Christmas Island to Cocos (Keeling) Islands - Karl catches a fish!

Wednesday 14^th August, Direction Island (aka Tropical Paradise), Indian Ocean.

Now, first of all. Those last two blog entries were a bit of a rush. I uploaded them at the Christmas Island tourist office where I bought an hour of WiFi. Things started out alright but getting towards the end of the Christmas Island blog entry I was racing against the clock and grabbing whatever photos came to hand. So a couple of good 'uns got left out. I have now added them so you can go back and look if you're bored.

We did indeed leave Christmas Island as planned on the Saturday morning and after a quick, uneventful, if a little boisterous, passage we arrived at the Cocos-Keeling Islands this morning. 

 One of Karl's routine tasks - clearing the decks of the kamikaze flying fish that leap to their deaths overnight.

 One of my routine tasks - working another galley miracle.

 Another day, another sunset.

Holding on tight.

It was a squally, squally last night of the passage and the squalls kept up this morning for our arrival, heavy showers of rain reducing visibility to not much and 25-30 knot winds. There was a big thing, that might have been a ship but not broadcasting its position, sitting right at the entrance to the lagoon. Karl called them and they admitted to being (a typically stealthy) Defence Force vessel, “Ocean Protector” (you know the kind of voice you have to say that in). So we went around them, playing now-you-see-us-now-you-don't and at times guessing where they might be when the rain got really heavy. 

It's out there somewhere....

And the squalls continued as we tried to find our way into the shallow, coral-dotted anchorage in the lagoon. But we made it! Earning ourselves a rum in the process. Even the new neighbours felt sorry for us having to arrive in those conditions. One neighbour has already buzzed over to us to make sure we're aware of the evening sunset drinks ashore.

Promising anchorage if the weather would just clear up.

And here we are in a tropical paradise. A coral atoll with a large, turquoise lagoon in the centre, protective coral reef around the outside and a few sandy islands. The Indian Ocean swell is bashing against the surrounding reef and here we are safe and cosy inside. We're anchored off Direction Island: uninhabited, sandy beach, chock a block full of palm trees, surrounded by warm, shallow pale blue/turquoise water, and just four other boats anchored here. I don't think there's any point in snorkelling because I can see the reef sharks perfectly clearly by just peering over the side of the boat. Now if only the weather would clear up.

It did clear up.

Highlight of the trip from Christmas Island: Karl caught a fish! I had just come on watch at 0600 one morning and was enjoying my coffee and sunrise with some Shostakovitch. I was staring idly at Karl's trolling line and noticed a fish jump out of the water just about where his lure should be. That's funny I thought. Then I saw it splash again. Oh My God He's Caught a Fish. “Karl!” I yelled. “I think you've caught a fish” and for the first time in his life he leapt out of bed without complaint. (A note to Ralph at this point: don't fear, at no time in this story was Karl wearing any underpants whatsoever.) 

Definitely a fish on the line.

And he went into action, sort of. Took him a while to get his act together to be honest. But eventually he gathered his equipment and went to retrieve his prize (to the Shostakovitch Jazz Suite, which worked quite well). I saw a promising flash of yellow as the fish came closer and then, yes, a mahi-mahi! 

 Now he just has to land it....

 Success!

So after some posing and celebrating and filleting we had ceviche for lunch and pan-fried fillets for dinner. Yum.

 Mmmmm, ceviche.

 Mmmm, pan-fried fillets and the proud fisherman.