Thursday 17th  October 2013 Direction Island, Cocos keeling Indian Ocean,  12.05.488S 98.52.960E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone BST +.6.50; UTC +7.5)

A ‘two hundred mile day’ has been something of a rarity hitherto. We have managed to achieve it only a handful of times but on the passage here we averaged 207 miles per day -  1128 miles in less than five and a half days.  That was not achieved  by straining every sinew or pushing the boat hard -  perhaps reefing a little later and shaking it out a bit earlier  - but not pushing things in anyway aggressively. The wind and sea were kind – from the port quarter and we simply hared along.  It was a great sail …. but to where?

Cocos Keeling is a huge Atoll. -  think Tuamotos. We anchored off Direction Island and were surrounded by  baby Black Tip sharks (as we were in Suwarrow); the water is clear and blue/turquoise. Excellent snorkelling just 100 metres from the yacht.  It is glorious.

The problem is that the only  real yacht anchorage is at Direction Island which,  although it has a lovely beach, is uninhabited.  It is one and half miles from the nearest habitation and five or more from ‘the action’ which is on West Island. Transport around the atoll is by ferry  but on a timetable that assumes you want to travel outbound to school on West Island (so out  early and back early) or a tourist day out from West Island to Direction. Makes travel against the flow hard – or you need to spend all day on West Island.

Anyway, we are here - it is lovely – and  the rest of the fleet has now arrived so we have plenty to do before we leave very early on Monday morning – bound for Mauritius.