Sep - Portland Yacht Club

IRIS Continues to
Cross Indian
Ocean
I
was awakened by the different feel
of the boat and then heard the
autopilot alarm sound meaning it
couldn't hold the course. I jumped up
from a fairly sound sleep and dressed
for deck with harness and shoes. It
was 0030 hrs. Iris had rounded up. I
turned off the autopilot and got us
back on course. Re-engage, the autopilot
would only steer right. With the
help of Marty Kirk from Rogers Marine,
I much later saw that the sensor
arm had been broken from the hydraulic
drive. The windvane paddle had
broken off several days before and I
was waiting for port to replace the broken
safety tube. So there was nothing
left to do but steer.
Iris was in the eleventh day of the
nearly 2000 miles passage from Cocos
to Rodrigues Island. I was alone and to
this point having a good passage. My
young Swiss crew had departed Iris at
Cocos. There had been a mutual falling
out and having them leave worked out
for the very best. Iris was a happy boat
again. Things do work out for the best.
When the autopilot went out I figured
landfall could still be obtained during
daylight that day if we continued. So I
steered the rest of the night and day
briefly heaving to so I could make coffee
and grab something to eat.
By 1150 hrs I could see the smudge of
Rodrigues on the horizon. Several
hours later I approached the entrance
to the outside reef. A rain squall obliterated
all visibility. It passed. The
Coast Guard called me on 16 and directed
me to enter the well marked
dredged inner harbor and tie to the
jetty. I told the officer that I was very
tired and would like to just anchor and
sleep and clear in the morning. He
insisted. Iris was able to tie to the concrete
wall ok as I turned off the engine
and coasted in as the transmission cable
was broken. Indonesian fisherman
were standing by and took dock lines
and stopped us. That was luck having
them there as the dock is usually deserted.
Iris was secured to the wall at 1620 hrs,
12 days and 6 hours after rounding
Hornsby Island at Cocos. The first
four days propelled us with 25 to 30
knot trade winds. In one 24-hour period,
Iris covered 195 miles point to
point with double reefed sails.
There followed three weeks on a wonderful
island which tourism has yet to
find. There were no Internet cafes nor
backpacker hotels. There seems to be
only two nice beach resorts on the island
and those are far from Port
Mathurin. Also anchored at Port
Mathurin was the British yacht Janet
that I first encountered in Samoa in
2008. My favorite activity was taking
the local buses to different parts of the
island then walking the beach or hill
trails back to the boat. Of course I also
enjoyed the selection of Mauritian rums
and going to the market for fresh eggs
and veggies. Mauritius English is the
official language but people speak
French or French Creole. Language
never stopped the locals from being
friendly and helpful.
Towards the end of July a good
weather window appeared for the relatively
short 350 mile jump over to Mauritius.
Light winds sounded good. I
was getting geared up to leave on Saturday
July 23rd. Friday looked good too
but it is bad luck to began a passage on
a Friday. Then early Thursday morning
a boat sailed in and anchored under
sail. I dinghyed over to greet them and
learned they had sailed 2400 miles from
Indonesia without engine or windvane.
Three of them steered the whole way.
One crewmember later asked me if she
could sail on Iris to Mauritius as I was
leaving soon. She wanted to clear this
with her skipper first. She was a
French backpacker who has more offshore
sea miles and has visited and
worked in more countries before 30
then most people dream of doing in a
life time. I said ok.
We left on Saturday but not until midmorning
as we had to clear and then
had light to no wind for the three day
sail to Port Louis, arriving at dawn on
Tuesday. By afternoon Iris was tied to
the downtown jetty which is just a few
minutes walk to the downtown district
with shops and the best open fruit market
I've seen on the trip. It is just entertaining
to swim through the sea of
people at the market as it seems to be
always crowded.
Now two weeks later, Janet has arrived
and we are exploring Mauritius. Yesterday
Janet took the local bus south of
town to a beach where she met crewmember
Melanie on the beach and had
lunch with her family who is visiting
from Paris. Me I'm doing boat projects
in an exotic place with the parts
Janet has brought from home. Isn't
that the definition of cruising
The AIS alarm is great on these passages.
It sounded the alarm for eight
ships on the way to Rodriguis. None
of which I could see. And then it identified
three ship on the way to Maurituis.
First there was GPS, then Sat
phones and sailmail on HF radio, now
AIS. Don't leave home without it.
John Colby
S/V Iris
Photos Wanted for
2012 Calendar
T
he
PYC Calendar Committee is
looking for photos for the PYC
2012 calendar. If you would
like to submit photos for consideration
please send a full resolution digital copy
to Terry Johnson at:
tj622@comcast.net
The photos should be of PYC member
boats. The photos need to be submitted
to Terry Johnson no later than September
30.
Terry Johnson
S/V Ozymandias
www.portlandyc.com September 2011 • 13