Sunday 21st to Sunday 28th July 2019

 

Debut (pronounced D’boot) is a small fishing village with a sheltered bay large enough to fit in the 60+ boats of the Wonderful Sail to Indonesia rally.

Officials from customs, immigration and health come to Debut from the main town of Tual at the start of the Wonderful Sail to Indonesia rally to clear the yachts in, visiting each boat individually. A boat load of five officers from Immigration and Health came on board to look at our passports and documents and to fill in various forms. They were charming and efficient.

Customs were next and enquired whether we had drugs or firearms on board. We were expecting to have our medicines thoroughly inspected and containers of flour checked as they did on some other boats, presumably looking for cocaine or heroin, but a cursory look through our cupboards seemed to be enough – presumably we look pretty harmless.

Debut village had been decorated with flags, the gardens full of colour and there was not a spot of litter in sight (we were told that they had a big clean up before our arrival). Only the dogs let the side down, all looking rather malnourished and several of the poor, neglected creatures very mangy.

Wandering around the streets everyone is smiling and friendly and the children want to have their photos taken.

 

Even the teenage girls want selfies with Hugh.

We greet everyone with ‘salamat pagi’ (good morning in Indonesian) and they respond with ‘pagi’. Indonesian words bear no resemblance to any other language we’ve come across and it’s proving hard for me to learn even a few simple phrases. We stop to look at discs of waffle-like bread made from cassava that is drying in the sun and I was given one to try… rather bland and chewy.

Debut is mainly Christian, with a large church dominating the village. There is another village on the other side of the bay which is mainly Muslim and from the anchorage we could see 2 churches and 5 mosques.

Over the next few days a full programme of entertainment had been laid on for us, although it is rather chaotic… no one seems to know what is going to happen each day. The more organised of the cruisers set up a daily VHF net to share information and messages are exchanged in a WhatsApp group. We slowly get to know the crews on other boats on the rally.

Apart from getting the laundry done, a priority for everyone was to get Indonesian SIM cards from the tent set up by the Indonesian mobile phone provider, Telkomsel.

 

Every day there was dancing in Debut with schoolchildren and adults performing beautiful dances.

We are encouraged to join in a form of line dancing… once you’d mastered the basic steps not too hard although the graceful expressive hand movements are impossible to copy. Banks of speakers blare out music into the early hours and the calls to prayer resonate from the mosques from 5am on.

Three days after we arrive is the morning of the official welcome ceremony in Debut. We are requested to come over to the painted steps in our dinghies in country order. Australia first, then the Netherlands, England (including the Scots and Welsh, much to their annoyance) followed by the Canadians, the Kiwis, various other European countries and with the USA last (and late).

The Regent (of the island) gave a speech…

….. there is some sweet singing from a group of women and the Ancient Adat sprinkles the onlookers with coconut water as a customary blessing…..

….. and the dancing is accompanied by 15 drummers beating out the rhythm with a single shrill, discordant flute.

 

Another day we catch a bus into Langgur to visit the vegetable market and the only supermarket on the island.

 

Over the week more events are laid on. A meeting in a smart hotel to discuss the rally schedule with speeches from local dignitaries in expensive floral shirts. Mangrove tree planting and a beach cleanup. A burnt-out truck is sunk in 30 meters of water to provide a habitat for fish as part of their Coral Reef Restoration Programme. We visit a seaweed farm where a forest of floating plastic bottles are used to suspend and grow clumps of seaweed.

One day there is an excursion to the mainly Christian town of Langgur and after speeches and a look around the large church there we walk to the next venue. The road is lined with children waving red and white Indonesian flags, who shake hands or high five and some try out their few words of English. They are so excited, giggling and almost swooning if you stop to chat. We feel like celebrities or royalty.

 

We watch a bizarre and disturbing re-enactment of 30 July 1942 when Japanese soldiers brutalised and murdered the bishop and clergy here.

 

Another evening we are taken by bus to the nearby village of Wab to see their beach which they are aiming to promote as a tourist destination (I wonder if the villages know what they are letting themselves in for) with more speeches by the Regent, bands playing flutes, dancing and a ‘Gala Dinner’ (a buffet on the beach).

Everywhere we went we were treated with warmth, friendliness, enthusiasm and generosity. We feel rather guilty accepting all the meals and entertainment, which appear to be funded by the Ministry of Tourism, and we are repeatedly urged to tell all our friends how wonderful Indonesia is …. and it really is wonderful!