There was a time, just a few years ago, when the entrance requirements to sail into Asian countries were established and known. Then Covid came and the world shut down. When these countries started to welcome sailors again, they opened their borders with new regulations, costs and conditions, and these would change on a regular basis. Due to this, you can find many interpretations and experiences online regarding the process, and even more opinions about the best way to go about entering. Indonesia is no exception. This is our experience end June 2023.

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Following the information in our pilot book, we entered Sabang in the evening of day 4, and following the advice of some recent visitors, picked up a mooring ball. There are actually two mooring balls available and we chose the one “furthest” from the “town”. The next day would be an important day in the Muslim calendar so we were not sure if check-in would be possible, fireworks late into the night was a welcome sound as we rested in calm conditions.

The next morning, we went ashore to see of we could find the Harbour Master and check what our options were, and ended up too far west in the bay. Now we had, unknowingly, entered a military area. The soldier on duty tried his best to explain where the Harbour Master is situated, and allowed us to pass. At this stage, he had no idea we had arrived by dinghy, but this would change very soon.

Off we went on our quest to find the right offices. We failed to find the Harbour Master (HM) but knew (from our pilot book) that if we found Customs, then we should find HM a little further down the street. It was during this walk that someone at the military base realised that they were under attack and that a strange and unidentified dinghy had made landfall, occupants now missing and classified as “rogue”. The walk up the hill is spectacular, the road lined and tunnelled by huge trees, the scene made all the more special by sounds of the friendly locals hooting and waving as they passed.

Then a different tone of hooting and some shouting broke the peaceful mood. On a scooter, at the back, is the soldier who let us pass, looking quite agitated, saying: “You need to go back boat now!”. Things had just escalated to Code Red and we started our way back to the base with visions of fines, imprisonment and 8-hour interrogations. Around the fountain and down we went, as fast as possible. As we made it to street level, two scooters now approached, each with only one driver, one in uniform. “We are Indonesian soldier, you come with us”. So we each hopped on a scooter and made our way back to the scene of the landing. On the way I enquired what the problem was, and was told we have to leave the area immediately. When we actually beached our dinghy there was one fisherman repairing his boat, on the beach. Now as we turned the corner, there were at least 8 soldiers waiting for us, but the mood had changed, they found the situation entertaining, that two clueless tourists had launched a successful raid into their secure premises, undetected, was a good laugh and they bid us farewell, sending us back to where we came from.

We get escorted back to our dinghy

But we were not done and so easily discouraged. We still needed to find HM. On the way up to Customs, I had noticed a tower with a spiral staircase which could possibly be close to the offices of HM, so once back on the water, we made our way to this tower. As we neared the area, we saw that there was in fact a floating pontoon where we could tie dinghy up and go ashore. And would you believe it, in front of us, a big blue building, with white letters printed on the roof – HARBOUR MASTER.

Approaching Harbour Master offices after being chased out of military area

We had made it, and learned some important lessons:

1. When you check into Sabang, do not leave your boat. This seems to be a serious infringement and we were warned that in future, we should refrain from accessing the island before being officially checked in.

2. Once you arrive, with yellow Q flag flying, call HM on the radio and arrange a time to begin the process.

3. Anchoring in the bay is in about 24 metres with wind blowing into the bay. We had been advised that there were two yellow moorings available but only saw one. It was this one that we picked up. The moorings are pretty close to land and this land is decorated with other boats that have dragged or broken loose as a result of storms or other unfortunate circumstances.

We enquired at the HM office as to what we should do, and we were asked to return to the boat and await instructions on the radio. By the time we got back to Maia, HM crew had arrived and scheduled us a 9am check-in for the next morning, after taking some photos of some of our documents.

Next morning we headed to the mooring closest to the HM office and tied up. Within two minutes, the first officials were ready to come on board. These were the representatives of the Quarantine Department. They boarded and went down below, and we started the process. Not long into the process, we heard frantic shouting from above somewhere, and we ran up to investigate. Our worst fears... The mooring had broken loose and we were headed for the harbour wall. Got the engine started, the mooring untied from our bow, and prepared to come alongside the rusty Coast Guard vessel, with every fender we could find, and more.

Broken mooring - check out how close to the harbour wall we got

Rafted up to an old Coast Guard vessel

It seems every department will need to check the same batch of documents. If we did not have copies, they took pics with mobile phones, no problems whatsoever. They wanted to see our first-aid kit and check all medication on board. Again, no issues, but they bought to our attention that several items of medication had expired. Then they took a couple of pics of our heads (toilet that is), a couple of selfies (to show they doing their job), and checked our galley area.

A short time later, the official from Immigration arrived and joined us on board. He basically checked the same documents, we filled in some forms and answered some questions. He explained the costs for a 30-day Visa-On-Arrival, and how to extend that visa. We needed to pay the fees into the Immigration account at the nearest bank, so Nix took a short scooter ride to deposit the funds. All the requirements and costs will be listed below. He was also a source of great information and gave Nix some good advice and recommendations.

Once Quarantine had left, Customs arrived, lots of forms were filled in and some more pics and selfies. Most of the departments require you to use a boat stamp on the various documents. We do not have a stamp, and in these cases, allowed us to fingerprint where needed. Customs checked stores, we declared the alcohol we had on board (okay most of it)...

Harbour Master paid a visit while Nix was gone and I dealt with them alone, which was not a problem at all.

The problem I had was this...

When we first picked up a mooring, we were getting ourselves secured so we could do the check-in procedure. Someone had arrived on the Coast Guard vessel and proceeded to shout over that if we needed an agent, he would be our guy. As we were concentrating on getting ourselves sorted, he continued to try get our attention to make sure we understood he was going to be our agent. At some stage in the recent past, you needed an agent to get into Indonesia and these did not have to be official agents, just a local person who could act on your behalf and be your “sponsor”. We told him that if we needed him, we would let him know.

When we had our issues with the mooring ball and approached the vessel to raft up against, there was “Agent” again waiting to let us know he was going to be our guy. As I'm tying lines, I have these non-stop reminders that “I am agent, what you need, where you go tomorrow?”. My nerves at this stage are done and the stresses of nearly losing our boat to a broken mooring, are starting to add up.

As firmly as I could I informed Agent: “Listen, can you please wait, we are trying to tie up our boat?”. If I had a boat hook I would have used it, as would you believe it, it continued. “What time you come tomorrow, I look after you, I am agent”. Again I said: “Can you just wait, stop, if we need you, we will let you know”.

When all these official came on board, they all waited for permission or an invitation to come aboard. When Harbour Master came on board and had a seat, who joins and has a seat with us? Agent... He has come on board and made himself comfortable. The HM hands over a document to me and asks me to please fill in this form. Now, he is sitting across from me so to hand me a form is the easiest thing in the world. But Agent decides he needs to take it from HM and then hand it to me, offering the same instruction.

Now I've had it so I inform HM that I will be with them in a minute, but this guy needs to get off my boat. I explained that he is not an official, I only want to deal with officials, he was not invited to come aboard and needs to go. So I chased him off, no agent was ever needed, and our check-in was nearly done.

A representative from Quarantine arrived with their invoice and we could now take a walk to the bank ourselves to make the deposit. Then we walked up to Customs to complete the vessel declaration. The vessel declaration should be done online before arriving and this is what we did, but the system is not 100% yet so our application was there, but not yet processed. The young lady was friendly and efficient and got it done for us.

We took a mooring at 9am and we walked out of the bank at 12 Noon, so a total of three hours to complete all the formalities. Every single person we dealt with, was friendly, respectful and courteous. It was a great experience with no complaints from our side.

Total cost: 30 days Visa-On-Arrival, for two persons: IDR 1,000 000, which at the time was $66, or $33 each.

Quarantine: IDR 70,000 which works out to $4.62

Documents required:

Port Clearance.

Copies of passports.

Crew list.

Vessel registration.

Proof of vessel declaration (https://vds.beacukai.go.id/)

Actual passports.

Proof of vaccination (Covid).

Physical Items required or checked:

First-Aid kit and medications.

Access to all food stores.

Access to alcohol.

Please note: Our experience with regards to alcohol, is that as long as it is for personal consumption, you will be allowed to visit this “dry” area, where alcohol is not readily available.

We had received information regarding AIS stipulations in Indonesia and warned we would have to show that we had a working AIS system on board. It is possible that we were picked up on their system when entering Sabang, and our unit is clearly visible, but we were never asked anything with regards to AIS.

Apart from the mooring situation and Agent, the whole process was smooth, friendly and pleasant. We look forward to our time here...

This is how we got here: