Day 206, Year 5: Fantastic Day on Ile De La Passe
Date: Thursday, May 20, 2010
Weather: Cloudy Early with Sprinkles Turning Sunny; SE Winds 10-12
Location: Ile Fouquet, Salomon Atoll, Chagos
Humans rarely visit Ile De La Passe these days and the coconut crabs have taken over the island. At one time you could anchor off that island, but with the new regulations, anchoring there is off limits. This year, only Susan Margaret has visited there in their dinghy until yesterday when Rob and Kate of Aries Tor visited, and then today when all the boats in the Takamaka-Fouquet anchorage invaded and had our pot luck luncheon in the camp there. The island is a little beauty and the coconut crabs are crawling every where. There are big ones, little ones, brave ones, shy ones; crabs that try to get into your backpack and crabs that actually follow you as you move and try to jump on you. The coconut crabs we have seen to date are either small and live in borrowed shells like hermit crabs or are huge, carrying their own armored shell, and stay well hidden in their hidey holes. But in addition to this, Ile De La Passe has an army of ‘juveniles’ who bravely walk around the island. Cut the top off a green coconut to drink the water and as soon as you put the coconut down, you have about twenty little guys attacking the coconut and then along comes one of the ‘juveniles’ to help himself and the smaller guys scatter hither and yon. It was a full day’s entertainment just watching this. In between watching coconut crabs, we soaked in the beauty of the view of the entire Salomon Atoll, chatted with fellow cruisers like we had never seen other people before, and ate a scrumptious pot luck luncheon. There are seven boats here now and the one thing we know about each boat is that someone on board really knows how to cook. All of the offerings were delicious. But I think we were all starved for more than food. Getting together and talking with new people was wonderful. What an interesting group. You’ve already been introduced to Ed and Lynne of Constance, and I’ve mentioned John and Sue of Susan Margaret and the youngsters, Kate and Rob on Aries Tor., but Kea and Mr. Curley are new to the anchorage. In fact, Dominique and Dominique (husband and wife) of Kea just came in this morning. They are from southern France and both speak very good English. Mr. Curly came up from Boddam two days ago and Kathy and Richard are a wealth of information as they have been coming here for years. They have been here in three different boats over the years, coming the first time in 1985. Kathy loves studying the flora and fauna as much as I do and I will definitely be going over to Mr. Curley in the morning to look at their photo albums from their years here. After lunch, John and Susan, the male Dominique, and Kathy and I tromped back through the island to the old well and a beautiful hardwood forest. Late in the afternoon, Mark, Kate of Aries Tor, and I jumped in the water and snorkeled around a reef on the southern end of the island. When we got back to shore, it was late in the afternoon and time to head home. We had taken Ed and Lynne and on the way home, we decided to head into the pass between Takamaka and Fouquet and do a drift snorkel holding on to the dinghy. We did this once, and then twice because it was fantastic. There were schools of fish of different kinds and the most exciting thing for me was that we saw anemonefish. Nemo lives here, too! So I will be going back to the pass at high tide as many chances as I get over the next two weeks. The current moves you along quickly, so I’ll just have to do it over and over and over to get the full effect.
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| 100520 Day 206 Salomon, Chagos–Day Trip to Ile De La Passe |
