St Pierre
Reunion
25 September 2008

It's our last day of car hire today so we plan to do the shopping for our next passage and get fuel etc There's only one problem - there are boom gates to get into the marina and we were informed yesterday that we couldn't get a 'pass' until 'apres midday' today. We don't feel like lugging bags of heavy shopping and full 20 litre fuel cans 1km when we can park next to the finger Valiam is on. Lets hope 'apres midday' doesn't mean next week.

Yesterday Bill drove around and up and down and around a million hairpin bends on the wrong side of the road to get to Cilaos high up in the mountains. It may have been an expensive road the French have built but it still added to Linda's grey hairs! In several places there were one lane blind bends where motorists hoot their horns as the only indication for oncoming traffic. We also passed through one lane pitch black tunnels through the mountain where the only indication of oncoming traffic is headlights. If 2 cars end up facing each other one has to reverse out! Big tourist buses somehow manage to get up to this place and one forced us into a rock crevice just missing the car by 1 cm. (Just when Linda was thinking of the 1000 euro excess for insurance). Cilaos is a quaint village with walking tracks to waterfalls and mountain peaks. We chose to have a leisurely lunch instead. It was local fare which included lentils, beans, smoked pork and home made sausages. (Delicious!) Linda had to have cr�me brulee as well. Oh dear all those extra kilajoules! Lucky the new Indian outfits are roomy ....

After going all the way back down again it was still early so se decided to go up to Le Port where Jim (Alii Kai Too) is. We have also been in contact with Virenord and were hoping to catch up with Charmain and Mike as well. When we got to Le Port we felt very glad that we are in St Pierre. Le Port is industrial and not nice. We found Jim but Mike and Charmain were out. We enjoyed a few drinks with Jim and discussed the passage to South Africa. He is leaving today as he received a good weather forecast from Commanders Weather. He said Virenord was heading off on Saturday. This got us thinking that it would be a good idea to leave this weekend also and try and stay in contact with the others on route.

The passage from here to Richards Bay (or Durban) is around 1400 miles and we estimate it should take us about 10 days. It wont be a straight forward passage as the currents and weather patterns near Madagascar and South Africa can make sailing there challenging. All yachties who sail near South Africa fear the south westerly gales that spring up very quickly. These can get up to 50 knots or more and if one happens to be close to the south of Madagascar where there can be currents and confused seas or in the Aghulas current which can flow up to 7 knots huge breaking waves can occur. The Aghulas current runs parallel down the coast of Africa and is around 40 miles off the coast. If a south westerly gale occurs we have to keep well away from the south of Madagascar as well as away from the Aghulas current. Weather information in this region is very good and we should get some warning if a southwesterly gale is on its way and prepare for it. The passage down to Cape Town is a series of hops between these fronts waiting in each harbour for the next good weather window. Linda would prefer to call this part of the world 'Cape of Good Hope' rather than 'Cape of Storms'. Around 300 yachts a year make it safely around so with good planning, seamanship and a sound boat we should be fine. We know Valiam and her crew can cope with adverse conditions as we have already experienced in the Indian ocean. However it will be good when this next passage to South Africa is over.

Soon after we arrive in South Africa we plan to leave the boat in the marina and fly home to Australia for a few weeks to visit the family. We should be back in time to make it around the Cape during the best time which is December - January.