Port Louis

Hi Everyone,

Greetings from the beautiful island of Mauritius.  We arrived safe and sound yesterday morning.  I actually sent you an e-mail yesterday but lost it when I tried to send it as I have a very weak signal.
We arrived at around 7.30 a.m. yesterday and then started the round of immigration, quarantine, customs, harbour security, each with about five forms to fill in!  It reminded me of "Yes Minister".  It took longer than it takes to go through L.A. airport, but at least it was all done at the coffee table on the dock and all concerned were very pleasant..  They all wanted our ship stamp on their documents so it was good that we had one made before we left home.

Well, so that we keep getting some excitement in life, the hurricane "ANAIS", the first of the season and extremely early at that, is now heading straight for Mauritius and will be here in about three days.  It does seem to have reached peak strength (100-125 km/hr.) so hopefully it will weaken by the time it reaches us. They tell us that they are going to put all the yachts in the very inner part of the harbour so hopefully we will not get a storm surge.  Nevertheless, we will just have to cope with whatever eventuates.
Today we are going down the coast to a place called Tamarina where other yachtsmen tell us we can swim with dolphins in the wild.  Thereafter we will go and anchor in Grand Baie to the north of us, until the hurricane is imminent.

It constantly amazes me how many people are sailing around the world in small boats.  Yesterday, together with us on the customs dock and not counting the 22 ARC boats who are going to another part of the harbour, there were two boats from U.S.A., one from Canada, one from Britain, one from South Africa and this morning one has just arrived from Italy. On the British boat is an elderly man (late 70's) on his own.  His wife has just gone back to Britain with a terminal illness and he has remained here to keep sailing! Fancy that!  He and his  wife have been sailing since 1991 and have been to 65 countries.

Port Louis is a mixture of first and third world.  There are tall skyscrapers juxtaposed with old buildings which look as if they are beyond repair.  There are people in business suits, winding their way past pavement vendors selling all the cheap, usual trinkets, fruit and vegetables. Genetically the people appear to be mostly Indian and there are not too many people of European descent.  They are all very friendly and helpful.

Well, I will keep you updated on what eventuates here with the hurricane.

Lots of hugs
Arti & Dimitri