Aground en route to Australia

Today was not such a good day, on many levels. OK on others. The Plan was to leave today for Perth. We went in the morning to the Botanical Gardens, which were stunning. After hitting the Post Office and before re-supplying at the Super-U. Then there was a huge hideous traffic jam, then we had our lunch at out favorite Isle Maurice restaurant, the Captainerie. Then a long torrential, gully-washing, frog-choking downpour. But we were on the Maggie B more or less on our time-line to depart for Perth. We motored proudly out of the Marina for the Customs dock. Big, open harbor with lots of Blue Water boats coming and going. No channel markers. Dredged to 17 feet, per the chart.

We ran aground solidly just 200 feet off of the Five Star hotel that had sheltered us. Maybe only 20 yards from mid channel. No buoys but it was on one chart I had. A three foot spot. Distracted, inattentive, concern about Customs, maybe a bit of pride and show off’ness.

We stuck hard at dead low tide. No problem in Maine where you get 12 feet of tide. Here it is less than a foot. We got marvelous support from another yacht. The Mauritius Coast Guard came over just to be sure nobody was dying.

We ran one line ashore to drag us back out, like a kedge, but attached to granite. We ran one line from the main tops to heel us over. Finally, after local advice and lots of lead-lining, we finally kedged, warped and heeled us off the rock. Whew! It took four hours. It was awful.

We returned to the Marina, invited the French couple that had helped us over for drinks, and had a group hug.

Australia tomorrow, we hope.

All is well.