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Firefly - En Route to Cocos



Firefly's anchor was raised at 0700 yesterday morning and we left the anchorage at Anak Krakatoa where we had spent 2 nights. From Puteri Marina in the south of Malaysia it had taken 4 and half days to reach the Sundra Strait. The Strait separates Java and Sumatra and at the closest point there is a great deal of shipping, mainly ferries going back and forth from the busy towns on either side about 16 miles apart. Passing through under engine in the middle of the day was useful as it was a complicated job to weave through them all. Sundra is a long strait and was about another 20 miles on to Krakatoa and 30 miles more to the open sea from that busy point.

Anak Krakatoa is a new volcano (formed in 1927) right in the middle of the original Krakatoa caldera, which erupted so vigorously in 1883 causing massive destruction and loss of life. There are a few remnants of the old volcano and it is clear that it was massive. Little 'Anak' is 300 metres high and smokes and steams continuously and our expectation was that it would be a tourist attraction. Fortunately not - it was completely deserted. There is a ranger station there that was empty and our arrival just before sunset as an electric storm was building gave everything a primeval feel. It felt even more adventurous the next morning as we set off to climb to a plateau about half way up in order to take a closer look.

Today is Wednesday 21st September and we have been at sea for over 24 hours and are almost 200 miles into the 620 mile passage to Cocos Keeling. The wind was surprisingly good at the start although there was a continuous line of squalls heading for Java that repeatedly hit us. Overnight we made numerous course and sail alterations as we left the Indonesian islands and headed out into the Indian Ocean. Currently we are broad reaching fast on our chosen course with the only disadvantage being that it has been raining for hours - it looks more like the North Sea and it is quite rough. It isn't the North Sea however as its absolutely baking down below.

The World ARC boats that we will rendezvous with at Cocos are on route from Lombok, Indonesia and we managed to make contact with some of them briefly during their SSB call yesterday. We are already closer to Cocos than all of them with our ETA currently being Saturday morning. The World ARC boats are stopping for 48 hours at Christmas Island on route... so we expect to be in Cocos for 2 or 3 days before the first ones arrive.... that should give us the chance to get to the few grocery shops first!


Paul, Gareth and Hugh

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