East Timor

October 2005

We left Darwin in the second week of October and made reasonable but very on and off progress, the wind eventually determining our destination to be Dili in East Timor rather than Bali. It continued very hot, and during the frequent becalmed moments we would take it in turns to ‘go to the beach’ as Lois called it.

At the Beach

As we rounded the south east coast of East Timor one night (these things always seemed to happen on my watch!) I had a nasty moment when two large ships came into view and then bore down on us.  Each time I altered course one or other of them seemed to do the same thing.  I called them on the VHF radio but they didn’t respond – a fact I interpreted as suspicious.  The radio, of course, awoke my two men folk, who thought I was worrying for nothing, but eventually I think they agreed because Mike put the motor on and we got out of the area. It may have been coincidence that wherever we moved, they seemed to follow, but it was slightly scary for a while.  One is very vulnerable in a small yacht.

Sunrise over Timor

Lois was proving to be the perfect crew, as promised.  He is a very experienced and passionate sailor so we felt totally confident leaving Forever in his care during watches. Although he has a strong and definite personality, he is one of the most remarkably self-effacing people I have ever met.  He fitted in with everything we wanted to do and seemed to take up almost no space at all. He claimed to love the night watches and regularly did much more than his fair share.  I could understand why Jordi and Marina had been so sorry to lose him, but their loss was our gain.

The perfect crew

On 17 October, after a five day sail, we arrived at the anchorage at Dili, the capital of East Timor (officially The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste), on the north coast.  This mostly Christian country had been war torn since 1975 and was struggling proudly with its independence from the predominantly Muslim half of the island which belongs to Indonesia.  The island is covered with spectacular mountains and the countryside was lovely and green. 

The anchorage at Dili

We had not obtained visas in advance which would have cost us US$30 each, but for US$20 the port authorities gave permission for the captain only to come ashore for one day for repairs. We stayed four days and all went ashore, shopped, and found an internet cafe to catch up with emails. Lois, who was always very generous, took us for dinner in a restaurant, very simple but the best we could find. However, things generally were not cheap, and water had to be purchased – tap water was apparently not potable.  On our second day in the anchorage a heavy rain shower fell and we did our best to get some fresh water into our tanks. The overflow water from the drains in the town flooded into the harbour carrying tons of plastic. Within a couple of hours Forever was surrounded by a sea of plastic bottles. A depressing sight in such an idyllic and remote spot.

The town of Dili was sweet, unsophisticated and very run down with much evidence of their recent war scattered everywhere. The people were nice and friendly but there was not much to do and with the worry of a perhaps overzealous customs agent lurking around we did not linger.