Sun 14th Oct '07 ... Rodrigues Day!!
Arrived safely in Rodrigues yesterday around 3pm after an excellent night & day of sailing in 25knots, gusting 30knots, although having had a slight worry getting through outer reef with being unable to see the transit. Seeing swell crashing onto reef close by at one point and then an old wreck nearby shortly after was, to say the least, a bit disconcerting - and no-one answering on VHF16 to give advice was also not helpful. Fortunately, I was in the correct general area and with the sun out and
'eyeballing' it using the sea colour, I was able to get back into deep water and come through eventually to the marked entrance channel - from then on it was simple and I even had the CG meet me finally as I got close to the jetty they wanted me to tie up to in order to clear formalities. A big concrete jetty with only a few rusty bollards did not look inviting to tie up to but two tugs were alongside, with 'Bowtie Lady' rafted to one of them - so I opted to raft up to 'Bowtie Lady' with the bonus
of quick clearance, very friendly officials being promptly on the scene, and the ability to step onto land for the duration of my stay here. (The tug inshore has engine problems and won't be moving for some time to come.)
It then turned out that this was a holiday weekend because Sunday is Rodrigues Day - celebrating 5 years of the Rodrigues Assembly. So by soon after midday, I was seated in the Stadium, ready for the music, dancing, poems, speeches (of course!) and general enjoyment of the scene... I think all of Rodrigues must have been there! Certainly, all uniformed personnel seemed to be. Great fun was had by everyone - watching or taking part! I'm writing this as the football match is about to start .....
bye for now - must go & watch it!!