Whale of a time!

The breeze died a little yesterday afternoon and we were left rolling around in lumpy seas doing 4-5knots. Julieta and I chatting away in the cockpit I decided to go down and make a toasted sandwich. With the wind behind us like this the mainsail sometimes bangs around, making a cracking noise and sending a shudder through the boat. Just as I got down the steps a noise like this only with a lot more momentum and almost a crunching noise I thought maybe we had a problem with a piece of the rigging?? Julie then yells out we have hit something..... A whale! I race outside and it is just passing down the starboard side of the stern. Sunflower got pushed aside and it was definitely a whale. There was a lot of blood, the poor fella didn't look too good at all. As bad as I felt for it the fear for the boat was much worse. Only a few days ago we were speaking with a Frenchman on a 55 foot Amel, a quality, very expensive boat. He was heading down the coast of Argentina when he also hit one but also put a big hole in the stern but luckily he had watertight doors so he made his way into Buenos Aries for repairs. Anyway with all this going through my brain quickly checking bilges but we were fine(I think so anyway). The chances of this happening are super slim but luckily we have a super strong boat that seemed to just shrug it off!
Anyway the breeze has just picked up a little now and we are still on track to make Port Louise tomorrow morning.

Rodrigues, thank you it was great!

The last 2 and a half weeks at this place has been great, it's a very special unique kind of place. Just can't get over how friendly everyone is and nothing is a problem at all. The last couple of weeks we had been getting pretty bloody lazy though but it was great. A few walks, lunches with a few beers, couple of boat jobs, go back to the bakery, walk around the town or just go and chat with another yachtie and have another beer.
Its a pity we can't speak French. Even though most people speak a little English you still can't have a proper conversation which is something we really miss out on. I think if we stayed a while we would slowly start picking up the language alright though and that would be fun but it's now time to go. A few yachts the last couple of days came in that we only got a brief chance to meet but hopefully we will catch them further down the line.
We left yesterday(Monday) lunch time with a good forecast for the next few days with all the wind supposably behind us at 15-20knots which is perfect. So far it is about right. Mauritius is only about 350miles from Rodrigues but is just that tiny bit too much to do in 2 days so we are just cruising and planning to arrive in Port Louise daylight on Thursday morning making it a 3 day trip. It's a little rolly at the moment but not too bad, still managed to do a roast chicken with veges for dinner last night. The weather is a little chilly, we have to put on long pants and a jumper at night which really is just not on! Already looking forward to getting back to the tropics.