Tuesday 25th October We set sail at 14.42 and one of our Malay friends came to wave us off from the headland. There is a strong trade wind and we are making good time. The wind continued to blow for 3 days and with a 2 knot current we soon covered the 500 miles to the Cocos Keeling Islands. We sighted the atoll at 9.00am on 29th October and cleared the pass at 11.00am. The route to the anchorage looked tricky although a group of dolphins seemed to be showing us the way, who would believe a dolphin? We called up a boat that we knew in the anchorage on the VHF for directions and would you believe it the dolphins were right!

We cleared customs on Sunday morning. We were anchored at Direction Island, near a lovely white beach. The customs are based on West Island, about 5 miles across the lagoon; they came to the anchorage each day looking for new arrivals. The nearest Island to us was Home Island, were most of the Malays live. Direction Island had no facilities but we could go one and a half miles by dinghy to Home Island and have a free ferry trip across the lagoon to West Island, were the shops were. It was a whole day trip and we only did it twice. The rest of the time we spent swimming in the turquoise water and having barbeques on the beach. Dave dived and scrubbed the hull once more, it really needs antifouling again. There are about a dozen yachts here all preparing to go in different directions. Us and our American friends to Chagos, some to South Africa and several for India and Srilanka, and one for the Seychelles. It is indeed a yachting crossroads.

We were ready to leave by the 9th November but an early cyclone developed 300 miles north causing very heavy winds and a big chop across the lagoon so we delayed our departure until the 15th November using the intervening days to stock up with coconuts and dry fish for the cat. We set sail at noon and had a light SE which ghosted us along at three and a half knots. The next 20 days we had very light winds and were becalmed for a total of 63 hours. We didn't use the engine as we knew that it would be a longtime before we could buy diesel again finally on December 7th we sighted our destination. Salamon Atoll, the most northerly of the Chagos archipelago.

This Island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. At one time the bigger atolls, about 6 in all, were inhabited and thrived on the copra trade, but since the decline in demand for copra the inhabitants were moved to Mauritius leaving behind their homes and gardens which are now derelict. All the islands are uninhabited except the southernmost, Diego Garcia which is rented to the USA as a military base. There are 2,000 US personnel there administered by 40 British marines and it is strictly out of bounds.

The Island we are anchored at has fresh water wells and breadfruit and coconut trees, taro root a crop like potatoes, lemon and orange trees, and a lagoon full of fish, sharks, shell fish and octopus. Plus a lovely beach, we are going to spent Christmas and New Year here in company with La Gitana, an American boat with a teenage daughter on board. Altogether there are 6 boats here of various nationalities. Sarah and her friend Kellie chose a white beach as their special place and took our tent over to camp for a week, foraging inland for fruit and coconuts as the whim took them..

At Christmas all the boats got together to produce the meal. The men went of fishing and caught lots of fish, which were prepared in different ways the favorite being raw fish which we marinated in lemon juice and coconut cream, closely followed by fish poached in coconut cream and garlic. We also barbequed fish on the open fire we baked pies pizza and cakes and were all fully satiated by the end of the day. Two weeks before we had made coconut wine and all had a big hangover on Boxing Day. We had a repeat barbeque for New Year, followed by a swim in the lagoon.

With great reluctance we started preparing the boat to leave. During this time one of our injector pipes on the engine broke, but we decided to sail the 2500 miles to Aden without an engine, however an inspection of the rigging found 2 broken strands on the forestay, so we decided to sail 130 miles south to the military base on Diego Garcia, to see if they had the facilities to help us. The passage down took 30 hours and was very windy, as we approached the pass we called up on the VHF and asked for permission to enter. The US military answered and asked our problem. After we explained they sent out 3 British marines in a large inflatable to verify that we needed help. The British are the administrators and make all the decisions regarding admittance to the lagoon. It was good to be greeted by a Birmingham accent, Steve the Sergeant Major told us we had permission to enter and guided us to the customs enclosure.

We disconnected the injector pipe and forestay and they were spirited away for repair, in the meantime we were visited by the British High Commissioner, who welcomed us and offered us the opportunity to buy duty free drink, and a chance to buy food from the stores. Steve was our liaison officer and took away my list of stores which he duly returned fully completed, and only charged us for half of them, Next we were filled with water and diesel again free of charge. That evening we were visited by two of the marines who came laden with pizzas and beer, and we had a lovely evening. We spent the following day refitting the injector pipe and forestay, before being visited by more marines and US sailors. We had a lovely time and are grateful to the US military who affected our repairs by courtesy of the US government. With all repairs done and full of diesel, water food and drink we finally set sail for Aden.

Wednesday 18th January We waved goodbye to our helpers and sailed out of the lagoon. The wind was very strong from the south and we ran under headsail and mizzen all night. We had to run north to avoid a group of unlit atolls, and then on 22nd January we had made enough northing to head for Aden. Crossing the equator on 26th January and arriving at Aden on 13th February after 26 days of steady winds. Contrary to our expectations Aden was a very friendly place despite the dilapidated state of the buildings after an attempted coup. We filled our gas bottles and bought more stores then left on 23rd February hoping to get to the Hanish Islands near the straits at the entrance to the Red Sea.

We had a light wind for 3 days and then it increased, we were glad to gain the anchorage at the Hanish Islands before it got too strong. An hour later a German boat came in and anchored near us. The wind increased overnight to 45 knots and stayed that way for several days. We finally got fed up of being boat bound and decided to raft up to Sarsa, the German boat for a party. The next morning the wind was down to 30 knots and we went ashore to explore the island it was composed mainly of sand and rock and was very dry. There were signs of deer and goats along the shore. We returned to Blue Spurr and had happy hour with our German friends. By Saturday 4th March the wind had dropped to 25 knots and we decided to head for Port Sudan 600 miles north. We had light winds for 5 days then on the 6th day the expected northerlies came arrived causing us to tack into Port Sudan against the wind. Customs was a quite involved process and took 2 hours, but afterwards we went for a walk around the town and were delighted to see camels wandering around the streets and nomadic tribesmen strolling around with great sabers strapped to their bodies.

The produce market was surprisingly good considering the desert like terrain. We only spent a few days in Port Sudan then as the wind eased we headed 25 miles north to Shaib Rumi a circular reef where Jacques Cousteau studied sharks for several years and built an underwater observatory. The snorkeling was unbelievable and the fish were really colourful, we spent 2 days diving and fishing and then a southerly sprung up and we took the opportunity to head north. The wind lasted 4 days then shifted north. We tacked for 2 more days then headed to an anchorage on the Egyptian border for 4 days whilst the northerlies increased in strength and then finally subsided. We set off for Suez in light winds and had a wonderful sail to the Gulf of Suez. In the gulf it was very busy with hundreds of oil rigs and big ships; it took 2 days to reach Suez from the Straits of Gubal at the entrance to the gulf. We arrived at the yacht club and tied up to our friends on La Gitana who we hadn't seen for 3 months.

The following day we set off in a taxi to cairn in company with our American friends and spent 4 days sightseeing. We returned to Suez and booked our transit through The Canal with our agent "The Prince of the Red Sea" who did all the paper work for us and arranged pilots etc. The total cost for 2 days and 2 pilots was 150 US dollars. The transit was very easy as there are no locks in the canal and we anchored halfway in Bittern Lakes for the night. We dropped our pilot off at Port Said and continued into the Med. Bound for Cyprus. The winds were very light and we had to motor most of the way to Larnaka marina. It was strange to be in a marina after so long but very convenient. We hauled the boat out and antifouled, checking the underwater fittings. We spent 5 weeks leisurely working and doing all the little jobs we had been promising to do to the boat for years. Sarah left us after a week to sail to Turkey on La Gitana.

We relaunched on June 10th and sailed on the 11th for Kastellorizon, a tiny Greek island 3 miles from the Turkish coast. It was a lovely place and we stayed 2 days before we set sail for Rhodes. From Rhodes we sauced to Marmaris in Turkey to collect Sarah and then cruised the Turkish coast to Bodrum. From there we sailed to Kos, Pserimos, and Kalimnos, three Greek Islands. We sailed direct from Kalimnos to Port St.Louis in France, straight into the wind for 17 days. Covering 1300 miles. We spent a week in Port St. Louis taking down the mast and preparing the boat for her trip through the French Canals. The first of our 220 locks was at Port St Louis then we headed north up the river Rhone, there was only about 1 knot of current against us and we purred along enjoying the lovely chateaus that were perched at every turn of the river. The hardest part of the system was the Canal du Marne. It had so many locks that the lockkeepers used to travel between them on mopeds. The most locks we transited in a day were 27.

Finally we arrived at Calais only 15 miles from the place where we would finally cross our line and tie the knot in our circumnavigation, just south of Goodwin Light vessel. We had a week of north wind then finally got a good southerly and left Calais for East Goodwin and tied the knot at 17.00hrs on October 4th. And opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate. On Thursday 5th October we got a gale warning. As we were near Haisboro sands and headed towards Dudgeon light vessel to find some sea room. By the time the gale hit us we were halfway to Dowsing and couldn't lay our course so we lay a-hull until morning. At dawn we could lay our course and set off for the River Humber arriving just after the tide turned. We spent the night hove to near the big ship anchorage and next morning sailed upriver to Grimsby. And then on to Hull on the next tide. We were greeted at the marina by lots of family and friends and a bottle of champagne. A good ending to a successful voyage.. Total distance run 40,000miles,

Dave, Shelby and Sarah Milner.

P.S. If anyone is planning a similar voyage in the future we would be glad to share our experiences with them.

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