Our arrival in Saumlaki was a right royal occasion. Saumlaki is the largest town on the largest island of the Tanimbar Group, known in the past for their spices. Customs and quarantine came out to the boats to fill in countless pieces of paper. Then when we went ashore it turned out there were even more pieces of paper to be filled in. Basically it seems to be a kind of contest in which you bring lots of paper and copies, and they think of a new request just when you think you have it all sorted. The missing paper, in our case multiple copies of our passports, then turns out not to be important after all. Still the whole process was very friendly, we were not charged anything, and despite all the paper quite easy. More paper and multiple stamping of documents is of course required when leaving.

An official welcome was arranged for us complete with troupes of local dancers, elders of the town, the mayor (called a Regent in Indonesia) and assorted military and police officials. The Elders of the town were very impressive and dignified, dressed in traditional gear with lots of shells and a full set of teeth between the lots of them!Dancers with ceremonial swords started the procedings and then the various yachties were ceremonially greeted by sharing the local hooch, a coconut spirit which is a lot more tasty than the Fijian kava. This was followed by more dancing, some speeches and eats. All in all quite a welcome.