Dear Cruisers,
Its been sometime since we last wrote to you and it brings me a great deal of joy to bring you news from Indonesia. As of last week the President of Indonesia Bapak Jokowi opened all 21 international ports for foreign yacht arrivals, business is as usual.
We are also happy to announce that six month visas are now available and Captains and crews wanting to visit Marina Del Ray Gili Gede Lombok should email operations@marinadelray.co for the Marinas sponsorship and 60 day visa which will be renewable without having to sail out of the country. This has been a longtime in the making. Of course your yachts temporary import still remains for three years so you have plenty of time to explore the 18108 islands that make up the archipelago of the Republic of Indonesia.
The south east Trades are now gently kicking in and the skies are blue and sunny.
Some may not realize that we officially opened stage one of the Marina and Resort in October 2019 and quickly reached an occupancy of 90% after two years of construction and seven years of obtaining all the necessary permits and licenses necessary to operate the first privately owned international Marina Resort and ferry terminal from Bali to Lombok's beautiful southern Gili islands. We also commissioned Gili Gede Fast Boat ferry service which is a ninety minute ferry ride to the Marina from Serangan Harbor Bali. Its been a slow start during the pandemic but we hope that as restrictions have gone things will return to normal.
Since March 2020 we witnessed a gradual decline in our customers yachts leaving down to a 20% average occupancy over the two and a half years. Managing cash flow has been extremely difficult during that time, Caring for our customers yachts that remained and the huge responsibility of maintaining our Marina made our work cut out but we have managed to survive thru such difficult times given the fact that we had just opened before we had to close the port for clearance, we were able to help many yachters caught in the situation and helped those that passed thru during the time as well as our existing customers, many of which had to leave their yachts as they were cut of from returning due to the black swan event.
In October we will play host to the world Oyster Rally and accommodate yachts in the sail Indonesia and world arc rally along with the other yachts entering from the Pacific, Australia and from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Indian Ocean.
On behalf of my staff and the communities of the Gili Islands we look forward to seeing our fellow sailors back out on the sea again.
Fair winds
Captain Raymond La Fontaine.