The first yachts have now arriving and Cocos (Keeling) Island has gone to great lengths to welcome the World ARC fleet. This tiny community sees only occasional visitors and the World ARC fleet will be the largest number of yachts ever seen here. Yachts anchor near the uninhabited Direction Island and a normally protected zone near the anchorage has been opened up to allow the boats more space. As Cocos belongs to Australia the strict entry and quarantine requirement are in force and officials have flown in from Australia and Christmas Island to deal with the increased traffic with minimal delays.
On Direction Island are a shelter, water tanks and BBQ facilities for visiting yachts. This shelter is fantastically decorated with old fenders, boat bits fishing floats and driftwood all with the names of yachts that have stopped here from all over the world. Locals say that almost all yachts that stop here stay longer than planned and this looks like being true for the World ARC fleet too with some yachts planning to stay just a little bit longer. We will be back in two years guys, maybe see you then?
A ferry runs between the two population centres of the atoll and extra trips have been laid on via Direction Island to allow the crews to get to West Island that is around 3.5 miles from the anchorage. This administrative centre for Cocos and has a population of around 120 so the World ARC crowd will make a significant impact. Fruit and vegetable orders have been sent on ahead so the yachts can provision for the long passage to Mauritius without wiping out the stock of the small supermarket