GOOD REASON

We have been motoring for nearly 3 days with only a small amount of sailing. The winds have been mainly headwinds, the swell comes from the 10/11 o'clock and we have a counter current. Although we have heard thunder we have been lucky to avoid lightning. It has however rained for half our journey. At times we feel like it is the North Sea-I am sure the South Pacific will be sunny. We try to keep a watch at night but it is quite demanding as we are rolling round lots-we have to stand up to get a good look at the radar but it becomes very wearing. We normally set a warning zone so that if a ship comes into the zone an alarm alerts us. This is not practical now because the many rain showers set the alarm off constantly. The showers are so heavy that if a ship were near it would be difficult to seperate from the clutter. We had seen no other ships for 2 days. As usual the rain was at its peak toward the end of the day-it was overcast and bleak. Just before sunset I stood up and noticed a boat at 400 metres in our stern following us. The probability of that happening in this remote area is low. We could only make out the lights. It continued to close on us. We are all alone here and this is not far from Columbia etc...so we beacame alarmed. We kept the shades down and turned off the lights. Sheryl collected the flare pack from the grab bag (our only real defence). We waited for 10 minutes as it followed us. We were starting to think that this was a bad situation. Eventually Sheryl turned us away and the vessel veered off to the other direction. After 10 minutes it came to a halt and the deck lights illuminated. I could just make out torch lights on the deck. We have concluded that it was another yacht also heading to Cocos Islands. They probably did not see us in the rain and murk. They probably stopped to refill their diesel tanks from portable canisters. We observed them later on the radar but as the night progressed they became distant and then faded(perhaps they know a short cut).

I took first watch and at 9.30 pm Sheryl came to join me. We were talking when suddenly there was a slow flashing ligt on the windscreen. At first we thought it was a reflection from the green LED on the GPS on the stern of Faraway. It became brighter. As it was bleak and drizzly I was reluctant to lift the side covers. Eventually I popped my head out and in the eery stillness I could see a flashing strobe in the pitch black. It was very disorientaing in the swell and we motored slowly toward it-we presumed it may be someone in the water or in a liferaft as it was similar to the strobes we have on our rescue equipment. I called out and shone our million candle power search light on the area. It was very creepy. There was no response so we moved closer. Eventually in the difficult light conditions we located 2 white balls with a flag and strobe attached. Although it was difficult to see there did not appear to be anyone or any other objects attached or nearby. Confident that we did not leave any people behind we motored away into the darkness. We concluded that it was unlikely to belong to fishing boat 200 miles from land and that it must be a weather buoy that they use to measure offshore conditions. We marked the position and will report it to the rangers in Cocos just in case........

It rained all night. We have a first class Bimini and sprayhood. We had extar work done on it to protect us in sunlight and rain. Once fully closed we are in our own warm cocoon. Well it does not matter how well you sew material if it rains enough the water gets in. Last night no matter where we moved there was a drip of water. When we lay down to rest we had to reshape our body to lie around the drip areas-how we ached this morning.

Apart from that it is the usual routine of checking the rigging/deck etc while secured to a lifeline-at first light and sunset. This morning I found 1 fish and 1 squid on the deck.During the night we get regular visits from seabirds that appear like luminous ghosts in the night as the light reflects off their wings. They dip and dive close to the boat for hours on end using the boat light to identify their prey. How they can manage to keep up with our speed in the strong wind and driving rain is incredible.

We have now got 7 hours to go and we are really looking forward to dropping anchor-we will arrive just before sunset hopefully. We can now see Cocos Island on the horizon towering above the grey rolling ocean. See the photo of Faraway crashing through the waves and Cocos Island in the distance.

Hopefully you are enjoying tracking us on SPOT it updates twice per day. Its on Sheryls Facebook or if you need the link let me know.

I hope that you understand from the blog how difficult it is to get to Cocos and the isolation and solitude that exists in this area. There is a GOOD REASON why few people visit here. That makes it more special-Lets hope it is worth it-Sheryl desperately wants to see a Red Lip Batfish and a school of Hammerhead sharks.