Reunion

Arrived here Saturday around 11am and spent the day sorting the boat before the reception in the evening organised by the Tourist Board and World ARC as it was the official prize giving event. Sunday was a rest day after the passage which was the worst so far of the trip. The seas were not good with swell coming from two different directions and the boat rolling from side to side. Cooking was difficult so we just ate quiche I had prepared on Friday morning. Today we went on the World ARC tour organised through the tourist board to the now extinct volcano. The last time the volcano erupted was 2007 so it is still active. The trip ended with lunch at a local restaurant Ti Rose which was very good with plenty of food and wine and music and dancing! Whilst we were away from the boat today our stack pack (sail cover ) was repaired by the local sail maker. Tomorrow I am shopping whilst Peter fixes things on the boat. We leave here Saturday morning 11am local time (4hours ahead of UTC).

Exploring Mauritius

Monday we went on the World ARC tour of Mauritius where a bus took us to some visitor attractions in the North of the island. We visited an old colonial house Chateau Labourdonnais and admired the largely Dutch syle house. Also visited L'Aventure de Sucre which was a former sugar mill which has been turned into a museuem. There was the opportunity to taste different sugars and rum drinks. Lunch was provided and this was an Indian curry and rice followed by a strange dessert which although tasty had a weird composition like globules of gelatine! After lunch we visited the Botanical gardens and saw many different tree species and varieties of palm tree. The tour was interesting as we drove through many different parts of Mauritius and saw basic shanty huts made of breeze blocks and corrugated iron up to luxurious mansions!! Last night we had the rally prizegiving event with local dancers entertaining us in their colourful skirts made up in colours of the Mauritius flag i.e. red,blue,yellow and green. Peter has worked his way through the jobs to do list and Trompeta is now ready to leave tomorrow at 12 noon. Today I am trying to book some accomodation in Cape Town South Africa so when the boat is out of the water we can stay in a luxury waterfront apartment. Bliss!!

Mauritius

We finally arrived here in Port Louis to a spectactular welcome from fellow World ARC crews who were waiting for us on the dock despite the late hour of our arrival just after Midnight on 17 October. It was a lovely reception after a gruelling two weeks at sea when we had numerous household problems and issues to deal with en route. The sailing was good and reasonably fast as we averaged 7 knots boat speed for most of the passage as we had good swells to send us on our way. The sea was big but the boat rode the waves beautifully and was just lifted up by the swell and carried forward at anything from 10 to 15 knots. There were lots of big waves hitting the side of the boat which sounded a lot worst that they actually were. There was one night when I was on watch and Peter was sleeping when a huge wave came into the cockpit with such force it completely drenched me. Luckily I was wearing my lifejacket and was clipped on so I did not go anywhere. However Peter had left his lifejacket on the cockpit chart table and it actually activated with the force of the water so blew up! An added excitement on the trip was the development of Tropical Cyclone Anais which was some 350 miles north of us. We tried to sail as fast as we could to get out of the way but so chose to press on wheras 3 boats actually chose to stip in Rodgrigues Island some 400 miles short of Mauritius. Our gamble paid off and we never saw or experienced any side effects from the storm which was weakening and ended up as a depression. So fortunately no squalls or gale force winds - the most wind we saw was some 35 knots. Cyclone season is usually Nov/Dec so it is very early for a cyclone this year. The facilities appear to be good here in Mauritius and already we have a Yacht Management company dealing with the list of repairs - the most important being a leak in the main water tank which had to come out yesterday to be welded. This was a major task as it meant taking the interior seating and floors out so the tank could be lifted out from under the settee. Today we have an engineer on board to deal with the leak on the water maker. Other issues include a fault with the gas pressure which meant I could not use the oven for the last week of our passage but fortunately the stove top rings still light. Another thing is an intermittant fault with the Generator which does not always start first time. Peter suspects there is air in the sytem because the boat has been heeling over quite severely during the passage. Anyway I took time out yesterday whilst the boat was in bits to visit the hairdresser so we went out with crews from Brizo and Dreamcatcher last night and enjoyed a fantastic steak dinner. There is not a lot of room here in the marina so boats are rafted up in twos around the outside wall. We are rafted to Dreamcatcher which is another Hallberg Rassy but bigger (48ft) and newer. Marie and Charles are the crew and they are good friends so we are happy to be next to them until 26 October when we leave for Reunion. Another bonus is that there are no dockage fees to pay as the Marina owners are giving us free berthing. Watch out for a further blog after we have seen some of the island!