Saturday 15 November 2013,  off La Reunion,  21 07.5S 55.01E 

Today's Blog by David (Time zone UTC +4.0)

We are just leaving France, bound for South Africa. Were you in any doubt:

Now: How French is that green Bollard?

The fact is though that La Reunion is a Departement of France.  It claims to be the oldest continuously French  overseas territory and is celebrating its 350^th Anniversary of the French arrival in 1663 ( a celebration which curiously overlooks  - as I couldn’t help pointing out - the occupation by the English between 1810-15. It was  under the Governorship of Farquhar during which the English fleet assembled 76 ships and about 30,000 men at Reunion using it as a staging post to launch its invasion of Mauritius).

The currency is the Euro; Schengen Treaty visa rules; local representation in the French Parliament; any European has the right of abode and work here – provided, of course, that you speak French.

The Harbour  Master was very helpful – unusually so – in facilitating our check in and giving us an orientation drive round the town. Useful because, depending on your determination and the length of your legs,  the town is between 35 minutes (Terry) and 55 Minutes (Peter) away on foot.   Car Hire was almost impossible save for those quickest off the mark compared to the rest of the fleet and so we risked being marooned in the port.

We were first saved by an entrepreneurial scuba dive/restauranteur who got in extra staff and put on special events for the fleet.  The local Tourist Board also kindly organised a coach tour of the island including the Volcano:

Q.  Why does every sailing stop involve a volcano tour?                        A. Most islands are volcanoes.

…followed by a more than we could eat (or drink) Creole lunch. And there was of course the normal maintenance tasks to handle, a scuba dive and then a whole day spent in the process of a group check out and refuelling.

The dive was good in as much as the water was clear but the island is only 3 million years old – and keeps erupting from time to time – so the bottom is black lava sand and there isn’t much coral. So there wasn’t much to see other than: 

Was the (Green) Turtle French? Dunno – it was about as talkative as any other (any other Turtle, that is) !