Sailing in the Indian Ocean – Sailing with Saphir

Sailing along the wild coast

Early morning is and a few more boats leave Richard’s bay and hope to get all the way to East London. We really like to get as south as possible before the heavy winds comes. The morning is beautiful and we enjoy the sunrise.

When we got out of the harbour we got very good help from the current, we almost never went under 8kn. So nice to be more or less flying forward. We arrived at East London and Buffalo river just before five, and at 17.15 Saphir is moored along the pier. The pier is for bigger boats so it is very high up to the edge of the pier, luckily there is a ladder attached in the wall of the pier that makes it easier to get on land. Mistral is lying just infront of us and the other boats are on bouy’s in the river.

We went over to the yacht club, to meet up with the others and also get some dinner. This night there was a barbecue, you either buy the meat or bring your on and grill it. Magnus and Karen were in charge of our grilling and they did a great job.

How many people do you need to fix Mistrals dinghy engine??? It turned out that it needed a new battery which arrived the next day. Great! then we didn’t need to get our dinghy in the water. It is a bit of a hassle since the engine is not attached on the dinghy, so it is not only just getting the dinghy in the water. We all went for lunch in Mistrals dinghy at a fish and chips restaurant up the river. An other early night since we are heading out at 4.30 in the morning to get to Port Elisabeth. Magnus jumps off Saphir to head home to his family. Thank you Magnus for all the help from Mauritius to East London. It has been a pleasure to have you onboard. Now I have to go back doing all the cooking and washing up!!!

Now we are back beeing only us two again. Luckily it is not that many nights on the sea. Once again we have good current with us and we have only one night sailing. After 43 hours we a do are moored in Port Elisabeth with great help from the harbour master. A night cap on Mistral before we head to bed.

Hugs Eva

Indian Ocean Reunion to Richard Bay in 9days

Just after 10 a clock on the 6 November we cross the start line and start our sailing to South Africa and Richard Bay. Me and Edgar have prepared us with scoopoderm so we don’t get seasick. This sailing can and will be really rough so we are extra happy to have Magnus onboard since he don’t get seasick and that means he will not have problem to fix food for us when we don’t feel like going down in the boat to prepare dinner. We have not a gathered start just a time when we are okay to cross the start line. This time we are defiantly the first boat over the start line and we are enjoying taking the lead for some hours before part of the fleet will overtake us

On the second day( 7 November )we hoist the Blue water runner(BWR) early in the morning and sail with it until evening when the genua had taken over during the night. Next morning we take out the BWR and by the evening it goes back in to the forward lasarett. There will not be any good winds for our BWR in the next upcoming days. We continue sailing with the genua and just a tiny part of the main sail. It is still not working properly to take it in and out of the mast even if it is better now after the temporary repair in Mauritius. We don’t dare to take it fully out and not getting it in again. That is no fun to bring it down on the deck specially in the rough sea. Done that a few times already. On the fourth day when we are close to Madagascar the bad weather appears and we start to reef the genua until it is not much left in the evening. The genua makes the boat dip a bit to much and it is not comfortable sitting, sleeping and it is even dangerous to move in the boat. One hand always on the boat. The waves have grown up to 3-4 m and they comes from different directions and of course the wind get stronger. The most we have seen is around 15m/s in the gusts. The bed in the salon is the best place to sleep but to smal to share so I tie up the canvas and make my bed safe when it rolls. It is very uncomfortable. Our stove swinged so much that I locked it which led to that all the trays flew out on the floor. A while later the baking machine,the waffle iron and coffee machine also flew away anfd landed on the floor. All three are working but have new places when we sail. With the big waves comes also a lot of water on the boat which is natural and some of this water goes down in to the hull and then we need to pump it out which was not that much. That’s the normal procedure but sometimes the water decides to take an other way and this time again it went in to the bathroom in the front and all the way in to starboard cabin where Magnus sleeps. We can’t solve the problem on the sea so the only thing is to dry up the water..

After it calm down it was so calm that the engine had to be turn on and the sails was taken in. For the rest of the route the sails goes in and out , and the engine turns on and off. We have the do current with us sometimes which is very nice. Our watch schedule works well although I ends up to start my watch 1-2 hours earlier since the captain is so tired and needs to sleep. The rain also showed up but only for a day. We do relax in different ways, Magnus reads books, Edgar do sudoku and me listen to books and knit.

Finally we are outside Richard bay. There is some traffic with ships going in and out of the marina so we have to wait for our turn. It turned out to be an hour waiting and that also made us miss our estimated arrival time that we wrote up in one of the competitions we have with the arc. How it went with that will be in the next blog about our time in Richard bay.

We have permission to go in to the harbour. Once inside we followed the motorboat through the narrow and shallow canal to our berth.

We have crossed the Indian Ocean!!! Yeees. The last leg we made it in 8 days and 2 hours. After we had moored we was greeted but the Arc and the Marina. Now we will enjoy being here and just relax before we have start the normal fixing in and outside.

Hugs Eva

Short sail to Reunion

It is a very short distance to Reunion only 130nm (same distance back and forward Nynäshamn-Visby, which we thought was long before we started sailing round the world) . The start is at 14.00 due to the fast sailors wouldn’t arrive in the middle of the night. Nice to see all sailing from the start.

It was a smooth sailing we had a lovely sunset with some of the boats sailing in to it in front of us. Now when we are three on board we can have longer sleep which is so nice. So in the morning when we arrive none if us needed a napp. First we went to fuel up. Swade is helping us with the sheets at the fuel station.

We tide up next to Mistral and have a pink champagne breakfast before we check in.

Some maintenance need to be done as the window in the cabine. Not the most convenient place to work in but Edgar manage it well. On the way to Reunion Edgar noticed that the engine had new sounds that was not supposed to be there so he finds a guy here how can fix them. It takes the engineers two turns out of the harbour to make sure that the sound is gone. It was the engine mounts that was not correct attached and we also gut all four now attached.

We went up to the crater Sainte-Rose and had a fantastic walk on part of it. The Vulcan is still active and last time was 2020. Even if I haven’t been on the moon but this is how imagen how it would look although without all the vegetation. After we went for lunch at a very different place. Didn’t look like a restaurant at all and lots of animals on the backside and some not so happy turkeys.

I also hade the benefit to go diving twice together with Karen, Madelene and Lars. It was really good although I needed some extra air since I was using mine to fast. All four dives we were down for more or less 60 minutes which I don’t think I ever done before so not strange that my air finished. Went in some caves which was fantastic, saw turtles,scorpion fish, Nemo,huge yellow moray eel and lots more.

On my next visit to this island I would definitely plan some hiking. The scenery my friends have shown me me was fantastic. Once again our bikes came out. It was a long way in to town to go food shopping and hard to get a cab. On the prize giving we got first prize to be the last boat in our group. We got a new handicap after adding an new sail which we never used and probably will not in the future either. Maybe that’s why or that several slower boats started earlier and was not part of the ”race”! Hahaha!

On our last night we went out to eat and this town is strange after 5 there is not many restaurants open but we found one where we had some tapas and house wine. Checking out the next morning and we are good to go and do the last crossing of the Indian Ocean

Hugs Eva

Mauritius

After 15 days at sea it feels so good to have land under your feet and that the rolling has stop for now. Extra happy are we that the temporary mending on the stay held. Now we look forward to get it fix here.

We spend the two first days to fix things on the boat, cleaning, washing, filter changing, oil check and make sure that Magnus our crew have a cabin to sleep in. It needed to be emptied a bit.

After the two days working on the boat we cheek in to hotel for some nights. What a treat, a huge bed that is not moving and lots of space over our head, bathtub, breakfast served, a pool to hang by. We enjoy every minute of it. We even spoil us with some massage and pedicure. And if Edgar is worried about Saphir he can just look out the window to see her. One of the evenings we have a fantastic dinner with Karen and Chris at the Japanese fusion restaurant in the hotel

Together with the hole fleet and yellow shirts we had a great day visiting the botanical garden, a suger factory and a lovely lunch with a guided tour around the Manor House

It is nice to be moored in the city center. Here you have a lot in a walking distance as the market, supermarket, shopping areas and restaurants.

Magnus arrives with sparparts which is the engine mounts, yarn and some Swedish candies. The mechanic comes and installs them but they could only change two so the other two we hope to get fixed in Reunion. The stay got fixed and the main sails furling, although not with the spare part since it was sent back to Netherlands. Some miss communication grrr. We are not happy about that. Even this time dynema is a saver. Now we can use our main sail again.

A week can feel very long and that you have plenty of time to do things but swish and it is time for next leg and sail to Reunion.

Hugs Eva

The second half crossing Indian Ocean

We continue sailing in this rolling sea. Our mending on the stay is still working. Which is a big relief. We had to tighten it once with some duck tape. So happy I have already prepared some dinners although I need to boil the pasta which is a bit scary when the stoves swings a lot.

We have some more days to pass before we are in Mauritius. I continue knitting and a day before our arrival the jumper is done. So what will I do know??? Luckily Magnus who is joining us in Mauritius will have some more yarn with him for my next projects.

The sea is getting calmer but still enough waves to get some dolphins playing around the boat.

I do have to show you some sunrises and sunsets. They do look different every time.

We can finally see the lights from Mauritius . The benefit arriving in the night you spot the island earlier than daytime if there is light on the island of course.

We cross the finish line at 01.39 on the 22of October. Now we have a few more hours motoring down to Port Louis. Early morning we drop anchor and gets a few hours sleep before we can enter the harbour.

We had a very nice welcome from the fleet when we came in. We are so happy to be here and relived that our stay hold the hole way. Now we will have a week to fix things, relax , explore the island and enjoy the company of all our sailing friends