Sailing around the World ( Presently in the Coco's Keeling Islands )

A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Wed 22 Sep 2010 03:51
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 )