11 am on July 30th, 2019 we untie the lines at Port Louis, Mauritius and head off for a short 140 mile passage to Reunion Island. Because it was such a short passage, we could reliably count of the weather predictions that was foretasted: 10-15 knots of wind from the SE, no more than 2-2.5m swell, mostly dry…NOT!!!
We ended up motoring almost the entire way!!!!
Being chased by the Coast Guard (LOL). 
So we saw this activity as we were leaving port…is that a bag of (use your imagination…we did) being dropped on a little motor boat?
As we left port, we had ZERO wind and we were in the shadow of the island for almost 5 hours. We did throw out our new genoa just for kicks!
From the Log Book:
- 5 pm – motor on, wind on the nose, jib out but not helping, swell 1.5-2m, a bit rolly
- 7pm – motor still on, jib still out, must be gong against a current SOG 5 knots?
- midnight – wind picked up! SOG 6-6.5 knots
- 3 am – Reunion lights on the horizon.
- 4 am- Hailed by the Reunion coast guard. We were 45 miles out..how is that possible?
hummm….looks like we will need new sail numbers…
We made landfall about 8 am on July 31st.
Look at those clouds hovering over the mountains… 
Ahh…we see port!
It should be noted that the Le Port harbor is closed at night…and the harbor masters office hours are from 8 am-3pm M-F, 9-12 Saturdays, closed on Sundays. Further, we were told that the harbor can close due to large swell that wraps around the island and makes the channel and entrance to the marina very difficult.
The channel into Le Port harbor. 
The marina entrance. We were also told that when the
The harbor master is also the Le Port Marina and they organize customs/immigration to come to your boat. The operate on VHF CH 09 and it is best to hail them about 5-3 miles out from the harbor. It is advised to contact the marina/harbor master before showing up as the marina often gets full and I will tell you, you do NOT want to anchor anywhere around the island…SERIOUSLY!!! More on that later. Jerome will ask you to fill out the below form and return it him before he can assign you a slip. He and his staff are very professional and they even provide you with a map of the marina with your slip assignment….this has never happened before and we are grateful for any additional information we can get!
I felt like a monkey trying to hop over to the dock from the boat….but no worries : ) 
Be sure to have a spring line ready as the dock are half the length of your boat. Also place your fenders about 1 foot off the water because the docks are very high.
Once we were docked, we were greeted by Pierre who gave us a handful of welcome material including a WiFi passwords, keys to the gate, and a map of the city which he marked of all the stores, car rental, and of course…the boulangerie/patisserie! An hour later, 2 officials showed up and within 5 minutes our passports were stamped and we were all cleared into Reunion…the easiest clearance we have EVER had….no joke!
It’s time to get our food and wine on…French style!!!!
Next up: Eating our way through Reunion….Our waists can’t take it!!!!