Vanimo to Indonesia

Our last stop in Papua New Guinea was Vanimo, on the mainland of Papua. We had mostly avoided the mainland because of its reputation for high crime. We spent most of our time in remote islands. Our friend Sarah on Field Trip likened it to visiting the United States and going to Hilton Head, while avoiding Chicago and New York.

We had to go to Vanimo to get our Indonesia visas. Although Vanimo is considered safe during the day, a cruising boat had been robbed at night earlier in the year. So we (along with Field Trip) resolved to get there and out in one day.

We left Ninigo Friday evening. After the first evening (when we caught a nice wahoo) the wind died down and we mostly made our way slowly at about 2 knots, which was all from the current. We motored the last few hours so that we could get to Vanimo in time to get to the consulate when it opened.

We were successful (despite the Indonesian consulate's leisurely opening time) and were pulling up anchor with time to spare.

Around the second day on our journey to Indonesia, the auto-pilot started having fits. Matt figured out that the rudder transducer was sending wrong signals to the autopilot so that it was not turning when it should. Fortunately, the auto-pilot seems to work without the port rudder transducer, except that it has fits when we are going very slowly (which seems to be a lot of the time lately!).