Mauritius Day 4

Hi everyone,
We're having a great time here in Port Louis.  After clearing in on Thursday last week we moved across to the Caudan Waterfront Marina.

A number of yachts have gone aground this year while moving to the marina.  Below is a graphic showing our track.  The crux is to retrace your original path, only turning towards the marina when it is abeam.  Dead slow all the way too!

Customs Dock to Caudan Waterfront Marina

Customs Dock from Caudan marina

The "marina" is actually an empty basin where yachts moor alongside the concrete walls.  We are rafted alongside the British yacht Sea Bunny who kindly invited us to do so.  Like us they are OCC members.

The marina is actually quite nice.  It has a good "vibe" with yachts from all over the world here.  The facilities are not great but at least there are toilets and (only cold) showers available.  There is also free electricity and water.  Security appears quite good.  The marina is a part of a large development which includes a hotel, several small shopping malls and an assortment of waterfront bars/restaurants.  A highway separates the development from downtown Port Louis but access is easy via pedestrian underpasses.

Downtown Port Louis is a busy mini-city.  The fruit & veg markets are absolutely fantastic - we keep having to go back to renew our fruit supplies.  Every day either the Sea Bunnies or we walk over to the market to buy the daily bagettes.  Civilised.

Since arriving we have been busily attending to boat jobs prior to hitting the tourist trail...

• Drained the space under the chain locker (which very slowly fills at sea - something to fix)
• Washed down the hull and deck (using first piped water since Geraldton!)
• Filled the water tanks and jerries
• Polished the s/s
• Filled the main diesel tanks (50 litres used since Cocos) from jerries
• Replaced head compartment sink drain hose (was partly blocked)
• Ground off the paint surrounding the vang fitting on the boom

The last item was to allow us to check the boom has no damage around the fitting.  At Cocos we discovered the paint had cracked adjacent to a couple of the rivets securing the s/s fitting to the boom.  We rigged a downhaul from the s/s mainsheet hanger to the toerail during our passages beyond Cocos, just in case!  After removing the paint today we found no cracking in the metal so all is good.  We'll leave the area unpainted to allow future inspection, and probably continue to use the downhaul.

Between boat jobs we have been enjoying exploring Port Louis and socialising.  On Friday evening Richard and Sue from Sea Bunny joined us for sundowners.  On Saturday we went to the races with the crew of Vulcan Spirit.  The course is apparently the oldest in the southern hemisphere (opened in 1812).  On Sunday we had lunch with the OCC member in port at present - 10 people - plus two we hope may join.  Very nice Chinese restaurant.  On Sunday evening Phil and Norma of Minnie B joined us on Zen Again for sundowners.

Spectacular setting of the race course

In the paddock

And they're off!

Today we visited the post office to arrange a Poste Restante service.  We have two packages with spare parts on their way to us here.  Hopefully the service will work well.  We found, bought and posted homewards various birthday and Christmas gifts for family members.  We also visited the supermarket and had a partial restock - our snack supplies were nearly exhausted.