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American Spirit II - Day 261; Jeremy Has a Unique Pringle Experience and We Arrive at Cocos Keeling; Tuesday, September 23, 2014



Up at 5:00 AM after a good night's sleep. Joined Jeremy in the cockpit. During his 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM watch, while eating a can of Pringles, a wave slapper hit the side of the boat and filled the Pringles can with salt water. Instead of 'fire in the hole' its 'water in the (Pringles) can!' Some stuff you can't make up. Really. Who would have ever thought that it was even possible for a wave to do that? Come on!

At 5:16 AM I could see the lume of Cocos Keeling 16.3 miles away. We were going too slow so I let some mainsail out. Boingo Alive was 1.7 miles ahead of us and Sweet Pearl 1.9 miles behind. At 5:30 AM I called Sweet Pearl on the VHF radio and chatted with Tom about their plans on entering the anchorage.

The sun rose above the clouds at 7:30 AM. About the same time Boingo Alive crossed the finish line. At 7:44 AM we called Rally control to announce that we were 2 miles from the finish line. 

At 8:09 AM we crossed the finish line. By 8:48 AM we were anchored in the front of the anchorage in 11.7 feet of water. It was amazing as we think our position is the best place in the anchorage to anchor, yet none of the other boats had taken that spot. Our position had some protection from Direction Island and the reef to the right or south of it. The water temperature in the anchorage is 86.4 degrees.

Breakfast at 9:10 AM consisted of scrambled eggs; cut up potato cooked in olive oil with spices; chilled fruit cocktail; and raisin bread.

I tried to send out a log and some emails at 9:21 AM but got disconnected. I'll try later. Our cell phones did not have service and said on the screen 'SOS Only' instead of '911 Only' like some other islands.

I napped from 11:00 AM to 11:45 AM as Joel and Jeremy inflated the dingy and put it in the water.

Custom's personnel arrived on the beach at 2:30 PM and we went in to clear. Suzana and Joel from the World Cruising Club were also there. The last time we'd seen Joel was in Galapagos. Even though we cleared into Christmas Island, an Australian territory, just previously, we had to do so again, even though Cocos Keeling is also an Australian territory. Weird.

We were back on the boat by 3:20 PM.

We returned to the beach at 5:00 PM for a sundowner party. Many other crews joined us. During the party a lady from Voyager, on a boat from Hamburg, Germany and not in the Rally, announced that she could cut hair. Her name was Tara and her kids ran around as she cut my hair. I got the hair cut on the beach at a picnic table as the party churned in front of me. The hair cut was scissors and a straight edge only. She even wrapped me in a barber's tunic or cloth cover so my hair wouldn't get on my clothes. The price of the haircut was 'open' and at my discretion. So I told her I'd pay her what I paid for my last haircut in MacKay, Australia...$32.00 AUD.

During the sundowner, the 'younger kids' in the fleet got a lot of driftwood together and made a huge bonfire. This fire was still burning hours later.

From about 7:45 PM to 9:30 PM we ate dinner on Nexus. We'd been invited earlier in the day by Russ and Laurie Owens. We had Mahi Mahi, mashed potato and a vegetable; plus an Arnold Palmer and white whine. A great meal. Thank you Russ and Laurie. Just before dinner started I blurted out 'bon appetite!' Jeanine always says that, and when I beat her to the punk for about a second everyone erupted in laughter. Its rare to ever beat Jeanine at the dinner table. Rare. Before leaving Nexus Joel and I put on our foul weather pants and jackets as we had to dingy back into the wind and waves to our boat. We got creamed by the water flying into the dingy. Lucky we had on our foul weather gear. That was Joel's idea and a good one.

Back at the boat, Joel tried to log onto the internet,without success; and I put on my headset and listened to music on the front of the boat, having a glass of port wine. A beautiful night. The channel markers into the anchorage were all flashing green and red simultaneously; the lume of West Island was visible 5 miles away; a freighter was all lit up and anchored outside of our anchorage; and all the sailboats in the anchorage had their anchor lights on (a white light at the top of their masts). The wind was howling; the small waves lapping at our hull; and you could hear the waves crashing on the reef a hundred yards away. How cool is that? We tied the dingy right behind the boat instead of off to the side like we usually do, because we were afraid that the wind might flip it upside down during the night.

Brian Fox

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