We set sail from Mauritius on October 19th, for
Reunion Island, 140 miles away. Winds
were light during the afternoon, but finally filled in at SE 15-18 knots around
sunset. Saviah was making 5-6 knots with
a single-reefed main and jib for most of the night. Reunion is about 40 miles long and 30 miles
wide with several very tall peaks, making it visible from far away. When the sun rose on Saturday, the mountainous
cloud-covered island came into view.
As is often the case, the land mass disrupts the generally
consistent wind, causing gusts as it heads over and around the island. As we came around the south side, the wind
switched from 10 knots to 35 knots back and forth every few minutes. This made steering a little challenging for a
few hours before the winds died all together on our approach to St. Pierre.
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| approaching Reunion |
We were a bit apprehensive approaching St. Pierre. We knew there was a small marina but couldn’t
find much information about it and had no luck trying to contact the marina or
harbor master before we left Mauritius.
We weren’t sure they would have room for us. In addition, the entrance
can be dangerous in a heavy swell, as it is narrow and crosses a sandbar with a
depth of six feet at low tide. It would
be challenging even in moderate conditions.
We really hoped it would work out because our guide book described St.
Pierre as a fun seaside town in close proximity to the mountains.
Thankfully, the seas were calm when we entered at high tide,
and the lowest depth we saw was 9 feet. We hailed the port on the VHF on arrival
and got no response. We saw an empty
slip in the marina and decided to just take it and find someone on the ground
to ask permission. There were a few
other cruising boats in the marina, including our neighbors on True Blue, a
Canadian boat we met in Australia. We
learned that the port was closed for the weekend and decided to just stay put and
talk to them on Monday.
The island of Reunion has changed hands and names several
times since it was discovered in the 16th century, but it has been
primarily controlled by the French over the last few hundred years. It remains an overseas department of France
today, and as such, is part of the European Union. There is a population of about 800,000 on the
island made up of people of primarily African, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian, and
of course, French descent. French is the
official language, but there is also a local Creole spoken by many of the
natives. There are not many tourists
that visit the island, and those that do are almost exclusively French. Very few of the locals speak any English,
which made it a little challenging at times, but we tried our best.
We spent our first couple days walking around town and
cleaning the boat since we had fresh water at the slip for the first time in a while. We got some exercise swimming laps in the
lagoon next to the marina. The shallow
water is protected by a reef extending off the marina breakwater. The lagoon and adjacent beach were a popular
hang-out for locals and tourists alike. Free
wi-fi was available from the boat, and we were able to plan our trip into the
mountains, which was the primary reason we wanted to visit Reunion. We booked a room, found the bus stop and
packed our bags for a three day trip inland.
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| St. Pierre marina and nearby beach |
Several other boats arrived over the weekend, and we all
went over to clear in early on Monday morning.
The officials were remarkably laidback, and we were happy to find we
could stay in the same slip. Clearing
customs was a quick process, and once we had our papers, we went back to the
boat to grab our bags and rushed to the bus stop. Reunion has good public transportation with
nice comfortable busses and fares that are only one to two Euros. Our first leg took us up the coast from St.
Pierre to St. Louis, where we transferred to another bus that took us to our
destination, Cilaos.
After spending the last few years on the water, Andrew was
really craving time in the mountains and Reunion has an abundance of great
hiking, canyoneering and other outdoor activities. There are two major mountainous regions on
the island. One is on the southeastern
side, which includes the Piton de la Fournaise. This peak rises to more than
8,600 ft and is one of the world’s most active volcanos.
The other mountainous region is on the west side of the
island with the now extinct volcano Piton des Neiges at its center. This is the highest point on the island at
10,070 ft. It is surrounded by three
large calderas (volcanic craters), known as the three Cirques. We only had time to visit one of the cirques,
so we decided on the Cirque de Cilaos.
The town of Cilaos is the largest settlement in the Cirques and would be
our base for the three day trip.
The bus trip to Cilaos was an experience in and of
itself. It involved traversing the RN5
through the mountainous terrain, with more than 400 twists and turns along the
way. Many are hairpin turns that seem
impossible to maneuver in a full size bus.
Sometimes the bus driver had to stop and back up a few times to make it
around. This is probably why the busses
had major scrapes along the sides. There
were several tunnels along the way that were just one lane and barely wide
enough for the bus to fit. The driver
had to stop, pull in the mirrors, and wait for oncoming traffic before
proceeding. The tunnel walls were just a
few inches from the bus on either side.
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| bus ride to Cilaos |
It took two hours to make the 25 miles to Cilaos, which is a
picturesque town of 6,000 people, sitting at an altitude of 4,000 feet. The scenery here is spectacular. It is surrounded by mountains, including the
highest peak, Piton des Neiges, which towers of the town.
We checked into our lodge, dropped off our bags, and then headed
to the visitor’s center. There are many
well marked trails that traverse the nearby mountains and canyons. We grabbed a map and did a short hike that
afternoon while the weather was nice. We
spent an hour hiking up to a lookout and enjoyed great views of the area for a
few minutes before the clouds started rolling in.
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| Cilaos |
Generally speaking, the mornings in Cilaos are clear. By afternoon, the town is usually shrouded in
clouds, and then the rain starts. It can
rain quite heavily here, and Cilaos apparently holds the record for the most
rain in a 24 hour period (73.6 inches).
We decided to get up early the next couple of days and do some of the
longer hikes in the clear morning hours.
Since we were hiking out of a village on a French island, we
decided we could do better than our usual power bars for energy. We got up at 6 am and headed to the bakery
where we loaded our backpack up with paninis, croissants, pain au chocolate, some
other pastries, and a few slices of pizza. We walked up the road and reached the
trailhead at 7 am.
The trail wound its way around the hillside, with deep
canyons below and towering peaks overhead.
After a few hours, it led down into the valley, and at the bottom, we
took off our shoes to wade across la riviere de Bras Rouge. We hiked up the other side of the canyon, and
then caught the Col du Taibit trail, a climb up to 6,857 ft. There were rare patches of trees that
provided some relief from the sun, but most of the hike was unshaded. We reached the top around 2 pm and took in
the beautiful views of the surrounding peaks.
Exhausted, we hiked back down to the trailhead and caught a bus the last
few miles back to Cilaos.
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| view from Col du Taibit |
Andrew decided that while in Reunion, we needed to climb the
Piton des Neiges. It was a difficult one
day hike on its own, and we were quite sore from the long hike the day
before. We got up even earlier the next
day, stopped by the bakery to fill our packs with even more food, and caught a
bus to the trailhead. The guidebooks say
this is a nine hour hike, and we wanted to reach the summit while the skies were
still clear.
The trail starts in a forest, steadily climbing, and then
becomes rocky and quite steep. We pushed
hard for three hours to climb 4,000 ft where we reached the Gite de la Caverne
Dufour. There is a hut here at 8,100 ft where
most hikers stay for the night before summiting the next morning. We were
already tired and wished we were staying for the night as well.
From the hut, it was another two hour climb up the last 2,000
ft to the summit. This section had no
trees, more bushes and scrub, and huge boulders everywhere. The last 30 minutes of the trail traverse a ridge
of red ash, with a few lonely plants sprouting here and there, adding dashes of
green to the stark landscape. The views
from the summit were stunning, looking out over the other peaks and villages
all the way to the ocean and beyond.
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| hiking Piton des Neiges |
We had lunch on the summit and a short rest as we watched
the clouds begin to roll in below us.
Hiking down was much faster, and it only took 45 minutes to reach the
hut, which was now completely shrouded in clouds. The rest of the hike was three hours through
dense fog with very low visibility. Back
at the trailhead completely exhausted, we hitched a ride back to town.
Our last morning, we only had enough strength to walk into
town for breakfast and then off to the bus stop for another exhilarating ride back
to St. Pierre. Although we could have
been happy spending several months in Reunion, there was already one early cyclone
this season, and it was time to get out of the tropics. We needed to focus on getting Saviah ready to
sail to South Africa, one of our most dreaded passages.
The leg from the Mascarene Islands to South Africa is
notorious for being a tough sail with unpredictable weather. The 1,500 mile passage leads initially south,
before turning west towards the South African coast after clearing Madagascar. The trade winds of the tropics quickly
disappear after leaving Reunion, and the weather is dominated by a succession
of Antarctic lows moving east. These
lows have strong SW winds and move through fast, often every 2-3 days, so
avoiding them is virtually impossible.
The lack of sheltered ports on the South African coastline
and the mighty Agulhas Current contribute to the challenges. The Agulhas Current flows south in a wide
channel along the coast at speeds of up to six knots in places. When the SW wind from a low pressure system
blows hard against this current, it creates giant waves of up to 60 feet, with
even larger freak waves reported during storms.
It is important not be caught crossing the current when a low comes
through.
The advice we received from several South African sailors
was to watch the weather and arrive south of Madagascar at the same time a low
pressure system does. If you can time it
right, this gives you a chance for a clear run to the coast across the current
before the next low arrives. If you are
late or the next low pressure system arrives early, you just heave-to and wait
for it to blow through and then cross the current.
After returning from Cilaos, we woke up one morning and
noticed the boat Rough Bounds tied up to the wall. We met Paul, the single-hander from Toronto
when we were in Cocos Keeling a couple months prior. On closer inspection, we noticed that he had
no mast. We caught up with him later
that morning, and he explained that he was on his way to South Africa from
Mauritius and was hit by a squall, not far from Reunion. A strong gust knocked him down, and then two
large waves hit him in the few seconds before the boat had a chance to right itself. The mast broke and was ultimately lost. He motored to Reunion that evening and was
heartbroken at the thought of not being able to finish his trip back home. We later learned that he was able to find a
replacement mast in Reunion and successfully made the trip to South
Africa. In the meantime, it was a
reminder that this was one of our most dangerous passages, and we needed to be
ready for anything.
We did a thorough inspection of Saviah’s rigging, as well as
the rest of the boat. Since our
portlights had been leaking a little, we just caulked them all closed. During our inspection, we noticed that we
were missing one of the two pins that hold the jib furler on. Luckily, Alice on True Blue had several spare
bolts that fit, and Andrew was able to make a temporary repair.
Several other boats were also preparing for departure,
hoping to catch the next window. We met
every day and discussed the weather forecasts.
A couple of other cruisers were paying weather routers back in the U.S.
for advice. These are weather experts
with sailing experience who analyze the weather and give recommendations on
when to leave and what route to take. It
was really helpful to have their thoughts and analysis of the situation. After waiting nearly a week, we finally had
what looked to be a good window for departure on Saturday, November 3rd,
and Saviah set sail for Durban, South Africa.