{"id":39984,"date":"2017-03-08T21:31:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T02:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=39984"},"modified":"2023-05-06T16:57:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T20:57:45","slug":"destination-cocos-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/destination-cocos-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Destination Cocos Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"cap'n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Long an Indian Ocean communications hub, Direction \u00adIsland is deserted these days, save for the occasional cruiser.<\/span>\n Carolyn Goodlander<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Occasionally my lives as a sea gypsy and an entrepreneur collide because I have to wear so many hats: captain, husband, writer, lover, sailor and money-grubber, to name but a few. When they do, odd things happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

For example, a tasty \u00adlittle copywriting job came to me recently in the \u00admiddle of the Indian Ocean via Sailmail, which I received via our single-\u00adsideband radio. The writing took only a few days. Then all I needed was to spend an hour or two on the Internet fact checking, and another three months of cruising funds would be direct-deposited. Sweet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Only one problem: Where would I find the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot in the windiest, \u00adwettest ocean on Earth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cCocos Keeling,\u201d my wife, Carolyn, said without blinking. \u201cThree hundred miles dead ahead. It\u2019s perfect, Fatty. Direction Island is historically all about international communication \u2014 from its 1901 telegraph office to its World War II underground telephone cable to its wooden Post Office barrels that Joshua Slocum used to write home to its currently credit-card-\u00adenabled Wi-Fi\u2019d harbor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought Direction Island was deserted, that nobody lived there,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is,\u201d said Carolyn, \u201cand they don\u2019t. But that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t broadbanded.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

See how conflicting modern cruising can be? As a professional ink slinger in need of freedom chips, I was delighted. But as an ocean vagabond, I was appalled. Nonetheless, smarty-pants Carolyn had the answer to my every question. \n\u201cReally?\u201d I asked. \u201cCarolyn, is there anything you don\u2019t know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow to judge a man,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Known officially as Cocos (Keeling) Islands, this Indian Ocean landfall is a territory of Australia and is approximately 1,200 nautical miles equidistant between the motherland and Singapore. It was discovered by William Keeling of the East India Company in 1609, and is rarely visited because of its remoteness. The only vessels that normally transit are small yachts on their way to South Africa, 4,000 windy miles to leeward. Besides its location, the waters surrounding Cocos are rough. Just \u00adoutside the placid harbor, the Indian Ocean trades regularly gust to gale force. We barely managed to find the lee; twice I had to turn back for lack of visibility during violent squalls as we approached the tiny, wind-swept island, one of \u00adseveral in South Keeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

We expected the \u00adharbor to be deserted, but there were five or six stout cruising yachts at anchor in the lee of Direction. Australian Customs and Immigration was kind enough to come to us from nearby inhabited Home Island to grant clearance. As soon as our vessel formalities were complete, Carolyn booted up her computer to surf the Internet. \u201cAh, the Wi-Fi server is up!\u201d she muttered to herself as I slipped away in the dinghy, eager to search for the famed postal barrel of yore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"cap'n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Legend has it that a photo of islanders inspecting damage to a remnant cable spared Direction from further war damage .<\/span>\n Carolyn Goodlander<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

As a young sailor boy, I\u2019d dreamed of islands like Cocos in the Indian Ocean and Floreana, in the Galapagos. Both had wooden barrels that sailing ships used as informal post offices in the 18th and 19th centuries. I believe it started with the South Pacific whalers. Those working the fishing grounds would drop off letters for home during the course of their two-plus-year voyages, while vessels heading back to civilization would fly a long, red homeward-bound pennant from their masthead and stop to scoop up the letters. Postage was free, and returning \u00adsailors were honor-bound to make sure the letters actually arrived at their destination, even if a year or three late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Direction Island had one of the most famous and longest-\u00adlived barrel post offices because both tramp steamers and cruise ships used to stop by, toss over a line, and the local men would wade along the beach to grab the \u00adincoming mail and release the outgoing in sealed, waterproof\u00a0tins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

One cruise-ship line asked their passengers \u2014 a \u00adsizable number of whom were wealthy females \u2014 if they wanted to write to the lonely men on the island, and many did. It became a regular thing, and some steamy-if-\u00adanonymous missives resulted. One local resident wrote back, expressing a desire for a cat; once the word was out of the bag, many a ship dropped off a basketful of kitties with the mail. This wreaked havoc with the bird population \u2014 ah, the misery of unexpected consequences.\nAlas, after hiking the entire island, I found only a historical plaque marking the spot where the barrel once rested, not the actual postal bin itself. I felt strangely cheated. Perhaps a passing vessel had carted it away as a famous antique or a local had chopped it up for firewood. Damn! Why couldn\u2019t such a lovely maritime tradition carry on to this day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

By the time I got back to Ganesh, our 43-foot Wauquiez Amphitrite ketch, I could see Carolyn was frustrated. \u201cI think we\u2019re anchored too far out,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t actually connect to the Wi-Fi. Can we move in closer?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

This has been a point of contention between us. Carolyn always wants to be cyber-connected. I do not. I\u2019m more of a log-off, \u00adcast-off and sail-away kind of guy. And so I often tell her, \u201cI didn\u2019t voyage here to check Facebook,\u201d when I refuse to move within range of such \u00adcyber-bedevilment. But this was dollars-and-cents \u00adbusiness, an official put-food-on-the-galley-table necessity, so I swallowed my pride and we moved closer to the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The following day, we went in search of the once-busy telegraph station that became operational on Direction Island in 1901. All we could find, though, was a rusty, vine-encrusted cistern. Scratch off one more way to communicate with the outside world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

While ashore, we did managed to hunt down the Wi-Fi antenna aimed at the harbor. Its solar cell looked OK atop a telephone pole, and no one had tampered with the locked box that held its battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

That evening, Carolyn reported she was \u201cin\u201d on the Wi-Fi router, but it wouldn\u2019t accept her credit card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe coconut telegraph was more dependable,\u201d I quipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrue,\u201d she said, \u201cBut you need island people to have island rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"cap'n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Colorfully painted signboards left behind by visiting sailors are yet another way crews have found to communicate on Direction Island.<\/span>\n Carolyn Goodlander<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

My next shore quest was to find where the famed undersea cable that brought communications to the Indian Ocean came ashore. I thought this would be easy, but it wasn\u2019t. However, I did stumble upon a massive amount of broken steel and concrete on the windward side of Direction, which may or may not be related to the cable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The past is never far behind while beachcombing anywhere on Cocos Keeling\u2019s 27 islands. While I could not find the 160-foot radio mast that was erected in 1910, I felt the ghost of the much-respected Capt. Karl Friedrich Max von M\u00fcller, a World War I German sailor who briefly captured the island in such a gentlemanly way (he was careful not to bomb the tennis courts) that his eventual captors became his lifelong friends and fierce defenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

There were still some \u00adcraters on the island that might have been the result of World War II Japanese bombs dropped in 1942. The \u00adislanders were smart. While the strategic underwater cable that ran from Singapore, Australia and South Africa was undamaged, they took a photograph of a small spare section that appeared to be heavily hit, and told the Allies to report that the whole station and its cable had been wiped out. Whether the Germans and Japanese fell for the ruse nobody knows, but there were no further \u00adwartime attacks on Direction Island or its cable station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cStill haven\u2019t been able to cyber-connect?\u201d I asked Carolyn as we made a signboard to hang on a palm tree, another delightful Cocos \u00admaritime tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she scowled. \u201cAt first I thought it might be a credit-\u00adcard-verification problem; now I\u2019m convinced the Wi-Fi server isn\u2019t actually connected to the Internet at all.\u201d\n\u201cPoor dear,\u201d I said. \u201cGoing cold turkey on Facebook must be a drag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t start!\u201d she said. \u201cI haven\u2019t twittered in so long, I\u2019ve forgotten how to tweet!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

As the island days \u2014 and daze \u2014 flew past, we met our fellow cruisers. Paul and Celeste Carpenter, aboard the Valiant 40 Benguine, offered to let us use their SatPhone to email my manuscript. We were soon inviting each other over for cockpit dinners and rum-fueled laughs. He\u2019s a retired fireman from California, and she\u2019s on her 21st year of living aboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Two youthful sailors from Australia sailed in. Rhys Brindley and Trevor Youngberg were new to cruising and having the time of their young lives. They immediately dropped their hook next to Ganesh and dashed off to snorkel the pristine reef (nice!) and to spear their dinghy (not so nice) when a too-clever parrotfish confused their field of fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

We immediately took them under our parental wing, and eventually we all crossed the entire Indian Ocean in \u00adtandem \u2014 even after they 1)\u00a0drunkenly flipped their dinghy twice in the same evening; 2) got their \u00adwallets stolen; and 3) begged the fishermen of Mauritius to bust beer bottles over their heads. (Fishermen the world over tend to accommodate such requests, but gosh, the youngsters were having some Aussie-style fun!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Finally Carolyn \u00addejectedly admitted defeat. \u201cI can\u2019t \u00adconnect to the Internet here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to get to Home or West Island with a sack of cash and avail ourselves of their satellite uplink.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

I smiled. The entrepreneur in me was disappointed, but the sea gypsy was delighted. Because Direction Island lacked a functioning Wi-Fi hotspot, it was actually more out of communication with the rest of the world than it had been any time in the past couple of centuries. It had no barrel post office, no telegraph, no underwater cable, no radio tower and no Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Carolyn was in the final stages of cyber-withdrawal that day last fall. She needed a shot of Google, a dash of Instagram and a hint of Whisper to \u00admentally right herself. \n \u201cYou poor, info-starved thing,\u201d I taunted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to find out what is happening with the election,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you sure?\u201d I fired back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Fatty and Carolyn spent the \u00adholiday season gorging with the Zulu meat eaters of South Africa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once an Indian Ocean communications hub, Cap’n Fatty finds Direction Island to be an escape from the rest of the world when the Wi-Fi goes down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Cap'n Fatty Goodlander","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20170308","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"162","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Once an Indian Ocean communications hub, Cap'n Fatty finds Direction Island to be an escape from the rest of the world when the Wi-Fi goes down.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Destination Cocos Islands %%sep%% %%sitename%%","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"5ZWPBDZEIDO32GARRAPQ763UWY","arc_website_url":"destination-cocos-islands\/","custom_permalink":"destination-cocos-islands\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[355,483,198,205,264],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}