Hello friends-
Well… we finally made it to Mauritius!!! A mere 40 days from Cabo Verde. That was a work-out. About as varied a set of conditions as possible. The last 700 miles were hard on the wind or tight reaching through constantly changing wind and sea conditions. At times the slamming was reminiscent of our delivery from Portland to Lorient when we nearly lost our minds. But we were finally rewarded by a beautiful sail once we sighted the volcanic peaks of the southern tip of Mauritius and sailed all day in beautiful conditions up to the finish in Port Louis. The race management team carrying GS2 family and friends came way out to meet us along with the photo-boat so we were accompanied the last two hours before a sunset finish. Very satisfying. And when we got to the dock, my wife Kim, son Emmett and daughter Sophie were all there as well as all our fellow co- skippers from the other four boats, so we had a small party on the pier with lots of high-fiving and hugging.
After dinner and many drinks we crashed at a hotel near the boat and slept in a bed that wasn't moving for the first time in 40 days. Blissful. Yesterday we got up late and had a huge brunch and got to work cleaning the boat with a team of six who did an incredible job of removing all the wet gear, drying in the hot sun, thoroughly cleaning and re-loading the boat before we headed off to a beachfront hotel. Awesome efficiency! So now we de-compress and chill heavily for a week. We plan to explore and hike all over this amazing island and then return Sept 5 to get the boat ready for the Sept. 11 start of Leg 3 from Mauritius to Auckland, NZ- another really long voyage.
So, thanks to all who are following and I hope these last days of August are relaxing for everyone. If you want to chat, just reply to this email and I will get back to you while onshore.
Cheers,
Joe and Roger on GS2
