So Robbed in Sorong
The last days in Papua New Guinea were spent in the Hermit Islands – a very remote atoll about 150 miles north of the mainland of Papua. A couple minutes after dropping the anchor, we were approached by curious locals who just wanted to chat, and see if we would like to look at the village the next day. Of course, we did go into the village the next day, and it did not disappoint. The thing that stood out the most was the high school on the island – it was totally bizarre that this little remote island even had a high school, but we learned that kids from all over that region of Papua New Guinea come to this island for their schooling. There were dormitories filled with what seemed like hundreds of kids. It is the most beautiful school in the world, guranteed. We only planned to go to this island while we waited for our Indonesian C1 visas to come through, so we were glad that they were slightly delayed. Eventually we got them, and we set off for Biak, Indonesia.
We had been talking for months about how great it will feel to finally come into Indonesia after crossing an entire ocean (the biggest one by the way), and it lived up to our expectations. As we were sailing in, we were rewarded with the sights of crazy fishing boats, and ornate mosques. The call to prayer was on the loud speakers coming from the mosques, and the air was filled with an oily smoke from some open fire kitchen. It was very different from any place we had sailed into before, and we loved it. We tied up to a mooring in front of a dive resort, and were welcomed that night with dinner brought out to the boat. That was awesome. We did a lot of provisioning in Biak, as well as all customs and immigration things. This part is never that much fun, but on top of the very-well-stocked supermarket was a KFC… And we had barely seen a restaurant in months! The last restaurant we were in was the one in Vanuatu with the bat. So needless to say we devoured some good old Kentucky fried chicken. We then vowed to ourselves to only eat local Indonesian food after that, and we have been doing a good job. The food here is fantastic, but you just have to get used to the spice. Once everything was wrapped up in Biak, we started straight for Raja Ampat, but soon realized we needed to make a detour to Sorong in order to fill up our propane tanks. This is where our troubles began…
We got to Sorong at night, dropped the hook, had a nice uneventful sleep, and started early the next day. We were planning on spending two nights in Sorong maximum. We topped the boat up with diesel, got some fresh provisions, and after running around for a decent amount of time we managed to find someone to fill our propane tanks. Indonesian tanks have a different valve than our American tanks, so it is a bit of a pain in the arse. That afternoon we got back to the boat with everything done, and we felt accomplished. It was too late to set out for Raja Ampat that day, so we decided to spend one more night in the Anchorage–much to our demise. Felix and Tony went out on the town, Mike stayed onboard. During the night while Mike was asleep, five men came on board and stole every valuable thing they could find. And they basically found it all. They came down below and stole the fishing rods, spear guns, dive gear, hoses, a guitar, the drone, three computers, three phones, a kindle, two iPads, backpacks, sunglasses, knives, powerbanks, and the bastards even had the audacity to steal our coffee pot and a bag of apples we had in the fridge! Up on deck they also stole all eight of our Jerry cans that we had filled up that morning. Mike got up to the sound of them leaving, and was shocked when he saw everything they had stolen. When Felix and Tony got back to the boat, they too were shocked. After the initial adrenaline rush wore off, we tried to sleep, because we knew it was going to be a long day. We went to the police first thing in the morning to make an official report, and that was truly exhausting. Fortunately we had a great driver with us who spoke amazing English so he was able to translate for us, but most of the time was just spent sitting and listening to them speak Indonesian. The only reason we knew they were talking about us was the occasional glance cast in our direction and when they would say the name of the boat “Song”. All morning we sat around and went to different offices and even brought the police to the boat just so we could sit around there too. We did not have a good feeling when the police left us around 1:00 pm. We moved the boat to a safe marina, and then went out to buy some of the things we lost until we decided to call it and try and get some sleep. The next day was similar, running around looking for things. Eventually we felt like we were well enough stocked to make it to Raja Ampat, so we were planning on leaving that following morning. We were all in bed after an exhausting couple of days, when Tony gets a phone call at 10pm saying the police have found our things! Of course we rush to the police station to verify everything is there, and when we walk into the evidence room it seemed like every officer involved in the case was present. There were about 15 people in a small office, and everyone seemed to be very excited. Also, on the floor in the corner was the main culprit; sat there with his head bowed and his hands ziptied in front of him. We felt no ill will towards him, we understand he was 19 years old and probably hungry, but the police didn't share any of our empathy. When we showed an officer part of some dive gear that was still missing, he went over to the thief on the ground and showed him a picture and asked where it was, when the thief didn't speak, the officer punched him in the face at least ten times until he talked. Right in front of us! The missing dive gear showed up maybe 30 minutes later. Efficient police work is very ugly. Anyways, the police got 99% of our things back, but the caveat was that all of our things were evidence for the case, and they wouldn't release it without a bunch of paperwork and red tape nonsense. So we had to come back the next day, and deal with that. While all this stuff was going on, the police had published a video on Instagram and Tik Tok, which is what the first two minutes of our video is. You can see there is a picture of all the things stolen, and you can see when the actual arrest was made. This video has gone viral in Indonesia. The next night we went BACK to the police station, finally grabbed all of our things, and brought it back to the boat. We left the next morning for the fabled Raja Ampat.
There are parts of the story I am leaving out most certainly, but that's all you get for now. In total, we spent six days in Sorong. Which now puts us on a tight time crunch for our stay in Indonesia.
We first arrived to the famous island of Kri, which is home to the dive site with the most biodiversity in the entire world. After anchoring in very deep water, 150 feet, we pumped our tanks and got several very good dives in. Crystal clear water, perfectly healthy reef, and an unbelievable amount of marine life–that's why we came here. One night we went to one of the homestays that line the shores here to see if they had any provisions, and on the dock there were a bunch of young Indonesians that recognized us and the boat from that video! Our fifteen minutes of Indonesian fame was very entertaining. We spent two days here, then woke up early one day (3am) to find the anchor dragging, so we just decided to move on to the next spot. And this next spot was a beautiful little nook in the mangroves. Three lines ashore and zero wind made us all sleep soundly knowing we couldn't drag here. Beautiful nature all around, and more diving. Yesterday we left that spot to come where we are now, Pianaymo. A world famous geological site that is actually pictured on the $100,000 bill of Indonesia! Crazy little limestone islands are scattered about the lagoon like some ancient giant spilled their marbles. The views on top of the water and under are fantastic.
We have a 500ish nautical mile passage to Wakatobi National Park coming up, so for now we are relaxing and soaking in the beauty after the very stressful week in Sorong.
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