Friday 11th July 2008
Direction Island
Cocos

'The Wind is back' drawing of Sortilege, Diane and Bea

After a few days of perfect weather with light breezes the wind came back last night gusting at 30 knots. That familiar howl in the rigging is back! It is now a steady 20 knots - perfect for sailing! Fellow yachties Steve and Ally on Freo Doctor left yesterday morning for Christmas Island. They didn't have much wind to start with and Steve contacted us by radio telling us they wished they'd stayed another day or so! They will be sailing to windward now. It was sad for us to see them go. Even after such a short acquaintance there is closeness we often experience with other yachties in these remote places. Ally and Steve have to be back in Western Australia in November to work - that dreaded 'w' word. They plan to move to SE QLD in a year or two so we hope to see them again. There have been a number of single-handed men here - not always by choice. We have heard several tales of wives leaving half way around the world when things got a bit rough. Jim on Allii Kai Too from California, USA sailed here alone from Brisbane after his wife decided to go home. He says he doesn't cook and lives on tinned food. He thought there would be a hamburger shop here on Direction Island! He had the option of sending his boat home on a ship but decided he wanted to complete his dream of sailing around the world. He will be going to Mauritius around the same time as us.

We briefly met another English yachtsman who was here a couple of days on his ketch with his crew - a Frenchman Guy he met in Darwin. Geoffrey had an amazing tale to tell about when he began his voyage on a different boat 'Luck Dragon'. From the UK he sailed to Iceland, Greenland and the notoriously difficult passage through the North West passage of the Arctic Circle north of Canada. He said the 'ice opened up' for him. Sadly he lost his boat in Alaska during a storm. He abandoned ship due to broken rigging and his 2 Alaskan crew jumping ship when a large fishing boat came past. To this day he still wonders if he made the right decision. Luck Dragon was found on a beach unsalvageable. His story is on a website: www.luckdragonontour.com
He purchased a new boat 'Eshamy' in Mexico and sailed across the Pacific to here. He is now on his way to Mauritius and South Africa. We will probably see him again too. He also says he can't cook and lives on tinned food. Linda keeps telling Captain Bill how lucky he is to have such talented crew. (Chef, morale booster, communications, general hand and keeping watch, entertainment facilitator,cleaner,provisioner, information gatherer etc etc...will think of some more....)

Captain Bill has tried his hand at fishing. He has tried with his spear gun and a fishing line. Although there are plenty of fish here he has been unsuccessful. The fish stay out of range when he has the spear gun (clever fish) and don't eat the bait when it's on a hook (clever fish). The other consideration is the sharks. They just eat the bait, hook and all cutting the line cleanly with their teeth. They must have a lot of hooks in their bellies! Steve gave Bill a 'shark line' which consisted of a metal trace and a big hook. Bill half heartedly tried this system but we decided that the black tipped sharks that we have been feeding and watching with pleasure weren't going to be dinner. The thought of cutting up one of these beautiful creatures didn't appeal. Anyway we have plenty of fresh food at the moment so we aren't desperate. Trolling when we are at sea for weeks will be better.

The latest on the chooks: We think the police may also be fond of the chickens as Bill found a coke can full of bullet holes. Ally asked one of them how the eradication was going and he sheepishly said they caught a couple of roosters. We can still hear plenty of roosters crowing at all hours from the boat. The little hens have a hard time fending them off. The little brown hen when we saw her last was still limping and now only has 3 chicks. (She used to have 7).

The other excitement here in our little anchorage was when the police towed the abandoned hulk Kitmoor away after it had been here for 10 years. It is now anchored far from here where it is hoped it will eventually sink. If anyone is interested Bill saw a Perkins diesel engine on board which is probably salvageable. This is the same yacht a man went to jail for stealing items from but it's now ok for the public to salvage whatever they want. (It was in the local newspaper apparently.)

There are now 4 yachts here: us, Sortilege (long term visitors Diane and Bea catamaran-Oz), Wilhelm (Rob and Natalie from Maine USA), Allii Kai Too (Jim - California USA) We wonder if another yacht will appear around the corner of the headland.


Another perfect day in Paradise