Cocos Keeling - Facts
- Important pre-arrival information: The Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection require an Advance Notice of Arrival. See Formalities for all the details.
- The Cocos Keeling Islands consist of two atolls, North Keeling and South Keeling, comprising 27 low coral islands, most of them clustered around South Keeling’s lagoon. Most of the smaller islands are uninhabited. Cocos-Keeling is an Australian territory.
- The islands are a convenient stop for westbound yachts in the South Indian Ocean.
- Direction Island is uninhabited and has almost no facilities. This is where the yacht anchorage is located.
- Home Island has about 500 inhabitants of Malaysian descent. The appropriate conservative dress should be worn when visiting Home Island in consideration of the residents’ religion. Home Island has some shops and fuel and propane is available.
- West Island is the commercial center with police & customs, airport, a dive shop, fuel, provisions, and other tourist facilities.
- Getting work done: The island contractors are resourceful but not many are marine focused. There is a limited boat repair facility on Home Island, but for emergency work only.
- Provisions: Most products are shipped or flown in, so the prices reflect that. Avoid buying all but the necessities.
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Now Covid travel restrictions are lifting we are starting to plan our exit from Australia and were very much hoping to stop via Cocos Keeling. This makes for a predictable weather window to travel the first big hop to cross the Indian Ocean. Noon site suggests that permission is granted on a ‘case-by-case basis’ – but I just posted an application and it was declined. Application forms are setup to expect you to fly in and out from WA, but I completed them anyway and added comments to clarify our situation.
Has anyone managed to get an approval?
Any thoughts? Tips?
Hi MaryAnne, thanks for the question. I’ve made contact with the Authorities in Cocos and will let you know what they come back with.
Following as we are in similar situation.
Posted on behalf of Paul Stephens aboard s/v Tin Tin:
Getting to West island to clear in/out was less easy especially as there was no consensus on the ferry timetable. I have since laminated one and attached to the notice board. There is a ferry from Direction to Home island on Saturday a.m. at 10:00 but the connections don’t really work to get back again.
So it’s best to dinghy the 1.5nm to Home island giving the chance if the last ferry back from West island at 16:00. Ferry is AU $3.50 single or $5.00 return. The bus meets the ferry for $0.50… everything shuts at 15:00 on Saturday and there was no cafe or bar open. The Community Centre was helpful with Wi-Fi, and the shop reasonably stocked.
Using broadband radar over-layed on the Navionics Gold electronic charts, we found that the chart was precisely accurate. There is an error in the positioning of the entrance waypoint on the plan of Direction Island in the Indian Ocean Crossing Guide.
The plan shows the waypoint to be at the seaward end of the leading lines to West Island but, when plotted, it is 0.28M east of the leading lines. The waypoint is still a perfectly safe place to head for, although the boat will be closer to the land than the plan suggests.
In September 2015 there is now buoyage (unlit) to help you into the anchorage: From the IO Crossing Guide waypoint, head S and then SE towards the first tall post with a red can top. Leave that post to port and then turn towards the anchorage. If you have good light, you’ll see a band of reef ahead of you.
Identify the smaller post with a green triangle on top as this marks the area of deeper water over the reef. Keep the post close on your starboard side. We found the depths to be either equal to or more than those marked on the Navionics Gold chart. There are lots of small reefs in the anchorage but they are all deep until close inshore.
Anchor west of the jetty to keep out of the ferry/recreation zone.