We are underway from Chagos to Mauritius and still have 282 nautical miles to go. Unlike Asia and the trip to Chagos (no wind or if, then definitely on the nose), sailing here is pretty much perfect. The Indian Ocean has a bit of a bad reputation, but the only thing that we don't like around here is that constant swell which is coming in from the south. Sure, there is the occasional squall, but nowhere near as bad as near Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. Instead we have strong trades of mostly 20 to 25 knots and we are zipping along very nicely. Today is our 9th day at sea and we are basically almost there!
But now back to Chagos. When the SE trades set in, the anchorage in Ile du Coin was becoming uncomfortable. Still, we stayed on a bit as there is a well on the island and we wanted to do some more washing. When one of our friends had prepared a childrens' birthday party on Ile Fouquet, we upped anchor and moved over there as well. We dropped the hook in a little less deep water than before and enjoyed a most wonderful month near the tiny motu. Twice we were controlled by the BIOT officials, but everything was relaxed and easy.
We spent a lot of time with the other children there. Bill and Marlyse of JENAIN, definite long-timers in these parts, told us that they had never seen that many children there before. It was a veritable invasion, especially if you remember that the Peros Banhos atoll is uninhabited. While we insisted on school in the morning, we went to the beach every afternoon so that Aurora Ulani definitely got what she was after. Often there would be activities organized by one of the kiddie-boats, while the boats without kids did their own thing. Once in a while the two groups mingled.
We were "parked" between IEMANJA (Hamburg) with Arne, Kati and their two children Lennard & Emily and the French boat L'INTERDIT with doctor Yvan, Anne, their three children, one poodle, one parrot and two budgies on board. Then there was MURUNGARU with Nigel, Caroline, Anne and Rea, BYAMEE with Paul, Joyce & Darien as well as GERONIMO with Thierry, Florence and their two children. There were even more children, but these were the ones our daughter played the most with. Amazing!
The other yachties organized a little birthday party for Liping and she organized a play with all the children. There were cooking classes, walks across the reef to another island, a camp was being built, a swing was set up and so on. Unfortunately, there were some activities I could not join as my boil acted up again, so that I couldn't go into the water. So I went fishing instead. Bill had shown me a few tricks and I managed to catch fish to order from the very first day on. On top of that Graeme of LISTOWEL LADY, Bill and Paul gave us fish as well. Liping played around with a lot of recipes, so that she even managed to make the Bonito taste excellent (remember to bleed it right after you've caught it). We ate Rainbow Runners, Jobfish, Groupers, Coral Trout and so on pretty much for every meal. Fish balls, fish dumplings, fish this and fish that. (So long, and thanks for all the fish!)
Just after we left, it got even more fishy. First I caught a 73 cm Yellowfin Tuna, then hooked a Mahi Mahi (Dorado, Dolphinfish), but unfortunately our autopilot went on "Standby" and we lost that one. A while later I caught a 65 cm Bonito (also a kind of tuna) and that's when I decided that we had enough fish on board. Sharpening the knife (I got really good at that) and filleting the fish took quite a while and when we tried the first Sashimi with proper Wasabi and soy sauce, we both agreed that we had rarely had Sashimi that tasty. Just what we had for that dinner would have cost at least NT$ 1.000 as Liping told me later on. After all these days, we still haven't finished half the fish. Thanks be to our two fridges...
While the sailing and fishing were excellent, we still had plenty to do. I had to replace yet another bilge-pump when we noticed that the port forward compartment was full of water again. This time I was pretty sure that the water didn't come in through the hatch as we were not crashing into the waves. Maybe it comes in through the outlet, although there is a one-way valve in there. The through-hull should have been located a lot higher up in the hull. Even better, the whole compartment should have been filled with closed-cell foam. I thing the pumps and float-switches keep dying there because of the violent motion in the bows (they don't seem to die in the engine rooms, which are aft).
Then the port-alternator stopped producing power. I noticed the positive terminal was loose and had to add yet another bad repair in Asia to the already very long list. What was a lot more annoying, was that our wind-generator stopped working as well. Windpower had been the mainstay of our electricity-hungry boat, so that now I have to run the diesel when the sun doesn't shine. Too bad. We don't yet know what to do about that and I will call the manufacturer from Mauritius. I measured all kinds of stuff and am inclined to think that the internal thermostat has failed.
The computer-generated GRIB weather forecasts were pretty much useless. Although the isobars seem to be in the correct place, the wind is usually 10 or more knots stronger than indicated. In fact, for most of the trip we had the mainsail down, as we were making excellent speed just with the genoa. A lot more comfortable, less wear and tear and much easier to handle if the autopilot is on the blink once again and the boat turns right into the wind. (The autopilot does the same when no sails are set and we are running under engine alone.)
The nights were invariably pleasant, although for the first time since New Zealand, we had to dig out our thick shirts and my old trusty winter-jacket from Taiwan. Twice we could observe the artificial satellite Copernicus (OAO3) as it zoomed across the sky. Once, there were three planets aligned in such a way on the horizon, that Liping was absolutely sure it was a ship bearing down on us.
And so we are moving along and wonder whether we should pass south of Madagascar and sail straight to South Africa or follow the crowd, which this year seems to prefer going through the Mozambique Channel. One has the choice between the chance of extremely unpleasant weather or potentially even more unpleasant pirates, so to speak.
Another thought which is flying around in my head is this: Why not make a quick stop-over at Bequia and then sail across the Atlantic once more towards the Azores, Europe, Germany and my home-town Flensburg? We'll see. First we have to round the "Cape of Storms" which has winds of 11 Beaufort or more for about 100 days every year. A daunting thought. Not as bad as Cape Horn though, which has conditions like this for about 300 days a year....
First, we plan to check out Mauritius. If all goes well, we will spend about 3 months there before continuing our circumnavigation. We already know that we will meet old friends there and are looking forward to that.
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At 5/22/2011 1:18 PM (utc) our position was 18°03.07'S 059°34.74'E