12:05.5S 96:53E Cocos Keeling
Babe!
Paul & Trish Ducker
Wed 30 Oct 2013 06:41
a quarter of the way across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia to South Africa…
The sail from Bali to Coco’s was something me and mum we’re definitely not
looking forward to! A week at sea wasn’t very appealing! 2 days in and we
we’re pulling our hair out! Navionics, which works out how long it will take
to get there based on the boat speed, kept breaking and instead of the time
getting shorter it was saying it would take like 2 weeks! I nearly threw
myself over board!! Me pulling my hair out had nothing to do with Navionics
:)
So in our boredom we decided to have a pretend Christmas and watch Christmas
films! [this was as we were coming up to passing Christmas Island, which we
decided not to bother with, although by all accounts it is worth a visit
particularly for the lush scenery and nature]. We finally got there, and
actually made it a day quicker than we first thought, much to mine and mums
excitement!
Coco’s keeling was beautiful. We anchored off a deserted island called
Direction Island, crystal turquoise blue water, sandy beach and palm tree’s.
[Paul] so I went shore to clear us in – for which the customs/police had
agreed to go to the island to sort us out – very accommodating. So back on
the boat and of course first port of call was a beer run around the boats!
We made it to 3 before mum and dad had had too much!! [haha Kady you have
the cheek to call us lightweights!!]. They then went back to the boat ready
to do a BBQ with other Oyster owners, and I headed over to the Island with
the young one’s for our own BBQ and some beers. The night ended with a
campfire and sing song, very school trip like!!
The next day was Cocos’s annual Champagne quiz evening (party day) so we all
headed over to West Island on the ferry . We got to the Island at 2.30, and
the bar didn’t open until 5. It was the strangest island ever. All there is
on it is a small supermarket, a café and a tourism centre, the airport
doubled as the golf course! And most of the houses looked like tin sheds,
although all nicely laid out in an organised Australian sort of way. We
filled the time on the very slow internet (although there were 20 of us all
trying to consume the limited bandwidth that the island had) and walking and
then finally the bar opened! The champagne was $10 a glass and the pizza’s
$25 a pizza, so not the cheapest night! But still it was good fun and we
managed to join in the quiz. [Paul] Plenty of banter with the locals also –
reminded me of an episode from Neighbours, everyone knowing each other and
each other's business! How have Neighbours appeared in our blog - is there
no escape ..........
The evening after, another party! This time our own bbq party on Direction
Island. We went to Home island during the day to raid the local supermarket
for stuff for the BBQ (as not supposed to use imported food etc), not that
they really had much – no burgers, no sausages, few chicken bits and couple
of steaks – that’ll have to do then! Had a quick look around, and quite a
contrast from West Island which is mainly Australian inhabited, whereas Home
island mainly has locals who all appear to be devout Muslims, who ride
around on quad buggies, apparently all provided by the Australian government
to keep the local happy who are also generally state funded! Nice life if
you can get it! Bit of factual info - West Island - 150 inhabitants Home
Island 480 inhabitantsAnyway back to the evening do: Kady - Another
extremely drunken affair! After a few games of volleyball on the beach, lots
of food and far too much alcohol, I don’t think I even made it back to the
boat until about 4am! Paul – we invited the crew from a Swedish yacht that
anchored-up the previous day – I guess they were expecting a nice quite
anchorage and then saw 20 odd Oysters, but no worries a young crew of 3 who
were more than happy to join in and brought a guitar for a sing-song, which
really worked well. During the evening we also engraved the OWR on a planlk
of wood for attaching to a tree near the on-Beach bbq facilities (yep it’s
an Oz island so bbq facilities are always provided, even here!), alongside
many other yachts that had visited over the years. Kaz you know the other
side to this evening haha
The next day I think a fair few of us felt slightly worse for wear, but no
rest for the wicked! We headed off again to West Island for the leaving
beach party with the locals. This was just a BBQ on a beach, but it was good
fun and again turned pretty drunken, including dad stripping of (well to his
pants) and running into the sea, unfortunately only joined 1 other. Ferry
back and we were looking for an early night, however events took over and we
went off for a bit of on-yacht partying!
So Cocos keeling was beautiful and amazing and just one big party. Pretty
much my perfect place!!= Caught my flight home to Oz on the Tuesday, the day
Ma and Pa were leaving, although most other yachts left on the Monday.
Trish & I also loved the place, absolutely picture postcard beautiful and an
Australian jewel - , although sure we’d go stir crazy if we lived there!!
Anyway that’s it for a little while - our next leg is a 2350nm run across
the Indian Ocean from Cocos Keeling to Mauritius, which we're expecting to
take about 2 weeks, although with all the other yachts (except Amelie)
leaving a day before us the race is on!!
Photos:
a) Postcard setting – yes it really is that beautiful
b) Supermarket raid
c) Beach BBQ with the locals
d) Well I thought a swim at the BQ seamed like a good idea at the time
e) Leaving an imprint on the island
