All in a day's work
Location: Port Louis, Mauritius
Hello blog readers! hope everyone is comfortable because we have some catching up to do.
We had an exciting start to the day here in Mauritius, much different from the routine of passage we have become accustomed to lately. The group diving got up and ready to go at 6:30, while those of us sailing got to walk to the waterfront and get breakfast. It was such a nice treat to have a cold smoothie and chocolate croissant and get some steps in this beautiful morning. During our walk we saw the World Odyssey (the Semester At Sea ship) come into port. It was so cool seeing them and felt like a weird crossover episode since everyone seems to get our names confused!
Then us sailors (Kares, Zinnia, Gus, Lucy, Abby, Rachel, Tiger, Capri, JP, Chiara, and Nacho) met back at Argo at 9am to taxi to the sailing place. The drive there was so pretty through the countryside and we were in awe of the mountains here.
We arrived at Wildwind sailing which is in a very fancy hotel and got suited up in harnesses and pfds. We were sailing on hobie cats. My boat (the fastest one) had myself, gus, zinnia, and our instructor Klaus. He was a very knowledgeable old german man and was impressed with our steering abilities. When the wind picked up we got to 20 knots according to Klaus, and we all had a blast hanging by the trapeze off the high side. We only had one man overboard. A wave to the face was too much and Gus went flying off. But not to worry, after realizing he was okay we were able to laugh and quickly tack to recover our victim.
Everyone had a great time sailing and all the staff at our sailing school said they have been following us since Bali! After we were done we got to have a delicious lunch at the resort before meeting back at Argo. The divers also had an amazing day exploring the wreck and seeing many fish and turtles.
As soon as everyone was back aboard we got right to work passage prepping with the hopes of setting out tomorrow. There was a lot to be done since our wonderful staff have been working so hard on boat projects all day while we were out having fun. We put everything back together, washed the deck, reattached lines, lashed the laz things, cleaned the floor, organized the oil bilges, put the battens back in the main sail, then flaked the main sail, and then reattached it to the mast and hoisted it all the way up. Everyone worked so hard to efficiently get the job done.
After the the whole sail ordeal was over we left the commercial dock on one side of the port and motored for about 2 minutes to a nicer marina on the other side. This was especially exciting because even though it wasn’t that far, our walk from Argo to the downtown area went from 30min to 2min.
I think we are finally getting the hang of how to work together and smoothly dock. Everyone was confident with their jobs and Shane masterfully parallel parked this big ol boat in reverse. It’s quite strange coming into a busy dock in such a public place, because a crowd quickly gathered and many people were videoing us. I guess we are a spectacle and obviously Argo is the coolest boat around.
We met some people from Semester at Sea and even gave them a tour!
Its so nice to be able to have free time on shore, and tonight we had the chance to have dinner off the boat. We scattered and many of us went to a restaurant right across from the boat. Unfortunately, with so many of us it took 2 whole hours to come out so a few people used that time to call home.
After dinner we obviously had to get gelato. Boy Dylan was especially happy because he finished off the entire store container. (Don’t worry he returned it and even washed the dishes). On the walk back we once again ran into our new friends and shared stories of crossing oceans.
We are certainly making the most of our short time here. Needless to say, there won’t be much trouble falling asleep tonight. It’s been a long, busy, and very good day full of new stories to bring home!
With that I think I’ve finally caught you all up! Sending lots of love to everyone back home.