Sampler Plate

Two and a half years may seem like a long time to be “on vacation.” Long enough to come to know a place more fully than if one were a fly in and fly out tourist. But when circumnavigating the globe, the truth is we barely scratch the surface on the various landfalls we are lucky enough to visit. Our travels are more like trying the sampler plate in a restaurant.

Seeing a foreign land by sailboat is definitely a distinct kind of tourism. We quickly learn where it is safe to anchor, where to provision diesel, propane, and food. We spend a fair amount of time doing non-tourist activities such as cleaning, maintenance, and repairs on the boat. When alone and in remote areas like Vanuatu and parts of Indonesia, we are at the mercy of the locals and are lucky to get a more intimate glimpse into their lives. In places such as Tahiti, Bali, and here in Mauritius, we are just another pair of tourists and our experiences are not much different from those who are staying in the resorts and hotels.

Thus far, our sample of Mauritius has been lovely. Perhaps it is because we had a long passage across the Indian Ocean. Perhaps it’s because we were in mostly third world conditions since the end of May and a good part of Mauritius is quite first world. Perhaps it is because we are more than half way on our journey and so we are now heading toward home instead of away from it. Perhaps it is because Mauritius is indeed a truly lovely place. We will never know it fully, but some our sampling follows:

First of all, our marina is intimate. Until the Somali pirates caused many sailors to detour around Africa, not many sailboats came through Port Louis. A few charter boats reside here, but otherwise, it is unusually crowed now as we cruising boats gather here for the passage to South Africa. The ideal time for this passage is from mid-October to early November. So the local boat owners will probably breathe a sigh of relief when we we’re all merrily on our way west.

Mauritius is famous for its white beaches. Jon and I rented a car for two days and explored the western side of the island. I don’t know about the whole island, but yes, there are many beaches like this one along the western coast. This is one of the more famous spots around the town of Flic-en-Flac. Unlike many of the Pacific islands, here we find trees growing right up to the shorelines. According to one Creole man we met, the tourist season is down this year, no doubt due to the economic problems in Europe and elsewhere.

Preparing the net while managing the swells

In the small village of Tamarin, we came across these fishermen getting their rather long net organized. Seven or eight men were engaged in the task; this has been a constant throughout our sailing -- local fishermen working day-in and day-out either for catch to sell or to eat … while the port is filled with commercial boats hailing from China, Taiwan, and India, there's still a strong local fleet in these waters.

Filling the carrying bowls with raw sea sa

Inland from the beach, on the other side of the coastal road was a salt factory. Sea water is piped inland about 2000m, to a series of cascading pools, each lined with carved blocks of volcanic pavers. As the water is allowed to trickle downslope to its adjoining pool, it evaporates. Women in long blue skirts and white blouses shovel the increasingly-saline solutions to the edges of the pools, until, in the lowest pools, the salt crystals gather in piles, where they are loaded into blue perforated bowls (allowing the residual water to trickle out). Then, two to a head, the women carry the salt-filled bowls to a shed where the raw salt is bagged and shipped for final processing. It was hard not to notice that only women were doing this heavy, manual labor.

Carrying the salt bowls

Salt storage

Mauritius is a volcanic island and the black lava rock is also common. Where there is an outlying reef, the beaches tend to be a delightful white sand, making for some of the more beautiful beaches we have  ever seen; across the unprotected shorelines, the beaches are filled with lava boulders tumbling into the sea.

Jennifer, Mauritian beach

Jon, west coast Mauritius

On the northern tip of the island, a series of small outlying islands create hazardous conditions for ships, with reefs claiming more than a few wayward navigators.  It's called Cape Malheureux, "Cape Misfortune."  Perhaps that's why there's a charming, old little church there, so charming that it prohibits newlyweds from having their pictures taken there unless they've actually been married there.

Well, we weren't married there, but we're not in the picture, so I suppose we're still OK with God!


We expect to be here another week or so, doing some touring, some boat work, some provisioning, and some resting.  It's a big buffet we're sampling on this trip, and while we have missed many courses, our stomachs are filling up and we've managed to taste a lot of interesting places, including this gem of an island, Mauritius.