May 2025
On the morning of Thursday the 1st, Ally, Suz and Shawn revisited the snorkel site found yesterday and this time Ally was able to see the anemone garden and bright green soft coral for herself. They returned to Imagination for coffee and prepared everything to go ashore on Ile Du Coin for a BBQ late lunch and an afternoon of enjoying each others company. Their final day in Chagos was spent doing a quick clean and then everyone remained onboard relaxing for the rest of the day in preparation for the long sail coming up. Having waited for some rain to pass through, the anchor was taken up at 10.30 on the 3rd using one engine due to ongoing starter motor issues on the port engine, and they were sailing out of the atoll an hour later. What a privilege it had been to spend 10 or so days in such a wonderful place with just one other yacht ( who had journeyed down through the Maldives, too). They never did see a patrol boat to have permits etc checked and when they looked online a week later, there were 6 or 7 yachts there!
That first day and night was rather bumpy and noisy as they sailed past a vast shallow underwater atoll. The following day was more settled, but as night fell, the winds picked up which increased the wave size and the incoming patches of cloud bought in a little rain with them which all led to another uncomfortable night. Over the course of the day on the 5th, the choppy waters calmed, the clouds dissipated and the wind and waves settled to gusts of 14kts rather then the 20kts they’d had through the day. The good winds have meant good progress. Over the next few days, the winds increased, which meant bigger swells with an occasional splash into the cockpit and choppier, noisier conditions inside. The original plan/itinerary was to sail straight to Réunion, but with Rodrigues ( a small island belonging to Mauritius) en route, it seemed a shame to pass it by and so on the 9th May at 19.05 local time, the anchor was down in Port Mathurin Bay, Rodrigues having made contact with the Coastguard a couple of hours prior to arrival and again on arrival. Ongoing problems with the port engine starter motor meant arriving on one engine and after a good nights sleep, Shawn set to work on it once again whilst Suz and Ally cleaned and tidied and desalted inside. The anchor was up again at 09.34, this time to move into the Harbour area for clearance. First the Coastguard came onboard along with the Drugs detection unit and a guy from the Health Department. They were all very polite and had a great sense of humour and told Shawn Imagination was the first yacht to visit this year! Health clearance was granted so everyone then went ashore to visit Immigration and Customs right at the harbourside. Everything was very efficient if a little chaotic as the officials tried to get everything done before they clocked off at midday…it is Saturday afterall.
With the official stuff being done, Ally, Suz and Shawn rushed to a telecom shop to try and get SIM cards for data, but most shops close at midday on Saturdays, so they missed out by about 10 minutes! The search was on then for somewhere to eat and they found a great little snack bar where they enjoyed a tasty lunch and a few drinks while using the free wifi to catch up on messages/emails etc etc . The people are very friendly and helpful with most speaking French, Creole and English ( official language) and the town has a lovely feel about it. One of the guys working at the snack bar chatted for a while and he told them that he is a sports fisherman with his own boat and was very proud of the fact that he had Prince William onboard with him in 2019 and said what a lovely, down to earth person he is. On returning to the harbour, they had to wait for 15 minutes while a ship departed before they could get in the dinghy to return to Imagination…..the last few metres having to be rowed when the outboard cut out!
Sunday 11th, everyone went ashore again to sit outside the close Tourist Office to use a free wifi hotspot for a while to finish catching up with news/updates etc. With most places closed, they returned to Imagination again after lunch. Shawn had issues with his laptop, which ran out of power and was not charging after the charging port got damaged. With navigation and weather software on it, it was a bit of a concern, but they were able to download the software onto Ally’s laptop. Unfortunately, the engineer in Port Mathurin that they took it into on Monday 12th was unable to resolve the issue.
On Tuesday 13th, they met up with the car hire guy to take delivery of a small Nissan Datsun. With Rodrigues being so small, they drove around and saw much of it over the course of the day including St Gabriel Cathedral, a viewpoint and a beach. The plan was to go ashore before 9am on the 14th to go to the Tortoise Sanctuary for the 9.30 tour, but the car key could not be found anywhere – Shawn thinks it probably dropped out of his pocket into the water when trying to start the stubborn outboard yesterday evening. He contacted the car hire guy who told him he doesn’t have a spare!!?! After checking with the Port security and Police in case the key had been handed in, the returned to Imagination to have another look, to no avail. They arranged another car for the following day and they finally got to have a fabulous tour of the tortoise sanctuary and caves with a guide called Wayne who had a great sense of humour as well as being very knowledgeable. It’s hard to imagine that when this islands wildlife was first documented, there were 1000’s of tortoises roaming freely, but with ship crews eating them and taking them away as easy to keep food onboard, they almost became extinct the same way several other endemic species did, including the Solitaire, a cousin of the Dodo. The tour also took them into some caves where a complete skeleton of a Solitaire was found and excavated. ( The issue with the other car with no key was resolved when Shawn paid for a replacement key to be made and sent from Mauritius).
Then following morning, the plan was to go ashore to clear out so that they could leave at 5am on Saturday morning, but the dinghy had other plans! The outboard wouldn’t start and despite a valiant effort to row ashore against wind and current, they took Imagination alongside the harbour wall. They were the first yacht to visit Rodrigues, but there was now another yacht alongside clearing in, so the authorities were already in their offices. Many countries allow 24 hours to depart once clearance has been done, but not here. The Immigration officer told them they could clear out the following day when the office opened at 6am, but Customs said that the Speargun they had taken for safekeeping could not be returned until the Police office where it was under lock and key opened at 9am! The decision was made to return at 3pm to clear out and then depart that evening instead, that way they would be sure to arrive in Réunion before heavy weather was forecast to go through that area, but it did also mean they would have fairly strong winds for the first night. The next few hours were spent getting Imagination ready for departure, shopping for snacks and relaxing before returning to Immigration at 3pm where the paperwork had been completed already, so it was just a matter of stamping passports. There was a short wait for the Customs guy to come along with the speargun, but all the formalities were completed quickly and they were away from the Harbour at 15.45. Conditions were very comfortable initially, but as they came out from behind the island several hours later, the sea became more choppy and overnight the winds picked up. Over the next 24 hours, they had gusts to 27kts, intermittent rain and some ugly sea conditions making life onboard a little uncomfortable, which is not unexpected for the Indian Ocean. As the winds slowly died down over the following 48 hours, so did the ocean and by Monday morning, the wind had all but disappeared to the point they had option but to use an engine to ensure arrival at Le Port between the operating hours of 8am and 3pm the following day.
In order to be able to enter the country, yachts must have a booking with the Marina so when they arrived at Pointe Des Galets Marina, Le Port, Réunion, they knew exactly where they were going, which was alongside the Harbour Wall. No one had answered any radio contact when Shawn and Ally tried, but 2 officers from Gendarmerie Maritime came across in their RIB and they informed the officials we had arrived. The Marina manager came to see them and gave them paperwork to give to Customs, passwords for complimentary WiFi and a key for the toilet/showers. 3 Customs officers arrived shortly afterwards but they didn’t board, preferring to do the necessary from the dockside – they also acted as Immigration and stamped the passports. The remainder of that day was spent cleaning and then relaxing – Imagination would remain alongside the wall for the duration of their time here. On the morning of the 21st, they all walked into town with a list of errands to run and managed to purchase data SIM cards, get Suz’s iphone repaired, visit the tourist office and arrange a hire car. They enjoyed a drink at the oldest bar in Le Port which was built in 1968, Le Boucanier. It used to be frequented by the French Navy and is full of interesting nautical bits and pieces and the barman was super friendly. They returned for a drink later in the evening, having gone back into town for dinner after a shower etc. It was quite hard to find somewhere to eat as most bars/restaurants close mid afternoon which was most unexpected.
Nearby in the harbour, Shawn found an engineering/mechanic and so the outboard was removed and taken into them and they did a really thorough job, giving it a service and replacing worn parts, so now hopefully it will be more reliable than it has been lately!Ally and Shawn walked to pick up the hire car at 6pm after a lazy day on Thursday 22nd May and on Friday, everyone was in the car at 6am for the drive up to Volcan De La Fournaise ( Volcano) within the Reunion National Park ( World Heritage Site) and is considered to be one of the most active in the world with the last eruption being in August 2023. The temperature was chilly as they got out of the car and the strong wind made it feel even colder, so they layered up ready to go walking across the caldera having descended what felt like 100’s of steps. After walking across the rugged, sharp, hard terrain for over an hour, Suz and Ally decided they’d had enough, so they didn’t make it up to the crater before turning back to return to the car…which meant having to ascend those 100’s of steps! As they drove down the mountainside, they travelled through areas of thick, wafting cloud which can come in very quickly and cover the volcano/caldera very quickly, which would be pretty scary while trying to remain orientated there.
Next on the agenda was Grand Galet Waterfall and this involved a hair raising drive up narrow, extremely steep, winding roads with multiple hairpin turns and the gutless Nissan Pixo struggled in places, even in 1st gear. As if that weren’t enough, oncoming vehicles, travelling down much faster then they should have been given the circumstances became another hazard as well as the deep gully at the side of the narrow road! The waterfall itself was very pretty, appearing our of the rock face in many places rather than tumbling from the top. On Saturday the 24th, they visited a mountain looked out named Cap Noir and thankfully, the drive up wasn’t nearly as horrid as the previous day. The lookout involved a half hour hike up the mountainside which was steep and a little treacherous at times, but the view from up there was spectacular and well worth the hike. That afternoon, they had planned to spend a few hours relaxing on a beach with a book and drink, but when they got down to St Leu, the wind was howling at around 25 knots and they got sandblasted as they got to the shoreline so they drove back up the coast a little to L’Hermitage – Les – Bains where they had some lunch and a walk through the coastline trees where there were many families sitting together enjoying food, drinks and games together. It was Mothers Day on Sunday the 25th and they managed to get free entry into the manor house at the Musée de Villète that was lived in by the owners of the on site sugar cane plantation who had over 100 slaves. Wandering around the grounds for an hour or so before going into the house was very interesting as they looked at the church built for the slaves, the tiny hospital and gardens. They then drove half an hour North to Saint Denis and Suz very kindly bought lunch for Ally and Shawn before they drove on to Saint Suzanne to visit Niagara Waterfall which was accessible from the roadside without any steep climbs or precarious drives and it’s great area for families and friends to share a picnic and swim in the cold water. It was then back to Saint Denis to drop Suz off – her 3 months as crew was sadly over and she was staying a couple of days in town before flying on to another adventure. Happily it wasn’t goodbye and she’s returning in July! Ally and Shawn dropped the car back and walked back to Imagination.
From the 26th to the 31st, Ally and Shawn cracked on with essential maintenance and repairs that had been put on the back burner with 2 crew onboard for 12 weeks solid. There was also plenty of laundry to do along with cleaning and they replaced the bridle ( it snapped in the Andaman’s), fitted a new stern nav light which had been playing up for a while and Shawn even managed to get his laptop working which was a huge bonus!
