Grand Baie to Port Louis

Hi everyone,
Today we sailed back to Port Louis from Grand Baie.  We had a nice SE wind initially but it turned SSW (on the nose) about halfway.  The engine hadn't had a workout for some time so we decided to give it a run.  It appeared to enjoy it thankfully!

Here is our track...

Zen Again track

We arrived back in the Caudan Waterfront at 1430 and rafted up alongside Vulcan Spirit.  By 1530 we were at the DHL office collecting one of the two parcels we've been waiting for.

The parcel contained a new spare autopilot ram.  We now have this new unit, one bought in 2012 and the original bought in 2010.  The latter is currently in pieces being repaired - it doesn't appear to be dead yet.

When testing the new ram we found a loose connection to the primary autopilot's course computer.  It had been misbehaving recently and it was good to find the problem and fix it.

Most of the boats we've been sailing with are departing for Reunion tomorrow.  We have to wait until our second parcel arrives.  We know it is on the island but does not appear to have cleared customs yet.  This package contains a new masthead nav light plus replacement water triggers and strobes for our automatic danbuoy.

Before leaving Grand Baie we gave a FSC burgee to the club manager.  Hopefully he will add it to the array of burgees around the club.  GBYC is a very nice spot.  We enjoyed our stay there.

Mauritius Day 10

Hi everyone,
We've been very busy playing tourist since arriving here in Grand Baie.  We are now temporary members of GBYC.  The club reminds me of RFBYC in Perth with its raised aspect, nice lawns and yachts moored all around.  The hot showers are marvellous!

Grand Baie Yacht Club

View from GBYC club house

On Thursday we walked into Grand Baie.  It is a touristy town but is nicely situated on the bay.  We walked around the the SuperU supermarket which is very impressive for such a small town.  From there we walked further out of town to the new mall which is smart but less useful than the SuperU.  From there we took a taxi to Chateau Labourdonnais.

The "chateau" is less castle and more plantation mansion.  This building was renovated about 10 years ago and is well worth a visit.  Their orchard garden is also very good, with examples of a wide range of trees, including nutmeg, cloves, mangoes, "rain tree" and more.

Chateau Labourdonnais

Where's Scarlett?

Very impressive orchard garden

On Friday we joined the crew of Vulcan Spirit in their hire car to visit the Black Water Gorge National Park.  We had a good walk around the periphery of one of the gorges, seeing nice views and a few rare endemic birds.  The drive across the island is interesting, with lowlands, elevated plateaux and mountainous areas.  Lots of sugar cane!

After the walk we had lunch at the Bois Cheri tea plantation.  Their restaurant was excellent and the plantation scenic.

One of a multitude of impressive skylines

View down Black River Gorge

Rare endemic Pink Pigeon

Bois Cheri tea plantation

Today we did a tour of various attractions also in the south west of the island.  We spent the morning at the Casela Park which houses a range of African animals.  We hope to see many in the wild later this year but this was interesting and fun.

Casela Park enclosure sign

Lions

Giraffe

Rhinos

Kudu

We had lunch at the Les Chamarele restaurant which has a magnificent view over the lagoon around Benetiers Island - from Morne Brabant to Little Black River Bay.  After lunch we visited Chamarele Falls and the nearby Seven Coloured Earth.

View from Les Chamarele restaurant

Chamarel waterfall

Seven Coloured Earth

We hope to have a relatively lazy day tomorrow, having lunch at GBYC.  We expect to stay in Grand Baie for the next day or two.

Port Louis to Grand Baie

Hi everyone,
This morning we sailed from Port Louis to Grand Baie.  It was a short sail of 17nm northward along the west coast.   We took the opportunity to try out the Aires vane gear on a 20-25 knot close reach, and the slalom course it produces is clear below.  Later we hand steered, with a bit of slaloming there too!

Grand Baie is the location of the main yacht club on Mauritius which offers water, fuel, meals and hot showers to visiting yachts.  The nearby town of Grand Baie is said to be nice, apparently featuring the best supermarket on the island.

Here are our track and speed overall...

Zen Again Track

Zen Again Speed

The entrance to Grand Baie is fairly shallow.  At least one yacht has hit a rock this year while following a track recommended by other yachts.  We entered at high tide this morning with 0.5m of tide above chart datum.  The minimum depth we saw was 3.2m, or 2.7m when reduced to chart datum.

The track we followed used the leading line shown on CM93 charts.  These leads don't appear to be shown on Navionics or Garmin charts.  The leads are on a course of 154T, lining up Pointe Baignoire (where GBYC is situated) and the inland mountain Butte aux Papayes.

As our track above shows we passed well clear of the bay before tacking shorewards and bearing away.  Not pretty but we were enjoying the sail!  At the 20m depth contour we handed the sails and proceeded slowly under motor.  The drying patch on the E side of the entrance to the bay is conspic, even at high water (it was visible with water breaking over it).  If you have that about 100m on your port side you're close to the leads.  Don't stray W since there is a (charted) isolated rock.

The screenshot below shows our entry into Grand Baie in detail.  We joined the lead line in about 8m of water.  We did not see the isolated rock to starboard but the reef to port was very clear.  As we proceeded down the leads the depth decreased to a minimum of 3.4m.

We knew of an uncharted rock which had been encountered by another yacht recently.  It is shown below as VSrock.  Once past that hazard we departed the lead line to pass outside the vessels moored off GBYC and to stay over sand.  On this leg we saw the minimum depth of 3.2m when NW of GBYC.  We anchored in 5.0m just outside the GBYC moorings.

Track into Grand Baie

On the leads approaching Pointe Baignoire

View southward from our anchorage

Yesterday we did a bit more exploring and shopping around Port Louis.  The Caudan Waterfront has some nice malls, one of which has a craft area.  There are a number of local artisans creating their wares right there, and some of them are very good indeed.  There is also a shop "Mast" which sells locally made ship models.  Beautiful.

Caudan Waterfront Mall

In town we visited the Natural History museum which is a somewhat drab but has some very interesting exhibits covering the southern Indian Ocean in addition to Mauritius itself.

Dead as a ....

We expect to stay in Grand Baie for several days before returning to Port Louis for a day or two prior to clearing out sometime next week.  Timing depends on when parcels arrive from WA.