•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

A ferry boat heading to Lombok was caught in high waves and nearly capsized, forcing its 202 passengers and crew, including five Australians, to be evacuated in the middle of rough seas on Wednesday.

“The waves were so high and suddenly the ship was leaning to one side. That’s when we heard a loud slamming noise and we all rushed to grab the life vests,” one of the passengers, Nyoman Tirtawati, told the Jakarta Globe.

The ship, called the Andika Nusantara, set sail from Padangbai port, Bali, at 11 a.m. and was bound for Lembar port in West Lombok district. At 2:10 p.m. the ferry was caught in rough waves and came dangerously close to capsizing off the coast of Gili Asahan. The passengers were evacuated to a remote part of the main island of Lombok in the Sekotong subdistrict and taken to Lembar port by bus.   

Carda Damanik, head of the local branch of state-owned ferry operator ASDP Indonesia, said the rough seas caused the ship’s load, which included eight fully loaded trucks and dozens of cars, to shift toward one side.

Three ships were sent to rescue the passengers and crew. The evacuation took place about 11 hours after the initial incident.

“We had to wait for a lull in the weather before we could evacuate them,” Carda said. He added that the passengers and crew were somewhat in shock but unharmed.

All of the passengers were sent back to Lembar port.

Oktaviani, chief of observation at the province’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), told the Globe that a low-pressure system in northern Australia and the Indian Ocean was causing extreme weather in much of Java and in the Lesser Sunda Islands, including Lombok.

He said the system was responsible for the ocean conditions that had forced the evacuation.

The BMKG recorded wind speeds of 25 to 50 kilometers an hour on Wednesday.

“The wind caused waves of five to six meters high,” she said.

Similar weather conditions hit the neighboring island of Bali, where strong winds toppled trees, killing one person and injuring six more.

In Semarang, Central Java, high waves and strong winds caused a tugboat to be swept to shore. It nearly slammed into a nearby residential area.

To top it off, hundreds of homes in the coastal areas were affected by tidal waves.

Officials in Java’s coastal areas issued bans on the operation of small vessels on Wednesday, while in some ports ships of all sizes were banned from sailing.