Batam-Singapore
01 October 2010
Randy Repass
> 1October2010
Batam, Last Stop, Indonesia
Our destination after Kumai, Kalimantan/Borneo was Batam, Indonesia 565 miles away, just across the straights from Singapore. We need to check out of Indonesia there. Because there was very little wind and what wind we had was from behind we motored or motorsailed the whole way.
It was a pretty uneventful trip which we made in three hours short of 3 days on a very smooth sea, a few ships and a scattering of fishing boats. Our crew of three did 3 hour watches 24 hours a day so that the off watch crew could get 6 hours of rest before going on watch again. The moon was waning and provided some light in the morning hours.
Batam is heavily industrialized, having less expensive labor and only a few miles across the water from the very busy city/country of Singapore where labor rates are higher. On the approaches to Batam, we passed large ship building facilities, a big oil refinery, large oil platforms under construction, and other large industrial complexes along the waterfront. Several electronics factories are located inland. The few undeveloped strips of waterfront had the ubiquitous palm trees and jungle beyond that one would expect to find on an island just a few degrees north of the equator.
Marinas are uncommon in Indonesia. The last one that we were in was located in Darwin, Australia. We did see a poor attempt at a marina in Bali. Based on what we had read, we expected the marina at Batam not to be much other than a spot to check out of the country and get a good nights sleep. What a pleasant surprise to find a clean, well built only half occupied marina with concrete docks built in front of a moderate sized nicely done Spanish/Mexican looking resort on the hill behind.
While we had plenty of fuel to get to our destination Phuket, Thailand about 500 miles away, we put on X gallons of clean fuel, were met at our dock by competent line handlers and went up to the bar for refreshments.
While there our friends Tigs and Walter from the Mason 62 Marnie pulled into the marina. They had left Kumai about a day ahead of us. Kent-Harris greeted them with a wise crack at the fuel dock.
It would have been pleasant to spend a day or two lying around the pool but we wanted to get up to the Thai islands between Langkawi and Phuket for a last week of relaxed cruising before putting the boat away at Phuket and heading back to California. We headed out at first light the following day.