The last night that we were in Mauritius, after a sumptuous meal at an Indian restaurant in the precinct next to the marina, with Bev, Moe, and Bev’s parents, we went to the casino and played blackjack using the last of the local currency. When the chips were cashed in, we were paid out in local currency, so it wasn’t too much of a disappointment not to win. Next morning Moe went ashore to try to change the local currency that he still held, into dollars. The banks and money changers were not interested but he finally found that Thomas Cook would do the deal. Checking out formalities took place between 8am and 9am. Then, at 9.30, at the end of the quay, the ministers from six different denominations came to bless the fleet. The Roman Catholic priest introduced each minister who spoke for several minutes, making their blessings. First to speak was a Muslim, then a Hindu, next an Anglican, then a robed woman from the Chinese Pagoda, followed by a Jew and lastly, the Roman Catholic. Each spoke in their own language, the Anglican speaking in English and the Roman Catholic in Latin. The finale was an explosion of fire-crackers, further along the quay. It was a very moving ceremony.
We crossed the start line with the parasailor flying and were soon ahead of the rest of the fleet. After around two hours, we lost the wind and watched as the other boats started to use their engines and pass us. Eventually, after sailing at under a knot for over an hour, we also resorted to the iron sail. That night the boat was plagued by flies. Goodness knows from whence they came. We hadn’t had any problem with insects while we were in Mauritius, other than one huge cockroach I found lounging in the wet-bar sink in the cockpit. I am afraid that I had to throw the critter off the boat. An aerosol can of insect spray soon sorted the problem with the flies.
A huge black cloud loomed overhead but finally moved away and the wind came up again. We sailed then with force 5, 6 and 7 knot winds until we were within about four miles of our destination when we once again lost the wind. We had sailed under mainsail and genoa, both reefed. We had no choice with the mainsail, because of the damage to the sail but now we shook out the second reef and unfurled the genoa completely. We managed to sail 2 miles in two hours but that took us to the finish line when we furled in the genoa, took down the mainsail and using the engines, made way to port, tying up alongside the huge concrete dockside.
Most of the other boats were already in Le Port, only Basia and Destiny, both catamarans, were still on their way. Destiny had not left Mauritius at the same time as the rest of the fleet, they had still been getting their boat repairs sorted. Once again, the boats were rafted but we were fortunate not to be rafted to another boat or to have another rafted to us..
That night there was a cocktail party on the quayside, courtesy of the Tourist board and the Chamber of Commerce. An excellent night was enjoyed by all of us, with finger food, rum punch and beer plus dancers and two bands, quite different one from the other. The second band was made up only of drummers, all being children. Local people also came along and joined in, enjoying the entertainment and watching the yachties making a fool of them-selves, cavorting to the band.
The seaman’s mission came to our aid and provided a bus to transport WARC participants to and from the local town of Le Port, on Monday. At 4.30am, Tuesday 26th October, we were awoken by a knock on the boat and alerted to the news of a tsunami warning. We had been advised that boats were not permitted to leave nor enter the harbour. We disconnected the power and water from the shore supply, fixed a few more fat fenders between the quayside and our boat and waited. A fire engine left the quay and a little later a number of cars arrived. We were told that a surge had reached the south of the island but we looked as if we were OK here. Nothing happened and we were unable to obtain any further information. Most people who had been disturbed were back in bed before 6am.
We now have a plague of small moths on the boat, both inside and out. Moe has been busy swatting them and I have been catching them in a glass and putting them outside. The situation inside the boat is much better, with perhaps less than a dozen still around. As soon as they settle and I spot them I will get my glass. However, outside the boat there are dozens of moths on the windows, the door and other surfaces.
We hired a car for three days and explored the island. It is more like being in the south of France than a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The flora is magnificent and I recognize many plants growing wild that I have planted in my garden in Spain and many others that are grown as indoor plants in the UK. As we drove higher up the mountainous terrain towards the volcano, we drove through cloud and the temperature was greatly reduced. The vegetation now looked alpine. Further on and we drove along a road which cuts through the lava flow several times. This road periodically has to be rebuilt after an eruption causes the lava flow to damage the road. We climbed up to a viewing point on top of the most recent lava flow from the 2007 eruption.
Tuesday night there was a WARC quiz and five teams participated. At least half of the questions related to the places and things we had done since therally started in January, the rest were general knowledge questions. It was great fun though the best score was a meagre19 out of 30 and that wasn’t our team. Anyone would have thought that we must have been on a different rally.
Destiny left the port on Wednesday, to make passage to South Africa. They did not have time to wait until the official start of the leg on Saturday because they have crew arriving early.
On Wednesday, returning to Le Port around 6pm, having spent the day touring the island, we found the west road closed. A coach was on fire and billowing black smoke. We took an alternative road back to the marina.
We booked the tours we wish to take in South Africa, though found it very hard to arrange the bank transfers and the insurance cover. The bank wouldn’t let us do the transfers other than during UK banking hours and the insurance cover web site, wouldn’t let us get beyond the display of the application form.