Port louis mauritius
Our first thoughts of Mauritius when we piloted into Port Louis was "oh no the Chinese are here". There were probably 80-100 Chinese fishing boats all clustered together in numbers of 10's and 20's. They manoeuvre around the harbour as if they owned it. There was no maritime curtisy, one vessel turned in front of us after travelling down the left side of the harbour then cutting across our bow sharpely without looking behind them. Most of them listed heavily and looked very unstable. Outside the harbour on achorage we saw a large mother ship off loading the fishing vessels cargo on derek cranes, 15-20 frozen tuna at a time was dropped into the hull. It seems that Mauritius have allowed them the right to fish their waters.
Tall buildings in front of us portrayed a busy city with huge cargo ships lining the edge of it's inlet and the back drop of a mountainous terrain towered over it all like greek gods.
Customs and Coast guard was located on the water front on the left side of the port and as we docked it really felt as if we were in the middle of the city with restaurants and shops just metres away.
Most of the formalities were found close by except for immigration where a little walking was need. Checking in was easy but there is a lot of paper work to fill in.
Once checked in, we crossed to the other side, down a narrow entrance and berthed along side the pier wall. The security men quickly turned up to divert us to their office to pay for the privilege.
For a 12 metre boat costing 500 rupies, you get 8 hours of internet each day which works well and is better in the early hours of the morning, a electricity plug, just off the dock and drinking water which is also off the dock.
Your will need to clear your deck from loose items as the locals park their cars and walk the pier. We had no trouble but the opportunity to remove items off the boat seems too convenient. We spoke to many people that over looked the boats and they were genuinely interested in the function of the yacht and seemed to admire our way of life.
The tidal rise and fall is only half a metre maximum but you do need to make sure that the fenders are positioned well as there is a protruding ridge which can pop the fenders out when the wind is pining you on to the wall.
Sailing vessel Nautibuoy and us suffered some really bad gel scrapping from our fenders popping out.
The vegetable market further along the city, displayed a wide variety of colour but make sure you check each vegetable as the old ones are normally pushed to the front. It's only the potatoes that they won't let you select but in the super market you can. We bought pork and beef from the market which was priced well. What we have noticed here are products from South Africa which we import on St Helena. It's a little reminder of how close we are to the end of our adventures, but there is a new one brewing. Life on St Helena.
Three days was more than enough city time for us, we managed to celebrate our wedding anniversary again with a meal out. We watched the chinese celebrations with dragons, lions, singing and kung fu.
For us, there's only so much city life we can handle and it was busy here with locals and tourist. It was time to move on.
Grand bay at the north end of the island seems more inviting with a yacht club and cleaner water to swim in. There were a few yachties we knew who were anchored there too.
Tall buildings in front of us portrayed a busy city with huge cargo ships lining the edge of it's inlet and the back drop of a mountainous terrain towered over it all like greek gods.
Customs and Coast guard was located on the water front on the left side of the port and as we docked it really felt as if we were in the middle of the city with restaurants and shops just metres away.
Most of the formalities were found close by except for immigration where a little walking was need. Checking in was easy but there is a lot of paper work to fill in.
Once checked in, we crossed to the other side, down a narrow entrance and berthed along side the pier wall. The security men quickly turned up to divert us to their office to pay for the privilege.
For a 12 metre boat costing 500 rupies, you get 8 hours of internet each day which works well and is better in the early hours of the morning, a electricity plug, just off the dock and drinking water which is also off the dock.
Your will need to clear your deck from loose items as the locals park their cars and walk the pier. We had no trouble but the opportunity to remove items off the boat seems too convenient. We spoke to many people that over looked the boats and they were genuinely interested in the function of the yacht and seemed to admire our way of life.
The tidal rise and fall is only half a metre maximum but you do need to make sure that the fenders are positioned well as there is a protruding ridge which can pop the fenders out when the wind is pining you on to the wall.
Sailing vessel Nautibuoy and us suffered some really bad gel scrapping from our fenders popping out.
The vegetable market further along the city, displayed a wide variety of colour but make sure you check each vegetable as the old ones are normally pushed to the front. It's only the potatoes that they won't let you select but in the super market you can. We bought pork and beef from the market which was priced well. What we have noticed here are products from South Africa which we import on St Helena. It's a little reminder of how close we are to the end of our adventures, but there is a new one brewing. Life on St Helena.
Three days was more than enough city time for us, we managed to celebrate our wedding anniversary again with a meal out. We watched the chinese celebrations with dragons, lions, singing and kung fu.
For us, there's only so much city life we can handle and it was busy here with locals and tourist. It was time to move on.
Grand bay at the north end of the island seems more inviting with a yacht club and cleaner water to swim in. There were a few yachties we knew who were anchored there too.