On Monday I left the mooring at Pulau Rubiah and headed for Sabang, an hours motor, across the bay. I had psyched myself up for the formalities of dealing with Immigration, Customs and Harbour master. Alas, they were closed – it had been a public holiday on Friday and it appeared that extended to Monday as well. I did a walking tour of Sabang. On returning to the Sadiqi I noticed another yacht had arrived. I met a young couple; Nelson and Claude from “Black Swan” who sailed from Oman taking 26 days with a brief stop over in the Maldives. They, Nelson originally from Australia and Claude from Belgium, had spent the last 12 years living onboard their boat mainly in Greece and Turkey.
The following day I offered to take Nelson and Claude ashore to get fuel and sort out immigration formalities. They did not have an outboard motor and only a small hard dingy, they also did not have a CAIT for Indonesia. In hindsight it would have been better not to have informed the authorities. Eventually an immigration official arrived and we started the process – around $6.00 slipped under the table somewhere. The Harbour Master arrived at Immigration as they had been informed that three yachts were in Sabang. Glayva was also clearing out. After filling in some extensive Harbour Master forms we were told to return to the Harbour Master at 17.00 to pick up the port clearance certificate. Next we had to find Customs. This is where things got a little complicated as the Customs officials wanted to go onboard and inspect “Black Swan”, Nelson’s boat. I gave Nelson the start lanyard to my dingy to take the official and get that sorted. While we were away from the dingy an enterprising local weasel had removed Nelson’s jerry cans and partial filled them in anticipation for payment – at a higher rate, plus tip, than you could get on the street. Had we not complied with this the police would probably have miraculously appeared, as foreigners are not supposed to buy the subsidised muck they call fuel. At 17.00 I reported to the Harbour Master to get my clearance certificate and another $8.00, supposed administration fee, disappeared under the table. This baksheesh may not sound like much but added up came to several hundred dollars. With everything that had gone on I had not had an opportunity to get any fuel for Sadiqi. It had been a very long day, by 6 o clock in the evening Nelson, Claude and myself adjourned to Sadiqi to enjoy a good takeout dinner and a bottle of red wine.
