Photo: Bitung Harbour

Heading south at last. We left Tawau in Borneo calling at the dive resort of Mabul along the way. After departing Mabul we headed for Bitung on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi expecting the infamous hard time from the Indonesian immigration and customs officials. Armed with our new CAIT (cruising permit for Indonesia) we entered Bitung harbour in the dead of night and nosed around for two hours before we found a suitable depth to anchor. This was hard going. We then had a dinghy treck of over a mile to the nearest landing point to find Immigration...

We had a fantastic reception. They simply could not do enough for us. These guys arranged our Visas, stuck me on the back of a motorcycle to take me to Quarantine, Customs and to the Harbourmaster. They then arranged our diesel re-fueling and to collect my daughter Lauren with her boyfriend Dan from the airport the next day. And when Lauren and Dan's luggage never arrived.... they sorted that too!

The best place to land ashore with the dinghy was the local bum boat dock which was a colourful and noisy maze of small boats and shouting boatmen. We paid one of the boat guys a few Indonesian coins and left the dinghy to his mercy. When we returned a few hours later it was neatly and safely tied between the bum boats. We knew we were perfectly safe in this busy and bussling harbour and the friendliness of these people was simply overwhelming. We departed Bitung a few days later, now with a crew of four and headed south towards the equator. We were sorry to leave.

Bitung and Sulawesi is third world bliss.....
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