Exploring Mauritius

Mount Le Pouce is the 3rd highest mountain in Mauritius, at 814 meters (2664 ft) high. Le Pouce means 'The Thumb' in English.

We woke up at 5:30am in the morning for the hike! It was fairly easy {in hindsight of course!}. The track was mostly rocky and sandy, sometimes slippery and steep! But the view at the top was spectacular! 

The weather was perfect with clear blue skies, sun shining ever so brightly and the wind was strong!

Looking at Curepipe

Mt Pieter Both, the 2nd highest mountain in Mauritius @ 820m. It has a unique rock formation at the top shaped like a head. For some reason, it reminds me of Queen Nefertiti!

South of Mauritius at the far end

Looking out to Grand Bay (North of Mauritius) with Bill our new Aussie friend (and guide) who was very kind to bring us up here

A lot of sugar cane plantations across the land

View of the capital - Port Louis

The shadow of Mt Le Pouce

Going back down

Mountainous view

View of Mount Le Pouce from afar..

View from Trou Aux Cerfs, Curepipe

Trou aux Cerfs - a dormant volcano with a well-defined cone and crater.
As known as Murr's volcano - dormant but could become active at any time within the next thousand years...

Safety Hazard

Unfortunately, can't remember the name of this place..

Some selfies

Back at Le Caudan Marina

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Boat Works in Mauritius

There's never a time when there's no work or repairs to do on the boat. So, here's what we did in Mauritius..

Removed the old paint and re-painted the queen sized cabin on the port side with Zinsser Perma-White Mold & Mildrew proof paint, we purchased from Singapore in March this year.

Anti-Mold Paint

Re-varnished the front door and applied epoxy on the door frame.

Hand-sew new covers for the sofa cushions in the saloon and a bag for our table fan.

Ta-dah!

Kinda proud of myself :)..

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Port Louis, Mauritius

Approaching Mauritius

So, we finally made it Mauritius! (on our 2nd attempt!). Sails and engine all good from the repairs in Diego Garcia. We arrived in Le Caudan Marina (S 20.09.587 E 57.29.813) in Port Louis on 14th July 2013. We had the southeasterly winds with us all the way, covering 853 nautical miles in 5 days.

Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, located about 2,000 kilometers off the southeast coast of the African continent, 805 kilometers east of Madagascar. The people of Mauritius are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual (English, French, Creole and Asian languages). 

The island is widely known as the only known home of the dodo. Sadly, they were extinct in the 17th century. Eaten to extinction by Dutch sailors! It was unfortunate that these flightless birds for some reason had no fear of humans, thus making them incredibly easy to catch.

We spent the next 3 months berthed here at $13 AUD/day. It's a small marina with 20 berths, electrical & water connections & showers. 

Le Caudan Marina

One of the things I really liked about staying in Mauritius was the Central Market in Port Louis. Within walking distance from the Marina, we had the best selection of fresh fruits & vegetables available.

Fruit & Veggies galore

Near Central Market

When we weren't working on the boat, we took the local bus to explore the nearby beaches. 

Baie du Cap is a small village located along the south coastal region of Mauritius.
 

Baie du Cap

Found this cute little pink elephant sun bathing on the beach! Pink from being sun burnt perhaps? {kidding}
 

Bonjour!

Flic en Flac is a town on the west coast of Mauritius. 

Paradise

Sugar cane plantations

Another photo of Raptor berthed at Le Caudan Marina

Transformer like boat on the opposite side of the marina

How many people can you see on the masts?

We departed Mauritius for Reunion Island on 20th October.

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Chagos - Saved by the U.S Navy!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it on this Military website! and our account of what happened below.

CRUISING LOG
 
17th June: Depart Chagos for Mauritius.

19th June: Decide to head to Rodrigues about 200 nautical miles east of Mauritius.

20th June: Approximately 660 nautical miles away from Rodrigues, we heard a loud snap. Forestay at the top of the mast snapped, backstays are loose. It's too far for us to motor all the way to Rodrigues. Decide to head back to Chagos - Diego Garcia which is about 330 nautical miles away northeast.

We contact Major Perry, a BIOT Executive Officer in Chagos to request for assistance, but we were told that they do not have any assets to assist us. We need to get to Peros Banhos at the very least or declare an emergency. 

We have food, water and all on board are healthy. We do not declare an emergency. We start the engine and slowly make our way back. Wind at 18 knots. We hope the mast holds.

22nd June: The wind dies down. We quickly bring the foresail down and tie it down on deck.

23rd June: The engine fails. We can't propel forward or backwards. Something is broken. Using the storm jib to sail but unable to stay on course. Going at 1-1.2 knots per hour. We are drifting... Hope the wind maintains but direction not to Diego Garcia.

At this point, we are contacting Major Perry of BIOT everyday to report our daily position. We are drifting towards Somalia! All on board still healthy & calm.

25th June: Alex spots a US navy ship on AIS. We radio them for assistance. After several attempts, Capt. Bruce Kreger, USS Seay's civiliian master responds.

We report our situation and crew onboard - an Australian, an American, a Swiss, a Canadian and a Malaysian.

"What can we do to help?", asks Capt. Bruce Kreger.

950ft USNS Seay up ahead

As suggested by our Captain, the USS Seay tries to shield us from the wind so that we can secure the mast. But it did not work. They simply drifted right in front of us!

The photo above shows our crew Amos and I, on each end of the bows, about to put our hands on the 950ft navy ship, to keep Raptor from colliding into the giant. The USS Seay glides right past us, a whirlpool behind them.

"Let's not do that again!", says Capt. Bruce Kreger.

Photo of Raptor from USNS Seay

After some discussion (between USS Seay, the BIOT customs & police), the USS Seay finally agree to tow us into Diego Garcia.

This was not without challenge of course, their smallest towline was huge! We had to find a shackle big enough to fit it. The waters were rough. 

The Indian Ocean is like a washing machine, waves coming from all over the place. We had a hard time getting the dinghy into the water without it smashing onto the boat. 

Rough seas - Getting the towline

Alex and Amos also had a bit of engine trouble on their way to retrieving the towline from USS Seay. It took a while to attach it onto our bridle, by then the towline had somehow got caught under the rudders and was starting to get taut. We immediately radioed USS Seay to release more line. Fortunately Alex was able to untangle it before it caused any damage.

USS Seay towed us for over 20 hours at 5.5-6 knots per hour in 20kts of wind coming from the Southeast. It was a rough ride! The MOST unpleasant ride of my life. I thought Raptor would rip apart each time we went over a wake.
 

Being towed by USNS Seay

About 3 miles from Diego Garcia lagoon, a small craft assigned to Diego Garcia's port operations met us and towed us safely to the pier escorted by armed military speed boats.

At the pier we were searched and sniffed for 2 hours by two dogs to ensure that we did not have any arms or drugs onboard. We were warned not to roam about anywhere else other than our boat and the designated toilets.

Within several hours, a couple of crew members from the USS Seay came by to see how we were doing. They gave us a few bags of coffee, gatorade, rice and biscuits. So thoughtful of them.

Within days, the people on the island warmed up to us. They were kind and friendly. They brought us to the local supermarket for provisions. They helped custom make a new swivel at the top of the forestay and assisted in getting a new damper plate from Singapore. We also made friends on one of the tug boats who were mostly from Indonesia.

Disintegrated damper plate

We stayed in Diego Garcia for 11 days.

We are extremely thankful and grateful to everyone on USS Seay, the BIOT team and the rest of the staff in Diego Garcia for all their help and hospitality. Apparently we were the 2nd yacht to be allowed entry in the last 5 years.

7th July: Depart for Mauritius (again!)

Note: "Seay is one of 12 Navy ships assigned to MSC's Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron 2, which ensures the readiness of Navy prepositioning ships in the Pacific. These ships carry afloat prepositioned cargo for various U.S. military services. The squadron's mission is to transport vital equipment and supplies to a designated area of operations in support of combatant commanders worldwide."

Beautiful Diego Garcia

A souvenir on our Passports ; )

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Chagos - A Cruisers Paradise

Chagos islands (one of our favourite destinations, accessible only by boat) is a group of 7 atolls, 500 km south of the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean. To be honest, I didn't even know this place existed!

It took us 6 days from South of Addu, Maldives to Chagos due to the strong easterly current pushing us 30-50 degrees off course. We finally arrived on 16th May 2013, 693 nautical miles later and anchored in 25m of water with 80m of chain (S 05.15.328 E 71.46.313) in Peros Banhos atoll which consists of 32 islets. One of the two permitted sites to anchor, the other being Salomon islands (which we did not visit).
 
Did you know? Chagos islands is officially part of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). It was sad to learn that the British evicted the Chagossians between 1967 and 1973 (to Mauritius & Seychelles) to allow the United States to build a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos islands.

Even though the Chagossians were not indigenous people and were a mix of African, Portuguese, French, Malay and Indian ancestry; Chagos was their home for more than a century and a half. Definitely heart breaking to be kicked out of your own homeland, especially such a beautiful one. 

Issues of compensation and repatriation of the former inhabitants, and the right to return continues in litigation. In November 2016, the British restated that it would not allow the Chagossians to return. If you're interested to learn more, read it on Wikipedia.
 
As such, the islands are uninhabited except for Diego Garcia (a US Military base, where we spent 11 days after getting 'Saved by the U.S Navy') and a lone donkey on Ile du Coin, the largest island in Peros Banhos atoll (if memory serves me right). 

We had 4 wonderful weeks of white sandy beaches and pristine waters all to ourselves. We spotted one other yacht - but only for a day. I guess they thought it was TOO crowded and moved away!

Diving is unfortunately prohibited in the marine protected area but we had loads of fun snorkeling everyday in the clear waters with lots of turtles, fishes and sharks swimming about while hermit and coconut crabs rule the lands. A place we will never forget! 

Hermit Crab

Snorkelling everyday

Work of Art

10kg Grouper

White Sandy Beaches - As Far As The Eyes Can See

Coconut Crab - worlds largest land dwelling arthropod

A species of terrestrial hermit crab, also known as the robber crab or palm thief

It can grow to up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in length from leg to leg {holy crab!}

Grouper ;9

Fleshy Coconut - My Fav!

Lots of Reef Sharks around

A Hammerhead shark just below our dinghy!

Exploring the island on Peros Banhos - Lots of mosquitoes!

Frigatebirds of Chagos seem to be attracted to our radar

Seabirds of Chagos - Red Footed Booby?

Alex the Groper/Grouper

Scrolling on the beach

Note: You are required to apply for and receive a Vessel Mooring Permit prior to arrival in Chagos via the BIOT website. It costs £50 GBP per week with a maximum period of 4 weeks (28 days) allowed. {too short!}

Chagos is definitely on our top 5 travel destinations. Goodbye paradise!

What's your favourite travel destination?

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