Mauritius

The beautiful streets of Mauritius.

On Sunday, Martin and crew (David, Doug and John) made it safely to Mauritius.  They are now officially two-thirds of the way across the Indian Ocean.   It was a fairly calm sail, with the wind at their back, but they are certainly glad to be on land for a few days.

Mauritius is different than the islands of Indonesia as it is has more of a European influence.   It has been a lovely stay for everyone, especially since AMARA was given the best parking spot in the marina—right in front a 5-star hotel!

AMARA front and center!

It's been really great being right in front of the hotel because Martin is able to sit at a wonderful breakfast in the hotel while he and I Skype his morning (my night) away getting caught up on all things Frey.   It's been a real luxury.

Tomorrow they hope to push off and head to Durban.  It will take them around 12 days (1576nm).  Their weather window wasn't good yesterday or they would have left sooner.  I am hoping to get in one more phone call with Martin before they leave.

Now this is my idea of sailing!

More Updates On AMARA

All,

We've just had a great team effort battling a monster Yellowfin tuna for the last 2 hours and had him up to the side of the boat several times where we were attempting to gaff him.  Unfortunately the line touched the edge of the exhaust pipe and broke.  

All good on Amara,

Martin

AMARA Update!

I got a great email from Martin today that I thought I would share with you all to give you an update on Amara and their current position.  Looks like they are getting closer to Mauritius, which means closer to internet!  It will be nice to finally be able to FaceTime with Martin.  He's been at sea way too long and we are really missing him these days... 

Enjoy!


"All Is Well on AMARA

AMARA is currently 4 days from arriving in Mauritius.  We have been experiencing light winds and a mild sea today as we crossed the major shipping lane between South Africa and Singapore.  We saw 5 large ships today, the biggest being a gigantic 1200 feet long and 200 feet wide.  Thanks to our AIS (Automatic Identification System) we can see their ship details including their course and speed, and they can see us as a small sailboat.

On board we are currently well stocked with fresh Mahi Mahi and Yellowfin tuna, having caught 3 large Mahi Mahi the day before yesterday.  One fish was 30+ pounds.   In the calm sunny weather, we have been relaxing and each been doing a lot of reading.

The latest crew pastime seems to be to outdo each other in the kitchen. Yesterday David baked fresh bread and cooked up a Moroccan Fish Stew for dinner, while today Doug baked an apple pie, and John served up a Carrot Curry Cashew Soup with Mahi Mahi.  I'm on the hook for dinner tonight, and will be feeling the pressure.  We all are most grateful to Sue for creating all these great recipes in our AMARA cookbook.

The temperature has been getting noticeably cooler as we continue further south.  The shorts and tshirts are being exchanged for long pants and polar fleece. It is still 73 F, but it feels like 60 when you are sitting on watch for 3 hours in the wind.

Best to all,
Martin"

Today's Update on Amara

Martin called last night and reported that this past week they have been in 24 knot winds for the past week and reported that he was actually cold (even though it was 75 degrees).  With the wind blowing all day and all night, it made it a little cold and uncomfortable—especially while on watch.  Today the wind finally started to die down and is now a lot more manageable than this past week.

Every time I talk with Martin he is in great spirits and is truly loving his experience crossing the Indian ocean.  We are in talks whether I should meet him in South Africa or he should come home.  We just aren't sure as of yet and have a week or so to think about it.

Martin sent out an email today to all his fellow cruisers on the same route as Amara and I thought I would share it with you all to let you know about Amara's current position.

"Hello fellow Indian Ocean sailors.

As of noon local time (0700UTC) Amara was at 17d 56m South by 72d 36m East.  During the night last night we passed the halfway point between Bali and Durban.  Yeah!  We are now 2540 miles from Bali and 2380 miles from Durban.

Winds are in the low teens out of the eastsoutheast.

We caught three Mahi Mahi's yesterday.  The largest was about 35 lbs.  Not enough to beat Christine and Guy's record, but close. If you add all three of them together it was probably at least seventy lbs of fish.  Not bad for one day's haul.

—Martin"

I always love hearing from Martin and am so glad that he is still enjoying his journey.  More to come later this week!

A Quick Update:Thoughts on the Cocos Islands and Amara's Current Position

Thoughts on Cocos Islands, by Martin:

"We spent 4 days in the Cocos Islands. An atoll west of Bali by about 1200 miles.  The islands reminded me alot of the beautiful palm covered islands of the South Pacific.  We anchored in a small lagoon off of Direction Island with a beautiful sandy beach and the trade winds providing a nice cool breeze.  Black tipped reef sharks circled the boat endlessly waiting for a handout. Snorkeling in the marine reserve proved to be spectacular as we saw the largest unicorn fish of the whole sailing voyage, manta rays, and several large sharks and a barracuda .  We hosted a party onboard AMARA with the seven other yachts in the lagoon. As a result we made some good friends to keep an eye on each other as we do our crossing of the Indian Ocean.  We were also able to catch up on the internet and reprovision in the local store, but had to pay dearly for it.  A head of lettuce was $9, bread was $8, and tomatoes were $2 apiece.   We made some friends that took us diving to a wreck with some great fish life and then crayfish hunting (clawless lobster).  

On our last day, we traveled over to West Island and got the full tour by our friends.  They were proud of having the only international airport that wasn't fenced in and was indeed the center of a golf course.  I didn't want to tell them that there is another unfenced international airport I'd been to in Antarctica.  Local life moves pretty slowly in these parts without much changing day to day.  There are only 80 adults living on West Island.  The one exception is that they have a perfect location for kiteboarding and have a school there that supports the sport.  We considered giving it a another go, but then decided we would be better off if we got an earlier start toward Mauritius.

We are currently 500 miles out to sea on our way to Mauritius, with 1700+ miles still to go, and the Indian ocean proving that it is indeed rougher than South Pacific.  We debated at length the pros and cons of sailing over the top of Madagascar versus under it and finally made the decision to sail beneath it, knowing that we will be more exposed to any of the dreaded storms coming up from the southern ocean.  I've finally found my sea legs again and have just finished reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, a book by Clayton Christiansen called "How to Measure Your Life" and also a book about the Australian outback.  Unfortunately the hard drive with all our movies aboard crashed, but we were able to salvage the TV series Newsroom and have been enjoying it immensely, tonight being our tenth and final episode.  You take what you can get when you're a at sea."

Amara's Current Position and Some Messages to Fellow Travellers:

"AMARA is at 14 degrees 27.3 minutes South and 87 degrees 41.4 minutes East doing 184 miles per day.
I think we are about 140 miles to the north east behind Sanctuary and ahead of Doug on Fellow Traveler.

After much consideration regarding Ken's council (another cruiser), we decided to head for Mauritius instead of Madagascar.

Christine, congrats on a 40 lb Mahi Mahi unless of course your 40+ meant you caught more than 40.  Save some for us!!"