After sailing approximately 2350 nautical miles, the first of the fleet has arrived in Port Louis, Mauritius. Nexus, the 17.90 meter Semi Custom Catamaran skippered by Russell Owen, arrived today in the late afternoon. Completing the passage in 13 days, a warm welcome ashore greeted them with offerings of fruit and rum! After clearing in with the various authorities, the crew of Nexus can now enjoy their first night ashore in almost two weeks! Laurie (Russ’s wife), described the passage as being “extremely fast, unfortunately too fast for fishing but when the wind settled we finally caught a big Mahi Mahi”.
After the first, the rest follow. The X-612 Chika-lu is due to arrive tomorrow in the early hours of the morning followed by Alpheratz, Celebrate, Shaya Moya, NDS Darwin, Boingo Alive, Ghost and Andromeda V. The somewhat empty Caudan Basin where the fleet berth in Port Louis will soon change in capacity and atmosphere as the World ARC fleet continue to arrive over the coming days.
Whilst the leaders of the fleet begin to arrive, for those still at sea the Indian Ocean continues to test them. The crew off American Spirit II are continuing to persevere after their forestay broke. The additions they made to strengthen the rig have worked well, and with the support of the fleet, in particular the crew of Merlyn of Poole who are sailing close by until landfall is made, the remainder of the fleet should be in port by Thursday.