Blowing a holy-hooly outside now! Pretty happy we are tied up securely inside behind big breakwaters.
On the afternoon of January 23rd Tammy with Liam steered the ship into the narrow channel that is the entrance to Port Ouest, then a hairpin turn, hard to starboard through an even skinnier channel and we tied her up in this nice secure basin, snug as a bug in a rug. 31 days and 3,800 nautical miles from Bali. Not bad. We motored at speed the last few days as a building tropical storm threatened to chase us in. But we are as happy as can be as the seas are a smother of whitecaps outside and breaking over the entrance in a fury. The Harbour Master graciously allowed us to come in after the 3:00PM closing time on Tuesday and use our own line handlers. I guess theirs go home at 3:00. Coming inside was better than heaving-to for the night which was their earlier notion.
Reunion is lovely. A beautiful French Creole tropical volcanic Eden. After getting all tied up and sails furled the gang set about seeing this place. Not surprisingly they all found the historic Picton Castle crew watering hole, the Buccanier. I am guessing they were glad to see us too as all their tables were now full. Lovely and gracious hosts.
We are waiting out the wind, and then some rain, before we get on with our rigging, sailmaking and painting projects. Free watches are off to the mountains and calderas and lava fields, to the city of St Denis, to the big surf on the southeast coast. Getting laundry done is popular with many. Good food shopping here for Donald (and us that does the eating!) and generally a sweet tropical French Creole atmosphere. More to come. Then when we have a fair wind for Southern Africa – back to sea and bound for rounding the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Town, South Africa.