Tin Tin's Sailing Calendar

Wednesday 25 October 2017

Rodrigues

We dropped anchor off Rodrigues at 04:00 on Friday 21st October and toasted our safe passage across the Indian Ocean with a tot or two of excellent Mount Gay rum.

Three hours sleep later at 08:00 we were called by the Coastguard with a request to enter the port and clear in, and we found 8 yachts at anchor there. The Health Inspector came out to give us clearance from quarantine, and then we dealt with Customs and Immigration ashore in the little row of dockside offices.

The town of Port Mathurin lay in parallel streets behind the dock. Brightly coloured buildings with lots of decorative detail, including filigree strips along the eaves, and French iron balconies. Through dark doorways Indian and Chinese traders had stores stocked with an incredible mixture of goods from clothes to cooking pots, car parts to fishing tackle. I saw a car gearbox on one floor and even a top-end Mavik drone for sale, like the one Mark flies.

We found an ATM to withdraw Mauritian rupees, and at R$45/£ I suddenly had notes of R$1000 in hand, and trouble assessing the value of things. We bought SIM cards from Orange to get connectivity and then passed through the bustling Saturday market, overflowing with fruit and vegetables, and many stalls selling straw hats, wooden souvenirs, or pots of peppers done in a myriad of different ways. We replenished our vegetables supplies and I succumbed to a mango and papaya pie (which proved to be rather dry with 90% pastry).


We lunched at the only visible cafe by the bus station, where a row of neatly roofed shelters serviced a great fleet of gaily painted buses, called "King of the Road", "Prince of Love", and other great names.

Following advice from the Noonsite web pages I hired a car from Mr. Wong Su in Jenner Store. He was certainly cheaper than the advertised rental companies and I handed over R$1100 (£25) for a day, in return for the keys to a Toyota pick-up. No documents to sign, no insurance. No fuel in it either, as we discovered as we drove up a steep hill out of town!

Having tracked down the only petrol station, with the help of a policeman, and put in the smallest amount I thought necessary, we set off to follow the excellent coast road stopping frequently at the lovely views of the pale green-blue waters of the lagoon, and the many picturesque fishing boats. Mangroves grow in the muddy inlets where rivers must flow in the wet season, and amongst their branches we found huge spiders webs woven from yellow silk as strong as fishing line, with great spiders hung hungrily at the centre, perhaps waiting for small birds?! They reminded me of the ones in our bougainvillea bushes during my childhood in Zomba.

We had read about the Francis Leguat Tortoise Sanctuary, and eventually found our way there down a rough track across a landscape of jagged black limestone. The centre was very well presented and we were just in time to catch up with a tour, which included the 600m long limestone grottoes. Hard hats in hand we joined a group being led up a canyon full of giant tortoises. The indigenous species had been exterminated but Charles Darwin and other prominent scientists had petitioned the Mauritian Governor to rescue specimens from the Seychelles and reestablish them in Rodrigues and Mauritius. Francis Leguat was a French Huguenot exiled here who wrote that "it was possible to walk a hundred steps across the shells of the tortoises without touching the ground", so densely populated was the island. His subsequent book detailed the now extinct Dodo-like bird, the Solitaire, and other fauna and flora. The tortoises, including a 150kg 90 year old, were very relaxed amongst the visitors, and even made their way slowly to you to have their heads and necks stroked.

Our cave visit was impressive too, with our guide pointing out the shapes of elephants, crocodiles and a turbanned Indian head as we went round, the hard hats saving Mark's head from serious injury on two occasions as we ducked under stalactites.

The centre provided a decent cafe where we refreshed ourselves before tackling the museum, which was superbly done, with interesting bilingual displays about the history of the islands, the fauna and flora, with a separate section on the postal history. All in all a satisfying start to our exploration.

We finished our tour at Port Sud Est, which had lovely white sand beaches fringed with casuarina and palm trees. The shallow lagoon waters were alive with colourful kite surfers riding the strong steady trade wind. We parked ourselves at the hotel terrace with a fruit cocktail and I enjoyed some sketching time.

Port Sud Est, Rodrigues
That evening we had a nice visit from Matthieu and Stefan from Saba II, bringing with them a clutch of beers.

The following day all yachts had to be up early at 06:00 to leave the port before the cargo ship moved out. We then had a pleasant day strolling around the town, ending up at the Anse aux Anglais in the Marlin Bleu, overlooking a sparkling sea and the casuarina shared foreshore of the little bay. Our Mauritian-Indian host was very keen on sport, and had many trophies of rugby and football which engaged with Mark and Justin. His knowledge of English humour was surprisingly colloquial despite never having visited the UK, with a particularly astonishing quip about Mark's allegiance to NORWICH!

Anse aux Anglais, Rodrigues
After lunch I sat by the shady beach to sketch, and then went back into town to try, unsuccessfully, to pay my Health fees. Later we were invited to Saba II to "boire un coup", which turns out to be several coups and lots of lovely small samosas and dips with Matthieu, Anne-Laure, Stefan and Isabel and the three children.

Our third night in Port Mathurin, and we were still cooking on board on our usual rota! The town seemed very dead in the evening with no obvious restaurants attracting us ashore.

Tuesday 24th October 2017 Up early to buy bread and eggs and complete formalities. We spent a couple of slightly confused hours going from place to place to pay bills and find officials to clear out. In the process we met Mark Tower who is sailing round the world with his 84 year old father in a tiny 27 foot yacht, "Beguine". After 45 days at sea since Darwin!? they have been anchored in Port Mathurin for six weeks and plan on two more as it is such a relaxed and welcoming spot. Now that is getting to know a place!

But we are off and away again, heading for Port Louis in Mauritius to meet Anne and Alice who arrive  at midday on the 27th! The wind has died and our two day trip has turned into three so we will only just about have cleared in by the time they arrive.

Meanwhile I am reading Patrick O'Brien as I downloaded one of his many seafaring books called The Mauritius Command, based firmly on the British Naval capturing of the island. Rather fun to be reading about Capt. Jack Aubrey and his doctor Mathurin sailing from Port Mathurin to Port Louis as we are.  It's a historically accurate telling of the naval manoeuvres and politics of the time, and a good adventure story to boot!












Thursday 19 October 2017

Indian Ocean - Day 11. 19/10/17

The strong winds have blown themselves off to somewhere else, leaving us rolling along a bit too slowly at 5 knots in a 15-20 knots wind. With the wind almost astern we have the big genoa poled out to port and the staysail to starboard. The mainsail stays out of the way rolled up in the boom, as otherwise it would slat back and forth in the swell. It now looks as though we will arrive in Rodrigues at about midnight on the 20th of October, and will need to anchor outside the reef until daylight (and the Harbour Master) allow us entry.

In the calmer conditions today, and in the light of the slight uncertainty in the steering we got out the emergency tiller, beautifully chamfered and varnished by Stuart, and attached it with the cronky bit of metal supplied with the boat through a hole in the aft deck. It seemed to work fine, although the coupling has too much play in it and we will have to dream up a remedy for that.

The sky is blue, the seas are too and, whilst Justin is busy stitching up the man overboard retrieval system that was ripped off the rail, Mark is at the helm and I am devouring Dickens.

Having never, ever, read Dickens I had downloaded his entire works free of charge onto the Kindle. Running out of books to read I drew a deep breath and started on A Tale of Two Cities.

This gripped me entirely and I read it in 24 hours, on watch and off. What a story! Dickens style is a bit too flowery but his characters are gripping and he doesn't spare the horrifying vision of The Terror in Paris.

Enthused by this I went straight on to The Old Curiosity Shop, also done in a day, with some extraordinary characters and twists and turns, but too much verbose sentimentality for me.

But I confess that such complete immersion in the books left me feeling rather otherworldly and a bit sick!

Monday 16 October 2017

Indian Ocean Day 7; 15/10/17

We got the boat sorted out to handle the imminent gale, rolling away the mainsail and just leaving the genoa. Shortly afterwards rain squalls started to arrive with 40 knots of wind, and as night fell it got rougher. I was cooking again and I served wahoo steaks in a Korma curry sauce (packet) with rice.

When I came on watch again at 9pm it was a wild night with clear skies full of stars and I got quite chilly despite wearing my fleece, waterproof and woolly hat. Justin relieved me at midnight just as it was clouding over and started to rain again.

When I came on watch again at 6 am the promised swell had arrived and long lines of crests were coming up astern, much taller than we have seen before, at about 5 meters high they come part way up the mast. Across them then come the waves whipped up by the gale intersecting at a shallow angle and piling up on top to break noisily from time to time. The wind is pretty steady 35-45 knots with times when it gets to 50 knots, blowing spray off the wave crests and leaving long thin parallel lines of foam on the water. Occasionally one of the crests breaks over the boat and, while Mark was on watch, the plastic crate full of fishing gear was smashed on the aft deck, the man overboard recovery sling was torn off the rail, and the cockpit got a good wash through! Mark managed to retrieve most of the stuff from the aft deck, but one of my Crocs is now adrift in the Indian Ocean.

There's a dread fascination with the ocean as it marches relentlessly towards us from astern, higher crests shouldering above the skyline with breaking crests, like a crowd eager to see what's ahead. Trying to get a good photo of this impressive sight seems impossible as the camera can't convey the scale of the waves effectively. I tried sketching them instead.

Impression of the waves.  Wind blowing 40-50knots, Indian Ocean

Fear of what this mighty ocean can do, and at what point it becomes really dangerous, is a very real underlying anxiety. As the boat rises to each wave astern it adds to my confidence, but nonetheless we don't know what is yet to come. There's nowhere else to go so we must manage it as best we can. This is only a gale, so I'm glad not to be experiencing a cyclone.

Our speed is between 8-9 knots most of the time, but we have had some exhilarating rides down big waves at 12-15 knots with a record of 18.5! George, the autopilot, handles the boat very well, but we all spend time hand steering too for the experience. However in that process we have noticed that there is some slippage in the hydraulic system, so that's another job on the list when next in port.

Saturday 14 October 2017

Indian Ocean Day 6 - 14/10/17

The days roll by, and here I am again, tumbling out of my bunk at 03:00 to relieve Mark on watch, watching the moon rise astern lighting the sea brightly beneath the dark clouds. I feel rather exhausted and sleepy so I boil the kettle and make a strong coffee which I drink while munching a handful of trail-mix.

My phone alarm is set to remind me to write the log every hour. So I climb down to the cabin and at the chart table, brace myself against the motion the boat, and reach for the Log Book.  I note latitude, longitude, heading, course over the ground (COG), speed, speed over the ground (SOG), distance travelled, wind speed and direction, current speed and direction, barometric pressure, cloud coverage, general weather condition, water used, time of switching generator on/off and water-maker on/off plus a new column recording the comforting green or alarming red lights monitoring current leakage to the hull. Then in the Electrical Log I note hourly battery status; voltage, current draw (amps), amp hours used, and decided whether the generator needs to be started to recharge the batteries.

Still at the Chart table,  I reach up and pull down the Food Diary and note the menus served for lunch and supper. Next the Equipment Log comes down and I review the outstanding technical problems, add any new ones to the list, and then fill in any detailed observations and solution on the page reserved for each item. My Medical Log records any crew ailments and drugs dispensed.

Then I try to write my Blog before answering any emails, (keeping in touch with family and friends is such a great thing to be able to do at sea), contacting people for help with technical issues, or arranging to meet in the next port.

Looking ahead I set the laptop off to download the latest weather forecast, through the Iridium satellite phone network,  and then look at the red (windy), green (less windy) or blue (calm) coloured wind fields and the lines of dots suggesting recommended weather routes from the four weather forecast types received. Usually the forecasts differ quite significantly and the four suggested routes head off in different directions, so I ignore them and keep our course direct to our destination.

However for the last two days all forecasts agree that the high pressure to the south will push a big arc of strong wind northwards and the weather routes all concur to head slightly north of our course to make the best of the wind angles. So if you look at the website and the "Where in the World is Tin Tin?" link, the map should now show us heading due west. The significant wave height is forecast to rise to 5 metres, which means that once every three hours there is a statistical likelihood of encountering a wave almost twice that height - something that is quite a threat to us if not handled carefully.

Now at lunch time, the wind has freshened but not from the East as predicted, but from the South, so there is a low pressure out there astern of us squeezing the isobars which may add some extra excitement!

Well, having bored you to tears with the fundamentals of my day, I must now get out my paper journal, add some entries and sketch a little dead squid which somehow flew aboard with all the tiny flying fish last night. Then it's my turn to cook supper, and with a freezer full of fish I should probably use that again!

Friday 13 October 2017

Indian Ocean - Day 4 12/10/17

After three days we passed the three single handed sailors who had set out 7 hours before us. They are sailing within a mile of each other and taking it in turns to keep watch for 4 hours while the others sleep. When the wind dropped that day we were finding that they were doing the same speed as us at about 5 knots.

However the wind picked up strongly again and we had 44 knots and a top speed of 11.7 knots recorded despite being reefed down hard. The waves combine a big swell from the Roaring Forties, thousands of miles south, and the growing SE swell which this Trade Wind is driving. It's impressive when two combine to provide a clear green crest with light shining through it.

We caught our biggest fish of the voyage, a 1.33 meters long wahoo which weighed 13-14kg on my rusty old fishing scales. Stuart's long hooked gaff was used for the first time to secure the monster and lift it aboard. The fish was amazingly greasy as though covered with thick lanolin, making it hard to secure whilst filleting it on a rolling aft deck. Our freezer is now stuffed with very fine white fish, and it's been on the menu at most meals.

For example, I produced supper last night with wahoo in a hot Malaysian Asin sauce (sachet from Cocos Island) with aubergine and tomatoes served with rice, followed by a pineapple (sadly a bit past it). Then for lunch I used the leftover rice mixed with wahoo chunks and parsley bound together with a couple of eggs to make a kind of tortilla, which I served with a salad of thinly sliced red/green cabbage and apple mixed with nuts and raisins in an olive oil and lime juice dressing.

All our meals are served at the cockpit table, which folds away as the floor when not in use. We use a blue non-slip material to try to keep things in place while the boat bucks and rolls. Occasionally we remember to remark on how extraordinary it is to be sitting at a laid table, while the wind roars and the ocean surges and breaks around us!

I have been reading solidly through two books; first "Sapiens", recommended by Justin, which explores what it is that makes Homo sapiens so dominant a life form, and then its sequel, "Homo Deus" which takes an interesting look at how changing beliefs and technological advances could affect human society in the future. The conclusion is that human decision making and self-determination could be overtaken by intelligent machines, which know us better than we know ourselves or our environment.

This is already evident for anyone who has started to trust technology e.g. the Waze app to guide one through traffic more quickly, or Amazon to suggest books to read, based on past reading choices.

On board Tin Tin I haven't quite got to that stage with the PredictWind weather routing programme, as it produces four options based on four weather forecasts, and the suggested routes tend to vary widely, and from day to day.

Our batteries are causing concern again. Since Darwin the length of time between charges (dictated by the voltage dropping to 12v) has steadily declined from 7 hours to 3 hours. During the day the solar panel does a great job and we can go from dawn to dusk without running the generator, but at night we need to recharge very much more frequently.  I think a Watt'nSea hydro generator sounds the ideal tool for these long ocean trips as it generates power continuously under way. Most boats that I've spoken to have said it meets all their needs whilst sailing at above 6 knots. The wind generator contributes well as long as the wind is gale force!

However that doesn't answer the question of why the batteries are declining. I think it is because they are not "long life, deep discharge leisure batteries", and this is because I have not been able to find any of that type that fit into the battery box under the floorboards. They are all a bit too tall, so maybe we have to raise the floor........ I hope that I can find something suitable in South Africa.

Settling in to this long leg, with eight more days to go, I really need to do something other than read, cook, write my blog and play Sudoku (tending to become obsessive against the clock). I must try to learn the Ukelele that the girls gave me......I saw Matthieu strumming his at Cocos and his fingers seemed as big as mine, so it must be possible!

Tuesday 10 October 2017

Indian Ocean Day 2 - 10th October 2017

We had dolphins guiding us out of Cocos in the sunset, which was lovely. We had a gentle start with winds lighter than expected, but they picked up to mid thirties, so we reefed the mainsail and genoa making a lovely 8+ knots. 

Now the wind had died again and we are slopping around the swell without the pleasing rush of water. The sails are slatting and our speed is down to 4-5 knots. Not at all what was forecast a few days ago. It also makes my confidently predicted passage time of 12 -13 days begin to look much too positive. The weather forecast keeps shifting, and now shows less wind for the next ten days and even a big windless hole down near Mauritius.

The freezer had been getting steadily warmer, so yesterday I finally got down to investigate, pulling off pieces to find no cooling water flow. Eventually found that barnacles were blocking the inlet sea cock, and poked them out, but that still didn't get water through to the pump. More pipes off until I found one blocked by barnacles and cleared that. I still had to suck sea water through all the tubes to get it to the pump, which is better than siphoning petrol but still a bit nauseating! Anyway, despite imperfect cooling water flow the freezer is back down to frozen again today.

Now we just have to find and remove the slight electrical current leak, which comes and goes in a mysterious way. My heart sinks every time that red light comes on, and lifts when it shows green.

Last night was wonderful moonlight. The AIS showed cargo traffic on a reciprocal course just north of us heading for S. Korea. The three single handed yachts clustered about 5 miles south of us, and this morning we spoke briefly on the VHF with Wolfgang and Klaus, while Jackie was presumably off watch and asleep.

Sunday 8 October 2017

Cocos islands

Saturday 7th October dawned and we went ashore the short distance to the palm trees and white sand of Direction Island. A ferry was reputed to go from the big landing stage to Home Island and thence to West Island on Saturdays only. Eventually I tracked down another yacht that knew the timetable and determined that there was one at 10:00, but that it was not possible to get back from Home Island that day. So Mark sped off in the dinghy the 1.5 miles to Home Island, a hard ride against the gale blowing. Justin and I caught the ferry, which is a shiny new fast cat, airconditioned and incongruously showing "Spiderman" on its big screen to keep the passengers entertained.
Tin Tin anchored off Direction Island

However instead of speeding straight on to West Island, where I was anxious to get my clearance for Mauritius, the ferry stopped for a long time at Home Island and we had a two and a half hours to kill until it finally proceeded at 13:00. Home Island is predominantly a Malay settlement, where families were cruising around in shiny electric golf buggies in the heat. We found a couple of small shops and then a supermarket, but nothing in the way of fresh fruit and veg. Wandering around we found the Museum (closed), the Shire offices (with tempting golf buggy with keys in), and sheds full of plywood sailing skiffs, all to the same design and painted identically in white with a yellow band and immaculately varnished inside below a heavy layer of dust. I counted 47 of these in two sheds! A young man working out in a gym explained that these traditional sailing craft come out for regattas at festivals such as Ide, or for weddings.





At West Island the ferry was met by by a cheerful bearded gentleman driving a bus, which for A$0.50 took us the six miles to town. The single track tarmac road, bordered by wide well cut grass lawns, meanders scenically between thick forest walls. The settlement of neat bungalows and administrative buildings was very dead, but there was a stir of activity at the airport where the Virgin flight had finally landed a day late. However the only cafe was shut, so any thought of lunch had to be ignored.

We found the police station by the long grass air strip, which curiously is also a golf course. It was quite something to stroll out to the red flag on the first hole to watch the Virgin flight thunder past a few yards away without any fences or other hindrance.

We finally got our stamp from Cocos Island
A radio set into the wall of the police station invited me to call up the officer, and shortly afterwards he arrived to handle the paperwork. We got let off the harbour dues because he didn't have a method of issuing a receipt, which seemed fair given that no one had come out to Tin Tin to do the formalities and we had spent the whole day trying to get this done.

The community cultural centre had sofas and wifi and a shop full of colourful goodies for tourists who needed beach ware or souvenirs. A small museum section commemorated the Australian naval victory over the German warship "Emden" in 1914, which had been forced to beach on North Keeling.

Whilst Mark and Justin tackled the supermarket before it closed at 3pm, I spent a futile hour trying to find a postbox to post a letter to the Australian Tax office to reclaim tax on diesel that we bought in Darwin. In the process of walking up one long seafront road I spotted thick black smoke from wreckage out in the surf about a mile away. The town was deserted headed back to the police station concerned that some tragedy gas taken place with the outgoing Virgin flight. Once I found someone it turned out that this was the wreck of a derelict vessel which had drifted out of the wide Indian Ocean and smashed on the reef, catching fire in the process!

We caught the last ferry back across the lagoon and then piled into our own dinghy with our shopping for the choppy ride between islands.

We found a beach party starting with all eight yachts bringing food and drink to the two big tables under the shelter. The big brick barbecue was fired up and we had a most enjoyable evening meeting new friends and sharing food and conversation. There were three single handed sailors, Jackie, Wolfgang and Klaus, who planned to sail in company to Mauritius taking turns to keep a four hour watch. Then there was Matthieu and Anne-Laure from Saba II, who we had met in Ashmore Reef, travelling with their three children aged 10, 7 and 5 and two friends Stefan and Isabel. The friends have a ski shop in Pralognan in the Vanoise, and are ski instructors. It was a Proustian treat to have a taste from their bottle of Genepi which evoked strong memories of spending long hours trying to fax documents from the ski shop in Meribel, while young Kate struggled with her ski lessons in a blizzard. Ski instructors staggered in to thaw out and the Genepi circulated regularly. We also met crew from Tangled Up - Nicolas, Madeleine, James and Marcus- all new to sailing and helping the owner take the boat from Darwin to Durban.

The party was celebrating the 8th birthday of Morgan, the son of Warren and Trish on "Mustang Sally" and we were thrilled to all get a chunk of birthday cake! Later a fire was built on the beach and Matthieu brought out his Ukelele and sang wonderful French songs, and then worked through English popular songs so that we could all join in. Nicolas brought 

Boat name plate decorate the tree
out his guitar and added to the band, and Justin showed his talents playing guitar and singing Leonard Cohen songs..... Our beers had long gone, so our big bottle of Bundaberg rum came ashore and was steadily emptied. I have to say that I find Bundaberg is horrible, with strong overtones of aldehydes and esters that are the stuff of headaches, so I didn't touch it.....

We got back to Tin Tin at midnight and I struggled with email and then at about two a.m. managed to call Anne to find out more about Ioan in hospital.

Sunday dawned with less wind and we settled into the beach shelter to use the wifi. Mark and Justin explored while I tried to book marinas in Cape Town, and discover about customs formalities in Rodrigues, Mauritius and Reunion. Then I realised that I could make Internet calls using WhatsApp, and was able to speak to Ion and Kyle at their birthday breakfast, and to have a video call with Alice and see little Felix, and then to speak with brother William. Most satisfactory.

Our final act before leaving was to create a Tin Tin sign for which Mark found a fishing float which we decorated as a globe with our route marked. We then bid farewell to all and at 5 pm followed Tangled Up out to sea and set sail into the sunset for our twelve day voyage for the 1995 miles to Rodrigues hoping to arrive on 29-21st October.

Friday 6 October 2017

Some things I can fix, but others I am powerless to change

Having dropped anchor in the lagoon at Cocos and Keeling, we drew breath for a bit and then I stirred myself to tackle the anchor windlass. Dismantled and cleaned all the connections and checked fuses, which were fine. On reassembly it all worked!

Emboldened by this I returned to the centre-plate hydraulics, and started dismantling the mystery black box. But to get it off the wall I had to unscrew a wooden panel. The screws for this were of course hidden behind other things that had to be dismantled too. Eventually the mystery box was liberated and I could take it to pieces. I had assumed it made 12volts into 24volts to drive he 24volt motor, using a sophisticated system to turn DC into AC and back into DC again. But no....it was a couple of big solenoids which opened and closed switches. Puzzling! I put it all back together again and laboriously reassembled everything, drenched with perspiration in the tiny hot space of the engine compartment.

Not expecting success, we turned the power back on just as it was getting too dark to see, and Lo! It all worked again! But it's still a mystery that 24 volt motor has been installed in a 12v system! Just runs slower I suppose.

Now I only have to solve the dangerous current leakage that is eating away at the hull.

A big gin and tonic to celebrate will be followed by Australian meat pies for supper.

I have just finished reading "Sapiens" today which takes an interesting look at our species, and its development. The ideas resonate with lots that I have been thinking about relating to human control of genetics, and how this may shape our evolution, and with themes that have come out of "Beyond Reason" dealing with the way we think and "The Memory Code" about how we used to handle information before writing.

Then suddenly I feel too far away as Anne tells me that our dear stepfather, Ioan, is in hospital. Mark and I are anxious and feel helpless to respond. It has always been a risk to sail away for so long, but now that it has happened it feels very bad to be so far away........

Arrival at Cocos Island

After three windy days in big seas we have arrived at Cocos and Keeling Islands, to find that there are already eight yachts anchored at Direction Island. It's blowing 35 knots (a full gale) so getting around by dinghy may be tricky. There is apparently a Saturday ferry from Direction Island to Home Island to West Island, where we are required to complete formalities. We made our way through coral reefs into pale blue water and dropped anchor in 4 metres of water in clean white sand.

Tin Tin anchored off Direction Island. Inventive and artistically designed boat name plates are nailed to the post.


The only problem is that the anchor windlass failed, so it is now a manual system. I hope we can fix it otherwise getting anchor and chain up again is very difficult by hand! Just when everything is going well another little problem arises. So now I have that and the centre-plate hydraulic system to fix, plus we have a mystery current leak again......aaaaaaarghhhh!

We will spend Saturday and Sunday here before setting off to Rodriguez and Mauritius some 2,350 miles away. The winds look as though they will stay strong, so it will be a rough ride, but should be quite quick. I am really, really looking forward to getting there because Anne is flying out to meet me.... and Alice is coming too!!

Direction island is a lovely spot with beautiful white coral sand and Bombay Gin blue water. Ashore are see hammocks, a picnic table and a shelter plus a BBQ.  Amazingly there is even wifi connectivity provided somehow from Home Island.  Nearby there's a ferry dock. This is clearly a great weekend get-away for people working on other islands. It's very relaxing for yacht crews too!

Thursday 5 October 2017

Heading for Cocos & Keeling

We had a busy Tuesday morning lugging jerry cans and provisions to the boat, and trying to get cash to pay our harbour dues. Somehow the bank was unable to let us withdraw cash on any of our cards and with only AU$10 left I couldn't pay our AU$30 harbour dues. We tried to get cash back at the shops, but in the end it was Sue and Michelle at the Post Office who saved the day by selling me $100 of stamps and letting me take cash instead. Turns out Sue is married to the Harbour Master - so the funds got through!

The previous day was a holiday so we went exploring, and did about 5km along jungle tracks to Dolly Beach, which had been recommended to us. Sadly it was shockingly polluted with plastic bottles and old flip flops. Where had all these come from? Presumably washed down from Indonesia.

The National Parks have done very well in organising routes through the forest on raised board walks, presumably to protect the red crabs which are busy tidying up leaves on the forest floor. The roads have frequent cattle grids, which were a surprise as there are no cattle. However we then realised that the foot high plastic walls along the road edges was meant to channel the crabs to the culverts under the cattle grids so they don't get squashed. Patrols go and record every squashed crab with a big pink circle of spray paint on the road...in memoriam.

That evening we were treated to a barbecue at the Cricket Club, and enjoyed meeting new people, including French Australian, Herve, who told me that Christmas Island has plans to be a launch site for satellites, as it's perfectly positioned near the equator with lots of empty ocean for bits to fall into.

So we enjoyed Christmas Island very much and are grateful for all the hospitality and kindness we experienced. We waved goodbye to Ullar and Ellen on Troll, wishing them a speedy repair for their engine, and set sail the 535 miles towards the atolls of Cocos and Keeling Islands. Winds are strong and being abeam we are making good speed, hoping to arrive in daylight on 6th October.

Monday 2 October 2017

Christmas at last!

We finally sailed into Flying Fish Cove at 2 a.m. on the 1st of October, out of the wind and waves. Shockingly the engine wouldn't start, so we prepared to pick up moorings under sail. Then I eventually tracked the problem down and the engine was fine. (Turns out that it was the battery isolator switch we changed in Panama. The three switches all have a red handle that slots in and turns to make the contact. Normally only the house batteries are on, and the off switch handles are dangling from strings. I picked one of the two, plugged it in, and turned.....NOTHING! Luckily I tried the other one, and it worked. The new one is very slightly deeper, and the old handle doesn't push in far enough to close the contacts.)

Coming into a harbour at night is exciting because one is struggling to make out shapes in the dark against bright shore lights. We nearly rammed a huge metal mooring buoy for cargo ships. Then I dug out our high power spotlight and swept the harbour in a blaze of light. The most extraordinary thing happened. Wherever the beam went the water erupted with a dense arc of silver fish, so that as I swung it round there was a constant rainbow of fish ahead of the beam! It was even better than "painting" the sea full of luminous squid as we did a few nights ago.

The mooring we picked up was adjacent to the only other yacht, and we toasted our safe arrival with a tot of the best Black Label Mount Gay rum.

The following (Sunday) morning I was up at first light, excited to see where we were. The cove has undercut coral cliffs, upraised by previous volcanic events.
Undercut coral

At one end of the harbour a jetty and big crane link to red dusty covered conveyor belts which come down the hill from the phosphate mines. A modern jetty in the middle of the cove is backed by a row of low 3 storey apartments crowned with a densely packed line of identical satellite dishes, like oysters lined up in the Walrus and the Carpenter. With a cup of coffee in hand I grabbed my sketch book and had a happy hour before the crew woke, drawing the picturesque headland with the old District Officer's residence.
Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island

I rowed across to our neighbours, Ullar and Ellen aboard TROLL, their Amel yacht from Estonia, and found that they had suffered an engine seizure, and we're waiting for the crankshaft and bearings to be machined in Perth before they could, depart. Ullar was repairing gouges in the glass fibre round the bows. They had arrived when the World ARC fleet were here, and as all the moorings were taken they had to use the big metal ship buoy with painful results.

Ashore we found a neat well appointed community. Barbecues and picnic shelters on the cove are provided with gas and electronic ignition, separated into halal and non-halal areas. The apartments are all growing vegetables in their front gardens, and seem to be occupied by Muslim families. There were stalls selling delicious home cooked food along the harbour front.

Tin Tin T-shirts on display
We met Neil McGovern, the charming ex-harbour master of Flying Fish Cove, who, in his soft Islay accent, told us snippets of the history in his 22 years here. He had now come on holiday to visit his Muslim family, and when we enquired about diesel supplies it turns out his nephew runs the company.

The Tourist information office was still open and Karen was wonderful at helping us sort out various needs including wifi, of course. The shop is full of Red Crab hats, soft toys, posters, T-shirts and other memorabilia. One hundred million red crabs are about to emerge from the forest in the next month and swarm into the sea. It's a major event!

We tramped some hot roads and were delighted by the huge red road signs, reminiscent of alpine signs designating which routes were open or closed due to red crab migration.

It being Sunday the supermarket was shut but we found a cafe for a toasted sandwich for lunch. Here I made some phone calls and hired a car to explore with and soon we were off exploring on the excellent roads.

Our first stop was signposted The Grotto. A track led downhill through forest, and we met our first red crabs, hard to see in the dappled shade on the path unless a sunbeam illuminates one. About four to five inches across they emerge from holes and under rocks, bright red with black and white marking that resemble a scowling face. Amazing!
Red Christmas Island crab

I reached the grotto ahead of the other two and clambered down a knobbly limestone hole to a pool of clear water above fine white sand. A great whooshing noise and a blast of fine spray came through the cave as the swell pushed through the submerged tunnel from the sea. By the time Mark and Justin were silhouetted against the cave mouth I was floating naked in the pool, determined as always to never miss a opportunity for a strange swim. The last one was subterranean pools in Niue, I think. A very similar island of upraised coral.
The Grotto

The rest of the day we explored and discovered the huge Robber Crabs in the forest, fluffy Booby chicks waiting amidst sharply eroded pinnacles of limestone for parents to return with food, frigate birds harassing boobies to steal their fish. We also were amazed by giant fruit bats soaring like crows amongst the boobies and frigate birds on the updraft at the pinnacle of Margaret's Knoll, where a platform on the cliff top gave us a view out over the immensity of the Indian Ocean and far below us a pockmarked plain in the forest showed where the phosphate miners had been.
Booby and Fruit Bat soaring the updraft

We headed back to a bar where rowdy Australians, some with yellow and blue painted faces, were watching the grand final of the Rugby League on the TV and drunkenly hurling crude insults at the opposing team. Melbourne absolutely hammered Northern Queensland, while we knocked back a few well deserved Victoria Bitters.

At 6 pm we all made our way to the Chinese Literary Association Mooncake Festival for free food and entertainment. There were singers, a dramatic Lion Dance with two great furry yellow beasts leaping an cavorting to the drums and clashing cymbals of the Kung Fu Club, and then the exquisite dances preformed by the Singapore Dance Troupe. We queued for some delicious food and thoroughly enjoyed our welcome to Christmas Island.

Monday is a public holiday for Territory Day, commemorating the handover from British rule in 1957, so no shops and no diesel available. I have to wait till Tuesday morning to restock. The Cove is going to be the focus of festivities with raft races and water sports, so we will have a grandstand view from our cockpit! The perfect opportunity to get out Michael Constant's full set of beautifully made ancient signal flags to dress Tin Tin overall for the first time.

Sunday 1 October 2017