MV Dirona travel digest for Rodrigues 2015


Show Rodrigues 2015 travel log map Click the travel log icon on the left to see these locations on a map, with the complete log of our cruise.

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9/12/2015: Rue Wolphart Hamenssen
A first view to the town of Port Mathurin along Rue Wolphart Hamenssen. Rodrigues was a French colony from 1735 until 1809 when Britain took control. Mauritius gained independence from Britan over 150 years later in 1967, but the original French influence still seems stronger than that of the British. Creole is the native language, but a large percentage of the population can English as well. One notable British influence is that Mauritians drives on the left side of the road. Scooters and motorcycles are the most common form of transport through the narrow streets. Small cars and trucks also were popular, but we saw suprisingly few bicycles.
9/12/2015: MCB
After clearing through, the next task was to get some local currency (Mauritius Rupees) at the Mauritius Commercial Bank ATM.
9/12/2015: Rue Pere Gandy
Looking south along Rue Pere Gandy. We'd arrived shortly before noon on a Saturday and most of the businesses that were open had shut down by 2pm. As we walked around, the streets got less and less busy.
9/12/2015: Market
The Rodrigues market is open every day, but Saturday morning is the big market event. A few vendors were still open, but many had already packed up.
9/12/2015: SIM card
Signs for the local cellular company Orange were everywhere and we were hoping to get setup with cellular data today. We could purcahse a SIM card, but couldn't enable it until Monday when the local Orange office opens for business.
9/12/2015: Library
The library has free WiFi, but they disable it outside library hours. Since the library had closed for the day, we couldn't connect there either.
9/12/2015: Skiffs
Sturdy skiffs such as these were moored all along the shore. We often saw people out fishing in them, powering the craft by pole, oar or sail.
9/12/2015: Cemetery
We passed two large catholic cemeteries on a walk east to Anse aux Anglaise.
9/12/2015: Aux Deux Freres
Enjoying the local brew, Phoenix, and free WiFi on the balcony of Aux Deux Freres.
9/13/2015: Oil change
Changing the main engine oil after the 461-hour Indian Ocean crossing. This is the first time we've exceeded the oil change interval of 250-375 hours (depending on oil used), but shutting the main engine down to change the oil in the middle of the crossing did not seem worth the risk. We've heard too many stories of people not being able to restart the engine in those situations. We have been changing the oil on the longer 375-hour interval, but even still this is our fifth oil change this calendar year—we have been covering a lot of ground recently. On the right of the photo is our oil storage system. We stack pails two-high and secure them with a fitted marine board base and cover, all held in place with a ratchet strap. When designing the boat, we were initially planning to have an oil storage area built-in along with one for gasoline. We're really glad we couldn't find a solution to locating those, as having portable containers is much more convenient. Being able to get oil, gasoline and diesel all in the same place has been rare on this trip and we're often having to transport oil and gas a fair distance from where the boat is moored.
9/13/2015: Fuel filter
We switched fuel filters during the crossing and replaced the old one today. You can see the old filter has a lot of black residue on the folds after 700 hours. This is either asphaltenes settling out, or evidence of some algae growth.
9/13/2015: Actuator
The service period for the hydraulic actuator (the cylindrical hydraulic ram at the left of the photo) is 2,000 hours or 6 years. Because this part typically gives considerable warning prior to failure, we usually don't replace it until it starts showing signs of wear. This unit continues to run fine at 2,865 hours, but is leaking a bit of oil so it's time for a change. These units can be changed underway by just disabling the stabilizer that's being serviced, but we typically service them at anchorage.
9/13/2015: Gray water pump
We had an obstruction in the outlet of the gray water system in Darwin, which we addressed, but the pump output has been poor since then. So we took it apart today and found out why. The inlet valve had been ripped and inverted, likely by overpressure from the obstruction.
9/13/2015: Spitfire
Whenever we open up a storage area, Spitfire has to investigate. Here he is leaping out of what Jennifer calls "the most awful place" to get spares out of. We'd had it open to retrieve the gray water pump parts.
9/13/2015: O-ring
We noticed black, oily "dust" sprayed around near the steering in the lazarette. Upon closer inspection, we found the source was microscopic bits of oil leaking past a rear thruster o-ring, carrying with it o-ring residue. A 10-cent o-ring and a 10-minute cleanup and it's back to 100% operational. We're glad to have found that one before it was a real leak.
9/13/2015: Blue Marlin
Dinner with other cruisers at the Blue Marlin in Anse aux Anglaise. Seated on James' left in a lime-colored jacket is Mareike Guhr, skipper of La Medianoche who we'd met and last seen at Lizard Island. It was great to see Mareike again.
9/14/2015: Clearing the basin
The regular supply ship is arriving this morning, so all boats must clear the jetty and the inner harbour to allow room for the ship to maneuver onto the jetty. We're all going to anchor in the outer harbour for a couple of hours while it arrives and docks.
9/14/2015: Supply ship
The supply ship arriving into Rodrigues from Mauritius. It's quite a bit larger than we were expecting.
9/14/2015: Boat day
The streets were much busier than we'd seen them so far. Partly it was a Monday morning, but much of the activity seemed centered around the arrival of the supply ship.
9/14/2015: Unloading
All along the street, goods were being transferred by hand from the ship to waiting trucks. We're not sure what was in those big white bags, but they looked very heavy.
9/14/2015: Orange
We finally could get a cellular data SIM card. Data rates here were surprisingly inexpensive: 50Gig for 3,000 Rupees (about 85 USD).
9/14/2015: MRA
Customs and immigration don't charge a fee for clearance during regular business hours of Monday through Friday and Saturday until noon. But we'd arrived shortly before noon on Saturday and our clearance extended into their overtime period and incurred a $1000 Rupee overtime fee (about $28 USD). The officials don't handle payments, so we had to go to Mauritian Revenue Authority (MRA) office on Monday to pay.
9/14/2015: Cashier
Quarantine charges a standard clearance fee of $1800 Rupees, or about $50 USD. We needed to go to a separate cashier to pay that bill.
9/14/2015: Mauritius Trochetia
The supply ship Mauritius Trochetia on the jetty with Dirona visible at anchor to the left. The anchorage is quite small and crowded, with a fairly strong river current where we are. We held well, but barely had room for 3:1 scope (ratio of anchor chain to depth), while we prefer at least 5:1.
9/14/2015: Basin
Just west of the harbour is a small basin with about a dozen small power boats moored inside and a couple of dozen smaller fishing skiffs.
9/14/2015: Fuel cooler
We'd noticed some brown-colored saltwater along the lazarette floor by the engine room door and traced it back to the fuel cooler we'd installed at the Gold Coast. The stainless 90-degree L-fittings at the bottom of the photo appeared to have a manufacturing problem where the stainless steel was porous and the fittings leaked out of multiple holes after only six months. James removed the fittings and was able to reroute the hoses to re-install the cooler without the failed fittings.
9/14/2015: Fishing
Locals fishing off the reef at dusk.
9/15/2015: Clearing through
The supply ship fills the jetty, so the Coast Guard ferries officials out to clear arriving boats.
9/15/2015: Cattle car
The supply ship seemed to have an enormous hold--we watched container after container come out yesterday. Today they filled the ship in preparation for tomorrow's departure. The last containers to go on contained cattle in specially-designed containers.
9/15/2015: Goat
Goats and other livestock are common along the streets of Port Mathurin.
9/15/2015: Cattle
We thought we could hear cows mooing in the port early this morning and later found the source: a large loading area where cattle are led into containers for loading onto the supply ship.
9/15/2015: View
From the harbour we could see a cross atop a hill that looked to be an excellent viewpoint. So we followed a paved road up behind the sports field and dirt road to the top. This is the view, with Port Mathurin slightly right of center and Pointe La Gueule to the southwest on the left.
9/15/2015: Port Mathurin
A close-up of Port Mathurin from the viewpoint.
9/15/2015: Shortcut
We followed the road to reach the viewpoint, but once there found a more direct route back down marked with red paint. The shortcut came out on a set of stone steps into a small lane off the main road, where it makes a hairpin turn just beyond the entry to the sports field.
9/15/2015: Market
We made a quick pass through the market building--lots of produce was still for sale even in the early afternoon.
9/15/2015: Freshwater pump
We have two house freshwater pumps installed. If one fails, we can just switch over to the other. And we carry a third as a spare. The main pump failed today, so we replaced it with spare and are back to two operational pumps.
9/16/2015: Unloading
All boats need to be out of the harbour when the supply ship comes and goes. So we left the anchorage this morning and later returned to the jetty in preparation for tomorrow's fueling. Processing the containers takes several days after the supply ship is gone. Here workers are manually unloading containers of heavy yellow bags onto an adjacent pallet. A forklift carries the pallets up to the second floor of the port building where another set of workers manually unloads the pallets into the building.
9/16/2015: Tirozo
We had a delicious seafood meal at Tirozo just up the road from the port.
9/17/2015: Bunkering request
Today we fueled. This isn't to say that fueling was one of the things we did today--that's all we did today and we were lucky to get it done in a day. We started at the Port Captain's office just past 9am, where we'd been asked to drop off a letter confirming our intent to fuel. We'd arranged everything beforehand, but the Port Captain had changed in the last few days and the new Captain needed more paperwork. We had to fill out and sign five copies of a Bunkering Request, bring it to the fuel supplier to sign and stamp each copy, then return to the Port Captain to sign and stamp each one and then grant approval to bunker at the jetty. The fuel supplier and ourselves also needed to agree to and follow an extensive checklist for the bunkering procedure. The paperwork was designed for large commercial ships and so was a bit of a challenge to fill out (How many tons and what type of fuel do we need? And how many PSI would we like it delivered at?) We burned off nearly two hours getting everything completed and the fueling approved.
9/17/2015: SBM
We needed to pay for the fuel before it was delivered, and the fuel company accepted payment only in cash denominated in Mauritius Rupees. We'd brought sufficient Australian cash to purchase the fuel and brought this to the State Bank of Mauritius to convert to Maruitius Rupees and deposit into the fuel company's account. For money-laundering concerns, we also needed to bring our Australian bank statement showing proof of the source of the cash, along with a passport as identity. The bank also required that someone from the fuel company be there to approve the deposit. After another hour or so, the payment had been processed and we were ready to fuel. It was about 11:30 by this time.
9/17/2015: Rodrigues Oil
There's only one fuel supplier on the island: Rodrigues Oil (RodOil). The fuel would be transferred to this truck for transport to the jetty.
9/17/2015: Filling
The delivery truck doesn't have a meter, so we needed to request exactly the amount we wanted delivered and be on hand at the filling station when the truck was loaded. On the right is Alain Flore of the Rodrigues Oil station, who we'd arranged the fueling with beforehand while still in Australia.
9/17/2015: 6,900 liters
At 12:30pm, the fuel delivery truck now has our requested 6,900 liters on board and it's ready for transit to Dirona.
9/17/2015: En route
We followed the fuel truck to the jetty in Alain Flore's car.
9/17/2015: Forward bladder
South Africa is only 1800 miles away, but we filled the forward bladder to give us the option to run much faster if we choose to since the weather is volatile and potentially dangerous in that area. Even when filled, the forward bladder is not an inconvenience as we can still easily access the bow through the gate at the bottom left of the picture.
9/17/2015: Filling
We filled the internal tanks after filling the forward bladder. The new Port Captain, Alan Stephen, is standing on the left next to Alain Flore of Rodrigues Oil. Filling was a bit tricky as the choices were to gravity feed at a trickle, or use the truck's high-volume pump which is well in excess of 50 gallons per minute. This fill rate was so high the vents in our fuel tanks can't keep up and the tanks are running at a substantially positive pressure. Our fuel gauges read level by measuring pressure at the bottom of the tank, and at this fill rate the pressure is so high they just read full. So we had to rely on the sight gauges in the engine room. This is a slight hassle, but the main issue is the sight gauges don't read beyond 185 gallons from the top. We timed the fueling rate with the sight guages and filled with the pump until we were within about 100 gallons or so of filled on each side, and then gravity fed the rest in.
9/17/2015: Nozzle
Another difficulty with the fueling process was that that the only shut-off control was at the truck--the filling nozzle was just a straight pipe at our end. And the hose contained at least 10 gallons of fuel, so even when the flow was cut-off at the truck, a lot could still come out the nozzle end. So we had to be extremely careful not to over-pump and spill fuel. When the truck was empty, the hoses were drained into buckets and we poured the remaining fuel into the tank via funnel. It was past 4pm by the time we'd finished fueling, the port had closed, and someone had to stay late to let the fuel truck out. We were very lucky to have gotten the whole job done in one day. And were even more lucky to not have not spilled a drop. However, there were times when it felt like we were going to need a defibrillator before we were done. Also we didn't realize it, but the next day, Friday, was a holiday. So if we hadn't completed today, we'd have had to wait until Monday.
9/17/2015: Jerry cans
Fueling was a real hassle, but it could have been worse. For purchases of less than a thousand liters, the only option is jerry cans carried to the fuel station and back. On that model, we would have needed 365 jerry cans.
9/17/2015: Blue Marlin
A successful fueling doesn't normally warrant a celebration, but this one did. We enjoyed a great meal, and a fabulous lemon-meringue tart dessert, at the Blue Marlin.
9/19/2015: Produce
We picked up some fresh produce at the Saturday market this morning. We were surprised to find apples were plentiful, but fruits such as lemons and pineapple were not. Here Jennifer is giving everything a bath in bleach mixed with water to kill any insects before we bring the food inside. After the bath comes a freshwater rinse and a spin-dry in the salad spinner. We haven’t done this since the South Pacific.
9/19/2015: Wheels
We rented a scooter from Rotourco for a couple of days to tour the island. We'd initially considered riding our bicycles, but the island is quite hilly and would have been challenging for bicycles. That explains why we saw so few around. We could have rented a car, but the scooter was economical at 650 rupees per day (about 18.50 USD), and an easy and fun way to travel.
9/19/2015: Pointe La Gueule
The view from Pointe La Gueule east over Baie aux Huites. The coastal road had many good view points over the fringing reef.
9/19/2015: Cascade Pistache
Cascade Pistache is just west of the village of La Ferme with a view north to to Pointe and Baie Pistache. Cascade is French for waterfall, but we didn't see one.
9/19/2015: Francois Leguat Reserve
Our goal for the day was to visit the Francois Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve. We'd arrived shortly before the next tour and stopped for a quick snack on the veranda at their restaurant.
9/19/2015: Giant tortoise
Giant tortoises once numbered in the hundreds of thousands on Rodrigues and in the late 1600s were so plentiful that you apparently could walk 100 steps across turtle shells without touching the ground. Crew of arriving sailing ships took the tortoises for their meat, oil and shells, and the Rodrigues variety of giant tortoise soon became extinct. The Francois Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve has been breeding Giant Aldabra and Radiata tortoises from Madagascar and now has several thousand on site.
9/19/2015: Guide
We were glad to have taken the tour. Our guide did a great job of explaining the reserve history and tortoise habitat and behavior.
9/19/2015: Attention
The tortoises love to have their neck stroked and stand on tip-toe, craning their necks, as you pet them. Their skin is surprisingly soft.
9/19/2015: Canyon Tiyel
The majority of the turtles live in Canyon Tiyel. This long canyon originally was a limestone cave whose roof collapsed thousands of year ago.
9/19/2015: Grande Caverne
The tour included a visit to Grande Caverne, a 500m-long cave filled with stalagmites and stalactites. (That's why Jennifer is carrying the hardhat you see in a few of the pictures.)
9/19/2015: Museum
After the tour we visited the museum, which details the island's history, geology and endemic flora and fauna.
9/19/2015: Quatre Vents
We returned to Port Mathurin along the main road that crosses the mountainous spine of the island. Several good lookouts were along the way, including this one looking south from Quatre Vents to Ile Gombrani and Ile aux Chats
9/20/2015: Port Mathurin
We followed the road we'd returned on yesterday to tour the eastern part of the island. This is the view to Port Mathurin from a short distance up the road. Steps lead down from the point, likely leading to town.
9/20/2015: Wind turbines
Several sets of wind turbines are on the eastern side of the island. These are two-blade rotors produced by Vergnet Eolien, the only French manufacturer of wind turbines. According to the manufacturer, "a 2-blade rotor is lighter, easier to install and easier to tilt down for maintenance or for hurricane protection".
9/20/2015: Pointe Coton
Rodrigues is known for the beautiful beaches along its eastern shore. This is at Pointe Coton, near one of the nicer resorts on the island.
9/20/2015: Anse Ally
Several more nice beaches are along Anse Ally.
9/20/2015: Grenade Wind Farm
We saw the Grenade Wind Farm from sea as we approached Rodrigues. The turbine farthest away has been lowered and is lying on its blades for service.
9/20/2015: Petit Gravier
Walking the beach out to the reef at Petit Gravier. The small island of Rodrigues with its fringing reef, reminded us of Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
9/20/2015: Montagne Malgache
We stopped for a picnic lunch at Montagne Malgache with a sweeping view to the sea. The reef break of La Grande Passe is at the center of the photo, with Ile Hermitage to the right and Ile aux Chats ands Ile Plate beyond it in distance.
9/20/2015: Track
We followed an incredibly steep and rutted dirt track down from Montagne Malgache to Anse Mourouk. The scooter did surprisingly well, but we likely wouldn't be able to get it back up the same road. We knew there was a paved road we could return on though, so weren't too worried.
9/20/2015: Ile Hermitage
We followed the paved, but rough, coastal road along the south shore. The scenery was fabulous. This is looking south to Ile Hermitage that we could see from our picnic spot earlier.
9/20/2015: Anse Grande Var
Looking back south to Anse Grande Var as the road climbs up and away from the coast.
9/20/2015: Pointe La Gueule
The view from Petit Gabriel looking north to Pointe La Gueule, where we'd stopped yesterday to take a photo. Tiny Ile aux Diamant is offshore.
9/21/2015: Beer run
The last job for our scooter before we returned it was a beer run for a couple of flats of the local brew, Phoenix.