arrived at cocos keeling islands....

15-6-08 We had been traveling at a decent speed with the kite up. We have a sock that makes it sooooo easy to put up and down when you are short handed. Well the block that fed the kite through the mast fell off when the shackle holding it on broke. There was a big bang and Steve who was down below thought it was just one of the big waves we had been having. When we realised what was the matter, then it was down with the kite, on with the slower jib. Well, it could not be fixed until we made land, or the seas calmed down (as if)

16-6-08 Excitement plus. We passed a boat!!!!!! I was on watch as was sooo excited that when I called Steve up from his well earned sleep, he rushed out of bed thinking there was an emergency. Sorry Steve, but, but..... It might have been a pirate ship, but I was informed by Captain Steve that it was a 'high bowed Indonesian Long Liner' and would only do 5knots of speed. Indeed, after watching him aim for us for ages, I was apprehensive about his intentions. We altered course which made us surf the mountainous swell at 13 knots, and soon the Pirates??? were crossing 100 metres behind us. We watched them go, wallowing terribly (as these boats have no stabilizers)and no one was seen on deck. This all happened in International waters, just before we re-entered the Australian waters around Cocos! It is getting cloudy towards night so we are glad that we just have the jib up. I was feeling seedy again, but was still restless and didn't want to sleep, so I stayed up a bit longer doing what I do well, look at the horizon. The night was not dark and I saw a bird circling the boat. Whenever I saw a bird, I would always comment that the Terns were coming back, so Steve took no notice that I was carrying on about a bird trying to land on the boat. After a few aborted landings, he finally ended up in the dinghy on the davit's, again. I had to admit it was not a Tern. I thought it was a GOOSE, Steve reckoned it wasn't and I was a goose! Anyhow, he was there to stay for the night, despite Steve upsetting the birds sleep whenever he had to bail out the dinghy. The GOOSE was off at the crack of dawn, but it was nice having company.

17-6-08 The heavens had opened up overnight and it rained in torrents! during many squalls. The wind was still behind us, so we did,t need to reduce the sail, just had fun surfing down the face of these lovely waves, that were flattened when the rain came. We took the opportunity to fill our water tanks and have a lovely, if rocky shower (just a little bit cold) It was a welcome change, but I was still seedy!!! Steve put on a DVD to cheer me up, and as I could only sleep down below, we watched it on the deck in the wheelhouse with the clear awnings protecting us from most of the weather. I still haven't finished making them and rain gets in at the bottom, where they are still to be fastened. Well we were sitting, in our deck chairs, with our feet up against the bottom of the clears watching chick flick and Steve jumped up with an exclamation that he had been brutally savaged by a killer flying fish. Still flapping, Steve got his retribution and as he was fresh, was made promptly into bait. Now to get and idea of this David and Goliath match, The fish had launched all of its 5 inches over the deck of the boat, under the 1 inch gap in the clears and hit his foot. Now that was a rather large one, but we have had fish as small as 1/2 inch on the deck and even in our dinghy at roof height. They are pretty wonderful characters! It is getting exciting as we will be in Cocos tonight and I keep looking forwards. At dusk I see what I think is the GOOSE again doing circles around the boat, but never landed and flew off into the sunset. My theory is that he was just popping in to say hello! We finally made Cocos at 2245 WST and dropped anchor in the quarantine area, thankful to arrive in a tropical paradise. We could see the silhouette of Coconut Palms against the horizon, the sea 'felt' blue and clear and we could see fish and sharks swimming, even though it was dark. We set the alarm so we could call up Customs and retired, contented.

18-6-08 Woke up early so we could talk to our sailing friends on the radio, but the storm was still going, and causing too much interference on the radio. We then looked around the anchorage and there were 2 sail boats. A cat and a sloop. Friends had mentioned the Sloop called Latitude. They had talked to her during past radio scheds, so it was good to see a semi familiar boat. Called up Customs at 0700 (cocos time) and waited till lunchtime for their arrival. We had plenty to do though and the boat was looking ok by the time they did arrive. When Customs had finished, Ollie from Latitude came over to welcome us and give us a few useful tips. By the time we made it to Home Island Post Office, so we could get a phone card, the Post Office had been closed for 10 minutes. Drat!!^&^& The Home Island Locals are of Malay decent and it was a lovely place to go, with every one smiling hello and scooting around on bikes or jeeps and boats at just about every house. It looked like a care free life in a tropical paradise. Well we missed the Post Office, so lets explore Direction Island, where we are anchored. It's lovely. No one lives there, but its the recreational area for the locals. There are a few shelters and one of them has been decorated by visiting yachties with lots of lovely mementos. We explored the small island, scattering the chooks that were there and being very careful not to step on a hermit crab. There was a local phone there, so I tried to ring Mum, reverse charges. Its great having that facility. All local calls are free and someone had scribbled the reverse charge call number next to it. The Mobile service here is not the same as the mainland, as is the internet, thus the need to get to the PO, so we could contact our loved ones.