Explore Sailing Voyages in Cocos (Keeling) Islands 🇨🇨

Having enjoyed the paradise of Cocos and Keeling it was time to do another 2000+mile passage to Mauritius. We left the island around mid day, entering straight into high winds and a big swell making the first few nights very uncomfortable. The sea didn’t seem to subside the whole passage and nor did the wind. This was one of our toughest legs and it felt like it went on forever. On day 3, we ripped our 20 year old head sail in a gust of wind. For the next few days we sailed with just the main and the stay sail, awaiting for a break in the wind to take down and repair the jib. We also planned to use a jib that we had discovered under the front bunk and had check over in Australia. Our plan to take down the old jib and repair it, in the meantime test the jib from under the bunk. We named it the “Phoenix”, it lived up to its name, rising up from the front bunk and carrying us all the way to Mauritius. The “Phoenix” was a huge overlapping head sail that work perfectly in the lighter breeze as a result we managed to maintain 6.5knot average. Meanwhile on the lighter days, we worked together to repair the old jib. The rip was 3metres long and we could only repair it by hand due to our sewing machining breaking back in the south pacific. We began by sticking two pieces of Dacron across the tare on both sides of the sail, we then we hand stitched along the edge of the rectangle. One of us acted as the needle, punching the holes and pushing the needle down whilst the other was the bobbin, under the sail pushing the needle back through. We then reinforced the patch by stitching diagonally across. The whole repair to over 36hours but was worth the effort as we now could use our precious jib again. By the end, of what felt like a never ending time at sea, the wind died and due to the remoteness of Cocos and Keeling we were unable to refuel. therefore we had to carefully manage our fuel consumption as we needed enough fuel to safely moor Penny but we also needed to get into Mauritius as there was some big weather coming in. What felt like a really touch and go passage we made it safely into Mauritius with only 12litres of fuel left in our tanks. Phewww!!

The passage from Darwin to Cocos and Keeling was a highlight of ours on our round the word journey. With some great sailing and spectacular wildlife making the passage quick and interesting. We were spoilt with dolphins and whales throughout the journey, each day we would have a different species darting around the bow, playing in the waves. The start of the passage through the Arafura Sea was pleasant however it lacked wind, as a result we had to motor almost all the way to Indonesia. The calm conditions made for perfect animal spotting, we saw sea snakes slithering along the surface and a highlight was a pod of pygmy killer whales. They were dark grey with curved nose, moving slower than a pod of dolphins they swam effortlessly through the brilliant blue water. Another memorable moment was a fly by from the Australian board force. As we sailed out of Australian waters the plane flew passed over head, it then made a quick turn, flying low and directly at us. We had a call on the radio and we informed them of our intentions for our onwards passage. To our surprise, this happened again on the following day whilst we were showering up on deck, a shock for both us and them! Once clear of Australia, we entered the Indian Ocean which as expected was tough. The sea state increasing to 3-4ms and the wind picking up to a force 4/5, Penny was flying. The conditions didn’t stop us from keeping busy, during the passage we brushed up on our celestial navigation and even caught a dorado. The dorado was enjoyed as fillets with roasted vegetables, which was a nice treat. After 17 days at sea, we arrived outside the reef of Cocos and Keeling. We slowed the boat down over night to ensure we arrived at first light, this was because the anchorage is challenging to navigate in the dark. As we got closer there was a strange light on the horizon. At first it looked as if it was onshore however it rapidly got closer. We quickly realised it was a vessel with a huge spot light, there was nothing on AIS but we received a radio call from the vessel, who turned out to be the Australian Boarder Force. They were very welcoming however the did a drive by of Penny which felt very close and intimidating in the darkness. We entered the lagoon just after sun rise, being one of two boats in the anchorage we had arrived in paradise. The water a crystal blue that made the sky look dull. Palm trees on the surrounding islands, gently swaying in the breeze we could not wait to get off the boat and explore.