Cocos Keeling eh?
22 July 2015
This is a very lovely place and quite hard to tear ourselves away - languid.
The anchorage is well-protected from the swell and waves. Ashore on Direction Island there is a heritage trail with information boards describing the wireless and telegraph cable station that was built here to connect Australia with other parts of the world. There is also an extensive memorial erected in 2014 to commemorate the Battle of Cocos in November 1914, when HMAS Sydney destroyed the German raider SMS Emden, after it had mostly destroyed the wireless and cable station.
At the southern end of Direction Island is the Rip - a channel through the reef which offers an "adventure drift snorkel". So we motored the dinghy against the 4kt current, got geared up and slipped into the water, each holding a dinghy painter ... 10 seconds later we were in the middle of the lagoon ... slight exaggeration, but it was quick and we barely had time to take in the Napoleon Wrasse and the sharks. We did it again at low water and went in from the beach, staying close to the edge of the channel and then moving our when we wanted to go further along. Not as good as Fakarava South Pass, but lots of fish.
There is a notable abundance of sea cucumbers about and this is a good thing as there are reef and sea cleaners - in Tonga, for example, the sea cucumbers are harvested for the Chinese and Japanese and have been sorely depleted leaving reefs more vulnerable to such as algae.
We visited Home Island to buy fresh fruit and vegetables on Saturday as the aeroplane was in from Perth. The end of Ramadan brought a series of yacht races too - local boats called 'jukongs', which used to work at moving copra around.
We also took the ferry to West Island and visited the tourist information centre and the community resource centre. The big excitement was the fire service appliance driving down the road although there was no hurry and no siren. We had a pleasant walk on the beach on the eastern side and some lunch at the motel restaurant - the two other cafes open sporadically. Apart from the yachts, Cocos can accommodate up to 85 tourists, who come mainly for the kite surfing - we think there are about a dozen tourists visiting.
It seems to be a tradition to find some driftwood and make a sign re the boat, and leave it on Direction Island, so we did.
Another three yachts arrived - two from UK and one from USA, so we all gathered ashore for sundowners and to exchange yarns. Nice.
We will leave on Saturday and the Austrian couple, Sonja and Alois on FELIX, will leave too.
So that's all good then.