4th - 7th November 2013
Monday 4th November 2013
Up at 05:00 ready to move the boat due to the Mauritius ........ coming in to offload containers saw the ship coming in but AIS not working Susan thinks it is because it is not picking up. Pearl of Persia off first followed by DCT, us and then Valentine, Wolfhound escaped the manoeuvre exercise and was able to stay at anchor. After about an hour we came back in to the anchorage and tried to listen to the radio net which Babe was running but only spoke to Crazy Daisy went over to Wolfhound for breakfast and a bloody good breakfast it was!
We then got ready and towed our dinghy to try and get the engine repaired. After walking around we were given the name of a guy at the Port who would apparently be able to help us. We found said man and indeed he could help. Off we go to the customs office to check in and to pay our clearing in bill of health. Finally found the office and finalised check in. Went to the pharmacy to sort out some ore cream for my feet/legs but the pharmacist had gone to lunch and after a few return visits to see if he had returned we decided to give up until tomorrow. Susan went to the tourist information office and got a map of both the town and the island. She also went to the Post Office and got me some first issue stamps and stamps for postcards.
Went to the market to 'eye ball' it and was very impressed. Got some money and came to find us in the customs office, she finally found it and then we set off to get the dinghy and bring it to the quay wall so that Michel could look at it when the sun was not so hot. Met up with Susan and went walkabout to find the Deux Freres restaurant which we did and stayed to have a couple of beers and booked a table for later this evening with Wolfhound. Back to the boat and put the generator on but raw water filter getting air locks so turned it off as we have a lot of shit around the boat and wait for it to clear. Susan went on the radio net at 1700 and only Amelie and Dreams were on so looks like others have arrived in Mauritius!!!
The generator didn't clear so had to dive to check the inlet from the outside. Didn't find anything there, so back on the boat, removed raw water strainer which had some crud in it but not enough to block it. With the strainer open and the hull-fitting open, still no water came in! I had a plumbers drain-clearer which I tried to no avail. Next was the rather drastic resort of removing the hose between the hull-fitting and the strainer - this is much easier said than done, but once off revealed that something was in the elbow of the hull-fitting. I was able to gain a purchase on the obstruction using very long thin nose pliers and pull out a complete solid ball of seaweed! I check it was clear by momentarily opening the vale to allow seawater to rush in.
We were in the process of re-fitting everything when Wolfhound called to take us ashore for dinner, so gave them a beer while we completed the task and ran the generator while we got cleared up, washed and changed. The lid of the raw water strainer was weeping a small leak so while we were ashore, I closed the seacock, leaving the replacement of the O-ring until we came back.
We had a very enjoyable meal, seated on the outside balcony of the restaurant, where Nicco and Annie from Valentine also joined us.
Tuesday 5th November 2013
This was our Island Tour day and our driver, Jason, collected us in the small minibus from the dock at 09:00.
Wednesday 6th November 2013
Today we received the massive from Jacqui Cotz of Oyster in the UK. We took the view to download our emails over the satellite phone rather than have to lug the laptop across in the dinghy and around town looking for a wifi connection. We had $180 credit when we started and Outlook hung on the downloading of one email, which while in progress, cleared out our airtime credit completely. We were justifiably furious!
We had to take the laptop ashore to the post office and pay for the wired connection to download and clear this one email from our emails which took one hour and forty minutes! Whilst on the boat, we had received a subsequent email from Jacqui apologising for the size of the first one but the second was still 3MB which, under the difficult circumstances we face with electronic communications, was annoyingly inconsiderate and incompetent to send especially when one considers it is only two pages of word document text with three totally un-necessary photos on the last page. It was the photos that were the problem as they hadn't been reduced! Now we were in receipt of the additional earlier version, that was a massive of 14MG! A jaw dropping unbelievable crass mistake!
Having cleared this massive from our email, we then had to telephone our satellite airtime provider to organise additional credit and continue our normal routine of provisioning and preparing for the next leg to Reunion.
We had a late lunch at the local du Quay restaurant, which again was excellent!
In the late afternoon, we returned to the port to see how our outboard repairs were progressing. Michel and Gilbert, the Port Capitan were hard at it replacing the battery cables, cleaning out the carburettor and replacing the necessary parts with Michels private stock of second-hand parts. They drained the fuel tank, which had water in it, taking it to the local filling station for fresh fuel and then craned the dinghy back into the water. Michel took it around the harbour for a test run a couple of times, making small adjustments to the mixture and throttle settings before pronouncing it properly repaired. I helped them clear up over a couple of beers that I had purchased from a shop on the way back from the bank to get the cash to pay for the repairs.
Back of the boat, Tony came for a coke and a chat about plans for checking out and departing tomorrow morning and then we retired feeling drained.