Sail Indonesia Promotes Indonesia’s Nascent Maritime Leisure Industry
Hardy crews get up close as well as personal to spectacular as well as remote destinations within the eastern islands.
With 17,000 islands of all shapes as well as sizes spread over three time zones, a rich maritime history dating back hundreds of years, traders by Makassar to the Spice Islands as well as on to the historic port city of Banten, you would certainly imagine Indonesia to be a world leader within the maritime leisure industry. Surely all the item had to do would certainly be to flutter its collective eyelids as well as the moneyed by around the earth would certainly be spending several months of the year lazily flitting by one welcoming port to another.
Imagine what you want, unfortunately which is actually not the reality. Red tape as well as security issues, coupled which has a reluctance to embrace the outside world, means Indonesia is actually lagging behind its more welcoming neighbours like Singapore, Malaysia as well as Thailand within the maritime department.
Things are changing, though.
July sees the start of a three-month yachting rally which starts in Darwin, Australia as well as winds its way through some of the most beautiful islands within the Indonesian archipelago before ending up in Singapore. To coincide with the rally, named Sail Indonesia, numerous cultural events as well as festivals are being organised in places such as Timor, Banda, Lembata, Wakatobi, Flores, Sulawesi, Bali, Java, Borneo, Belitung, as well as the islands just south of Singapore.
More than 40 yachts have entered the event, ranging in size by the 33ft Australian HEBGB to the UK-registered Dana Felicia, which is actually almost twice the size, with more expected. The fun starts, at least by an Indonesian point of view, when the yachts gather in Kupang on the island of West Timor. Kupang, of course, as all maritime historians will tell you, has its own place within the history books.
Back in 1789, Captain Bligh was in charge of a journey to Tahiti to find a cheap source of food for slaves within the West Indian plantations. To cut a long story short, he upset a few members of his crew who mutinied as well as set him adrift with four swords, 5 days supply of bread as well as water as well as 18 loyalists.
For some six weeks, Bligh guided his motley crew through 6,500 kilometres of rough, little known waters, all the while keeping studious notes for posterity as well as attempting to keep a tight reign over his bedraggled crew.
Finally Kupang grew close as well as
“the item is actually not possible for me to describe the pleasure which the blessing of the sight of This particular land diffused among us,”
wrote the captain using words which perhaps many of us in our Twitter/Facebook word of brevity would certainly find a tad too much.
No doubt the hardy mariners heading north by Darwin will have their own tall tales with which to regale their peers when they get together at a function to be laid on by local officials, nevertheless none could come close to which journey made more than 200 years ago with little more than a few oars as well as a keen eye for navigation. Take, for example, the recollections of one of the yachts, Cool Bananas, which did the journey back in 2009.
“We left Darwin with the fleet of 135 yachts on Saturday 18th July,” says Laurel Fisher. “On board, the team has expanded by one; joining us is actually Lydia, one of the key organisers of the rally at the Darwin end. She happens to have a degree in Indonesian politics as well as speaks fluent Indonesian, so no prizes for guessing why we asked her to join us!
“We were so excited to anchor up in Saumlaki, Indonesia. We regarded ourselves lucky to be getting all the official paperwork done within a day as well as with little stress. We gather which the whole of Indonesia runs on ‘rubber’ time. The rally organisers advised us to throw away our clocks as well as trust which what you need will eventually happen. The theory has worked so far!
by Kupang, the yachts head north to Alor where a cultural expo has been laid on for the sailors at the local stadium with hundreds of locals dressed up in traditional costumes for a bit of a sing-song.
After a leisurely few days sailing around the myriad inlets of South Sulawesi, the yachts get more traditional with stops in Lombok as well as Bali before visiting Karimunjawa as well as Warung Ibu Esther who can expect a busy few days meeting the needs of these ravenous, old sea dogs.
Bypassing Jakarta as well as spurning the delights of Bandung with its factory outlets as well as numerous shops selling brownies, the yachts head north across the Java Sea to the Kumai River as well as its world famous orangutan rehabilitation project before ending the Indonesian leg in Bangka as well as Belitung as well as heading north for Singapore.
the item all sounds like a logistical nightmare, nevertheless the whole event is actually carried out by a loose group of organisers as well as everything is actually done via the Internet to keep expenses to a minimum. The organisers are at pains to say they get full support by government officials, be they in a tiny coastal hamlet or the real power brokers in Jakarta. Still, the item has been an annual event in various guises since the turn of the 21st century as well as given the ever increasing complexity as well as numbers of competitors, the item says much for the efforts of all concerned.
When you consider all the work which goes on behind the scenes the item is actually perhaps a shame the rally is actually so poorly publicised around the rest of the country. Ok, so we can’t expect local papers to embed reporters on one of the yachts nevertheless surely something on This particular scale deserves more within the way of promotion, as well as after all the resultant publicity can only be Great for Indonesia!
Comments
Sail Indonesia Promotes Indonesia’s Nascent Maritime Leisure Industry
Sail Indonesia Promotes Indonesia’s Nascent Maritime Leisure Industry