Hooray! Hooray! We finally made it to Cocos Keeling. But with much more downpours of rain and lumpy seas as apparently is the way of the Indian Ocean. We are anchored here off the atoll with beautiful blue water and can see clear to the bottom. We had to dinghy over to the beach to check in.
We will have to take a ferry over to the other island to do our shopping and adventures. This side of the island is very remote and no stores. It is quite lovely. It reminds us of the San Blas Islands near Panama. The islands or atolls have no mountains. They are very flat and sandy with many palm trees. This is what we think of when we think of a desert island. Seems to be a constant breeze so no need for a/c.
There are already 17 boats here from the fleet. We are having a nice reunion with the other boats and crews. We are now only waiting for Ocean Jasper and Jeannius.They should be arriving respectively on Wed. and Thurs. There will be a eco tour of the island. On Sat. there will be a ferry that will take us to the other part of the island to do our provisioning. Sunday we will attend a wine and cheese party. We leave on Monday for Mauritius. That will be another long passage of 12-16 days.
So we will rest here and recuperate our strength before we start again for Mauritius. It does seem like paradise.
Rosemary, Bill and Matt