Sailing around the World ( presently in the Coco's Keeling Islands )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 21 Sep 2010 13:46
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MONDAY 20th
SEPTEMBER 2010
We had a great nights sleep even though we were
rolling slightly in the swell.
We had a slow morning, and a light breakfast and
then moved the boat closer in towards the beautifull sandy beach, nibbling
our way through the reef's and eventually dropped
anchor again near the other boats and well in from the swell,
Our first impressions were great, this place is
another Paradise on earth, Paradise X 12, It resembles those beautifull
glossey
photo's in the sailing magazines of sandy beaches,
blue skies, warm crystal clear turquoise water, palm trees, with the
boat tied to the palm trees
and all the crew swimming and
sunbathing....................... well, this is it.. and a nice stiff
breeze to keep us cool....
There are 27 Islands in this group, only 2 are
inhabited. and we are anchored under " Direction Island " which is the only
Island
that is safe for yachts to anchor. A
number of other yachts arrived during the night, indicating that the strong
winds of yesterday
will keep the fleet close together.
09.30hrs We all went ashore to meet the
Customs and immigration on Direction Island, this was organised by the WCC
or
otherwise known as Rally Control, All this did not
take too long, perhaps 1 hour in total and we returned to " A Lady and did
some tidy up stuff,
plus washing clothes in Aileens magic washing
machine.
Then we all went for a swim off the back of the
boat. This was interesting insofar as we were swimming with our NBF's, 5
black tipped sharks,
These cream coloured sharks were only about 5 feet
long and very friendly, they looked like something you could have as a
pet.
and the tip of their dorsel fin was black, hence
the name.
We spent the day recovering from the trip, Naps,
snacks, swims and stroll's ashore.
17.00hrs We got into the rib and headed to "
Home Island " for dinner in a Malay Restaurent, now this was different,
like in " Nuie "
it was a dry restaurant, mainly because the Island
is Muslim and they dont drink alcohol. ( well in public )
The food was different too, and confirmed yet again
that our own cooking is top of the pops.
It was dark on our way back to the boat, and the
tide was low, so we had to be carefull with all the reef's, and the wind was
honking
so we got soaked just for good measure.
Anyway we had a few night caps on returning to the boat and then hit the
scratchers
for another good nights sleep.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thats it from Paradise,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (
Skipper )
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