Sunday August 28th. - Preparation
We spent Sunday getting ready to move the boat from Black River to Port Louis, the Island's principal town. One of the boat's dagger boards had been left for repair having been damaged by an encounter with coral. We found it didn't fit in its slot and arranged to have it shaved down. We spent the rest of the day getting in some basic provisions, getting familiar with the boat and trying to find wifi. The weather is unsettled, wavering from cool, sunny and calm to very windy, fogged in and rainy. These wet and episodes evidently known to the locals as God's Sneezes.
Monday August 29 relocate to Port Louis
We refitted the Dagger board, replaced a fuel tank sensor, removed a bird's nest from the roller furling gear and headed out through the gap in the coral into open water for the twenty mile run up to Port Louis.
It was wonderful. Plenty of good wind. Glorious and sunny alternating with cloudy wet and chilly. Low ocean swells running under us.
God's Sneezes pushed us along under jib only. It was a novel experience for me to be in a strong breeze on a sail boat that stayed level. A monohull would be over on its ear with the crew wedged in place.
The island is is very pretty from the water. Craggy mountains rising steeply about 2,000 feet from the generally level landscape.
Port Louis is a good sized industrial port. Large docks cranes, container ships, rusted fishing boats, large warehouses and grain terminals. The tourist basin is pretty full, most of us rafted out from the concrete wharf. Our sailing compatriots are all here, now just three boats; Maggie, Tahawus and ourselves No Regrets. We gathered for drinks. Zeke happy to see old pals, Nora & I happy to meet new ones.
Tuesday August 30th depart Port Louis for La Reunion.
The three boats decided to head out around noon for the overnight leg to La Reunion. A midday departure intended to get us into La Reunion in. daylight. Zeke headed out to deal with customs and immigration, Nora and I to see the town. The town is busy busy busy. There are police directing traffic everywhere you look, in fact there are police everywhere you look. The city itself is a mix of Tourist-Resort Modern, pretty quiet in the morning, Fairly Modern Business District, with plenty of local and international banks, Colonial Holdovers with plenty of charm even if does evoke the Colonial era. Around this inner core there is a vibrant local business district packed with small shops, traffic, street vendors that is pretty shabby. We ran across old and historic mosque tiled and bright inside with lovely woodwork.
The unexpected highlight were the markets and old arcades. One very makeshift with stalls cobbled together with found materials. We tried to buy a bite to eat, but the vendor could not make change for a 500 Rupee note, a modest amount, less than twenty US dollars. There was also a large produce market in an older building where the goods on display were immaculate and displayed with great care. We picked up some samosas from a street vendor and got a coffee before heading back to the boat.
Zeke was back and not so happy after yet another encounter with officialdom. Not only are the rules and procedures different in every country, but they are different every day of the week. It was all sorted out in the end, as it always is but it does waste your time and suck out your humor and energy.
We all managed to leave around noon and as I write this we are three hours gone under partial clouds, moderate winds, running diagonally into the swells, which give a weird boat motion in a catamaran. 15 knot winds just forward of the beam have us sailing at around 6 knots with just the jib set. we are proceeding at a leisurely pace. We have spotted our first whales. The overnight watch system is agreed at four hours - which is fairly long but much easier to manage given the enclosed pilot house, completely sheltered from the weather. The auto pilot takes good care of the steering duties.
Tahawus is beginning to disappear over horizon, Maggie is bring up the rear of our fleet of three. So we are on our way for real. So far, so good.
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