Location: 4° 17.3 S, 55° 44.0 E
Sunday 01.14.2007

Return to Isle Curieuse

The Schooner Maggie B is on the move again, but not too far. This weekend we are back on Isle Curieuse at 4° 17.3S 55° 44.0E. Curieuse (named for a French Naval ship) is marvelously full of tortoises and has many perfect beaches. We left Mahe for the weekend, planning to return tomorrow, Monday, morning, and hopefully be off for Australia before the end of the week.

We had a very successful Friday in Mahe, which included filling up on diesel and water. Those of you used to pulling in to a marina and saying “fill her up!” have no idea of the complications of getting fuel and water around the world. First was a serious negotiation with the Marine Charter Association as to whether they would sell us diesel at all. Then a three hour wait for the right bit of the float to open up. Then spinning the Maggie B (in front of the lunch crowd of professionals) in a space with at least a foot to spare in any direction with only 10 knots of wind. Then an hour to get the 1053 liters. Did I mention paying in cash? Also negotiating with a fishing boat to “borrow” their water. But, to be fair, the price was very reasonable at about six SR a liter or $2.26 a gallon, if you exchange your crisp $100’s on the “informal” market.

When we arrived at Curieuse (about 20 NM run), we dived on the boat to admire our handywork of December, expecting to see a perfectly clean hull. The hull was actually looking pretty good, but the prop, which had been totally shiny when we relaunched in December, was completely covered with barnacles. We then fully understood the remark that someone had made in the Yacht Club that one skipper had dived and put a plastic bag over their prop when they left their boat over the holidays.

But I had carried out a new secret weapon (and somehow got it through the TSA and Seychelles Customs): a hookah! You should have seen my son Alden’s face in Chicago when I said I’d bought a hookah. This one is an electric air pump that plugs into the Maggie B’s 110 volt AC, and supplies air to a mouthpiece at the end of a 60 foot tube. See The Air Line. It enabled me to slide down to the prop with a paint scraper and wire brush and get it all sorted out in about 20 minutes. The system worked marvelously and seemed to particularly fascinate the fish, especially a very serious six foot barracuda, which really wanted to slide in and get a close look, though a poke in the nose by the wire brush dissuaded it somewhat.

Owen proved that he will be a fine shipmate, standing tall on the shoulders of the Maggie B’s great Maritime Mechanics, Max and Bart (of earlier legs). He was able to replace the salinity probe in our watermaker in less than an hour despite its being positioned in a place a little harder to get at than the transmission of a 1954 Austin Healey. Tomorrow we are going to (try to) replace the impeller of the Yanmar. It hasn’t broken (as far as we know) but it has been spinning its heart out for 640 hours, which is probably plenty. The generator’s impeller destructed after 400 hours.

All is well.