can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Starblazer - 21/10/2015 – Mauritius



Sorry, it’s nearly two weeks since my last log and a lot has happened since
then!

I celebrated my birthday at sea by eating. John cooked scrambled eggs on
toast for breakfast, I made smoked salmon, cream cheese and salad wraps for
lunch then John cooked steaks for dinner. Other than that, the day passed
like any other day at sea, on watch periods, radio nets and regular entries
in the ship’s logbook. The breeze stayed with us all day and we made good
progress with a Tuesday arrival looking possible. Sadly it wasn’t to be and
we arrived at first light on Wednesday.

We had one further piece of damage which John noticed on Tuesday morning.
The radar was dangling from the mast supported only by its wires. The seas
were rather bouncy and John didn’t fancy climbing the mast so he managed to
stabilise it with a couple of halyards snagged on it and tied so that it
couldn’t swing.

The first few days were dedicated to repairing the boat: remove the radar
and order two new aluminium side arms for the bracket from a local metal
working company; remove the damaged alternator, discover why it was cranked
around at an angle (found to be wear on the alternator itself), source a
replacement; refit the alternator and tighten the belt on the other one; fit
the new end cap on the heat exchanger which Joel brought from England for
us; fit the new diesel lift pump, also carried from England by Joel; start
the engine, check that the batteries are being charged, no water leaks. The
final job, refitting the radar, had to wait until yesterday (Tuesday) when
John collected the new side arms. The good news is that the radar still
works.

We dedicated the weekend to exploring the island. On Saturday we travelled
to the east coast then followed the coast road to Maheburg and Blue Bay. We
passed numerous very colourful temples with lots of relief carving on them
plus Hindu temples, Mosques and Catholic churches. This island is a bit of
a melting pot, originally settled by the Dutch, taken over by the French who
brought in slaves to work on the sugar plantations then won by the British
in 1810. After slavery was abolished in about 1830 workers were brought in
from India. There is also quite a large Chinese population. Mauritius
gained its independence in 1968, however it retains a lot of British
systems. Rather surprisingly, given about 150 years of British rule, the
predominant language seems to be French though the language of government is
English.

The southwest of the island is more interesting, which was our destination
on Sunday. Apart from the Back River Gorge area we found the tea trail and
visited the Bois Cheri tea factory and museum. The factory itself was
closed (Sunday) but the museum was open, then we had a lovely lunch in their
Panorama Restaurant at the top of the hill followed by a tea tasting. The
National Park surrounding the Black River Gorge included various waterfalls.
We really enjoyed exploring this area and returned to Port Louis by the
coast road.

On Monday we went on a trip organised by the tourist office to the northwest
corner of the island. The first stop was the Chateau de Labourdonnais, a
magnificent historic house which has been very well restored. This was
followed by a rum tasting, then a visit to their shop to buy rum! The next
stop was the sugar museum, very well presented in an old sugar mill, more
rum tasting then lunch. After lunch our final visit was to the botanic
gardens where the excellent guide kept everyone interested. It was a long
day but very enjoyable.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay on Mauritius but it is time to move on.
Tomorrow we leave on the shortest leg of the rally, about 130 nM to Reunion
so we should arrive sometime on Friday.

Joyce



Previous | Next