Cocos Keeling Island

Waiting in one of the most beautiful places in our world
I am sure there are better places. I am sitting on my lady 60 feet from a tropical island with a white sandy beach covered in palm and coconut trees.  The lady is floating in clear water that has a visibility down to 30 metres where you can watch all forms of fish life, including turtles, casually pass the boat. Not bad ha. Even the reef sharks look friendly.

Welcome to Cocos Keeling Island some 3,600 kms west of Darwin and 3,000 kms north-west of Perth in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I have been here for two weeks now and waiting for some electronics parts to be returned from Sydney. There are only two flights a week so the wait could be longer than I wanted but it is most enjoyable.

Tsunami alert
At six thirty this morning the Australian Federal Police were on the radio giving details of an alert.  On ABC radio they had also issued an alert for Cocos and Christmas islands after an earthquake in Indonesia overnight.  What do you do to be ready for huge waves?  Who could forget the images seen in that horrible tsunami on Boxing Day three years ago.

We were informed that the wave was expected at 8:00am. The other six boats anchored off the island were talking to each other on the radio making sure all knew about what was happening. This was one contingency I had not given much thought to.  Firstly, I had a cup of strong coffee and a confused moment to think. Should I pull up the anchor and work my way through the reefs with winds up to 45 kms? Not a pleasant thought. Or should I stay. So I had another coffee and tried to slow down the adrenalin, locked down all the hatches, put in the wash boards in the companion way, let out more anchor chain, had a life vest ready, and packed some goodies in a waterproof bag and waited. My thought was - this capsule is designed to take the beating from the sea and would hold together and be water tight if the waves picked up and threw the boat around. Staying on the boat would be much better than being on the island.

At 7.45am I heard on the radio the weather people at Christmas Island.  All they reported was a little rise in the sea and that was that. 8:00am came and passed and nothing happened. An hour later the weather bureau cancelled the alert.

According to the experts there is little chance of a big wave wiping out these islands which are no more than 8 to 10 feet above sea level.  The reason is that we are sitting on top of a sea mountain that are some 6,000 metres deep from the bottom of the sea bed and rise very steeply to form these islands. As a result the tsunami does not have time to build up and simply passes as a rise in the water level.  In companion to the counties in South East Asia and Sri Lanka they have a continental shelve which gradually gets shallower as it heads to the shore. Hence the power of the waves is allowed to build and destroy.

A beautiful group of islands with friendly people
Four main islands make up this group of 45 islands that form a horse shoe surrounded by coral reefs both on the outside and in the lagoon.

Some 450 live on Home Island. They are decedents from Malaysia who were brought here years ago to work the coconut plantations that were built by the Clooney Ross family. These people are Muslims and live their life following their Islamic religion.  The women wear beautiful dresses with head scarfs only showing their faces. The men wear long pants and long sleeve shirts. They are lovely people that lead very peaceful lives. They drive around in four wheel buggies and live in identical houses that would remind you of entering a suburb. Straight streets, medium strips, give way signs and street names all written in Malay, the language they speak.

It is also on Home Island where I found my hairdresser to give me a much needed cut. My hair stood up like a madman when covered in salt water which was most of the time. Mansa who works for the local energy supply authority is also a qualified hairdresser who did his apprenticeship in Perth. At 4.30 in the evening he arrived home on his motorbike, put a chair in the backyard, grabbed his gear and with a long extension lead, and with 3 of his 5 children and the chooks running around me, proceeded to give me a fine haircut with much laughter and fun.

The other main island is West Island a 30 minute ferry ride across the lagoon from Home Island. It is made up of some 100 mainly Australians most of whom work for government departments including the air force. This is where you have to go to get your booze which is duty free. What you pay for a bottle of wine is more than you pay for a litre of scotch. Guess what I have stocked up on!

The yachties are anchored off Direction Island where only chooks live. On the beach there is a shelter with tables where signs hang from boats that have visited the island. A water tank, BBQ and radio telephone complete the islands man-made structures. There are thousands of coconuts on the ground and you quickly learn not to stand under a tree. You generally hear a rustle in the fronds then a clunk on the ground. No second chance if you are unlucky.  At night lots of giant hermit crabs come out of the bush attracted by the smell of food from the BBQ.  You can’t help but walk on them in their strong sea shells they wear. In the morning you hear the cocks crowing and mum and the chicks feed near the beach.

The weather is just as beautiful. The temperature goes from a low of 25 at night to a high of 30 everyday. Very little rain and the south east wind flows all the time often a little harder than you would like.

Yachties get together
Every few days a yacht arrives or others leave. There is always a good reason for beach volleyball, sundowners on the beach or a BBQ. We all bring meat and some form of salad or nibbles. Coconut husks are used to fire up the BBQ and various desserts and cocktails are made from the coconut flesh. I have been delegated to make the welcoming or farewell speeches plus grace before meals. An honour but the community do want variety and there is no shortage of interjections. 

The boats stay for a week or so with most of them coming from Darwin and heading for Chagos, a small island better know as Diego Garcia the American military base. Others like me are off across the Indian Ocean travelling another 3,600 kms to Rodriguez, Mauritius and Reunion islands.

Visits are made to each others boats. Their have been three other lone sailors here. A Frenchman was in a hurry and only stayed two days. Another Joe was sailing a rather small boat with just the basics. He lived off fish that he trawls for at all times. The other is Nick, a man who is on his forth circumnavigation of the world in a small boat that does not have a radio and only a small engine.  He arrived at the anchorage under full sail. He roared around the reefs and casually dropped his sails and anchor, joined his little dory together that was in 2 pieces and rowed ashore. A very interesting chap with lots of stories who makes his money out of designing attractive boats.
 
Losing my life support system and almost my life
Last week early in the morning I was heading to Home Island about 45 minutes away in my little inflatable dingy with an equally small outboard. I remembered I had left my shopping list behind and returned to the lady, tied up the dingy and climbed aboard, retrieved the list and to my horror saw the dingy floating off. Without hesitation I stripped off and dived in to swim after the dingy.  I quickly realised that my fast side-stroke was no match for the wind and the current as the dingy drifted even further away from me. By this stage I was inline with the last yacht some 200 metres from my boat. I also realised I was exhausted and treading water would not keep me afloat for too long.

A few deep meaningful shouts to one of the boats of “save me” had the yachty Rocky jump into his dingy and come to my rescue. One of the other yachties climbed into his dingy and retrieved my dingy.

The heart was pounding and with much heavy breathing I had a few moments to reflect on my adventure. Firstly, I should have realised I would not catch up with the dingy. Secondly, I should have worn a life vest so I could have floated safely when I became exhausted, and thirdly, all of this would not have happened if I had tied the boat up properly in the first place!

The challenge of shopping
We take so much for granted.  This is quickly beaten out of you when you try to get supplies or collect your mail. Here is a quick guide. Fuel can be bought from 7.30 to 8.30am except for Tuesday and the weekend. The little buggies queue up, most of which are being driven by women dressed in their full length dresses and head scarves.  You have to join the queue and shuffle along carrying your fuel drums. The post office is open from 1.30 to 3.30pm except Wednesday. It is open on Saturday morning only if there are no events taking place on the island.

The small supermarket has a variety of opening times with late night shopping to 5.30 on Thursday.  The supply ship comes every six weeks. Last week I joined with the women to rush for the almost fresh fruit and vegetables. You have to keep going back as they unload the supplies over the next week.

The bank is open at odd times and days, sometimes. The little restaurant is not what you think. Imagine sitting under a tree at a long table in the sand with women cooking in a little house. They serve a lovely $10 meal, no choice, from 11.30 to 1pm and do not be late. Most activities shut down at 3.30 in the afternoon.

You very quickly learn to work out your day’s schedule before you head off for a 45 minute dingy ride into the wind knowing you are always going to get soaked.  The trip across the lagoon is so lovely. You pick your way around colourful coral reefs then over sea grass beds where you are guaranteed to see lots of turtles of all sizes and stingrays feeding.

On the plus side is the wonderful food on Home Island. Malaysian cooking making tasty curries and roti, a flat bread, noodles and the best curry puffs I have ever eaten. For the last two Saturdays the school has had their fete and their sports day.  The food stalls were sensational. One of their favourite treats is known as IBC. It is a plastic bag containing crushed ice, carnation milk, jelly pieces, sweet black beans, cream corn and raspberry cordial in sugar plus a half-inch wide straw to suck it out.

Multi talented police
The Australian Federal Police are made up of two Australian and two locals who do a range of tasks from customs to rescue. They even have a radar gun for checking speed on West Island where there are cars and a few roads.

I first met them when I arrived. They came to the Lady in their little boat with Steve the policeman and Nilanna the local policewoman. We filled out the forms and had a chat. They also gave me a quick rundown about the services on the island. Very nice friendly people. To clear quarantine a group of us travelled to West Island some days later to complete the forms at the police station. As we waited our turn fellow yachties Roger and Dawn from Dover in England told us they carried a body bag on their boat. It only took us and the police a few moments to join in the humour and gruesome story telling. A wonderful relaxed atmosphere that you would not find in too many police stations.

On a more serious side the police also undertook a medical evacuation the other night.  In the middle of the night the police and the local and only doctor and nurse headed out into very rough seas in a launch to meet up with a Greek merchant ship. There they had a crew member lowered to them on a stretcher. Once safely aboard they headed back to the island for emergency treatment to the crew member. Not a task I would enjoy. You could hear all the drama on the VHF radio with the police being very cool and collected as if they did it everyday.

Thank you for your support
I love hearing from you. I have the opportunity to use the internet on Home Island to read your comments and send you my blog. Once I am back at sea it will be a couple of weeks before the next update.

For those that have called me on the satellite phone and found they did not get through, it is more likely that I am ashore wandering around the islands. But once I am back at sea I will be available 24 hours a day.

I am still having the time of my life living my childhood dream that, funnily enough, is the same dream of the many sailors I have met.

What a pleasure it is to have the opportunity to spend time with people who live a very different life and with people who are on their own lifetime adventures.

Love to you all
Peter

Thank you to my supporters:

–     Medical Industries Australia for an extensive offshore medical kit
–     JSE Marine Electrical for extensive spare parts and tools
–     Endeavour Marine for spare parts for the Volvo Penta engine