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American Spirit II - Day 292; A Great Rigger Day in Reunion; Friday, October 24, 2014



Jeremy wakes me at 5:15 AM, as Joel left instructions with him to wake me early (before 6:00 AM) when we get to the waypoint just north of Reunion. I spring up the stairs to the cabin in my shorts, look at the island and its lights looming hugely off the port beam, with black clouds and rain showers spilling off the island and heading our way like freight trains. We're only 2 miles off shore. Yikes! I click the auto pilot 3 times to turn 3 degrees to starboard, then back down the stairs to dress and put my harness on. Unlike my regular custom, I do not shave this morning. We're making a landfall!

At 5:45 AM a heavy rain shower hits us. Wham! Another boat cleaning.

At 6:15 AM I can see Nexus's giant spinnaker coming up miles behind us. The AIS says they're moving at 11.2 knots. Impressive. Alpheratz and NDS Darwin are right behind them.

At 6:31 AM the sun pokes thru behind a large bank of black clouds over a corner of the island. I go below and grab my camera. Picture time.

At around 6:35 AM I make a course correction 3 degrees to starboard; or was it 30 degrees? Oops. Wrong button. Jeremy are I are both impressed at how fast the boat turns. Fumble!

Jeremy calls Rally control when we're 1/2 mile from the finish line. We're supposed to call at one mile out. Oops again.

We cross the finish line, which is the first 2 buoys into Port Reunion, at 6:59 AM. We are the first on this leg to do so. That's a first for us. So what if we motored all the way and started 3 1/2 hours before everyone else! Nexus finishes about a half hour later; followed by Alpheratz and then NDS Darwin.

Paul and Joel from Rally control are at the concrete wharf to help us tie up. They've mapped out the wharf for all the sailing vessels, knowing which ones will be by themselves and which ones will be rafted up to another boat.

By 9:30 AM the Reunion rigger, Ben, is already on our boat. I had talked to him Tuesday and told him we'd be at the wharf by 9:00 AM. It doesn't hurt that Rally control has parked our boat right in front of his office. I'm sure that's not a coincidence. The rigger is very professional. He says he'll be back Monday to do a rigging inspection of the boat first; then start to give me a new forestay. 100 Euros for the inspection; and 700 Euros, 50% up front in cash, before the work starts. I like him.

During our conversation he is critical of a number of things: that when we changed one of the D1 shrouds in Fiji, that the rigger should have changed the other one on the other side of the boat, too; that he wished we knew the turnbuckle position of the backstays before we tightened them; and that we should have brought with us to Reunion the broken forestay pieces we had to cut off to pull the wire out of the extrusion, so he knew how long the broken forestay was.

He was also incredulous that the mast didn't come down. Says for sure if we were beating (the wind forward of the beam) instead of sailing downwind, that the mast for sure would have come down.

Later in the day he will determine that the Norseman fittings that we got from Civetta II won't fit the wire Civetta II gave us; so we can't use them. Instead he orders a new wire and fittings from Europe. He will have them by Tuesday.

Since there is a marine electronics store along the wharf, I visit them and arrange for a technician to climb our mast and check out why our radar dome doesn't rotate; and order the chip reader for our Ray Marine E-80 Chart Plotter so we can see navigation aids and depths on the screen. The proprietor says I'll have the chip reader replacement part by next Wednesday. Cool. I was going to replace this part in Africa, but having it before we leave Reunion will be a huge plus.

I checked the tracking of the Pro Furl parts I ordered in Mauritius to see when they're arriving, and find out that they arrived in Mauritius today, this morning. I call the rigger and ask him to pick them up today instead of having them delivered to his office on Monday. I call twice later in the day to see if he's done this, but he doesn't answer his phone. Thanks. If he could pick up the parts today, he could bring them to the Caudan Basin and give them to Civetta II to bring Saturday to Reunion. Since I didn't hear back from him I will have to fly to Mauritius on Tuesday to get the parts and then back to Reunion the same day. There goes $500.

Joel goes to Folie a Deux to try to fix their cockpit stereo system; and then he, Jeremy and I eat lunch there. Homemade beef stew. Great! Thank you Tracey.

I try to rent a car, but because this week and next week are holiday weeks, it may not be possible to do so.

At 2:10 PM the wind dies down to almost nothing. It was blowing 20-25 knots all day in the wharf area. Because the wind dies down, the rigger decides to climb my mast now and not Monday; and measure the forestay and backstay lengths.

At 4:26 PM Joel and I are dropped off at an ATM in town by Paul and Joel from Rally control. Since I have to pay the rigger in Euros, not a credit card, we're going to have to accumulate cash to pay for the repairs. I'll give Joel US dollars for his Euros as all repairs on the boat are my responsibility and not a shared expense like food, fuel, marina fees, beer, etc. The walk back to our boat is on concrete and asphalt; its hot out; and it takes 40 minutes.

A prize giving function is held next to the wharf at 5:30 PM. Local dignitaries are invited and give speeches in English and French. It's an important event, as the authorities of Reunion are treating us like kings and queens, including free berthing along the wharf wall; free electricity; free water; and free showers. After the speeches Paul from Rally control gives out prizes (bottles of wine and rum) to the winners of Class A, Class B and mutihulls. Winners include Alpheratz; Ghost; Saphir; Andromeda; Boingo Alive; Nexus; and Polaris. Sweet Pearl wins the ETA bonus award for picking a time of finishing for their boat the closest; and American Spirit II (Us!) wins a bonus award by picking the time separating the first boat to finish (6:59 AM) and the last boat to finish (3:44 PM); a difference of 8 3/4 hours. We had picked 8 1/2 hours. The 8 1/2 hour figure that we picked was actually between the time that I picked (7 1/2 hours) and Joel picked (9 1/2 hours). How's that for teamwork?

After the prize giving 3 local ladies entertain us by dancing in exotic outfits; and finger food and drinks are provided. The food is sufficient enough that we're not having fried chicken on the boat tonight.

Back on the boat around 7:15 PM, Jeremy is the first to bed having been up since 3:00 AM. Joel is next at 8:30 PM or so; and I'm last because I'm typing this log and a previous one. I'm in bed by 11:00 PM.

Brian Fox

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