Hey all.

Departed Mauritius Yesterday.  About 1-30pm.  Gary Cronbie South African 6ft 6” and his wife looked after me the day before including taking me to Grand Bay Yacht Club as guest of a friend (a Nuclear Chemist).  He was engaged, amongst other things, by DeBeers to find a solution to dissolve rock commercially so to remove diamonds (because of theft I suppose). Gary repaired my anchor winch including made new parts.

I am now also an Hon Member Grand Bay Yacht Club. Quite an honour. Very nice club. Everyone looked after me very well. After the night at GBYC I stayed the night in Gary’s flat.  He and his wife helped me get PB11 ready to depart and attend Immigration, Coast Guard and Customs.

Then I buzzed off.

18kts wind from north. 1 reef in mainsail and jib.  Usual rig for me long range.

Nearing south end of Mauritius I noticed the Iridium then not on air (red light). It does that sometimes.  I reboot then it works … but not always.  Maybe it gets turned off in port. It’s working now (or you won’t be reading this). You probably don’t want to anyway.

Way off to Starboard is Reunion Island.  Not a French territory like Tahiti or New Caledonia but a Department of Paris ie like a suburb.  VHF channel 16 is now all in French. In other words double Dutch.

Volcano in the middle of Reunion.  10,000 ft high.  Nice scenery etc. The French name means Peak of Snows (no snow now). It’s a dormant volcano. But the other one a little to the south east sure isn’t. It erupted a few months ago. It has erupted about 100 times in the last 400 years.

I departed Port Louis on 14 Dec.  I estimate take 21 days to Cape Town (that’s 3 weeks).

This passage (route) bit “iffy”.  You can expect something. Usually do.  You get that on this route.

It has just started to rain.  That will cool the yacht down.  I guess Reunion Island affects the weather.  Big heavy clouds etc, but not lots of wind … its dropping off.

So all is good here. 

Kindest regards to all

jon