There were 9 or 10 yachts in the anchorage and one of them called us on the VHF to ask if we needed directions for coming in. With a few beacons around it looks confusing so we were happy for some local knowledge. The water is crystal clear so the coral all looks like it is just below the surface. Ken’s directions were good enough to guide us over the coral beds and into the picture perfect anchorage, if you ignore the quick 360 we did at one point where we were unsure of the channel.
With the anchor down we looked at the palm trees, white sand and unbelievable aquamarine water. The sun was shining, the wind was light and all the cares of the journey suddenly seemed worth it. This truly is a little paradise.
We had to force ourselves to tackle the work involved in a new anchorage at the end of a long passage. Tidying and stowing lines, launching the dinghy, getting the outboard motor off the rail and onto the dinghy, and untying everything above and below so that the ever moving ship can convert to being just a home for a while.
In the middle of it all a young couple, Troy and Anna from Vinga came over in their dinghy and invited us to join their party on the beach that night. There were a couple of birthdays to celebrate.
We grabbed a few hours sleep and at sunset we could see a bonfire starting on the beach so loaded up a bag of goodies and headed across. As we pulled the dinghy up on the beach we discovered what a great setup for yachties this place has. Just behind the bonfire is a shed. The roof is about 4 metres above the ground and supported by poles, no sides at all. The area is big enough for 4 large tables with benches, each could seat 10 people in comfort, or 20 in a squeeze. Water off the roof fills a tank which is available for washing, although many seemed happy to drink it in spite of the sign. Against one pole is a complimentary phone and directory to make free calls to any number on the islands. There is a large brick BBQ and a wifi modem. It’s expensive at $65 for 2 gig, but it works reasonably if you’re in the shed, and occasionally we can even check emails from the boat. The Island is lush with palm trees and is uninhabited, if you ignore the dozens of bright orange hermit crabs of all shapes and sizes. In fact of the 5 islands dotted around the atoll of the South Cocos group, only 2 are inhabited. We can dinghy across fairly open water to Home Island in about 20 minutes, and from there catch a ferry to West Island which is the biggest. It has a couple of ‘supermarkets’ whereas Home Island has only one. Both have post offices, I think West Island has a bank, clinic, police station, or maybe that is on Home Island, hardware store etc.
The party was fun and we got to meet sailors from Germany, Sweden, Poland, England, NZ, Aus, USA, France, Holland, S. Africa, and possibly more. As we all shared our war stories Adam, one of the crew off s/v Orient, said, “I could probably help you with that bilge pump problem, and take a look at that generator...”
True to his word Adam turned up the next morning with his skipper, Morris, and we eventually found the 3 week old bilge pump had let water into its motor. Morris opened it up and dried out the motor, brushes etc and we sealed the leak with silicone. The generator was a bigger problem but we eventually identified at least one item, the voltage regulator, was fried. What we didn’t know was if that was in fact the fault, or just the result of a fault somewhere else.
I managed to track down a replacement part in Australia and ordered it. With only 3 flights a week here and a post office that doesn’t open every day, who knows when we will get it but we’re hoping in the next couple of days.
We finished working quite late and Sandy had cooked up some chilly dish so Morris and Adam were easily persuaded to join us for sundowners and a meal. She’d also baked a few loaves of her now famous bread, legendary stuff. It was a nice night. You meet and make friends so easily when cruising and often they have done unusual things. Adam is a mechanic by trade and worked in Mongolia, and Orient’s other crewman, Patrick, is an American and a builder by trade. He rode a bicycle through a number of South American countries, and spent 5 months in Puerto Rico building a tree house. There is never a lack of conversation topics! But the next day s/v Orient left for Mauritius and we felt the urge to get going too.
By the weekend most of the boats had left, mainly for Mauritius, and a few new arrivals had drifted in. One boat decided to head for the top of Madagascar and then go down the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and Africa. It’s a route we were thinking of taking initially and we did another rethink about it. It’s a longer route but the chance of better weather conditions is tempting. It would mean sailing closer to the boundary of the Somali pirate area and that is what put us off initially. In fact some insurance companies have that route as an exclusion zone.
The reality is the delay here waiting for generator parts means we will need to take the faster southern route. November is the start of the cyclone season and we need to get south of Mauritius.
We managed to track down the guy who looks after the Water Corporation generators here in the islands and on the weekend he came to run some tests on ours. I’d managed to get a full service manual emailed out to him from Australia so he was well prepared. After checking everything we found we needed new brushes as well as the part that is on its way, but it seems likely that when the bits eventually arrive we will have a working generator again.
The post office is closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays so we’ve had to accept that things just take as long as they take here in the islands. We’ve had plenty to do on the boat so the time was needed anyway. The urgent jobs, apart from the genny, are now nearly done and we’ve started on the next level. As I’m typing here Sandy is giving the teak another coat of oil. We’ve snorkled a bit and Sandy did a huge bucket washing day. With no genny our dinky little washing machine just sits there mocking us. There was plenty of tank water and I strung lines between the palm trees to dry everything. Quite a novel experience.
We also took a trip over to Home Island. It took nearly 25 minutes in the dinghy, including detours after nudging coral a few times. The population there is almost completely Malay, left over from the copra industry days. Now they mostly live on the Aussie government (dole). Talk about a quiet life! You could easily walk everywhere but the locals ride golf carts and quad bikes, with the odd small motor bike thrown in, and no helmets! We went to the only store on the island and bought a few basics. Eggs, $10/dozen and a small, almost over ripe avo, $5, so I really do mean a few.
But our quiet sojourn in paradise didn’t last long. On the weekend 2 things happened.
The first of the ARC rally boats arrived. There will be about 20 all together. The ARC rally is made up of boats, skippers and crew who sign up, pay fairly big $ and do a circumnavigation with everything organized and laid on for them. It’s a big party moving from destination to destination and they go around in 18 months. In fact many drop out and rejoin the next one to give them more time in places like the South Pacific. For many it’s a confidence/comfort thing to be part of a group and have everything thought out and arranged for you, and have help close at hand if things go wrong. Some are fairly normal but expensively equipped yachts but most are big and expensive and the owners wealthy. You get the impression they’ve worked all their lives making money, and this is their one chance to have an adventure before the curtain falls. I don’t blame them a bit. It’s just a pain when our paths cross and facilities are booked out and prices hiked.
The second arrival was high winds and rain squalls. Paradise isn’t always paradise. The wind gusts have nudged 40 knots, although usually sitting at 20-25. One morning I actually had to bail the dinghy, and we’ve been swinging on the anchor so much that we chafed through the snubber. Fortunately I’d made up a spare in Darwin so it was easily replaced.
It’s now Wednesday, Sept 24 and with any luck the first spare part may have arrived. The post office was closed yesterday so I’ll give them a few hours to sort the mail and then dinghy across to the beach and call them on the free phone.
Until next time...