Friday, June 22, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
T Rodrigues to Mauritius
Rodrigues has been a great little stop but it was getting close to time to leave. June 13 we made a snap decision to leave, partly because I need a dentist soon and also there was a good weather window. In a few days another anti-cyclone was going to pass through giving strong winds and showers for about 7 or 8 days. This island is poor and very basic so I did not want to try a dentist here.
We left about noon after clearing out with customs and immigration. The coast guard is a bit of a pain in the butt as they seem to call each boat before it leaves wanting to do something, board your boat or fill out forms. Best to see them before you go, they wanted us to come ashore after we had deflated our dinghy and were leaving, so Barry on Cats Paw kindly took me in for the paper work. Don't believe customs, you need to see coast guard, not just call them on the radio.
It was blowing 20 knots and more in gusts by the time we left the harbour for the 350 mile passage. The first day and a half had rough seas with big swells but with the wind from almost directly behind it was not too bad.
The next morning we finally got the 3rd reef out and by end of day had full sail up. The wind got a bit light late in the night though still moving us at 3 to 5 knots and the seas slowly got smaller. The rest of the way the wind went from about 12 knots to 20 knots at different times always from near behind. The night watches for the first time in two years were cold, we had our pile jackets and wind breakers on and long pants.
We saw about 10 to 15 ships and going by on our AIS, 3 or 4 were on a close collision course with us. Most were bound for or coming from Durban or Capetown according to the AIS display.
About 3 in the morning of our third night at sea we spotted the lights of Mauritius in the distance. We had a waypoint for above all the islands that are North of Mauritius, so we stayed in deep water as there is strong currents and big tide ripes between the islands. As we rounded the top island and started to turn more South the winds picked up and we soon had 2 reefs in main and light rain blowing from the stern under our bimini. It was fast sailing as we approached Port Louis. As we closed the coast and got into it's lee the swells diminished and the wind turned gusty, going from 12 knots to 25 knot gusts every few minutes. I called port control on the radio and they said to call again when we were a mile from the harbour entrance. I was amazed at all the ships around, for such a small island (30 miles across about) it seemed busier than Vancouver harbour.
We soon entered the well protected harbour and went to the very end and tied up against a vertical cement wall beside coast guard office. There were dozens of tourists peering over the rails watching us dock but no one offered to take a line as Dorothy clambered up the wall to tie our lines to a hand rail. Looking around, we saw a different world from Rodrigues. Noisy and busy with 15 plus story hi-rises everywhere, and a MacDonald's across the way, must be civilization.
INFO
The info I supply throughout this blog is accurate as I can make it, but I can and do make mistakes so please dont rely on this information. Other info supplied is often just my views and not nessacarily fact.
-The waypoint we headed for from Rodrigues was 19 46.1S 57 48.1E This kept us clear of the islands and we noticed no extra big or confusing waves all the way around. The seas got smaller as we worked our way around staying in deep water per chart.
- Port Louise harbour entrance WP 20 08.500S 57 28.581E. Caution near end of harbour, just past marina entrance (on your right) is a red and white checked buoy stay clear of it and I dont think you can go to inside of it either. A couple of yachts have recently run aground there. Entering harbour we stayed on the transit line shown on chart and was lots of water. The electronic charts seem to be bang on here at Mauritius, which they were not at Rodrigues.
-The wall where you tie up for Customs is at 20 09.587S 57 30.029E at very end of harbour. See coast guard a 100 meters away and they will call the health officer for you. Only skipper go ashore for this and they like to see the Q flag. They may take a couple of hours to come. There were no fees charged to checkin or checkout. Apparently there are no o/t charges on weekends.
-We rafted up to a yacht in Caudan marina as not a lot of room in it. In the marina, which is just a U shaped basin and boats tie to wall(only 2 ft tides)we are at 20 09.628S 57 29.823E. The marina folks let us go where ever we wanted and then go in to office to check in on S side of marina. Only $10 (300rp) a day to stay here for our boat and power and water included. They have great showeres, and there hot! We drink the water available at marina with no problem.
Google Earth view, yellow pins showing our marina and customs dock where we check into country.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Enjoying Rodrigues
Rodrigues is a small friendly island with a mostly black population of around 43000. They mostly speak French or Creole and have English as well but most only speak it about 30 to 60 percent, so it is difficult to communicate with them. Wages appear to be low as I only paid $1.60 for a haircut and for an hour welding job paid $30 and he had a helper with him as well.
The welding job was a surprise for us. Sailing the last 40 miles into Rodriguez we heard a strange clicking below and noticed small crack in the deck behind mast. The mast support was fine which is a relief, but the constant motion of the mast, which is normal in a sail boat, caused a very slight movement of the deck plate. Below the mast is a larger doubler plate and where the doubler plate is welded to the thinner deck plating the crack appeared. We removed the cabin ceiling in this area and the foam and then had the crack welded and a good build up of welding rod as well. So hopefully it will last another 10 years.
The weather here is much cooler than in Chagos. We are now at abut 20 deg of latitude South which is about the same latitude as Hawaii in the North. We are entering their winter now so the evenings are nice and cool where you need a shirt or light jacket often.
We getting lots of hiking in now. There is a map you can buy that shows about 9 different hiking routes than involve trails and roads and go up nice ridge lines to top of island. We have done most of the hikes with Cats paw 4 crew Ann and Barry. They are willing to hike up and down some of these hikes, where as some of the other boats take a bus to the top and only hike down. They are from Yellowknife in Northern Canada so have interesting storeys.
The prices in Rodrigues are more than Thailand but cheaper than Australia. Bakery items are very cheap. But a can of baked beans will be more expensive, maybe a bit more than Canada and market fruit and veggies are a bit expensive as well, though not too bad. Meat might be a bit cheaper than Canada. The market sells meat every Saturday early. Not much choice in cheeses, mostly processed. We got guava and limes just hiking along some trails. Note, Rodrigues can be spelt with a s or a z at the end.
The anchorage gets 20 to 30 knots of wind at times, but there is no waves and good holding so has not been a problem. Get lots of power from the wind generator. It is fairly quiet here for a port anchorage, not lots of machinery going and no night clubs blaring loud music. It is over all a nice quiet relaxing place to fill in time.
The welding job was a surprise for us. Sailing the last 40 miles into Rodriguez we heard a strange clicking below and noticed small crack in the deck behind mast. The mast support was fine which is a relief, but the constant motion of the mast, which is normal in a sail boat, caused a very slight movement of the deck plate. Below the mast is a larger doubler plate and where the doubler plate is welded to the thinner deck plating the crack appeared. We removed the cabin ceiling in this area and the foam and then had the crack welded and a good build up of welding rod as well. So hopefully it will last another 10 years.
The weather here is much cooler than in Chagos. We are now at abut 20 deg of latitude South which is about the same latitude as Hawaii in the North. We are entering their winter now so the evenings are nice and cool where you need a shirt or light jacket often.
We getting lots of hiking in now. There is a map you can buy that shows about 9 different hiking routes than involve trails and roads and go up nice ridge lines to top of island. We have done most of the hikes with Cats paw 4 crew Ann and Barry. They are willing to hike up and down some of these hikes, where as some of the other boats take a bus to the top and only hike down. They are from Yellowknife in Northern Canada so have interesting storeys.
The prices in Rodrigues are more than Thailand but cheaper than Australia. Bakery items are very cheap. But a can of baked beans will be more expensive, maybe a bit more than Canada and market fruit and veggies are a bit expensive as well, though not too bad. Meat might be a bit cheaper than Canada. The market sells meat every Saturday early. Not much choice in cheeses, mostly processed. We got guava and limes just hiking along some trails. Note, Rodrigues can be spelt with a s or a z at the end.
The anchorage gets 20 to 30 knots of wind at times, but there is no waves and good holding so has not been a problem. Get lots of power from the wind generator. It is fairly quiet here for a port anchorage, not lots of machinery going and no night clubs blaring loud music. It is over all a nice quiet relaxing place to fill in time.
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