Spinalonga » 2008 – Australia and Southern Indian Ocean

Reunion Island, Indian Ocean – Nov 2008

Elaine — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:21:59 +0000

We have spent a week at St Pierre in Reunion, and met some friendly liveaboards in the marina there as well as cruising friends on our route. The first week is free for visitors so we took full advantage! Unfortunately we were there during the first truck and bus drivers strike for four years and the town was blockaded so not only could traffic not circulate out of towns but nor could fuel be delivered anywhere so garages couldn’t supply fuel, this fell on the four day weekend of 11 Nov too so nothing doing anywhere, we had hoped to rent a car and explore!! Out of luck this time!
Reunion is an active volcanic island over 3,000 metres high and scenery is spectacular, this is one place we had wanted to explore.
We spent the week exploring the town and going to the beach right next to the marina, the sea swell is completely broken by the reef to make a very safe beach, and after the hot days a swim was always needed!
Â
We left for South Africa yesterday afternoon, and finally after sunset Reunion shook off its blanket of cloud and the island revealed itself as we were sailing away. It was beautiful with colours of town lights on the lower slopes, the high volcanic mountains outlined against the darkening sky, the almost full moon rising above them and the swathe of moonlight reflected in the sea.
Â
The route south of Madagascar to South Africa should take a couple of weeks, and we have good trade winds forecast for a few days. We have more or less decided to aim for Richards Bay first, not Durban, as the place is smaller, safer, friendlier, and rumour has it you get two weeks free at the marina???
Â
This approach should be a little easier too as the Agulhas current is narrower there, and we may keep trades for longer as we are not going quite so far south. We’ll see!

Mauritius, Indian Ocean – Sep/Oct 2008

Elaine — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:06:47 +0000

We were pleased to find that the marina fees in Port Louis, Mauritius were very reasonable compared to most places we had been so far. We met a retired Frenchman who had a yacht and Nigel designed some self-steering gear for him, and in return he paid for our new mainsail. We had until then been surviving on various second-hand mainsails and looked forward to our first full-size one, to be collected in South Africa. So we spent five weeks in Mauritius and got to know some of the island. The population is 68% Indian, 27% Creole (mix of African/European), 3% Chinese, and 1% whites. Although the language is officially English, actually the spoken language is a French creole, with French taught as the next language, and then English. So an interesting place!

Cocos Keeling Islands, Indian Ocean (Australia) – Sep 2008

Elaine — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:33:02 +0000

Christmas Island, Southern Indian Ocean (Australia) – Aug 2008

Elaine — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:38:52 +0000

Darwin, Australia – Aug 2008

Elaine — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:53:18 +0000

Cairns, Australia – May /Jun 2008

Elaine — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:56:35 +0000