Cocos Keeling Islands

Cocos Keeling Islands
May 17 to 22, 2016

The islands are an atoll -a circular ring of coral with a lagoon in the center. Each spot that the coral is above sea level there is a small island. Yachts anchor at Direction Island, the first one to the east of the entrance where there is shelter and enough depth. It is uninhabited. Home Island comes next, with a population that is primarily Malay and Muslim. They are descendants of slaves brought in to work the coconut plantations of the 19th century. Across the lagoon is West Island that has the government workers and the airport. There are only 550 residents, with 400 on Home.

The islands are owned and run by Australia. There is a ferry between Home and West, but not enough depth for sailboats to travel to either. It was even a challenge to get the dinghy to Home Island at low tide. Alcohol is only available on West after 5 pm at the bar. The last ferry back to Home is at 4pm. West is nicknamed "naughty island" by the Muslims. Our first 2 days were dedicated to chores ashore, like finding cash, internet, food and fuel. Home Island has no bank or ATM but you could get cash back from a Mastercard at the grocery store. Diesel was almost 4 times the price in Sumatra. The information office on West offered internet for $20 an hour. We had taken the 10:30 ferry over Thurs to look around. Including a leisurely lunch at the only restaurant open we had run out of things to do by 12:30, but had to wait for the 3pm ferry. Tourists come mostly to surf or bird watch so it was at least a scenic walk along the shore. There is a golf course that uses the airport runway as part of the fairway.

After Indonesia, the check in and out procedures were simple and the staff friendly and helpful and understandable. On mainland Australia the quarantine dept confiscate much of your food. But the rule here was not to take any food or waste to shore, unless bought on the island. That way we could keep the provisions for the ocean crossing. Unfortunately there is no garbage disposal for yachts so we will have well over a month's worth by the time we get to Rodriques.

Although a small place in the middle of nowhere, Cocos Keeling was an important location in the early part of the 20th century. Cables were laid on the ocean floor to connect the major continents for telecommunications. The stations in this area were Perth, Cocos, Rodriques, Sri Lanka, Cape Town, and St Helena. In 1901 a telegraph relay station was built on Direction Island with a community of staff. It became a target during WW1. There is a heritage trail on the island recounting much of the history and battles.

Today, much of the area is national park, protecting bird and fish populations. There is also a regular, large, border patrol boat, the Ocean Shield. They check for boats that may be trying to bring immigrants in illegally, usually via Sri Lanka or Indonesia.

The real treat at the anchorage is to go to the beach for a swim or do some snorkelling. The beach has been maintained as a park with picnic tables, chairs, shelters, a diving raft, water, fire pits, dock and mooring balls for your dinghy. At the end of the beach there is a rip with a strong current running across the reef into the lagoon. You can swim across and be swept into the lagoon where it is easy to swim back to shore. The fish are plentiful, with a good variety and much larger than usually seen snorkelling. Plenty of sharks there as well as around the boat, black and white tipped ones that are not dangerous. Unfortunately, we have to wait until we have internet to attach some photos of this special place.