The last few days of the passage were uneventful and we motor-sailed and finally motored the last 12 hours or so. We could have arrived around midnight on October 20, but decided to slow down and arrive at first light. Port Louis is a surprisingly large and bustling port and after gaining permission to enter we motored in and were moored on the outer wall of the Caudan Basin. We were greeted by a number of our fellow WARC sailors and Galen with shots of a local rum - Pink Pigeon - a surprisingly smooth local rum.
Monday brought the tour of the island and we enjoyed visiting the chateau Labordonnais and tasting their rum offerings, the Sugar Museum with their rums, and the botanical gardens. It gave us a nice overview of the island's history and we saw a little of the northern landscape. Unfortunately on returning to Misto a nasty surprise awaited. A combination of high tide and wake from passing boats had forced our fenders up and out and Misto had been rubbing badly on the concrete wall. We were able to move into the basin and raft up to Air Power and here the conditions are a little better, although there is still a lot of swell entering the basin. We have about 10' of the starboard side get coat that will have to be fixed in South Africa as well as having damaged the aluminium surrounds on a couple of the side windows. Although its all repairable it's something that we did not, of course, expect to be having to deal with.
On Tuesday we rented a car and drove to the south western part of the island. Here we visited waterfalls, beautiful views and the "Colored Earth" that Mauritius is known for. We ended up at La Morne and World Heritage site that supposedly sheltered escaped slaves back in the days before the abolition of slavery. It was a whirlwind trip but it gave us another view of the island. In the evening we enjoyed the prize giving for leg 11.
Today will be the skippers briefing and a little provisioning in the local market and we expect to depart for Reunion tomorrow. We are already starting to look at the weather for the passage to South Africa - the weather does not appear to have settled into its normal summer pattern yet so let's hope that it improves over the next 10 days or so.