Christmas Is-Cocos(Keeling) Islands

Passage

With a good wind and speeds around 7 knots, Franda II left Christmas Island and our friends behind. We left mid-afternoon, settling quickly into a "passage" routine, enjoying the fresh steady wind. Finally, Franda II shook the cobwebs off, and while the autopilot handled most of the work, we kept a close watch for ships.

On the second day, I woke early, lay in my top bunk and listened to the waves on the hull. No - I was not hearing them but feeling them as they rolled from stern to bow. Franda II lifted from her port quarter, surfed a little down the swell, then settled back down on her stern, lifting the bow with that motion - cork screwing but just a little and gently.

Cork screwing can be a very uncomfortable motion. If the wind is strong and the swells big, it is difficult to steer straight. Concentration is needed as it is easy to broach when surfing down the waves. The danger is that the yacht becomes side-on to the wave with the possibility of rolling over. However, it is an exhilarating point of sailing.

Therefore, Franda II was still on a port tack, meaning that my bunk, being on the starboard side, was on the downhill side, closer to the waves. The hum of the rigging entered my consciousness. It must still be blowing hard. The seas were still reasonably calm, partly because Franda II was going with the sea. I tried to guess Franda II's speed by just listening and feeling her. My guess puts Franda II's speed between 7-8 knots. Looking out my porthole for more clues, I concluded that the wind speed would be slightly over 20 knots. It was hard to judge as I could only see snatches of the ocean's surface when Franda II rolled to port, raising my porthole above wave level!

I lay and considered how different it would be if we were sailing into the sea and wind. If we were still on the port tack, my porthole would have white water swirling around it when Franda II hit a wave. Also, her motion would be jerky as each wave she hit would slow her momentum. The rigging's humming would be louder, and I would hear the occasional sound of a headsail luffing as the helmsman came too close to the wind. But why was I laying in bed imagining worse weather when I could be up enjoying the day. So, I happily jumped out of my bunk, dressed in undies and a shirt and hurried deck side.

Up in the cockpit, I checked the speedo and wind gauge. My guesses were close. Franda II was touching on 8 knots, the wind being just abaft the beam and about 25 knots. It was exciting out on the poop deck with the wind blowing my hair and feeling Franda II alive! We both just revelled in it!

For lunch, Kathryn and I whipped up a coleslaw with day-old Christmas Is bread and some ham accompanied with home made chutney.

I often mention our meals onboard. This is because it was so different to other yachts. For example, Dreamtime only had a small gas fridge, sometimes used in port, never on an ocean passage. Most meals on Dreamtime were dried food or out of a can. Freya remembers eating spaghetti with commercial tomato sauce on top, cutting pictures of fancy food out of magazines and placing them on the dinner plates. Fish they caught were eaten that day or sliced, soaked in Soy sauce, and hung to dry. Although Franda II did carry lots of dry and canned food, about 6 months' worth, they only added to the meal and were there for emergencies. Sometimes, the Huttons would have a can of corn with their salad or canned tomato soup for lunch, but generally, they ate fresh or frozen food.

Many yachts still had Kerosene or Methylated spirit stoves. Both these stoves required preheating with liquid alcohol to make them hot enough to vaporize the fuel so it could burn effectively. Also, usually, these stoves had two burners and maybe a grill but no oven. I was always surprised at the fantastic food some people could produce off a two-burner stove.

Franda II had a four-burner gas stove with a full-size oven. The elements all had an autopilot, so lighting the stove was convenient. The two gas bottles had their own compartment under a section of the cockpit seating area. This compartment had its own drains to ensure any gas leakage went down and out and could not collect in the compartment. This gas was also used in 3 separate gas califonts. One for each bathroom and one for the galley. However, we seldom used any of them.

We seldom had trouble getting the gas bottles filled in different countries. Although, we did carry a few additional gas adapters with us.

As well as the oven, the other item that changed Franda II's menu was the fridge/freezer. Initially a fridge only, Dad installed an extra brine tank to break the fridge into three sections. The middle, between the two brine tanks, was the freezer, and the other outer sections were the fridge, although items would freeze next to the brine tanks. The auxiliary generator would be run for an hour morning and night to run the freezer and charge the batteries.

We often started a passage with the middle section full of frozen meat. Chicken, lamb, beef, whatever was available at a reasonable price. More meat would line the outside of one brine tank, and next to the meat, the vegetables. The other side would have water bottles against the brine tank and perishable vegetables next to the water bottles. Hopefully, we would replace the meat with freshly caught fish as we ate it. Thus maintaining a full freezer. We tended to eat as much fish as possible and save meat for special occasions. Meat costs money to replace. Whereas fish is relatively free.

We also preserved some of our own food. The whole family often peeled, cut, stirred, or measured. Mike got off lightly, his one hand supposedly making peeling or cutting small vegetables slow and difficult. One time, my sister and I had tears streaming down our face while peeling 5kg of small onions to pickle. Stuart had the bright idea of wearing diving masks while peeling them. It must have been a sight!. But it did work a treat and became our standard eyewear when peeling a bag of pickling onions.

Dad loved pickled onions and ate them most nights with his evening drink. So they were made often.

We would make preserves wherever we found cheap or free vegetables or fruit. Pickled vegetables, chutney, tomato sauce, preserved fruits, jams and marmalade. To name but a few. A spoonful of pickled vegetables or chutney could turn an average coleslaw and cold meat lunch into something special.

We always left the port fully provisioned, buying what was cheap in that port. Sometimes, that may be Red wine, Tinned Chicken, NZ lamb, or fruit and vegetables. We did not have in mind that it would be a 3-day trip or a 3-week trip. We stocked for living, not the passage. We lived onboard, and who knew what the next port would have that was affordable. We sailed with ample food to meet any circumstance.

Cooking was just one of the ways we sisters kept ourselves occupied. We were still not doing night watches, so we were up all day. Schoolwork was another daily occupation. On this day, though, Kathryn wrote a note and put it into a Coruba Rum bottle, waterproofing the lid with wax. The return address on it was Dad's lawyer friend in NZ. We were yet to hear back from anyone who had found one of the previous bottles we had "posted". Sometimes, we wondered if the bottles ever made it to shore. Or were never found, or if the note was illegible, or the person couldn't be bothered writing to us about their findings. It disappointed us greatly. So this time, Kathryn thought if she dropped it in the ocean closer to land, there would be more chance of it getting to shore.

An hour before midday on the third day, land was sighted. Another feat of navigation for Mum. The islands' maximum elevation of 5m means one must be within nine miles to see it. By 1300hrs, we were anchored at Direction Island in the company of yacht Siga. Franda II had just completed her fastest passage. 460NM in 70 hours and an average of 6.57kn or 12.1km/h. or 157NM per day.