Our plan was to rent a car and check out the south coast to see where we would tie up for all the work Altair needs. Just as predicted, the fun activites are non-stop and it's going to be hard to squeeze in the work projects. Danny, Port Louis Marina's Sales and Marketing genious, announed to all of us here at the Port Louis Marina that Phare Blue is having a happy hour and all the marinas are invited.

Thanks to Danny we got a ride to check out this beautiful harbor and see what this marina is about. So we had to join in the drinking, eating and meeting of more of our favorite cruiser types while we were at it. This marina is really beautiful and there are lots of locals, cruisers too, who are very active in making sure we protect, explore and share the beauty of this island.

Check out the Phare Blue Photo Album. The huge, steel yacht I'm standing on is a Swedish Light Ship and Restaurant and rumor has us anticipating a culinary treat. This ship also boasts the marina office, cruiser's lounge, upper deck restaurant, museum lounge, and has a very cool historical old engine room. Great spot.

This place is gorgeous but we don't know that we can afford it, just looks expensive. Everything that evening was top brass, including the servers passing out beautiful hors d'oeuvres and glitzy munchies on silver tray and linen draped over their arms. That's a far cry from the camping we do on Altair. Also, it's very far from everything. It's difficult to get around without walking miles to buses and taking a whole day for 'picking' up parts, etc. You know we'll keep you posted...pun intended.

Thanks again Danny...you are the 'cruising director', making sure we don't miss a thing!

Dudley and Bec































Fourteen of us got together and organised the famous taxi driver Cutty to take us at 18:15 up to the Levera National Park. Cutty organised us a guide and we picked up Dora near to our destination some two hour drive away.

We stopped just shy of the beach to have a talk from Dora, who explained a little about the leatherback turtle species, telling us of one recorded marathon swim of 16,000 miles in one season, turtles gain sexual maturity somewhere between fifteen and thirty and their life expectancy being between eighty and one hundred years (obviously facts to be checked on the net later). On arrival we walked down the very dark beach until we met wardens Kester and Becks. Kester had worked for the last four years protecting his charges. Becks was on a one month stint awaiting the start of her Law Degree Course at Edinburgh University - we wish her luck for that. She told us that the most she had seen in one night was twenty seven ladies, her busiest night, now the average is four as it is late in the season.



We had to wait a while while our lady got settled in to her dig, then we could approach. We were only allowed to use red light torches as not to put off any other ladies that might journey up the beach and to not confuse any babies en route to the sea, should we be lucky enough for any hatchlings to chose tonight to begin their epic struggle for life.















Our lady was called WC (west Caribbean) 5573 as her tag read, Becks and Kester recorded her statistics - she measured 1.83 metres (shell length) and 1.18 wide. Dora told me she was not a big leatherback by any means. Becks and Kester on midwife duty. They saw our lady was digging too close to another nest so they filled in as she dug.













Our lady was called WC (west Caribbean) 5573 as her tag read, Becks and Kester on midwife duty recorded her statistics - she measured 1.83 metres (shell length) and 1.18m wide. Dora told me she was not a big leatherback by any means. They saw our lady was digging too close to another nest so they filled in as she dug.Once she began laying Becks scooped her eggs into a bucket to put them further away from the original nest. Our lady was now in a trance-like state so we could stroke her. Being so close to this enormous creature from the deep was truly a sensational and remarkable event in our lives. One we will never forget. While this was going on another lady appeared out of the surf near us, she had to be gently shooed along the beach. After our lady had finished we watched her powerful front flippers pile the sand back for her rear flippers to fill in the hole and neatly pat it down. I didn't care that I was being eaten alive by mossies, even though I had thoroughly sprayed myself. Then it sadly was time to walk back to the bus. As we slowly wandered we found where the second lady had settled to her digging, she was left in peace as she was nowhere near known nests. Twenty feet beyond her was lady number three. Becks and Kester had their work cut out, no sooner than they had buried our bucket of eggs they had to carry on their research on these other ladies.Once she began laying Becks scooped her eggs into a bucket to put them further away from the original nest. Our lady was now in a trance-like state so we could stroke her. Being so close to this enormous creature from the deep was truly a sensational and remarkable event in our lives. One we will never forget. While this was going on another lady appeared out of the surf near us, she had to be gently shooed along the beach. After our lady had finished we watched her powerful front flippers pile the sand back for her rear flippers to fill











Now we were walking even slower to the bus. Great excitement as we spotted a nest of hatchlings. Kester was now rushing between the ladies and the babies, we were therefore allowed to use a red light to guide them down the beach and watched in hope as the little ones faced the waves. We didn't want to think odds at this time. We got back to Beez Neez at 01:30, too excited to sleep, I got straight on line to research these amazing creatures.

Becks and Kester .

We had to wait a while

We had to wait a while while our lady got settled in to her dig, then we could approach. We were only allowed to use red light torches so as not to put off any other ladies that might journey up the beach and to not confuse any babies en route to the sea, should we be lucky enough for any hatchlings to chose tonight to begin their epic struggle for life.

while our lady got settled in to her dig, then we could approach. We were only allowed to use red light torches so as not to put off any other ladies that might journey up the beach and to not confuse any babies en route to the sea, should we be lucky enough for any hatchlings to chose tonight to begin their epic struggle for life.