The Cocos Keeling Experience

18^th October 2022

The waters of the Cocos Keeling Islands, deep in the Indian Ocean, far from the taint of the developed world, are a dreamy aquamarine, with areas of periwinkle, turquoise, rich sky blue, milky blue, emerald green, and every other variation of green and blue you can imagine. The colors are often presented in stripes reflecting the fringing coral reefs and sandy bottom that characterize these two atoll groups. Memories of the San Blas Islands and the Tuamotu Islands are evoked, but here we are even more remote and lonely in this Indian Ocean heaven.

The Cocos Keeling Islands are an Australian dependency with a sketchy history that reads like a gripping action-packed novel. The 27-island group lies approximately 530nm west of Christmas Island. On 17^th October we enter the lagoon encircled by the South Keeling group of islands at the north end heading towards our anchorage at the uninhabited Direction Island. We are greeted by the glorious sight of a dozen or so Oyster yachts from the rally already anchored and enjoying the paradise delights. Ashore on the beach in true Australian style, is a selection of barbecues, tables and benches, a large water collection barrel, and lavatory facilities. Crews from many of the yachts have dinghied ashore with all the necessities for a beach barbecue. An instant reunion party is sparked.

The islands were reported and named in 1609 by Captain William Keeling, who never came ashore, but not settled until 1826, by John Hare and John Clunies-Ross. The two men started as business partners, but soon fell out and Hare was banished to Prison Island, Captain Ross took over control. Ross, a celebrated sea farer, recognized the potential for a copra business on the islands, so he imported indentured labor from Malaya and Indonesia. He, and generations of his family subsequently, built up a large copra plantation, with cheap labor on the sweats of the backs of a less educated workforce. In an effort to keep the balance swinging in their direction, they paid their employees with money they printed themselves on a first of its kind plastic injection molding machine. The money was only useful in shops run and stocked by the Clunies-Ross family. The Clunies-Ross family built schools for the children of their employees that taught only technical skills, like boat building, with very little reading, writing and arithmetic. The Malays established residency on Home Island, they belonged largely to the Islamic tradition and were allowed to practice freely. However, they were banned from visiting West Island, which was peopled mainly by westerners. Home Island is alcohol free and West Island boasts one pub.

The workers were expected to collect and prepare 1,000 coconuts a day, a very tall order, which they obeyed without question. The process involved men’s work and women’s work and the jobs remain, to this day, firmly planted on one side of the fence or the other. Our guide, Oswald Mc Cray, demonstrated the process for preparing the coconuts to give to the chief (Clunies-Ross). Louis tried his hand at husking a coconut using a pointy spike stuck in the ground. He did well! Now for the next 999 coconuts! Oswald, whose ancestors hail from Indonesia, and his two sidekicks, 80 year old Angus and 81 year old Douglas, all have Scottish names, given to them by the Clunies-Ross family. Although Oswald went to pains to argue that his ancestors were not enslaved by the Clunies-Ross clan, it did seem like they were entrapped in a slave-like situation.

Cocos Keeling was made an Australian dependency in 1955. The Australian government built houses for each Malay family, as well as a large well stocked and maintained hospital clinic, supermarket, school, mosque and other municipal buildings. It has somewhat of a cookie cutter look to it, all well-kept, with obvious pride in maintaining and upgrading what has been freely given. The islands no longer depend on the coconut trade but have moved to tourism to sustain their future generations. We are keenly aware that this paradise will be different next time we visit – the pristine, virgin beauty will be tarnished, but we hope and pray that the simple, open, and honest nature of its peoples remains present and true.

In 1978 the Australians finally closed the deal and bought most of the remaining Clunies-Ross property from the family. The sole remaining family member, Bruce Clunies-Ross, still owns the family home, on Home Island, with a small amount of land around it, however, he does not live there.

All this information was imparted to us by Oswald Mc Cray, our lively and passionate tour guide. He gave us a tour and told us historical stories of Home Island. Home Island with its population of 550 is the most densely inhabited, and West Island, accessible by ferry a few times a day, has a mere 150 inhabitants. Oswald taught us how to husk coconut, how to open them, the difference between coconut milk and coconut water, and the process needed to make coconut oil. His friends, Angus and Douglas, demonstrated basket weaving using coconut fronds and some of the ladies in our midst tried their hand at it with good success. Later we toured the Rumah Besar (Big House), also known as Oceana House, the home built by the Clunies-Ross family. It is a strange juxtaposition of Scottish hunting lodge in a tropical turquoise ocean paradise. The family imported almost everything in the house from far and wide. The outside is faced with glazed bricks that give it the look of a bathroom! I suppose they liked the golden glisten that resulted from the sun’s continuous rays. The inside, by way of contrast, is dark, with teak paneling, and dark Victorian furnishings. The locals were invited once a year at Christmas for a party in the very large ballroom. They brought their own food and were offered alcohol, which they did not drink! Over the years the locals learned some Scottish reels, which were danced on this occasion every year.

We enjoyed the glorious cool waters, not as warm as the waters around Indonesia, but so refreshing. The climate is perfect, with temperatures staying between 24-32 degrees C. George enjoyed endless snorkeling, knee boarding and water skiing with his friends amongst the young crew members on many of the boats in the rally. His nose has reddened and peeled many times over!

We provisioned on West Island for our long journey to Mauritius ahead and set sail at 10:40 on the 22^nd October. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Declan prematurely, as he had some health issues that needed to be seen to right away. We tendered him to the clinic on Home Island, where the capable nurse and doctor attended to him. He will fly to Perth to see a specialist before heading back to his home on the Isle of Man.

We had a mock racing start to set off on our 2,350nm passage, accompanied by Intrepid (Committee boat), Black Lion, Adalia II, and Makara. The marathon race was on and the blood coursing through our veins!