Rodrigues

Arriving mid Friday afternoon was just too easy. There were 5 other yachts there, 4 of which we knew from Chagos. As Rob from "Inish" grabbed our bow line humming a wedding tune I couldn't help smile but completely puzzled as we hadn't said anything to these guys here??? Turns out our good friends on Gaia and Divanty who were sailing for India had spread the word around on the SSB Radio to the whole of the Indian Ocean! Well we cracked up anyhow.

Then there were the officials also helping with our lines.... What a great surprise. We didn't expect at all to come here so hadn't done any research really and what we found was really special. Was like what I imagined it would be arriving in the carribean. The locals here are 97% African decent and all talk Creole which is pretty well French. All really laid back, smiling, just no problem at all. They all came onboard and the paperwork was done in less than an hour. We had the "junior" health inspector Serge who was a super cool smiling sort of fella and the only one we had to pay. Because he was a junior employee the fee was also half! Fantastic, after paying big bucks for Maldives and Chagos the fee here is $30 for a 2 month stay. It was a full moon the night before we arrived so spring tides. We arrived at the top of the tide so it was a bit bumpy alongside so after talking to Gilbert the harbour master (also a champion) we decided to anchor in the dredged harbour. For us it's much nicer at anchor and there is plenty of room there for a  half dozen or more yachts and good holding in mud.

Then into town and off to dinner we went with the crew from La Luna Denise and Etienne. Music everywhere, big mamas all dressed in colours, super cool fellas just hanging out, absolutely no stress whatsoever and almost everyone we passed saying "bonjour", love this place! Is a complete culture shock after being in a Muslim place for so long. Arriving at the restaurant was also a pleasant surprise with the Finnish boats KasteHelmi and Ever After also there. Smiles all around and then the Finnish surprised us with Champagne for a toast to Julie and I! Great night. Also the steak and sausages weren't too bad either!

Saturday we discovered the Bakery or "Pattisserie" as the French say and also the fresh markets. Was heaven... The super fresh vegetables just made us drool, all beautifully displayed and also fresh Meats. The prices are reasonable for most, just some of the imported fruits a little expensive.

 We also went to the "night club" Sunday afternoon for local music. Didn't know what to expect,thought it might be pretty upbeat. Arriving we could could here the music, especially the squeeze box and a drum. Turns out all the old folk after leaving church come here. All the old mamas come to dance and shake their Booty dressed in their best and brightest outfits. The dance I suppose is a Waltz sped up, all moving about in the dance floor with perfect timing. Unfortunately not enough beers could get me up there with my goofy feet!

Since then we have been around the island on a motorbike also seeing the tourist attraction with giant tortoises. Massive things they are, Julieta in heaven. Is well worth the visit, set in a canyon with hundreds of these big things wandering around the place. There is also a cave on the grounds that you get a guided tour of and I would say it is the best cave I have seen. It goes for 500m and is really impressive. 

Yesterday we went by bus to the other side of the island and did a couple of hour walk along the beaches and hills. We took fresh baguettes, cheese and a bottle of red and just hung out on a beach all to ourselves was really nice. Spectacular limestone coast. A little windswept but green with these very small pine trees growing. Loads of goats and sheep wandering around happy out. The bus goes over the small mountain and is a pretty spectacular trip also. Once a bit higher than sea level there are big eucalyptus trees that remind me of home. 

Then we must have timed it about right. The quiet bus ride soon changed. School was out and about a hundred pint sized little African Creole grommets jumped on and it was hilarious. All really well behaved, smiling happy sitting on top of each other or standing and messing about. Julie also  pointed out that they are only about 6 years old and get on the bus themselves with no problem or worries that you would have in most other countries.

We haven't been out fishing yet but plan to go today, I think it is going to be good.

Chagos-Rodrigues

The forecast was good so we had to leave Chagos unfortunately. We had a 12-15kt SE breeze and had beautiful sailing heading down the west side of Chagos bank with another boat "Ever After". That was until the 2nd night out when it went to custard and the wind came almost from the south with lots of rain and a big swell running and the breeze up to 25kts. We made slow progress then, we really had to nurse our Headsails as we didn't want another casualty! The next day it eased but still a lot of rain about the place but went back to the SE at least and then the following day started to come around to the East and then we had great sailing once again for the next 3 days heading south the last under Spinnaker. The seas were calm and we made good speed but unfortunately we were just a tad behind the most of the breeze that was just a little further south than us and then as we got a couple of days out from Rodrigues the wind died altogether and went NE which was directly behind us so on went the engine. The trip took us 8 days for the 1000 mile journey and we arrived fully rested and ready to go which was a great surprise. Geez, Julie even made a cheese cake towards the end of the passage the weather was that good! I really don't think there are many weather windows that you don't get smashed about and break lots of things on this passage from all the stories we heard and blogs we read, maybe we are just lucky??! Sunflower went great once again and we really enjoyed sailing with the Yankee And Staysail as a proper Cutter rig as we don't normally do when we have the Genoa.  Julie also got very busy trimming sails and playing around which was great to see! 

And some other news is that I popped the question just before we left and the answer was yes, Happy Days!!

     

Fish Paradise

29/4/14
I new this place was going to be very special but it still really doesn't get you ready for it. People say how many fish there are and how easy they are to catch but it still doesn't get you prepared. We had 5 nights over at Peros Banhos Atoll and the fish and marine life there is amazing. Snorkelling in a couple of metres or less with loads of coral trout, big groupers, snappers, trevallys, you name it plus all the colourful tropical reef fish. Then there's the sharks.... Loads of them too. Yea they're well fed?? Sure but it still makes me very nervous with 5 or more of them swimming around you. They're just reef sharks but there are others around that luckily we haven't come across yet.
So the days are gone were it's a bit of an effort to catch a fish for the daily BBQ. Now we seem to have too much time on our hands once the daily fish is caught! And the other problem is the size of the trout, massive. We are now at Solomon Atoll and yesterday went outside the reef towing a lure and hooked onto a trout and could see what looked like a shark about to take it as it was being hauled in. Nope, the shadow was 4 big trout following it up! There must be so many of them down there! So we catch 2 and fillet them up and give some to our friends for their lunch and dinner and BBQ the rest ourselves. Is funny because there are 7 other boats here and hardly anybody goes out fishing?? Maybe they don't like fish or fishing as much as we do I'm not sure. We have had a couple of BBQ's on the beach with all the cruisers which has been fun. There's a couple of American boats, 1 Canadian, 1 English,2 Dutch, 1 French and a couple of Finnish boats over the other side we haven't met yet.
Yesterday BIOT, British Indian Ocean Territory came to check our permits. They are from Diego Garcia an atoll further south of here that's an American Naval Base. They were really friendly guys, mainly interested in seeing if we had seen any illegal fisherman on the way here. Also told us the best places to snorkel and where not to snorkel with the sharks. I chanced my arm and tried to buy some beer as our supply is getting alarmingly low, but to no luck:)
7/5/14
The Last week has been much of the same, BBQs and fishing. The weather hasn't been to great until yesterday when the sun came out. The weather changed very quickly from south westerly winds to south easterlies marking the new season. With that came lots of rain and squalls but also filled up all our water tanks and washed the boat so it wasn't all bad. Out of about a dozen boats that were here there are just 4 of us left now, they have all been leaving the last week for Madagascar, India, Rodrigues and Mauritius.
Our good friends Jim and Hellen on Gaia and Antony and Davina on Divanty both left a couple of days ago for India which was quite sad. Gaia was leaving for Madagascar but then changed there minds last minute as Divanty has been to India several times and loved it so much that Gaia decided to stay another season in the Indian Ocean.
We were planning to stay another week or 2 but may even leave ourselves tomorrow if the predicted forecast stays the same. As tempting as it is to stay here in this Paradise the forecast is looking too good to resist. The next passage to Mauritius or Rodrigues has a pretty bad reputation for weather so the tempting prospect of a good one is too hard to ignore. The later the season gets the stronger the winds get. So we will see what the forecast says tomorrow.
Everything else onboard is going very well, Julie included:)