The wind remained very light all night, so we just had to motor on. We lay down on the aft deck and stared at the stars for ages, such a clear night, the millions of stars twinkling up there was akin to an Orchestra silently playing "Oh Silent Night", its amazing what the mind thinks of! but it kept us entertained for an hour or so.
02.00hrs We passed a Coaster which was just parked in the water, she had been motoring around all night and passed us a long way off some time earlier, but eventually decided to stop... Actually, come to think of it now, it could well have been one one the many Japanese trawlers. We discovered later, that there are abouty 600 Japanese, Chinese, and Asian trawlers operate out of Mauritius. There is an agreement between all the various countries that all fish caught within the territorial waters of Mauritius, must be landed and processed in Mauritius, thus creating many need jobs. It is very activly enforced by the authorities (unlike the agreement made between the Irish Gov. and the Spanish about Castletown Bare, which was supposed to do the same, but for some reason, never enforced). As they say, an Irish solution to an Irish problem.....................
The authorities here are also very active on the "Pirates" thing, remember a few days ago, we mentioned that a trawler had been kidnapped by Pirates? Well, they were rescued by the Mauritian Naval forces a day later, and the pirates locked up for ever. We say, well done!
09.00hrs Radio Call, for us, this would be our last as we will arrive in Port Louis later today. We still made ground on the fleet, but Tucanon who left the Cocos Islands 2 days ahead of us, has already arrived in Port Louis at 05.00hrs this morning, so we reduced.
11.00hrs We could see the outline of Mauritius, and 2 hours later we were motor sailing up the west coast of the island, and it was a fantastic sight. Ohhhh, we were so thrilled to be here, it was like if we had been at sea for years. All the green fields, with many holiday complexs all along the edge of the Island, and with many sailing cats, and para gliders, and all that kind of stuff operating merrily close to the shore.
At this stage, the sun was screeming down and we were cooking in the heat, a welcome change to a few days ago, when it was like Siberia at sea.
We received a weather update from Bruce in Australia. It seems that there will be more gales and severe weather greeting the boats at the rear of the fleet. God, as if they hadn't enough already. However, for us with the suncream 2" thick on our Hydes to protect ourselves from a severe burning, were purring at the fact that we are here. Yapeeeeeeeee!
Lunch was buiscuits and cheese again, but this time we decided to have a glass of Chardonney wine to help the digestion, well, that's the official excuse. Yum, yum, slurp, slurp...........
Eventually the current turned in our favour and we really scooted up along the coast and arrived at Port Louis at 3 pm local time. The amount of Japanese trawlers in the port was staggering (later we were to learn that there could be anything from 400 to 600 trawlers in the harbour at any one time) an amazing sight.
Tucanon, Crazy Horse, and Ocean Jasper, had just arrived shortly before ourselves, well a few hours, but as we said earlier, Tucanon set off from the Cocos 2 days before us, and the other two left the day before us, so all in all we did well to catch up... The more we sail the Oyster 56 the more we learn her strengths, and in particular, how to get the max out of her, and of course, the main thing is, she is soooooo comfortable and stable at sea in those strong Gales.
18.00hrs Dick and Irene, from Tucanon invited all those boats that had arrived for drinks, 5 boats at this stage, including Brown-Eyed Girl. We congratulated Dick and Irene on their ability to stay ahead of the fleet all the way, helped by the Bubbly Bev and Mo, are now travelling as crew on Tucanon. We had a good time there and later, Skipper, Aileen, Terry, and Neil wandered over to the waterside complex and had an Indian Meal.
Actually, the place is great. The waterside development is terrific, nicely designed, well operated, and clean. Interesting, many of the buildings around here are very modern, some are very high, but they all have a slight touch of that Chineese or Oriental style somewhere on them.
Later, we had a couple of night caps on board and all, except Neil crashed out and went to the scratchers early. Neil took off with the young crowd to the local English pub, and that was the last we heard of them for the night.
That's all for now, from a happy bunch of bunnies.
It was, after all, a tough trip!
We covered 2,313 miles in 12 days and 5hrs, or a total of 293 hrs at an average speed of 7.9 knots. We actually sailed much more (possibly another 150 miles) by going as far south as we did, but then we had a steadier wind, and a lot less rain than most other boats. Now, the time difference between here, Ireland and the UK is 4 hours, we are 4 hrs ahead, We are 3 hrs ahead of Europe.
Signed :- Stephen Hyde (Skipper)