LIKE SHIPS IN THE NIGHT   By John Jilderts, "Sokari"               

We passed in total darkness. All we could hear was the thudding of his large diesel.

It all began on one of our trips to Indonesia. The Troubles they called it. It had other names - the Timor Crisis and the Vote for Independence. We had arrived in the middle of it, and with no warning of trouble before we left Australia four days prior, we were enjoying our time in this incredible country oblivious of any problems until finally we arrived in Bali.

Suddenly, warnings were everywhere. "Take your Australian flag down," I was told by the Embassy when I made enquiries. As usual, rumours abounded and I wanted to know what was fact and what was fiction but they were little help. "You're on a boat so contact the Embassy in Jakarta," was all they advised. The Embassy requested my email address so they could issue any warnings to us via their covert (yahoo!!) email address. The official advised me to leave Bali straight away and return to Australia without touching land in Indonesia as they couldn't guarantee our safety. We were confused. Over the last few weeks as we headed west towards Bali we had had no problems with any of the Indonesians at any of the islands we had stopped at on the way. But we decided to heed their advice.

This began a long journey home to windward.

We stopped at the top of Lombok to take on clean fresh well water. While there our friend Mohamed told us a car had stopped that morning and the occupants were saying we were Australians in a threatening manner, but Mohamed told them that "No, they're from New Zealand and I should know because I work for them."  Luckily we had given him a shirt with our boats name so when he flashed it, he was finally believed. He pulled me aside and told me so as not to scare Rosemary.

Needless to say we left shortly afterwards and so began 13 days at sea.

We motor sailed over the top of Lombok towards Sumbawa. After the rushed preparation getting the water and leaving immediately I was very tired. I had not had a chance to recover from the 3 month trip getting there so this situation was not ideal for the beginning of another long trip.

As we sailed into our second night I laid a course offshore towards the island of Komodo. We had to pass an island ahead of us and I was trying to stay away from the coastal traffic and fishing fleets of canoes and boats up to 60 feet.  With no moonrise for hours the night was dark..  I put my head down around midnight hoping to get about twenty minutes sleep. Rosemary was at the helm and alert luckily when she picked up on a small dim light dead ahead so she altered course slightly to starboard to avoid it. After a few minutes she noticed a small flashing light appear and assumed that it was a fishing boat with a net out.  It still appeared to be dead ahead so she altered course again to starboard knowing there were no natural hazards nearby. With the lights always appearing to be dead ahead she eventually woke me and told me what was happening.  Luckily I nap in the saloon on passage so I was quickly up. Even in my half sleep as I rushed to the cockpit I tried to put it together. My mind ticked over. Maybe a fishing canoe offshore and a new beacon on the northern side of the island? No - the Indonesian Govt can't afford that.  By now I had reached the cockpit and through bleary eyes tried to to understand what we were seeing and for only the second time in my life at sea instinct took over.  I grabbed the helm, disengaged the auto pilot and pulled hard to port . The opposite reaction to what we are taught. 

Within seconds of our course change came the deep thudding noise of a large Chinese diesel as a big black coastal steamer with no running lights on went barrelling down our starboard side about 20 metres (at the most) away from us. What Rosemary had seen was a light from an aft cabin. The side curtain on the cabin window was drawn but at one end it was open a sliver showing a dim light and at the other end where the window was obviously open, it was fluttering in the breeze looking like a flashing light. We discussed it many times since and she had been altering course to starboard in an endeavour to pass port to port, but  many people are unaware a large number of Indo boats pass starboard to starboard. This idiot of a Master had come from out at sea and for some reason only he would understand crossed our bow to pass on the starboard side

How Rosemary saw the light in time amazes me still. Why I turned to port I don't know but this has saved us a lot of grief twice now.

It was a pitch black night and the ship was black. Even alongside us I could barely make out its lines.

Eleven days later we arrived in Darwin.