GryphonSolo2: Globe40 Leg 3 day 3

Globe40 GryphonSolo2 © GryphonSolo2

We are back at sea here on day 3 of Leg 3 of the Globe40 from Mauritius to Auckland, New Zealand. Heading south to find the Westerly winds before turning East to Australia.

The stop in Mauritius was great. My wife Kim and son Emmett and daughter Sophie all made the 24-hour trip from Boston and met us on the dock upon our arrival, which was very nice. We first all cleaned the boat up alongside my co-skipper Roger Junet and his girlfriend Hannah Morrill and then set off to see Mauritius!

After staying near the marina for a few days, we headed south to the town of Flic and Flac (we mainly went there for the name) and rented an Airbnb for four days, and finally relaxed a bit and decompressed. Roger and I were pretty burned out and exhausted and needed a break. The apartment was right on the beach so we walked and swam and lay in the sun and ate a lot and drank a lot and generally completely relaxed. Every day there was boat stuff to deal with in terms of sails, maintenance, repairs etc. but it was a really nice break from being offshore for 39 days.

We also all needed to stretch our legs so we did two days of hiking in the southern end of Mauritius where there is a very vertical volcanic mountain that we climbed with a guide that proved extremely challenging. It started with a mellow pitch and then about halfway up it became more hand-over-hand climbing and finally the last pitch to the summit was really exposed and challenging rock climbing. We all breathed a large sigh of relief when we made it to the top and looked down over this protected bay where more than 50 kite surfers were buzzing around like little bugs on the shallow water protected by the reef. If you want to learn to kite-surf, Mauritius would be the place. Overall a really nice break and respite after 39 days at sea and wonderful to be back with my family.

So we came back to the boat at Port Louis and my family flew home and Roger and Hannah and I had 6 days to work on the boat to get it ready for this leg. I replaced the masthead wind wand which was acting funky and we had our A2 kite repaired after its catastrophic rip and we carefully went through every aspect of the boat. We then went grocery shopping for 35 days at sea and did a "parade of Sail" with Mauritian guests on Friday before the start on Sunday, which was fun.

So now we are back in the saddle resuming old routines of 3-hour watches, trimming and changing sails, navigating, repairing stuff, sleeping, eating and living on a 40' boat offshore. It's not all joy, but the weather has been good so far so we are grateful for that.

So we look forward to the challenge of the Southern Ocean as we go over 1,000 miles south before turning left and into the strong prevailing westerly winds and seas from behind as we head East towards Australia and ultimately up to NZ.

Hope September is good to us all.