Fun Times on Cocos Keeling
22 June 2016 | Cocos Keeling, Australia
Kim
We have been at Cocos Keeling, Australia for over a month now, we've seen a fair number of boats come and go, but we are still here, as is our cruising buddy boat Chantey. We just love it! Sadly it is time to move on if we want to see the rest of the Indian Ocean. That and the South West Monsoon is overdue and should be setting in soon. Here is a breif update on some of the things we have been up to. We haven't been in a lot of email contact from here due to the cost, $6 an hour for internet and the quality of that internet. The internet access is charged by solar panels. We have had lots of rain and cloudy days here and at best it is slow, hopefully things will be better in our next port of call, Rodriguez Island.
Kite Surfing: From the last blog you know that we got Zack a kite surfer in Thailand and gave it to him here. It is a great spot to kite surf. Unfortunately we can't get to the best spot because it is too far by dinghy when the wind is blowing strong enough to launch the kite. We have found a great spot at Prison Island, a small deserted island not far from Direction Island where we are. It has a long shallow area that is mostly free of rocks and coral. The water is not even waist deep and is perfectly clear, it would be difficult to find a better spot to learn. We bring an anchor and bury it in the sand, then tie ourselves to it with a line. This allows you to fly the kite without getting dragged away to the deep water. It also allows Zack to launch himself into the air and fly back and forth on the line. He loves it, so much so that he spends hours just trying to see how much air he can get. We have some great videos that we will post when we get decent internet. He has done a great job of learning to control the kite and take it in and out of the power zones. He got so good we untied him and let him body drag out to sea a bit. He crashed the kite and couldn't relaunch so it was a dinghy rescue, but lots of fun. It would have been great to keep kite surfing but the wind has totally gone and we have found new things to entertain ourselves.
Mission Hornsbrough Island: Hornsbrough Island is at the entrance of the archipelago and is a long dinghy ride in all but flat calm waters. Since the wind has died we decided to pack a picnic and head out. We had heard that there might be manta rays out there and were keen to find them. We did not find them, we didn't find much of anything. It was not possible to get ashore unless you went around the back and thru some reef which we weren't up for, dinghy gas is super expensive here. We did snorkel for an hour or so and it was nice but not as good as the snorkeling by the anchorage. So we headed back feeling the day was a bit of a bust. On our way back we spotted a small pod of dolphins and jumped in to see if we could spend a few minutes snorkeling with them. We played with them for nearly two hours! The dolphins truly seemed to enjoy playing with us and would swim under and around us. Every time we lagged behind they would swim back to us and keep us following them. We must have swum for a mile, we were all so beat we had to get out and as we drove off the dolphins jumped in our bow wakes. It was an amazing experience for all of us. There are some good videos of this as well that will be posted when we get internet. This was our second time swimming with dolphins here and we had a third experience one morning as they swam through the anchorage. We jumped in and I think it has been the same pod all three times because there are ten of them, but this time they swam around us and then took off to leave us chasing them for another few minutes of play. We chased them around for an hour or so but they made us work for it. There are a few sharks in the anchorage and they are quite curious. It was wild but every time the sharks would come near us the dolphins would come to us and the sharks would leave. There was a small but aggressive black tip that we had to kick away. I think he was just being possessive as we were over a reef that must have been his. When we left the reef he stopped bothering us. We got out of the water when a 2 meter grey reef came charging at Zack and me. It didn't get too close but better safe than sorry.
We had planned to have lots of barbecues here but the mosquitos have been horrendous. We have even used Deet, which they seem to see more as a seasoning than a preventative. It's just not fun to be ashore. The winds and some heavy rain seemed to calm them down and we have since had a number of sundowners and barbecues ashore. The most memorable was the first. We went in to have an afternoon of snorkeling the Rip and had brought a few beers and some food to grill. There was a cargo ship in and the crew was ashore having a barbecue as well. There are plenty of spots but as soon as we landed they invited us to join in with them. Talk about professionals! They had it all and plenty of it. The captain was there, and he instructed the crew to cook up all the leftovers for us. The boys were stoked, it was T-bone steaks, shrimp, the works and lots of it. The crew was at the end of their 4 month contract and cleaning out the larders and we were the happy beneficiaries. The captain was Russian and the crew were Phillipinos. They made mention of the captain many times. I guess we were not giving proper obeisance because they must of told us that he was the captain eight or so times until the captain told them to stop as we must by now know. The captain was a generous and personable guy, we have been calling him "Boris," we never got his name as he talked the entire time and it was difficult if not impossible to get a word in. He did invite us out to see the boat but had made mention of drinking 4 bottles of vodka, so we declined.
The calm weather hasn't been all bad for Zack. Ever since he shot his first fish with the spear gun he has been unstoppable, I don't know how he is a vegetarian's kid. We have been out snorkeling and spear fishing almost any day that we aren't kite surfing. We have seen the resident Manta Ray twice but have yet to spot the dugong that is reported to live by Direction Island. Zack is a natural and on one dive he was in the water for only about one and a half minutes before he came up with a fish. That's pretty much his record. There are lots of reefs around the anchorage but with the calm waters we have been able to get to the reefs further out. They are packed with fish, and lots of them are edible. So far Zack has gotten 4 Rock Cod, a Peacock Rock Cod, some snapper, grouper and a Harlequin Sweet Lips. David speared a monster Sweet Lips on a reef we call "Success Reef." We have named a few of our favorites. Success Reef as the name intones is pretty much a guarantee for dinner. It is loaded with fish. We also have "Shark Attack Reef," so named because Will had to kick away a few sharks one day when he speared a Sweet Lips. He dropped his spear gun and we had to go back to get it but the sharks had eaten his fish. The sharks are a bit of an issue here as they are protected, so there are lots of them. The small black tips around the boat are almost friendly and we have named some of them. The sharks on the reef are a bit more curious and seem to know that we are spearing fish and that a speared fish is an easy meal, as a human will readily drop his catch and swim away when confronted by a group of sharks. They use this to their advantage. I found a perfectly good spear on the bottom of one reef that was most likely left by someone who had been forced to leave his catch to the sharks. We, however, are far smarter than any shark. The boys fish and I keep a lookout for sharks. Karen stays in the dinghy and comes straight away if we shoot a fish. We get the fish out and scramble into the dinghy before the sharks get too close. So far so good! I have been swimming with a gun myself just for safety. The sharks do back away if you go after them. Most are fine but there are a couple of white tips and a few grey reef sharks that are on average 2 meters long, those guys are a bit scary. When we go we recruit the entire anchorage so that we have lots of people in the water, so no worries.
We went this morning to check out of Cocos Keeling and it was a sad day, we all just love it here. We have been waiting on a package from the states with our new regulator for the alternator and it has finally arrived. Unfortunately it is on West Island. The customs officer was exceedingly nice and offered to bring it over for us tomorrow. He even looked up a weather forecast for us. You gotta love the Aussies, they are a pretty nice lot. It might be up to two weeks before we are heard from again as our SSB is not transmitting so we won't be able to update the blog until we reach Rodriguez, about 2,000 nautical miles away. Indian Ocean crossing, here we come!