Author: Ulrich Fingscheidt

Tonight will be a slalom around another field of Chinese fishing vessels and nets marked with AIS. I have the strong impression that I belong to the last generation who has seen (and eaten) fish. The whole globe seems to be plastered with fishing boats.

The first Low on my passage to South Africa is not too bad. I expect low winds tomorrow and I will even have to motor. At the moment the course is 212° to avoid two Chinese fishing fleets (photo to follow).

I dared to leave for my most difficult passage from Réunion to South Africa and was rewarded with several Humpback Whales some miles of the island.

A pleasant sail from Rodrigues, an easy port entrance in La Réunion, a very friendly harbourmaster to help me with the docking lines, and a super fast clearance procedure five minutes after my arrival, on a Sunday. Can I ask for more? Let’s have a nap before I check out the town Le Port.

Mauritius is one of the places I skipped on my route. My priority is to stay at fewer places longer to get to know them better rather than to squash in every possible landfall in a rush. Mut zur Lücke.

“Ore Shandong” is one of the largest dry bulk vessels. It is 360 m long, with a beam of 65 m, the draft is 23 m. The deadweight is 400 000 DWT, this is the measure how much a ship can carry. This ship loved Easy a lot and passed my bow at a distance of less than 1 nm. I had the right of way. I still have hope that one day there will be more translations of the COLREG (Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, Kollisionsverhütungsregeln) including Rule 18 (a). A power-driven vessel underway shall keep out of the way of: … (iv) a sailing vessel. In an ideal world there would even be a copy of the COLREGs on the bridge of every ship.

My first evening at the Rodrigues anchorage. I could not get to shore, the outboard stopped working after starting. My mistake, I had flooded the carburetor by pumping too much fuel through the line. Rather than rowing to shore I decided to dry out the carburetor and visit the island on the next day. Thank you for the nice photo, Anna from SV Vista.

After 16 days and nights at sea I arrive at Rodrigues. Happy, proud, excited.

This is the broken genoa halyard. The reason why I nearly lost my new genoa. Last time I checked it for chafe was in New Zealand. Last time I had moved the halyard was in the Tuamotus. The halyard restrainer at the Nautor’s mast results in the chafe on the genoa halyard. I carry a spare genoa. I have a spare genoa halyard.