Sailing around the World ( Presently in the Coco's Keeling Islands )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 22 Sep 2010 03:51
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TUESDAY 21st
SEPTEMBER 2010
We slowly crawled out of the scratchers to a
beautifull day in Paradise ,
We had to rearrange our watches, as the Imray
cruising book had the wrong time differences on their world map.
By now, most boats had arrived, only 4 boats still
to come, and they will be here by Sunday. That will be the max. no. we will have
seen
for a long time.
09.00hrs We got ready to go by rib to Home
Island and catch the ferry to West Island, this is the administrative
centre for the islands.
getting ready included the 4 of us getting into our
togs as the rib trip will be wet. we packed all our clothes into the
haversacks
and put these on when we eventually arrived at Home
Island. We were soaked from all the splashing on the
way.
West Island looked beautifull on arrival, lovely
coconut trees lined the roads and the place was neat and tidy, the
complete opposite to
Bali Island. When we arrived at the town, (
small village with a supermarket, a post office, a pub and an airport, oh it
also had a cafe.)
Neil went off with Oisin and Gerrard from " Brown
Eyed girl " and Aileen , Terry and skipper were collected by Mike
Dicks
and taken to their house not far from the village,
where we had lunch before returning the the bus and travelling back to the
ferry.
Mike and Liza, Mike is a pilot with " Cathay
Pacific " and originally from Bristol, and Liza is from london,
Mike's granfather lived on Christmas Island , which
is about 1/2 way between Coco's Islands and Bali. hence his interest in
this region,
They lived in Hong Kong for many years before
moving to Perth and have this lovely holiday house up here in Paradise Island
which they visit a few times a year.
We really enjoyed their hospitality and company,
and like all our other pilot friends, very sociable people.
Later Mike took us on a quick tour of the Island,
and stopped off at the YC for a few minutes, Ohhhh the place gets better
and better,
The lovely shallow pale blue / turquoise waters,
the little sharks and lots of Turtles, plus all these land crabs in a hurry to
the sea
to lay their eggs when the full moon comes up
tonight. Paradise, yes this has to be it.
Following this, Mike drove us back to the bus stop
, where we met Neil, Oisin, and Gerrard and all returned to the
Ferry
16.00hrs, We arrived back at Home
Island, and got into our freezing wet togs and motored back to the boat,
ohhh but it was such a beautifull
evening, so we immidiatly on our return went ashore
, had a brief walk and then into the water for an hour or so.
The facilities here on this deserted Island are
interesting, The government have provided for visitors and locals from the
other Islands a number
of BBQ cooking facilities, toilets, Camp,s and
shacks, plus a pier, and Floating diving platform. roaps to hang onto when
diving in the Pass and look out platforms.
not bad for an Island we never heard of untill we started this
trip.
Later we had dinner on the boat, This
consisted of a curry mince meat dish with rice, prepared and served by Aileen,
it was 100 times better
than our meal ashore last night. a couple of
glasses of wine and bob's our uncle.
Neil took off with the younger folk when we were
finished dinner, and the rest of the old fogies went to the
scratcher,
having had a great day in paradise.
Thats it for Now.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde. (
Skipper )
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