At noon yesterday s/v Khulula escaped a sweltering and humid day in Port Louis and set sail for Reunion Island, 140nm WSW. In this case “setting sail” turned out to be rather overstated, as we seem to have “set sail” and “started motor” all at once. The wind is very light, and is predicted to remain so through Tuesday evening. We plan to depart Reunion for South Africa on Wednesday morning.

In the interim, however, timed exactly with the windless days, there is a nice SW swell forecast. We are holding thumbs that there will be sufficient swell to surf the famous lefts of St Lieu.

Dave Abercrombie packed up his stuff and stepped off the bouncing deck of Khulula for the last time yesterday afternoon. Dave, it has been wonderful to have you, and congrats on stepping up to the Indian Ocean passage. He is replaced by Guy Patterson, older brother to the famous Hugh Patterson, who is rapidly adjusting to life aboard Khulula.

After the huge amount of garbage on the lee shores of Cocos Keeling, we were interested to investigate a lee shore of Mauritius – we were anticipating finding significant amounts of Indonesian garbage. However, a long search on a deserted beach on the SE coast of Mauritius yielded but one child size and heavily travel worn flip flop and a couple beaten up pop bottles. We have a few theories about this lack of garbage – mainly to do with oceanic currents as well as the beach topography of that particular beach. Stay tuned for OceanGybe Garbage Study, Mauritius. It could not be more different to that of Cocos Keeling (also coming soon).
It is a fantastic morning, ruined only by the sound of the engine. The sun is shining, and the sky is blue. I can see the peaks of Reunion off the Port bow, and through the binoculars I am just starting to make out the control tower and windsock of the the airport. Almost time to make breakfast. Brys should be awake soon, to join me with a refreshing drink of morning mate.