10′ 9S by 123′ 34E – Yesterday the wind was erratic, and so was the ride. It would get calm, then rough, then OK, then calm”¦ you get the idea. This morning seas have been reasonably good. We rolled up 2,000 hours on the main engine, which is a lot of time at sea. Eric saw something in the water that he thinks may have been a whale. He saw a spray of water and a flipper, so he is not positive. We made incredibly good speed on this passage, running at 1500 RPM most of the time and averaging over 6 knots. This has been by far our best passage overall, but it also had by far the scariest moments at sea we have ever had. Kind of seems like an oxymoron if you hadn’t read the full story.

Land was already visible when the sun came up. We were passed through some of the smaller islands to the south of Timor. There were islands on both sides of us. They are pretty low. Some have some small hills, but nothing too big. They are green and we could see some big stretches of beach on many of them. The taller mountains of the mainland er, the much bigger island, at least, is visible behind the islands on our right. At 09:00, we rounded the corner of one of the islands and headed into Kupang, located on the southwest corner of Timor Island. The smell of land dirt and vegetation — was strong. It is a good smell.

The country of Indonesia is made up of 17,508 islands (some argue that there are more) along and just below the equator. It is situated on the ring of fire and has 29 active volcanoes. Some of the islands were once connected to mainland Asia, some to mainland Australia, and most are volcanic. It has 245.5 million people, making it the fourth most populous country in the world behind China, India, and the US, but with only a fraction of the land mass of each of those other countries. Each island has its own customs and traditions, making the overall culture extremely diverse. Most of the population is either of Malay or Melanesian descent. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, and the biggest percentage of people are Muslim. But there are also a lot of Hindus and Animists (the belief in spirits practiced by their forefathers), as well as Buddhists and Christians.

The western islands of Indonesia are located at the east end of the Indian Ocean, making it an important stop on the trade route between the Middle East and Asia starting in the 1st century AD. It was a good place for merchants from each side to meet. Indonesians also produced quite a few trade goods of its own, as well, with each region producing different products. At that point in time there were many different kingdoms on the various islands. In the 1500’s the European powers moved in to exploit local resources and control international trade, and the Portuguese, Dutch and English all began conquering the natives and taking over the islands that make up Indonesia today. Eventually the Dutch won out, taking all of the islands in the chain except for half of Timor island, which they let the Portuguese have. The Indonesians were oppressed, exploited, and unhappy under European rule. Over the years there were many outbreaks of violence from people seeking freedom from the imperialists.

During World War II, the Japanese seized control of Indonesia. The Indonesians welcomed the Japanese as liberators. When the war ended in 1945, Indonesia quickly declared themselves an independent nation before the Dutch could officially take back power from Japan. A war ensued with Holland, and after 4 years of fighting, the Dutch finally gave up control of the majority of the region after much pressure from the UN and USA.

From 1945 through 1966 there was a lot of economic and political instability which led to unrest and violence. In 1966 a leader came to power that brought about relative peace, stability, and overall economic prosperity. Unfortunately, he was incredibly corrupt and set up a military government in which corruption was weaved into the fabric of the system. The people were content, though, and let him reign until 1997, when the country experienced an economic collapse. With the collapse, suddenly half the population was impoverished and inflation skyrocketed out of control. In May 1998, he finally gave in to the demands of the people and stepped down from power after 32 years of rule.

There have been a few different leaders in power since who are all working on weeding out the corruption. However, after 32 years of being unchecked, the corruption network is vast and powerful, so eliminating it is a slow and arduous process.

Timor is not a popular tourist destination. For many years there has been an on-going war on the eastern half of the island. The Indonesians wanted to unite East Timor with the rest of the country, the Portuguese wanted to retain control, and the people of East Timor wanted to be an independent nation. After much violence and destruction that occasionally crept over to the western half of the island, East Timor has received its independence and the violence seems to have subsided in the last year or so.