The clearance process then ran very smoothly, with crews coming ashore to report to the field office. As usual it was a long and slightly confusing process, with lots of paperwork and overlapping regulations. Some yachties became confused, as they were required to report twice to Quarantine, even after the physical inspection of their yachts had taken place. However, everyone was very patient and the system was running relatively smoothly. There was only one payment to be made, to Quarantine an amount of Rp 210,000 around 20 USD and that was clearly communicated via radio on channel 77, so everyone was very happy.

July 30
There was disbelief this morning in Kupang when, on the radio, one of the yachters came over and told everyone that 5 million Rupiah was missing from his boat. The assumption was that last night, while everyone was on shore, an opportunistic thief had taken advantage of the situation and raided the yacht. Everyone was shocked, but people more familiar with Kupang were in disbelief. Nothing like that had EVER happened in Kupang before. No money stolen. No yachts boarded. Nothing like that. When the locals found out, they were genuinely upset and disappointed.
By noon, the fleet was notified that the money 'had been recovered', but the yachtie concerned was not prepared to go into details. It was his belief that everyone should be cautious anyway, even if the 'theft' had not happened. He was prepared to let everyone go on thinking the money had been stolen by a local as a tale of caution to other visiting yachties. But organisers were not prepared to allow Kupang's reputation to be tarnished in such a way. It was not fair on the honest people of Kupang. Year after year, Kupang provides a safe, welcoming, humble reception for visiting yachties. Was the way to repay such kindness to allow a lie to be perpetuated that painted the people of Kupang with a foul brush?
The next morning on the Kupang Radio radio sched, the fleet were informed that yesterday's announcement - the apparent theft - had not been a theft at all.
Banda Route: Thyme arrived during the night and Aria arrived early today.

July 30
Today, the shore party prepared for departure and the remaining yachts were either waiting for welding to be finished or simply taking their time before leaving for the second destination either Alor or Rote. As the numbers of yachts anchored in front of Teddy's dwindled, it was apparent that once again, the people of Kupang had given the participants of Sail Indonesia a truly warm welcome to Indonesia. It was over too soon. Thank you, Kupang and see you in 2011.

Wangi Wangi
Stayed at Wangi Wangi for 11 days, we were the 4th boat to arrive and luckily not the first, eventually about 25 would arrive. Despite the rally organiser Raymond saying there would be 100 moorings none were seen, a few days later they laid a half dozen outside the reef. The anchorage at Wangi Wangi is inside a reef which is not shown on C-Map or the local Indonesian chart. We arrived at 0700, about high tide and didn't know what to do, we saw the other boats anchored inside the reef and the reef looked deep enough to possibly go over. Gino the local everything guy wasn't on the VHF yet. Luckily another cruiser saw us and told us how to enter the lagoon behind the reef. The waypoints we took are, ( 1) 05° 19.600, 123° 31.768, between two steel poles, 10.5 feet deep at high water (+2.1m) and (2) 05° 19.578, 123° 31.852, Single pole with flags, keep close (30') to starboard Proceed about 100' past the single pole then turn to the right. We anchored at 05° 19.790, 123° 32.050, 35' over sand.
We were made welcomed and the port check-in was painless and organized by Gino. They were having parades the next two days and we were invited to view them at the Bupati Regent's (local Governor) home. The next day they asked if the cruisers would like to march in the parade. We put together a rag-tag group and marched displaying our national flags; USA x 3, Canada and Australia. The 40,000 people lining the streets loved us. As we passed the governor's house all the officials stood and returned our salute and waved with big smiles. They had teenage "guides" waiting to show us around and interpret, no payment they just wanted to practice their English. We invited two guide girls out to the boat to show our appreciation. We felt very welcomed indeed.
Wakatobi is a marine park consisting of 4 islands whose initials make up the name. We envisioned a small sleepy village not the busy and overpopulated Wangi Wangi which is the main commerce center for Wakatobi. They have 3 markets spread around, a morning, mid-day and night time market. The night time one is the most fun and you can eat your fill of prepared food and snacks for very little money. None of the vendors tried to rip us off, refreshing. Overall the food in Indonesia is very good and some of the snacks and donuts osting 12 US cents from the street vendors are good.
We did a few scuba dives on the reefs near the anchorage and they were pretty good. Lots of fish and mostly live coral. There's less trash in the water here as the population is beginning to realize they have something worth protecting and dive tourism is just beginning to take hold.
The yachts had trouble sleeping with the early morning prayers from the mosque noise so some yachts left after a only few days.
The government sponsored a free dinner and cultural dance show at a new resort, which included the usual food, dances speeches and such. The next day they invited the cruisers to a cultural festival being held as part of their Independence Day celebrations. The celebration abruptly ended when protestors began destroying one of the props, protesting among other things they resented the money the government was spending on the visiting yachts and that we were eating during the day, was Ramadan is against their religion of Islam. The cruisers were escorted by the police back to the boats and were advised to stay onboard that night. The next day was Independence Day August 17 with more celebrations planned, but about 1/2 of the boats left in the morning. We were supposed to participate in the underwater ceremony and had attended two practice sessions but felt it best we not attend any more public events, a few others went and had no problems. We finally went ashore briefly to pick up a few snacks (including more donuts) and clear out with the officials, the next morning we left as did the remaining boats. A sad ending to an otherwise good stay.
One common complaint was the very loud music from the local bands at all hours of the day and night as well as from the loudspeakers on the many Mosques near the anchorage which made sleeping at night difficult.
The 300 mile passage to our current location of Bau Bau was easy with light winds and mostly smooth seas. We were by ourselves as the rally group broke up and went in different directions. The next stop for the Banda group was Bau Bau which is a large city and in the past cruising boats have had problems there. We didn't see much reason to go there. (from Yacht Amulet)