Two Weeks at Sea - Cocos to Rodrigues Island

Two weeks at sea seems like a long time when we first start a passage, but gradually the days pass and we're in the groove. Miserable weather makes for long days; fine weather days are a delight. We had a little of both on this passage. Here are the pictorial highlights of our passage from Cocos Keeling Islands, Australia to Rodrigues Island.  

A booby landed on our solar panels and decided to hitch a ride. We thought he'd stay the night and take off at dawn, but he was in for the long haul which necessitated strong urging on the part of the captain to encourage our hitchhiker to leave (much to the enjoyment of the first mate).

We had several squalls en route. Some brought gusty winds and torrential downpours. The dark clouds in the pic are what we saw … enough to encourage us to reef down quickly.

We didn't enjoy the squalls, but the rainbows were a delight.

Nearly every morning we found flying fish in the scuppers. One made its way into the cockpit and presented himself the next morning on the cockpit mat.

David trolled a line almost every day without luck until finally near the end of the passage, he snagged a beautiful dorado.

We saw lots of ship traffic this trip. We were evidently in a shipping lane between Asia and the Cape of the Good Hope. We had two near misses. Thank goodness for AIS.

We had the usual break-downs and equipment failures en route which always present interesting challenges when attempting to make repairs. Above, David replaces the wind gen tail which he fabricated from spare plywood aboard.

The Indian Ocean is considered the saltiest of all the oceans and Nine of Cups was covered with salt crystals. We thought about starting a little cottage industry for collecting and selling it … direct from our stainless to you.

There's nothing like seeing the anchorage at the end of a long passage. We were definitely ready for some land time. It wasn't our best passage, but certainly it wasn't our worst either. Time to relax for a week or so. We celebrated our arrival with champers … of course!

Land Ho - Rodrigues Island

We did, indeed, heave-to about 20 miles northeast of Rodrigues. We stowed the whisker pole and tidied up a bit below. We enjoyed the rest of our dorado catch in a citrus marinade for dinner. It was a beautiful night ... light winds, small seas, and a gazillion stars, so not at all unpleasant. We maintained a watch, but it was easy duty, just floating lazily, quietly and peacefully. We drifted about three miles in the right direction during the night, and after a batch of chocolate muffins came out of the oven, we adjusted the sails and headed into Port Mathurin, the entry port for Rodrigues. I dug out the courtesy and Q-flags and David ran them up the halyard. He found a tiny flying fish on the aft deck.

mauritius flag

We'd had a few brief showers during the night and a heavy gray cloud still shrouded Rodrigues Island. From this distance, the island resembled a speed bump in the middle of the ocean, placed there to slow us down.

gray cloud over rodrigues

We took turns showering and dressing appropriately in anticipation of meeting several officials in the upcoming hours. We contacted Rodrigues Port Control about two hours out and received permission to enter the harbor. We'd heard another boat announce its arrival just before we set sail, so we wouldn't be the only new kids in town.

As we approached about 3 miles offshore, the island features began to take shape. Mangroves fringed the shore. Further up the hillside, a copse of trees contrasted sharply with large areas of tawny brown. The highest ridge of the island succumbed to black volcanic rock. We could see a small town close to the water, houses clustered close together, and several houses dotted the hills sporadically. A red and white tower sat upon the hill and wind turbines were busy churning out power for the islander.

island features

The island is surrounded with reefs. We aligned Cups with the leading marks to enter the outer harbor, then caught sight of the red/green markers delineating the channel. The water changed color rapidly from dark blue to turquoise as we lost depth. We spotted masts, but had to maneuver through the coral ...a dogleg to the left and then to the right, before we reached the inner harbor.

red green markers

The supply ship/ferry was docked and the harbor seemed quite small. Six boats were already at anchor and finding a good spot out of the channel took a couple of tries. Before we had even set the anchor, a dinghy of officials was hovering around us waiting to board. Rodrigues at last.

officials en route to cups

Passage stats:

Total miles planned: 1985 Total miles sailed: 2036

Passage days: 13.5 Average speed: 6.3 knots

Flying fish: 26 Squid: 1 Birds: 1 booby Fish caught: 1 dorado

Visit the French island of Rodrigues here.

Continue on our Indian Ocean crossing to Mauritius here.

Sailing the Indian Ocean - Cocos to Rodrigues Days 12-14

cocos to rodrigues

Day12 Miles run last 24 hours: 136       

Miles to go: 345

Only a short distance to go. We should arrive in Rodrigues in 2-3 days. We're certainly ready for it. I've been reviewing our notes for check-in procedures and David's reviewed the entrance through the reefs. Our travel guide has several dog-eared pages with lots of highlighted things to see and do.

David was able, as always, to jury-rig a fix for the wind gen tail and it's back to cranking out amps for us. Watching him balance himself while standing on top of the stern rail, tools in hand, while the boat is rocking and rolling is always a fascination to me. Makes me want to review my man overboard procedures.

Another beautiful, albeit cool, bright sunshine day. Blue sky, blue sea, 12-15 knot winds and we're sitting in the cockpit enjoying it all. Makes us almost forget the recent crappy passage days.

Lots of reading on this passage. We're both into the Jack Reacher thriller series by Lee Child...mostly because those are what were loaded on our iPads. Good page burners!

We've also finished the edits and formatting (mostly David's doing) for my new book Days and Ways to Celebrate 2015. Should be ready to release by the time we get to Mauritius.

One, very stiff, smelly flying fish on deck.

Day13 Miles run last 24 hours:   147     

Miles to go:  198

We're whittling down the miles now, getting close to Rodrigues, making a final sprint. Neither of us slept during off-watch due to choppy seas at an odd angle to the boat that kept us rolling and wallowing, gunwale to gunwale, for most of the night. The rolling action is not conducive to sleep nor comfort in any way. It had calmed a bit by morning and we've both enjoyed refreshing naps.

There's been lots of ship traffic the last 36 hours or so. We hadn't seen a ship in several days and now there have been 5 heading east and 3 heading west. We talk to some on the radio, depending how close they are. All those hailed have answered promptly. The Golden Bell came a bit too close for comfort and having learned a lesson just a couple of weeks ago, we took evasive measures early on and they still came within 0.5nm of us.  Thanks, Neptune, for taking care of us.

It looks as if our final run will have us arriving during the night unfortunately. Rodrigues has a large outer harbor with a well-marked entrance through the reefs, and an inner harbor where we'll eventually clear-in and anchor. Notes from other cruisers indicate that it is prudent to wait until daylight before proceeding to the inner harbor. I guess we'll figure it out when we get there.

No critters of any kind on deck today.

Day14 Miles run last 24 hours:  139       

Miles to go: 59

David caught a fish today .... a beautiful dorado! Our first fish on this passage and we were excited as he reeled it in. She was brilliant yellow and blue, fighting hard and shimmering metallic colors in the waves as she was hauled closer and closer to the boat. She was the perfect size ... 3 - 4 dinners worth, but looking at how beautiful she was, we had misgivings about cutting her up into filets. We watched as her colors quickly faded away and she died. It's not sentimental. We've caught and eaten many fish along the way. For some reason, it seemed sad this time, watching a living thing die at our hand. Blood and guts all over the side deck. Catch and release has its merits, but we don't fish for sport.

The chart plotter is displaying our ETA in hours and minutes now, instead of weeks and days. Shipping traffic has increased significantly with at least one ship on the AIS every watch. We'll be glad to sleep together  in our own bed soon, no night watch, no ships to worry about.

Unlike the Cocos which are low-lying coral islands,  Rodrigues is volcanic and rises about 1,300' ( ~400m)out of the sea. We could see it from 35 miles out ...  a hazy hump on the horizon, poking out of the ocean. In fact, Rodrigues sits on a triple tectonic plate which would seem to make it vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis , but we've never heard that it's a problem there.

Predictably, Neptune is aware that we're anxious to get in, so he's calmed the winds and seas. a Hence, we're dawdling along in the 4s on a beautiful, sunny day, anticipating an after dark arrival. We talked about churning out the miles with the engine to make it in before dark, but then thought "Why? It's a gorgeous sailing day and turning on the engine would just be a waste of fuel and money....not mention noisy and smelly." We'll sail till dark, and then, heave-to till morning. We'll complete the final miles tomorrow and  enter Rodrigues in the light of day.

Join us as we arrive at Ile Rodrigues.