After an uneventful 5 day sail from Thursday Island, Australia across the Torres Straight and the Arafura Sea we landed in Debut Indonesia, the first stop on the Sail2Indonesia Rally. We took it slow and easy so we were one of the last boats to pull into the harbor. Debut has a large well protected harbor and there was more than enough room for the 50 or so rally boats. The only issue with being late was the customs and immigration process was going very slowly. Generally you are not allowed to leave your boat until you are fully checked into a country. They were being extremely easy on the rally boats and many people were off their boats, but then you run the risk of missing the officials. So we stayed on board and were not actually fully checked in until a day and a half later. It was a rather long wait, but the check in process was smooth enough and hassle free. All the boats were finally checked in and it was time to head ashore for the first of many festivities. The first was a greeting and welcome ceremony out on by the local government. The town had come out in force to greet us. The dock is really high and difficult to get onto at anything but low tide. As we pulled up to the dock there were local guys there to help and it was amazing. You could literally pull up to the steps , hand your line over and have "valet" dinghy parking. This went on everyday and when you would return the kids would pull your dinghy back over to the steps for you, no fuss and no asking for a tip or anything. The welcome ceremony was held on the dock. There were chairs lined out and they had even been covered in fabric, it was all very fancy. A box with water and pastries had been laid out on each seat. The town officials all made long speeches in Bhasa, or Indonesian, which were than dramatically shortened as they were translated into English. Our next stop was a tour of the local school. It was sweet, as we walked thru town every single person, and I am talking hundreds, wanted to shake our hand and take a picture with us. In fact, the picture taking was huge, especially for Zack who good naturedly posed for at least a hundred photos. The school kids and the whole town had been preparing for our arrival for over a month. All the kids knew how to introduce themselves in English, tell their names, and ask your name. It was the gist of our afternoon of conversation. Then it was off to the local swimming hole for a 2 hour swim. Back to the boats to change and then in for a gala dinner, speeches and some dancing. Again, all the locals were out, meeting and greeting the rally crews. I think we were the highlight of the year, it was unbelievable and really touching how much effort this little town put into welcoming us. The gala dinner was a feast, an entire school room with 2 long tables filled with different local foods. Some of it was new to me, like papaya leaf salad and raw seaweed. It was all very delicious and we were definitely treated as guests of honor. A lot of the local school kids put on dances for us and there were of course lots of speeches. It seems all the local dignitaries had come out to welcome us. The next day was a local holiday commemorating a priest and a nun who had been killed on the island in the early days. We went to the neighboring town of Tual early in the morning to do a bit of shopping with a couple of other boats. We had lunch and spent a bit of time at the local market doing a scavenger hunt with the Allure boys. Friends we had met last year in Fiji, on the boat Per Ardua had cruised thru the area earlier in the year and they left a package for the boys. It was three envelopes each to be used in different towns and they need to find certain things for a scavenger hunt. Zack had to find embol sticks. We had a guide so it was easy to find them in the back of the market. Zack ate them so not sure if that will count against him in the scavenger hunt. By the time we got back to Debut we had totally missed the festivities. It was hot so we popped off to the small store to find a cold beer, no bars here. We got a few cold ones and were sitting on the steps just relaxing and chatting. It must have been a novelty for the locals because everyone stopped to say hello and take pictures. There was a little girl of 11, Angel, whom we had met the night before who was able to speak some English. Maria picked up and excellent English to Indonesian dictionary and between the two we were able to have a fair conversation. As the afternoon progressed and the beers went down it turned into quite a party. At one point there were about 40 locals, mostly children hanging out with us. And then the conversation turned to fireworks, which are apparently fairly easy to get in Indonesia. Dean gave a local guy $100,000.00 Rupiah ($10US) and asked him to go get us some fireworks. How stupid was that? Well we chided him a bit and told him he would never see the guy again. Ten minutes later Dean had 5 Roman Candles and his change. Did I say how really nice these people are? I need to lose that cynicism. The boys were all keen to set one off right there but the more prudent ladies shut that idea down. We were right in town with a throng of young children around, it just seemed like a bad idea. A beer or two later Dean had one out and a local guy gestured about lighting it off, Dean handed him a Roman Candle. The guy pulls out a lighter and standing in the middle of the street, children everywhere, houses on both sides, and lights the wick. He walked into the middle of the street and off it went, to great cheers and applause. I was sure the police would be round, but no, it was all good. We made our way back to the dock with a throng of children following us. It was dark and time to head back for dinner. As we got to the dock we were pulled over to the side. It seems the local mothers had all gotten together and put out a meal for the cruisers. There were a few there, but it was not scheduled so most cruisers were on their boats. Jason put out a call on the VHF and a few more came in. We all had a great dinner and then the music started. There is a PA system set up on the dock and it was a huge party, again hundreds of locals showed up. There was lots of dancing and it was great because all the cruisers joined in and were dancing with each other and the locals. All the kids got into it as well and were dancing with the local kids and the boys with the local ladies. It was a picture taking frenzy and Zack must have taken another 50 photos. One lady even gave him a necklace she was wearing, a very nice silver cross. The people of Debut are just as generous as can be. There were a few army guys there with AK-47's and even they wanted a picture with Zack. We also got a picture of that one. Zack gave one of them a 2 thumbs up and it was pretty funny. We danced until about midnight and went home to crash. The rally was mostly moving on the next day but we decided to stay an extra day as did all the kid boats and a few others. We had heard about some caves from some other cruisers. We decided to take a hike out to the caves and go for a swim. We came into the dinghy dock and were greeted with the usual bunch of local kids. Not sure if school is mandatory here because it seems like most of these kids should have been in school. Everyone asked what we were doing and when we told them we were hiking to the caves they all cheered. We had a kid escort group of at least 20 kids all the way to the caves. No checking with parents, they all just came. It was at least a 30 minute hike thru 2 other villages and no one seemed concerned that these kids were just following us out of town. The caves were absolutely amazing. It is fed by an underground freshwater spring and is crystal clear. It had a big opening and stalactites hung from the ceiling. There were some smaller stalagmites coming up from the floor. We all jumped in for a swim, the water was lovely, especially after a long hike 6 degrees off the equator. All the local kids jumped in as well some fully clothed, a few had bathing suits. The opening of the cave was about 18 feet high and you had to climb down into the cave, or you could jump. To jump you had to get a running start, jump from one rock over a small ditch to another rock, then out about 10 feet, (or you would crash on a pile of rocks) all the while not smashing your head on the stalactites, and land in a small pool of water surrounded by stalagmites. It was a pretty scary looking adventure. Some very young local kids were at it all afternoon, the trick was to tag the stalactite on your way by. They were also jumping off a really high rock into an even more shallow, smaller pool and they were going head first. It was really dangerous, Zack and George wanted to have a go but Maria and I shut that idea down straight away. That's how scary it looked. The walk back to town was long and hot but what a great day we had. We got back to the boat and were chilling out when a boat full of locals pulled up. We recognized most of them from the previous 2 days and invited them up. The people here are super curious as to how we live and they wanted to see the boat. They are all super polite and kind. I whipped up a bowl of popcorn and we sat around for a couple of hours trying to communicate. They all spoke a bit of English and I got out all our books that have some phrases and we got on just fine. There was lots of picture taking and it was a sad goodbye when they all left. The people of Debut were truly wonderful and they put on a huge effort to greet us and treat us like family. We left Debut and did a short day hop up to Palau Tayendu. We pulled into the anchorage in high winds, but as soon as we were in the island blocked the wind and the bay was calm and protected. The anchoring is not great. The bay is about 90' deep straight up to the reef. You need to just motor up slowly until the water shoals and throw the hook (anchor) off. There are a few boats here and it is the same all along the strip. It was a bit strange that after we anchored a bunch of local pangas came up filled with young guys and they all just started hopping on our and everyone else's boats. It was a bit intimidating at first, but they really were just curious and not really aware of boat etiquette. You wouldn't walk into someone's home uninvited and you shouldn't really jump on someone's boat uninvited. But try explaining that to someone who doesn't speak English. It was fine and they were nice enough. They did know how to ask for beer and cigarettes, go figure. We said we didn't have any. They stayed maybe 15 minutes got bored and went to different boats. This happened with about 3 boats and then we made signs like we were going to eat and it seemed to be accepted. I don't think they have seen a lot of cruisers here before.