[password] beavis
[position] 12 05.58S 096 52.79E
[weather] Sunny, warm, winds 15-20 SE
[status] Still anchored at Direction Island, Cocos Keeling. We've been here a week now, and expect to be here for probably one more. We are enjoying the snorkeling here - the drift through "The Rip", as well as the other reefs scattered about the anchorage. The reefs are very healthy, and the fish life is good - lots of butterflyfish, parrotfish, sweetlips, surgeonfish, wrass and others, as well as the occasional black tip or white tip reef shark (which are not worrisome). We're still looking for eels, octopus, nudibranchs and other creatures - no sightings of those yet. There are some nice walking trails on Direction Island with signboards providing a bit of history. We've also visited Home Island (population of about 700 Malay Muslims) and yesterday, we went to West Island (population of about 100 ex-pats, mostly Aussie and British), as well as a couple of small hotels and restaurants. Grocery shopping is expensive here - a head of iceberg lettuce costs AUD $12. We passed on that. Internet is sparse and also expensive - the wifi hotspot on Direction Island is not working, but we have had a few hours of internet when we visited Home and West Islands - so we're pretty out of touch. (We send these updates through our SSB/Ham Radio email.) When we were at West Island yesterday, we checked our postings on this webpage and saw the comments from friends and family - so good to hear from all of you! We are watching the weather for an opportunity to move on to Rodrigues Island - possibly later this week. All is well. :)

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