Our Top 10 Essentials List to Have BEFORE Sailing into Indonesia - All Learned from Experience

After a year of living in Indonesia on our Whitby 42 Ketch, we share our Top Ten Tips for what you need to have or organise BEFORE you sail to this wonderful but, often, very remote cruising paradise. There are no marine chandleries to duck into if something breaks and you may be surprised at what items commonly available at home are simply impossible or hyper expensive to obtain in Indonesia.

Some items on our list you may be aware of but we’re sure there will be others you’re not. We weren’t, so we put together this list of our Top Ten to help those following in our wake. While the list is based on our experiences in Indonesia, many of the Ten discussed would also be applicable when cruising in other areas. We hope you find the content helpful for your planning, particularly if you’re intending to head this way.

We’re also currently uploading fortnightly episodes of our Series 4, “Dreamtime in Indonesia” covering every destination we’ve visited since our journey began with a five day passage from Thursday Island to our check in port on Kei Kecil. Each episode is packed full of helpful information along with the amazing people and places of Indonesia.


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Cheers Rob and Karen
0:00 Introduction
0:51 Satellite Imagery Navigation
4:22 Hand Held Depth Gauge
6:30 Spare Dinghy Propeller
9:36 Bulk Cleaning Vinegar
11:39 Motorcycles & Travel Insurance
13:30 Bulk Sunscreen
14:35 Strong Trolley
17:53 Multiple Means to Access Cash
23:15 Long Shore Lines
25:56 Alcohol

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Essential Items Before Sailing to Indonesia

We just thought we’d put together a bit of a video of 10 things that we think you need to know about before you sail off and into Indonesia. They may not be the things that you think you may need, no and they are things that we didn’t necessarily know about when we left.

1. Navigation Charts

The charts up here are a Rough Guide only and I mean extremely rough. Now there’s systems like Navionic or similar, but guess what? The charts up here are just a rough guide only. Without doubt it’s satellite imagery now. There’s a couple of uh systems that most people use we’re using Sis Planet, another one is Open CPN.

2. GPS Systems

With the SAS planet or open CPN it’s like looking at a photographic chart, the satellite image is there and you can see where your boat is. You can actually see the track when it comes down to coming into reefs or looking for an Anchorage.

3. Handheld Depth Gauge

For anchorages, there are coral shelves for you to go over and there’s 60 M on the other side and there’s 10 m on the inside. We’ve been using this little handheld beauty, it’s been wonderful. Simple, just put the dingy down, I go in with the dingy and use this Hawkeye Depth Track to measure the depth.

4. Spare Propellers

If you don’t have a spare propeller for your outboard, you’re going to do a lot of rowing and quite often you are anchoring a long way from where you need to go. If a big heavy plastic bag hits your prop it will be a bad bag or something so we’re hanging on to this one for a spare in case that one gets clagged.

5. Vinegar

Vinegar is essential to clean stainless steel, the toilets and make sure that the systems are nice and clean so we don’t get the calcium build up in the headlines.

6. Motorcycle License

If you’re even thinking about using a motor scooter, make sure you get a motorcycle license and check very closely your travel insurance whether it covers you for motocycling or not.

7. Sunscreen

Sunscreen is extremely hard to get here in Indonesia and it’s extremely expensive, a small tube is going to set you back $15 Australian dollar. It is worthwhile to buy your big pump bottles and bring them.

8. Trolleys for Fuel Storage

Fuel docks are zero here in Indonesia, so you need Jerry cans. We’ve got eight Jerry cans on deck and we pay $5 a day or quite often to go get our diesel in the markets. The beauty of it is we can actually arrange our anchor and stern line so that our bow is facing any wav action that might be happening.

9. Cash

In this country, you need cash because very rarely can you use a credit card. A minimum of 5% search charge is applied for any cards used in Indonesia.

10. Alcohol and Prescription Medications

Legally, you’re only allowed to bring one liter per person of alcohol into Indonesia. Western Union is another way to get cash before leaving Australia without any issues.

Our Top 10 Essentials List to Have BEFORE Sailing into Indonesia - All Learned from Experience Locations

  • Located in Saly Bay, an excellent area for sailing and exploring the remote islands of Eastern Indonesia. (-9.3172,124.1616)

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