Passage: Rodrigues to Mauritius

This passage was a relatively quick and easy 350 miles and it took us about 45 hours. Our two new French crew shared a watch and besides getting seasick they did fine. We had nice weather until the morning we arrived when some rain and squalls moved in. We had one squall with 45 knot winds just as we were passing through the channel between Grand Bay and Round Island. The winds combined with a strong current created some very choppy seas.

Later that morning we sailed in to Port Louis, a busy industrial port and the capital of Mauritius. We were making a wide turn to head to the customs and immigration dock when we suddenly ran aground, right in the middle of the port. Apparently there is a famous pile of rocks that are unmarked and that boats regularly run aground on. It was right in front of a large and fancy hotel with plenty of tourists taking pictures of us. I’m not sure they knew what was going on but it was still kind of embarrassing.

View from where we ran aground

View from where we ran aground

We asked the coast guard to pull us off but they weren’t very helpful and said we would have to wait for a tug boat. Luckily a small fishing boat offered to help us out and pulled us off with no problem. We arrived to Mauritius on October 2nd and would stay until the 17th.