June 15, 2011-Friends Check In From Paradise

haere maru image
Stephane, Valerie, Patrick

Our friends Patrick & Valerie, from the yacht Haere Maru, sailed from Mauritius to little a bit of hidden paradise in the Indian Ocean, St. Brandon Rocks, and sent us a brief report.

"We went later with Valerie and the kids and Stephane my Mauritian friend that you met in the marina, to St Brandon , nice weather but not a lot of wind , I used my engine for 120 hours to help the lazy sailing... Everything went very well on board , were fishing every day and were like Robinson Crusoe's, it was exceptional. " Patrick and Valerie

When I say that this bit of paradise is "hidden" it is because it hardly shows at all on any charts. I couldn't find it anywhere in the Indian Ocean. Looking north of Mauritius where, based on reports from local sailors it had to be, I found nothing but deep blue sea. But the sailors in Mauritius would still talk about this magical place north of Mauritius called St Brandons and I had no idea what they were talking about. I wondered if it was imaginary. But it is there and when they explained exactly where it was I finally cracked the code. You zoom in far enough on the chart and there is Cargados Carajos Shoals, which is known to the locals as St Brandons Rocks.

Lat 16.36.8 Lon 59.33.8

From the photos Patrick sent it looks georgous. I wish we could have gone there.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, South Africa