Mauritius to Reunion
20 September 2008 | 21 13.2'S:56 05.7'E,
Mauritius to Reunion 20 September 2008 5.45am local time Position : 21 13.2S 56 05.7E
Getting ready to leave Mauritius yesterday our feelings were mixed. It was sad because we were leaving some very good friends behind but also exciting knowing we were heading for sea again. We had to wait until 2 boats left the customs wharf before we could untie our ropes from Caudan marina. We said au revoir to Catherine and Jacque on Seranade our neighbours who are also heading for Reunion and South Africa. As we motored quickly to the customs wharf we hit bottom! How embarrassing! It was low tide and we thought we were on the correct side of the red buoy. After Captain Bill reversed and spun Valiam around we were off. By the time the formalities were completed and the coast guard checked for stowaways (2 prisoners have escaped from jail we were told) we did n't leave Port Louis until 12.30.
As we sailed and mostly motored past the coast of Mauritius due to lack of wind we could see the distinctive shaped mountains including the hill Bill climbed behind Bambous. I immediately texted Lewis on his mobile to let him know we were sailing past. I'm not sure if he climbed part of the hill to see us but he texted back 'Can see Valiam looks white'! Bye Lewis family and lovely students...
At sunset the mountain of Le Morne (where the slave jumped off and is now a World Heritage site) looked like a womans head lying down. The wind was still only blowing 4 knots so we motored for several hours.At about 7.30pm the wind suddenly came in from behind us at 20 knots. We have had full sail up ever since with Mona Lisa steering us.
On our last trip to Le Morne I took photos of Matthew Flinders Memorial and sent them to Bill's father. We notice an animal with a long tail near his shoulder sculpted into the plaque. We thought it was a monkey. It was in actual fact his cat. This is what he wrote back to us: , Thanks for the pics of the Flinders memorial. I was pleased to see that his cat 'Trim" was also remembered. The cat sailed with him on the Investigator all the way out from England, all around Australia, survived the wreck of the Porpoise on the barrier reef got back to Sydney on the boat that they saved from the wreck, and then got to Mauritius and was interned with him. The poor little thing was finally taken by some of the local slave labourers and was cooked and eaten by them. I have a copy of the story book Flinders wrote about him for children to read. While Trim belonged to Flinders he was adopted by the crew of the Investigator I suppose as a sort of mascot.
We aren't far from Reunion now and hope to get into St Pierre. It's a bit of a tricky entrance with breakers to avoid. If its too hard we'll go on to St Galens (La Port)
Au revoir