from various stalls and then eat at the tables laid out under fairy lights. Very enterprising. We got a few recommendations from Ahmed and then went off course a bit ordering stuff that looked interesting. It was not the greatest food, there was a lot of processed meat chopped into everything. I think it is better to stick to chicken and fish! Plenty of spicy heat as one would expect. Interestingly no alcohol served, not even a beer, Ahmed said it was for a good reason, locals can’t handle booze! A little disappointing for us as we were so looking forward to a cold beer. Everyone was terribly sweet and friendly. Ahmed it turns out is from Egypt, he moved to New York at 17, studying there and met his Indonesian wife there. They were locked down here during covid while they were visiting his wife’s family who own the resort. They liked it so much they decided to stay here. Ahmed now runs the Diving operation and the agency for immigration. He runs a slick operation and is incredibly helpful and responsive. So many yachts entering Indonesia from the Australian side complain like mad about the immigration process. Ahmed has found a way of providing a very efficient painless entry into the country.

We were pretty tired after our early start to the day, the relief to be safely here after the turbulent and squally seas meant we were in bed pretty promptly.