Aurora

Aurora
Aurora - the adventure begins...

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Christmas Island, Cocos Keeling and the Indian Ocean

Here is the start of leg 10 in front of one of the Gilis (small island) around Lumbok – not a great shot as we were in the middle of the pack by the time I got the camera out – even though Eilo was on the helm and crossed the starting line first:



Our 2 day mandatory leg 10 stopover at Christmas Island was short and we knew that so we made the most of it.   Christmas island is in 17,000 feet of water on the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean so the water is very deep even ¼ mile off shore.  We were worried about anchoring in deep water but lucky for us they had enough moorings for the whole fleet even though some boats had to raft together sharing the mooring.  We arrived and Eilo attached AURORA to the mooring closest to the main and only dock which was also served as the ARC dinghy depot for shore goers:   




A lookout about 700 feet over the bay also afforded wonderful bird watching.  Check out this Frigate bird from above (note that the coral around the island, with one tree, is in about 20 to 50 feet of very clear water):




Captain Ken took a look over the side of AURORA after picking up the mooring and thought the water looked to be about 15 feet deep and thought that’s not such deep water – we could have anchored here.  Later the Captain, decked out for a snork, went over the side to swim to the reef along shore and found the water about 50 feet deep and crystal clear - it deceptively appeared to be shallow.  The water is extremely clear because the only polluters with-in 700 miles are the 1500 inhabitants of the 8 mile wide by 14 mile long island. Being part of Australia they take environmental protection seriously so their waters are pristine:




The ARC organized an Auzzie Beach BBQ that night but because we were there for only 2 nights we blew it off, walked to the tourist office, rented a 4 wheel drive and found a tavern in town for din din.    As with any island where there are only 1500 natives, everyone knows everyone else.  They all know what is going on in and around their island all the time.  So when we showed up at the restaurant or their bar or anywhere everyone knew who we were because we were the only tourists on their island at that time (except for a couple from AU – whom we met).  So we were local ARC celebs for 2 days.  The next day we explored the island in our 4 x 4 and invited the crew from Sandvita to explore with us (from left to right Gary (UK), Eilo (Erin),  Anne and Hans(Sweden x 2)):




The Tourist office did not steer us wrong in advising us to get a 4 wheel drive as many of the places we could only get to with the 4 x 4 such as the blow holes which are caves at the ocean edge created by waves which reach up to vent holes at the surface.  Ocean waves filling a blow hole cave cause a big build up of pressure and blow water as mist out of the ground at the top of the cliffs along this one segment of shore:




Many of the beaches have moderately dangerous surf and if the waves don’t kill you the rips might carry you away– but no crowds.  We ran into  no one anywhere except for other ARC heads/explorers we met along the way:




The Tourist office also recommended we visit this remote small spring fed waterfall.  Here is Eilo checking that bit of advice out – and she does not seem unhappy:




Christmas Island is famous for various land dwelling crabs.  Their Robber Crabs (as they like to steal shiny objects) and on the way to the waterfall we ran across a few of these.  There is a $5,000 fine if you hit one of these babys with your car:




Unfortunately one can get not get a sense of the scale of these guys from a picture but this guy is almost 2 feet across and probably weighs about 12 pounds – no Captain Ken did not pick him up to judge that weight – as one of his claws probably weighed about 3 pounds and would more than likely take your hand off if you tried to pluck him up for a weight test:



Another thing Christmas Island is famous for is their red crabs




which are estimated to number 15,000,000.  During the rainy season (starting in about a month) they migrate from the jungle to the beaches to mate and the ground turns red with them as they march.  Roads are shut to vehicles during crossing time to protect the crabs.  They are about the size of a blue shell Chesapeake crab… and there were also blue crabs to round out the color spectrum:




We drove… then hiked… went to one last lookout and the views of where we had been along the coast were nice .  A red footed booby kept coming in for a landing – we must have been near her nest:




We evacuated that last lookout and went on the hunt for a pint (or 5) which we found at the Tracks Tavern named for the train tracks  which used to be near where the train unloaded phosphate – the mineral they mine on island – used for fertilizer.  We found it strange that with all the fertilizer exported globally from Christmas island there are no farms for growing fresh produce on island – everything is imported.  Hmm – another business opportunity???  The owner of Tracks came over and introduced himself to all us “Yachties” as he knew who we were before we entered his fine establishment.  There was a fair variety of locals drinking including some crusty old Auzie miners and a few Chinese (including their island boss man – and a good drinker).  The Chinese were originally imported for manning the mines but now run many of the businesses, shops and grocery stores on island.  We had a fair few pints and the owner told we should stay another few hours until sunset as a pack of Robber Crabs comes through the tavern each sunset looking for handouts.  Apparently the Robbers are very fond of crackers and if you try to ignore them you are liable to get an ankle nipped – a gentle reminder that crabs gotta eat too!  We had to move on to do a little bit of final provisioning and get cleaned up for our next diner date.  It was Godfried’s official birthday so we invited him and his crew and the Tulamore crew to the Lucky Ho for dinner.  That was some feed and after about 8 bottles of wine and endless amounts of Ho food we got back to AURORA around mid-night and started to get her ready for our next day departure.  We had to be off the mooring by 11;15 in order to cross the stopper over leg starting line so as not to get penalized.  At 11:05 we had the Dinghy up on the davits and Ken knocked the outboard motor tiller extension handle into the drink so he had to dig out the snorkeling gear and went over the side lucky to find the handle sticking straight up out of a big head of stag horn coral so he only had to dive to about 35 feet – I’m not sure Ken would have made it down to 45 feet if the handle was resting on the bottom.  We lost about 1/2 hour screwing around there and thus were late over the starting line and were penalized by 32 minutes.  Had we got over the leg re-start line on time we were told that we would have beat the Russians by a few minutes but AURORA came in second place on Leg 10 – not bad.  We crossed the official finish line at Cocos Keeling at 2:30 in the morning on a very dark night and did not want to risk getting hung up on any coral (which was everywhere according to our charts) so we tacked off the atoll in the dark for 4 hours until sunrise and then sailed in just ahead of the next 4 boats to finish the leg.  We successfully got to the anchorage without modifying our keel on any coral (another boat – a 56 foot Swan) was not so lucky) just off of Direction Island.  Another deserted tropical island (note the dark colored coral heads lurking below the waterline):




And once again a welcome committee of four - 4 to 5 foot long - black tip reef sharks were swimming around the boat within seconds after dropping anchor looking for swimmers – Eilo lost her enthusiasm for a quick dip:




There were about 15 islands around the 6 mile diameter atoll.  2 of those islands were inhabited.  One being a 2 mile dinghy ride away, called Home Island, was populated by Malaysian Muslims.  The word on the street was up until about a year ago they were not the best Muslims as some drank alcohol and did other un-Muslim like things so Mullahs started arriving from Saudi and sorted them out.  The fleet could clearly hear their call to prayer 5 times each day across 2 miles of water.  We decided to go check Home out and found a restaurant but it was closed and shops but many were not open.  It was as though they were not interested in commerce or making money.  Eilo suggested -possibly because there was nothing to do with the money if they had it.  We later found out most of the 600 inhabitants on Home Island were either employed by the Australian government or were on welfare thus there is little incentive to work.  We did find a café open and asked if we could BYOB (knowing there would be no liquor store we brought our own) but were told politely we could not drink – anywhere on Home.  We asked ourselves - Some Home!?!  The food was tasty and the staff were wonderful and, of course, we did not drink!  There was a cute little Museum of local history which we checked out: 




Their claim to fame came in 2 parts.  The first set of global transoceanic cables (for telegraph) landed there in 1906 as a branch between south Africa, southeast Asia and Australia.   The second was the early Auzzie Navy had an excellent early victory, catching by surprise (the telegraph station radioed for help when they spotted the German warship approaching, tipping the AU navy) and sinking a very troublesome German Cruiser during World War I.   There was little else to hold the ARCs attention on Home.  West island, the only other inhabited island in the Atoll, was a 6 mile ferry ride away – but the ferry was a huge hassle to get to so we only went over to West once.  That was to go on a outrigger canoe safari visiting 3 small deserted islands, doing some snorkeling and then partake of a classic Auzzie beach BBQ.  On West Island we stopped at a gallery and clam farm.  Eilo befriended this rescued baby Red Footed Booby:




The clam farm growing various types of clams:






…exports them all over the world to salt water aquariums as the clams are excellent water purifiers.

We had 14 ARC folks go on canoe excursion.  There were 9 outrigger canoes each equipped with an outboard.  



Each held 2 people, one for the two tour guides.  The AURORA crew teamed up in one and motored to the first island about 3 miles away – through very shallow and clear reef strewn water.  



The outboards were modified and had coral catchers protecting the props (same principal as the kangaroo catchers they have on the big cross country Auzzie trucks).  Even though we bottomed out the prop  a few times we did not destroy it.  The first island saw a pileup of outrigger canoes at the narrow shallow entrance to the lagoon – it was as thought the ARC troops had started drinking early – but NOOOOO!   We donned our snorkin’ stuff and fast drifted around the island for about ½ mile – all the while thinking there is going to be long walk back to the canoes.  We get out of the drink with our guide and the island there is only about 100 yards wide which made for a nice short 2 minute walk back to the canoes.  Off the fleet of brightly colored plastic outriggers went to another deserted island – but this one with a few island style lean-tos fitted out tables and chairs.  Our guides and hosts broke out massive quantities of ice cold beer, white wine and bubbly.  The ARC heads were quite happy  sitting around getting mildly sloshed as lunch was being prepared.  It was a great lunch and in true Auzzie style there was no a chance in hell we would run out of alcohol – and it turned into another party.  While no-one in particular was watching all of a sudden we realized we were surrounded by a few thousand fairly large hermit crabs who knew the game being played and came to feast on the left-overs.  But there are no free lunches (as we all know) so everyone had to pick a hermit crab and we held the island hermit crab Gran Prix.  The smallest of the crabs won to everyone’s amazement (it was probably his high performance shell that gave him the edge) – Ken’s was still in the starting box by the time the finish line was crossed. 
Then off again to a final deserted island for some more snorkeling or a walk through the jungle or some serious lounging around in the water – all done with beer or wine in hand:



We finally had to give up and head back to catch the last and only ferry over to the other side of the Atoll – what a wonderful day.  It made up for all the bars and restaurants rumored to exist on Cocos – that’s still a rumor.  Of the week we stayed at Cocos we spent most time on deserted Direction Island and that translated to parties back to back to back...  We were invited for a quiet diner on TULLA MHOR one night and tried to sneak by a party in full swing on the OWL.  They obviously spotted us trying to steal by in our dinghy under the not so perfect cover of darkness and about an hour later TULLA MHOR was boarded.  13 screaming drunk ARC heads on board at that point and everyone become further un-glued as the night tore on – finally after signing and dancing the night away until we gave up or just ran out of gas and had to abandon ship.  On other days there were 2 BBQ’s organized on the beach.  One for the 6 guys and one girl who just had recent birthdays:




Ken liked this cake Eilo made for Gary who turned 60:




Everyone brought pot luck and alcohol and that turned into a great session.  Here’s Ken and his German friend Gottfried starting to enjoy themselves:



The ARC sponsored another beach BBQ and found a few entrepreneurs who brought excellent food over for another Auzzie beach party – the ARC heads brought the drink:


Here are our Russian friends and a German friend (in middle with the blue shirt - he is the guy who invented the heat resistant re-entry tiles for NASA used on the space shuttles underside - another rocket scientist) thinking about some light drinking:



That session was also the prize giving for leg 10 (remember we scored 2nd – so Eilo collected more booty).  AURORA hosted a dinner party for 13 and that was a great feed and a lot of fun but did not get too out of control as the participants seemed to be feeling the effects of alcohol poisoning which always means we had better get to sea again and recover.

We had heard rumors about sailing the Indian Ocean, none of them good.  We are here to report that they are all true.  Even though it is one of the smaller oceans on the planet it does not know that and acts like it is the biggest barest ocean in the universe.   We started out on leg 11 – heading for Mauritius – wind blowin’ out of the SE at 14 knots – very typical:




The Australian Navy was standing by to make sure we left:



Aurora had a lousy start.  We had not even started to fly our Genoa when we  realized the race had started.  We realized the race had started because boats were blowing by us (with their genoas out) all headin’ in the same direction.  We proceeded to screw around for about 2 minutes getting the genoa set while going way off course.  What threw us off at the start was the ARC starting boats never showed up to mark the starting line so there was no real starting line and the starter could not see the starting line as he was around the corner and announced it all on a VHF radio.  So the start was a real free for all.  There was one boat way out in front.  They obviously knew it was a free for all and just took off in front of everyone knowing they could not be penalized for crossing the starting line early as there was no starting line and no official there to observe the start.  That was our perfect start to a “perfect” passage.  So we got to the first turn about 3 miles out which was a 100 degree turn to port , around the northern most island of the Cocos Keeling atoll,  the next turn on our rhumb line passage being a mere 2730 miles (statute not nautical) away.  We executed that first turn perfectly with our big genoa poled out to starboard and at the turn gibed the main to starboard in 17 knots of wind.  We went from 6.5 knots to over 8.5 knots with-in seconds as the poled out downwind reach is one of the fastest points of sail for AURORA.  We quickly dialed in the sails and got AURORA going steadily over 9 knots.  Now we were passing boats regularly.  There were 16 boats on this leg sailing in a single class now (same as leg 10 as there are not enough boats to justify multiple classes).  At about 10 miles distant we were out of the atoll’s wind shadow and the wind picked up to between 21 and 25 knots.  Now we are flying doing well over 9 knots and bouncing off 10 frequently.  With-in about 4 hours we were second behind ARABELLA – our Russian friends who are fierce sailors on a big, heavy, fast 56 foot Beneteau.  It would be a 12 day passage for us.  The wind at times blew steady 31 to 36 knots and we were often holding well over 10 knots of speed.  We surfed one wave and got the old girl clocked 18.2 knots and Captain Ken was thinking she is going to round up at the bottom – but no – she stayed straight as an arrow – a fast arrow - scary.  We hit a top wind speed of 40 knots and had 2 reefs in the main with about 75% of the genoa furled in and we were doing over 11 knots with spray coming off both sides of the bow.  It was as though we were in a sport fishing boat with two 1000 HP engines.   The seas had built to about 20 feet so it was a very exciting ride.  The first few days were particularly exhausting, as we had not gotten into the rhythm of watches and sleep deprivation.  Gottfried’s HANAH a fast, light, aluminum one off, highly automated, catamaran got off to 3 hour late start as his crew was delayed by a volcano (but that’s another story) and they blew by us on day 2 (but then turned south and eventually lost the wind):



On day three Eilo was taking out the computer to email and when the boat was hit by a wave she decided to save the computer but she got thrown across the boat…ouch! Cooking dinner she closed the fridge door on her arms and then when serving dinner – Laksa Malaysian Soup, big effort- she turned one bowl upside down.  Watched it pour on three of the companionway steps and the rest on the cabin sole (floor)!  Ken jumped to the rescue and shoveled it back in to the bowl….and we ate it!  Life on a boat!!! The high winds and waves went on for 7 days.  What an adventure!  At that point the next closest boat behind us was 41 miles to stern and the 4th boat was over 120 miles behind.  The Russians were 25 miles in front of us.  We went fast but they went faster.  Eilo pointed out that the Indian Ocean had ripped our Genoa in 2 places but lucky for us we had run out of wind and thus could still fly her with-out (much) fear of additional rippage.  Not much to do now except look for squalls and see if we could get in their way to get a little lift.  Captain Ken was watching one nice big squall which we could get a lift on and noticed a nice funnel shaped cloud coming out of the bottom of it and thought that’s strange – it kind of looks like a tornado.  So out come the binoculars and on further inspection you could see the funnel extended all the down to the water where it was kicking up all kind of turbulence (if you look close at the water surface you can see that mayhem) about 5 or 6 miles away:




Captain Ken decided not to try to ride that one.  After day7 the fun was over, the wind dropped to 9 knots for 4 days which is too slow for AURORA to wing on wing without tearing up the rig or sails further so we had to sail a long course going over the rhumb by 30 miles south, jibe, go over the rhumb line by 30 miles north, jibe go 30 miles south – repeating that until either the wind picked up, changed direction or we make Mauritius.  Of course all the other boats were catching up.  Day 11 the wind picked up to 14 to 24 knots out of the east so we went back to wing on wing at mid-night and were once again flying along at between 6.5 and 8.5 knots.  The closest boat (in 3rd place) now only 10 miles behind us… the Russians smoked us as they must have had a big spinnaker up in the 4 days of light wind and were about 60 miles in the lead now.  Captain Ken was on watch one night around 3:00 in the morning, minding his own business, and all of a sudden he takes one square in the chest just below his mouth.  A 6 inch long flying fish rocketed through the cockpit and missed.  Caught Ken by surprise. Now what would have happened if he had been yawning and the fish had flown 5 inches higher?  High velocity sushi would have been the result.  When wing on wing often AURORA would roll savagely 15 degrees to port then 15 degrees to starboard and back – every 2 seconds or so.  We had to prop seat cushions between our mattress and the cabin closet to keep the mattress and us from sliding off the bed.  Captain Ken was somehow sleeping face down through one of those nasty rolling conditions one night and suddenly he woke up and felt like his nose had been used to plow a field of furrows through our mattress – luckily there was still some skin left on that nose – just another boat bite.  We made land in 3rd place but that does not include any handicaps.  Stay tuned for our next blog to find out if we scored a prize!!! 

It is worth noting that our friends on Sandvita lost their autopilot on day one and so hand steered the boat the entire way!  Now that is something to boast of!  Then towards the end of the trip they turned on the engine only to find out (loud cracking sound and engine not turning) that they had caught one of their lines in their prop.  They shut down the engine immediately and Captain Lars had to dive….in the ocean….he waited for a pause in huge swells and…tied to the boat….dove.  He cut the line and when he was safely on board he reversed the prop and the problem was solved. Within minutes the swells were back.  We all had adventures but we think they get the prize for most challenging crossing.   Luckily they have four on board to share the helming!

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