Peter, first let me say, I am from Ireland and have lived in Singapore for 14 years, I also own a business as an agent for Coal from Kalimantan Indonesia so know a little about the place, Firstly I am sure you set off an Epirb you will get noticed as there are only 18,000 islands in the Indonesian Archepeligo so which one was this person near ? The infrastructure of 200 years ago would that be arround 1776 ? and also if the USA is so vigliant how do all those drugs slip past the ever watching Coast guard. Lets not take a single incident not knowing the conditions and put down a whole country. One man in a boat, lets not make it like the 18000 islands are all waiting to get us please. Keep studying. Regards David

Interesting point, David. I lived in that area for nearly a decade, and agree that you really have to judge the level of support you expect from rescue people based on where you are. Parts of Indonesia are quite modern, but even the remote parts have some technology. I'll never forget landing on a deserted beach and then slogging inland to visit a very remote Indonesian island village in mid-day and finding that all the men were missing, with the women doing all the work. We actually needed some help from them. We finally found the men at the far edge of the village, all of them sitting in a three-sided building built up in the trees with a tiny generator running a hundred feet away in the jungle. No women allowed. What were they all doing? Sitting around a small TV watching an old Baywatch VHS tape of Pam Anderson running down a beach in her red swimsuit, looking very pneumatic. I felt as if I'd just finished an interstellar voyage through a black hole to discover a totally new galaxy... and they already had a McDonalds there. A Douglas Adams moment. It was at that point I decided the world was a lot smaller (and stranger) place than I'd previously imagined. On the other hand, as long as their generator held out and the VHS tape still played, those men would never notice a boat sinking next to their island. But I don't think that's due to lack of infrastructure. John Marshall On Dec 11, 2007, at 12:24 AM, David Law wrote: > Peter, first let me say, I am from Ireland and have lived in > Singapore for 14 years, I also own a business as an agent for Coal > from Kalimantan Indonesia so know a little about the place, Firstly > I am sure you set off an Epirb you will get noticed as there are > only 18,000 islands in the Indonesian Archepeligo so which one was > this person near ? The infrastructure of 200 years ago would that be > arround 1776 ? and also if the USA is so vigliant how do all those > drugs slip past the ever watching Coast guard. > Lets not take a single incident not knowing the conditions and put > down a whole country. > One man in a boat, lets not make it like the 18000 islands are all > waiting to get us please. > Keep studying. > Regards > David > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power > > To unsubscribe send email to > passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word > UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message. > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World > Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.