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Free & BrEasy - Keeling over the Cocos Islands



After a taxing passage from Christmas Island, we anchored off an idyllic coconut tree fringed, crescent shaped sandy beach in Port Refuge, Direction Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The passage had been bumpy and fraught with the autohelm problem - if you watched it like a hawk it behaved but the moment you relaxed, it switched itself off! After nearly a week without showers the cleansing azure sea in Port Refuge was heaven sent!
On our passage we ended the Free & Breasy Whale Drought. Other boats have been reporting whale sightings all around Australia but apart from one very distant fluke sighting, we have seen nuthin! The sighting started with the observation, a little ahead, of something brown in the water that looked like floating sea weed. As we approached we could see a strange spray occasionally coming up around the sea weed but as the sea was full of white horses it was difficult to make out what was causing the spray. Suddenly it dawned on us that we were sailing straight into a large pod of whales. With the sailing equivalent of a hand brake turn, we skirted a pod of 10-20 whales which looked as though they were quietly sleeping on the surface. They were not large so could have been pilot whales. To mix metaphors unforgivably, we had broken our whale duck and ended the drought!

Suzanne and Joel from World ARC were there to give us a warm greeting on the beach and ease our way through the Australian Immigration and Customs. We met up again with Jonathan and Jenny from Merlyn of Pool and guess what, the afternoon ended in another beer fuelled convivial haze aboard their beautiful Oyster 45. This is becoming a very pleasant habit!

The next day we went exploring Direction Island. For a tiny Island it is amazingly steeped in 19th century history. Early in the century a flag signalling hut was established to signal passing ships but this was soon replaced by the prominence of the Island in the submarine cable connections between Africa, India, South East Asia and Australia. Direction Island acted as a relay station although the predictions of Darwin nearly stopped this. The only Atoll visited by the Beagle on her epic voyage was the Cocos Islands but that was sufficient for the great man to formulate his correct theory that Atolls were the result of coral growth on the top of volcanoes that slowly sank beneath the waves. He predicted that edges of the island would plummet vertically to the sea floor which would be too steep for submarine cables. However a survey ship found that it would be possible and Direction Island became a key part of global communications! A large signalling station was established and further enhanced with the advent of wireless communication. Soon a small but happy community of signalling engineers tamed the island with tennis courts, billiards and even a small pig herd to supplement their diet. Passing ships often dropped barrels full of a precious supply of fresh food and on one occasion, kittens, to fight the plague of rats on the Island. With the Second World War, the island became a target and was bombed by the Japanese and eventually an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the signalling station was made by a landing part from the German destroyer SMS Emden. Soon afterwards the Emden was outgunned by HMAS Sydney and driven onto the reef off North Keeling Island where parts of the wreck can still be seen.

All this and much much more was told in a series of information boards carefully laid out on a Heritage Trail on Direction Island. We followed the route through the coconut tree jungle and were amazed at how little evidence of the signalling station remains after the ravages of nature. We were also accompanied on the trail by lots of hungry mosquitoes. Alejandro is particularly sensitive to their bites and wore a full body wet suit as protection, with periodic sea water dousing to prevent overheating!

A quick dinghy ride back to Free & Breasy was all that was necessary to complete another perfect day in paradise. But the Deities had other plans! The outboard motor would not start. After 30+ minutes of frustrating attempts during which a crowd gathered to offer advice, conciliation and generally enjoy the spectacle, we gave up. Oh the ignominy of being towed through the fleet (the wind was too strong to row); one of our fellow sailors actually crossed himself and looked mournful as though we were a funeral cortege!

The next day disappeared in unsuccessful attempts to fix the outboard. The carburettor came off twice and was twice cleaned, the fuel supply checked, the ignition circuits examined - all to no avail! To ease our frustration we did other boat repair jobs but no matter how we tried we could not solve the outboard problem. Can you believe that next morning it started first pull without any further attention! We still don't know what the problem was (or still is!) but the motor is going better than ever.

It was time to get back to having fun so we went to snorkel "The Rip". The westerly current in the Indian Ocean causes sea water to flow through a small channel in the coral creating a "river" through the coral called "The Rip". The current sweeps snorkelers past beautiful coral and tropical fishes of all varieties including a few reef sharks. At time it was necessary to hold on to the rocks just to see the marine world rather than being swept past. A lot of fun and nice fish, particularly the aptly named and coloured Picasso fish! We ended the day with a Free & Breasy hull cleaning snorkel and so, exhausted, to bed.

Our final day was an outing to West Island to see the municipal centre and maybe visit a bar and an internet cafe. High on the priorities was also getting some exercise. That was easily solved by walking the 7km between the ferry jetty and the town. Proudly we eschewed the buses and the frequent offers of a lift from passing traffic. This was definitely a friendly place! Arriving somewhat hot and sticky we walked straight into the bar and ordered beers. How wonderful they tasted! By shear good luck we had timed our beers to the start of the Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final between the Swans (Sydney) and the Hawks (Melbourne). AFL is not football as we normally think it. The few rules that we could detect seem to suggest a combination of both rugby and normal football, played on a giant square pitch with super fit athletes engaged in mortal combat. Many, many beers later, we shared in the triumph of most of the Cocosians, as the Hawks completely annihilated the Swans. Very biblical!

After internet communication (more or less) with family, we picked up some provisions and it was time to head back to the ferry. It was also time for the local monsoon to start. We are used to very heavy squalls of rain but this turned out to be a storm that lasted most of the night. Getting wet in the rain is very pleasant in the tropics so not a problem. However, the whole fleet had ordered fresh fruit and vegetables which were packed in cardboard boxes and waiting to be loaded onto the ferry. In the event only a few boxes dissolved in the rain but there were interesting scenes as people and boxes jostled onto and off the ferry, particularly as it was dark when we arrived back at Direction Island and there were few torches to marry boxes to boats!

We have decided to try and get ahead of the pack by leaving a day early so here we are once again back on the rolling seas, bound for Mauritius. We expect the 2350nm passage to take 15-18 days depending on the wind strengths. The rain is still with us and by the look of the surrounding clouds, here to stay! Soon the Cocos Islands will be one more jewel in the crown of our circumnavigation memory. With all this poetic injustice it's a good job we are back to an alcohol free sailing period!


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