Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Passage

Cocos (Keeling) Islands consists of two flat, low-lying coral atolls made up from many islands, only two of which are inhabited. These islands are covered in luxuriant coconut palms and vegetation.

With the arrival of Saga, Hohoq, Dreamtime and Super Tramp, we had met the latter three before, increasing the number of yachts anchored to six. 2 German, 1 Australian (Dreamtime), 1 Canadian, 1 Swiss and Franda II. Although we were all from different countries and had taken different routes to get here, we all agreed that the anchorage was one of the most spectacular visited.

There was talk of a yacht wreck on the south reef of South Cocos Keeling Island. Supposedly, "Sea Weed" had gone aground, and although Rick was insured, it was his third loss. John Clunies-Ross is said to have salvage rights. Now and again, there are little reminders like this that our lifestyle is not without dangers.

I couldn't wait to see Tina again, and as soon as we caught up, plans were in place. Spend as little time on school work as possible and as much onshore and in the water.

Tina and I rowed ashore and spent the day exploring the beach, swimming, talking, and swimming again. The beach was straight out of a travel brochure advertising the allure of a tropical beach—a brilliant white beach framed by the blue ocean and green coconut palms. The sand was not pebbly or round but flat and relatively coarse, consisting of broken shells and coral. It was a tropical paradise, but sadly unseen by our pair of young eyes. It was "just another" tropical island and taken for granted by us.

Towards the end of the day, Tina had the idea of making square mats out of coconut fronds. We would pull a frond off a small coconut palm; it had to be small to reach it. Then, split the frond down the middle(stem) with pocket knives. Next, we lay the butt of the split "stems" at 90 degrees to each other, causing the "leafy bits" to overlap. After that, it was just a matter of weaving the two halves together and putting one across and then under the other in an alternating pattern. Finally, we tucked the ends back on themselves to finish it off.

Our idea was to have enough mats for all the yachties to sit on when they came ashore the following evening for Stuart's 21st birthday celebration. Additionally, Tina had a great idea just before dusk to sleep ashore in her tent.

We hurriedly rowed out to Dreamtime to ask Tina's mum's permission. Then, approval granted, we rowed to Franda II and asked Mum. She also consented, so we returned to Dreamtime to find the tent and get food and water. As it was already dusk, Stuart and Kathryn kindly accompanied us ashore and helped us to erect the tent. Then, my siblings rowed the dinghy back to Franda II, leaving us stranded on the shore.

Marooned, we girls were now entirely alone on the island. Lying in the tent, we listened to the nighttime noises, trying to identify them. The easy ones were the lapping of the waves on the beach and the coconut palms' rustling by the breeze. Closer, we could hear scuttling sounds, crabs that had come out of their holes to feed under cover of darkness.

Having identified most of the noises, we chatted well into the night with torches close by our hands and food at our feet. A midnight feast of canned rice pudding taken from Dreamtime ended a fun-filled day. Tina carefully threw the empty can as far from the tent as possible. We would collect it in the morning when cleaned by the ants. Finally, we slept.

An early morning swim was followed by us making three mats, another swim and another three mats, then another swim. Then, having decided to stay another night on the island, we swam out to Franda II to ask for more food to last us another day. Finally, we completed the 18 mats just as the first visitors arrived. Five yachties had gone out diving for crayfish, so fresh crayfish for entre. Franda II supplied kebabs, and other yachts provided salads to share. Kathryn had made a cheesecake for the birthday boy. A wonderfully festive evening, a 21st like no other.

John Clunies-Ross Jr. came to visit the yachts. His family once had full ownership of these islands. He was out here on his annual visit from England. He and some of the yachties went fishing, and then we all had a BBQ on shore.

Another few days were spent in paradise, Tina and I enjoying the water and freedom away from our families. Living in a small space, with family, with nowhere to go, sometimes got too much. We were with family 24/7. So Tina and I made the most of our time playing ashore and making up songs about birds and tropical islands.

I loved climbing the coconut palms, especially those angled out over the sea and looking down at the sand through the clear water, watching as the ripples passed. These distorted my view of the sand and became hypnotic. I would watch for as long as I could stay holding on. We played games in the pristine waters, becoming dolphins or mermaids. We only had our imagination to limit our play. On the beach, we perfected handstands and walkovers. While in the water, we enjoyed the challenge of sinking Franda II's little dinghy and bailing it out while in it. It was our only "toy".

The weather changed to overcast, and we plundered more blankets from Franda II. We felt the cold acutely, and one day, it was only warm enough for one swim. But generally speaking, a lovely range between 29°c during the day and 25°c at night. The ocean was a lovely 26°c, so there was very little difference out or in.

Tanning lotion, not sunscreen, was available, but we just lived in our bathers, becoming very brown. Sun cancer was relatively unknown, and apart from a request by parents to wear our hats, we were left entirely alone. We were still careful not to get burnt and often played in the shadow of the coconut palms. Occasionally, I would wear one of Dad's old, long-sleeved, lightweight shirts over my bikini. We did not wear shoes, and I, unfortunately, cut my foot on a sharp bit of dead coral lying hidden under the sand. I tried hard to ignore it, knowing that if I told Mum, she would encourage me to keep my foot out of the salt water. The warm salt water would likely promote bacterial growth, and I would end up with a nasty hole in my foot.

While exploring Direction Island, my brothers and I found some solid, heavily shielded wire. Probably the remnants from the original signal and air rescue station built here in the 1950s. There was a lot of lead in the wire, so Mike had the idea of melting it down to make diving weights. We returned to Franda II for the old pot, primus, the weight mould and a couple of old knives. Stripping the wire, the lead was put into the pot, melted on the primus and poured into the mould. The afternoon work netted us three new 2-kilo dive weights.

The weather changed to overcast with the feel of rain. This was a welcome relief to Tradewind weather, dry and sunny with the odd puffy cloud. Franda II had encountered very little rain in the previous six months.

During the 6 nights in Tina's tent, Siga and Supertramp left the anchorage. The day before Franda II's departure, Tina and I packed up the tent, washed Tina's clothes, and tidied up the BBQ area with the help of Stuart and Kathryn. It had been used every night by the group of yachties. Finally, when everything was tidy and no evidence of our presence remained, we returned to the yachts and shelter. Excitedly, it had started to rain, the first real rain in 6 months.

During this time, we both ignored our schoolwork. Instead, we treated this time as a very welcome midterm break. But, for me, the schoolwork always hovered. It was always there. There were no set days or times, which was great, but no set holidays either. It was solely up to the Franda II girls to get it done; when and where didn't matter. By the time Cocos Keeling Island was left in Franda II's wake, I was disappointingly three weeks behind in my schooling. But I had enjoyed a wonderful time with Tina and had no regrets.

Franda II, Hohoq and Dreamtime all left within an hour. All were heading to Diego Garcia 1475NM to the North West, on average distances per day, a guess of around 14 days.