Jocara Newsletter
Oct 5, 2004

We finally tore ourselves away from the idyllic beaches and turquoise 
waters of Cocos Keeling on 3 October, after one last trip ashore for 
photographs of our 'jocara' plaque that went up the day before to join the 
hundreds of others left by cruisers over the years.  We sailed north to 
the National Park reserve of North Keeling, to take a look at the birdlife 
there.  We had maybe 30-50 boobies circling the boat as we approached, a 
wonderful sight!  They really are curious birds.  Then we had an autopilot 
error, and needed to anchor to sort it out.  We saw an inviting 
sand-bottomed patch in good shelter, unexpected for this island with no 
natural harbour, next to another boat whose occupants were enjoying the 
surf. We could not resist a snorkel, and were rewarded by seeing many, 
many green turtles swimming, mating and hauling out on the beach to lay 
their eggs. The wildlife is fantastic on this island, uninhabited and 
protected.

On 4 October we set off for Rodrigues. No more avoiding the big crossing.  
Light airs meant we motored for a few hours, then spent a rolly night 
making moderate speed under sail with the main held out with a preventer.  
This morning John woke and went on deck to find the main boom snapped in 
two near the middle, a victim on the constant slamming of downwind sailing 
in more sea than wind.  Thirty years of strain have taken their toll on 
the aluminium.  We got the boom in without further damage, a small miracle 
in itself, and are now limping along on our Genoa sail alone at 5 knots or 
so.  At this rate it is going to be a very long and rolly passage.  John 
is already scheming to splint the boom with teak and aluminium poles so we 
can put the main up again with two reefs in to steady the boat.  So, no 
risk to life or limb, but a serious blow to our passage-making ability!

Position at 01:00 UTC on 5/9/2004 is 12 deg. 16.84'S, 94 deg. 48.07'E, 
making 5.5 knots in 10 knots of apparent wind at 40 degrees off the port 
quarter (just to the left of our stern) with 1.5 m of sea swell, steering 
252 deg.