30 Where in the World
The-Triton.com January 2017
Prepare with inventory lists, agent and extra spare parts INDONESIA from page 29
An area that I would avoid, unless I had armed and trained personnel on Customs and quarantine may well make board, would be the waters north and east of Kalimantan bordering Borneo a thorough search of the vessel, so be and the southern Philippines. Pirates ready with lists of meds and a whole ship’s inventory from food and beverage are active in this region, many coming under the guise of terrorist groups. to electronics. These will more than There are so many places worth visiting, likely be requested and typing them up places that don’t have any history of as you deal with half a dozen people in piracy, that to go to this region would be the salon is not time efficient. pointless folly. At no point should the captain or For the most part, I would say the members of the crew offer a gratuity of majority of incidents experienced by any kind to CQI personnel. This could lead to complications and even criminal visiting yachts are either petty theft or miscommunication. charges. Having The former being hats and T shirts the theft of small close to hand after desirable items taken all procedures are off the back deck completed is fine, or swim platform. but anything other This can generally than this I would be prevented by not recommend. A the usual levels good agent will take of vigilance and care of any unofficial keeping an effective payments. watch. Any requests by CQI officials Miscommunication usually occurs made directly to the crew should be when smaller vessels visit isolated passed over to the agent. Be patient, be places, the locals paddle out to the respectful and enjoy the experience. yacht and climb aboard asking for All ports down to the smallest T-shirts, waste oil or cigarettes, alreadyfishing port will have a syahbandar nervous crew become aggressive and (literally king of the port) or harbor the situation escalates. By the time the master. Vessels are required to report yacht arrives back in Bali several weeks in and out on each visit. If in doubt, later, the crew are convinced they had a check with your agent. Sometimes port clearance can be arranged in advance for bonafide piracy incident. Thankfully, Indonesia has strict gun convenience. This is especially helpful if laws so owning and keeping a firearm at guests are on board. home is almost impossible. This ensures that gun crime in Indonesia is almost Security non-existent. But this also means that Much has been made of piracy in customs authorities take possession Indonesian waters. Indeed piracy in of firearms on vessels seriously, much the Malacca Straits is still a problem. more so than masters are probably used However, this is almost exclusively to in Europe or the aimed at large U.S. commercial vessels Prior notice of Indonesian yacht agents with nothing like firearms onboard the level of violence • indonusa-marine.net is required, and experienced off the • asia-pacific-superyachts.com vessels may find that horn of Africa. For clearing in and out of this seaway between ports takes time due to the paperwork Sumatra and the Malayan peninsula, that comes hand-in-hand with having I would advise visiting yachts not to guns on the boat. I don’t keep guns drastically elevate their security threat on my vessel (despite a stint in the level. A sensible precaution would be British armed forces and being pretty to check the regional incident reports. comfortable around firearms). I believe I use the International Chamber of that if you have a gun on your boat, you Commerce website (www.icc-ccs.org), should be ready to commit to its use and local reporting authorities contact (this subject has and will continue to details are readily accessible on the be enthusiastically debated). The hassle bridge.