Departing Reunion
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Fri 17 Jun 2011 13:24
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Friday 17th June 1623 Local time 1223
UTC
21:18.64S 054:39.58E
Since Craig came out to visit us and to sail with
me to South Africa we have demolished the jobs list including some real biggies.
The only thing left on my current list is to get the heating system up and
running. Though we have been aboard for more than one and a half years now we
have had no occasion to try out the heating, but with night temperatures on land
at Durban now down to 12degrees centigrade we can expect some low temperatures
at sea. Throw in the forecast wind and rain and we will appreciate a bit of
warmth through the night.
Perhaps having got more of a fright than I did when
I broke my back Craig has arrived on board determined to do everything possible
to make the passage easier for me and to take a bit of the load off me
and my spine. As this could possibly be the
toughest passage to date I am very proud of him for taking on that
committment.
Our overnight sail, the 135 miles from
Mauritius to Reunion, though squally, was uneventful. It however served as a
good refreshedr for Craig and broke in his sealegs again before this tougher
passage.
Reunion is a dramatic island with its many peaks
rising to almost 9,000 feet. It is lush in the interior but the shoreline is
rocky with very few beaches. The population is around 750,000 surprisingly and
it is very French. It is in fact a Department overseas of France and therefor is
technically part of the European Union. At least when it comes to dishing out
the grant money! The road infrastructure is incredible with what is effectively
a motorway circling the island. The towns are all congested with traffic with
the tens of thousands of cars despite the fact that almost 40% of the population
don't work! Typically the French (unlike the "British") after milking these
overseas colonies for the first hundred or two years like all other European
colonial powers, have maintained their committment (unlike all other European
colonial powers) and I am certain the resource now flows substantially in the
opposite direction. Responsible government or hanging onto colonies for too
long?
The morning we arrived from our night sail from
Mauritius we decided we would get a few jobs off the list and then rest a bit.
However once we got going and made good progress witha few of them we just kept
going and going and that left a couple of days free to tour around. We toured the whole island with a hire car stopping off here
and there for very expensive meals and snacks. We also tried two days running to
take a highly recommended helicopter tour of the mountainous interior with its
volcanoes and dramatic scenery being up at the base at 0700 each of the last two
days. However on both occasions the tours were cancelled due to heavy cloud and
rain over the island interior.
During out stay we worked our way down to a small
beach and rocky shore with big breakers rolling in. There were quite a few
surfers there. By the next day there was one less. Apparently with the
torrential rain and the run off from the island the sea gets very murky and that
combined with the sun being low in the sky at the end of the day caused three
sharks to to mistake one of the poor fellows for dinner. His body was found
and it seems he died of blood loss from the lascerations and bites. The
culprits? Apparently white tip reef sharks - yes, the ones we spent so much
time swimming with over the past year.
Getting into cooler waters now we are entering the
terrain of the Great White, Tiger and Bull Sharks, all with a bad reputation
so I think we can be satisfied that our current risk quota is all
allocated to the actual sailing and we shall try to avoid swimming with
sharks.
If you care to have a look at the forecast we are
challenged with have a look at passageweather.com for the area from Mauritius to
South Africa for the next seven days and I bet you will be happier being where
you are than where I am planning to go! Don't just look at the wind - look at
the picture for the waves. Good grief! We really are truly out on our own now
and more than ever our own safety is solely our own responsibility.
There is just no one to call on out here. One of the problems that we face
is that the Mozambique Current and a prevailing current on the east side of
Madagascar collide with each other and the prevailing southwesterlies blowing
across a deep southern ocean which then shelves extremely steeply from thousands
of metres to under fifty metres at the south end of Madagascar. I have been
advised by a South African sailor I met to give the south of Madagascar a 200
mile berth. This however puts us right in the face of a severe low pressure and
its intense front. Remember lows in the Southern Hemisphere revolve clockwise,
and in the winter which it currently is down here one low chases another
unhindered round the southern ocean. That puts us right in the path of their
northern sector..... I have to find a way to dodge between the face
of a low and the terrible seas to the south of
Madagascar.
Right now however we are rolling, slatting and
slamming along with fifteen knots of wind directly behind us making only
between 6 and 7 knots. Pah!
No. We should enjoy this while we can as in a few
days time it will probably seem like a good
option!
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