Visiting Christmas Island

For the last 48 hours the majority of the World ARC fleet have been moored in Flying Fish Cove on Christmas Island. This stopover is the first visit to the ‘Jewels of the Indian Ocean’ and the crews have been enjoying their time ashore – going on jungle tours, provisioning, walking in the township and also meeting the very friendly locals.

The visit to Christmas Island has proved a very successful amendment to the World ARC itinerary as it was not originally planned to take a break on the journey to the next Indian Ocean ‘Jewel’ of Cocos (Keeling) Island.  However, through tours with Lisa Preston of Island Explorer Holidays, crews have found the island’s ‘jungle’ habitat very interesting as well as the rich social and cultural mix of its inhabitants. A visit to the island also has the practical advantage of relatively easy provisioning with some goods even being cheaper than mainland Australia.

The visit to Christmas Island would not have been possible without the support of the Harbourmaster Dave Robertson and the staff of the Christmas Island Tourist Association. Flying Fish Cove is not normally able to receive such a large number of yachts – before World ARC, only eight yachts have visited this year -  but additional moorings have been put in at the Cove and a plan drawn up to use commercial mooring to accommodate all Rally crews who wanted to visit the island.  The welcome ashore has been fantastic with lots of the islanders showing huge interest in the large influx of visitors and a stop for other yachtsmen at Christmas Island is highly recommended.

The World ARC crews are encouraged to spend 48 hours in Christmas Island and so after a very nice BBQ ashore yesterday evening, several of the boats are leaving today to head for Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The winds look good for the trip and so all boats should make that landfall in about 4 days.