Year 3 -25 May 2026 – Recovery Day-Port Louis- Mauritius
This is the birthday of my late brother Andrew so I hope he is resting in peace.
I woke at 6.00am to put in my first drops and when I turned on the light my right eye was quite sensitive to the light. I managed to get the drops in. I have to do this every 3 hours until 9,00pm this evening. Erika was up as she was leaving at 7.00am to fly to Reunion Island (where we go next) to meet her partner where they are having a walking holiday on Reunion.
Rashid took her at 7.00am to the airport. She will be missed. She had been brave enough to come back after doing the passage from Tahiti to New Zealand. That was her first passage offshore and she was a little nervous out of sight of land. She had come back for this trip and had enjoyed and was good company for Carolyn and Joyce.
When she had gone Carolyn cooked bacon and egg which was nice. My eye felt fine and I had slept well. However, after doing the blog and having had a good breakfast I went back to bed for an hour. The next drops were at 9.00am and I got up and rested in the cockpit. I spent the morning resting and listening to an audio book. I had messaged Jerome but he did not respond to finish off the remaining jobs. I was not too worried as it is probably better I have my patch off when he comes. I have to keep this patch on until Wednesday morning. This is slightly more than 48 hours but I will follow the instructions.
We had a light lunch of leftovers and then I had another rest. I was helped with putting in the drops.
At 3.00pm after the drops we went out and I put a hat on and wore sunglasses to cover my eyes. We went to the Blue Penny Museum. I had difficulty with one eye and in low light conditions reading the exhibits.
The first postage stamp was issued by England in 1841 thereby causing a revolution in the postal system with carriage charges being paid from then on by the sender and not the receiver. In 1847 under governor Comms’s administration Mauritius became the first British colony and the fifth in the world to issue postage stamps for the first issue. The engraver Joseph Osmond Barnard was chosen and specifications were laid down. The left profile of Queen Victoria would figure on each stamp as depicted on the 1840 English stamps of 1 penny and two pence. Barnard gave an estimate of 10 shillings for the production of 500 stamps of each domination and that's when the famous Post Office was born according to the legend Barnard as he had engraved Post Office rather than Post Paid by error but in fact post office was the correct name at the time. The original plate was engraved with specimen of each stamp every one of the thousand stamps had to be printed individually in orange red for the 1 penny and in blue for the 2 pence and finally gummed. The 22nd of September 1847 was the date but the first penny stamps were in fact used the day before to frank invitations sent by Lady Camm, the governor’s wife as she was giving a fancy-dress ball at Government House in order to calm people down after the ban on the use of French in the higher courts of justice. Three of these envelopes has survived. The rest of the museum had various statues and pictures of what certain areas of Port Louis used to look like then and now.
Joyce stayed in the Museum and Carolyn and I went for a walk into town which meant walking through some nice gardens with Palm Trees and Banion trees. It was good to walk around and to get off the boat. We stopped for a cup of tea and then returned to Stormbird. I then had a shave and a shower from the neck down as I am not to get any water in my eye.
We then went out for supper to a local restaurant to have some fish which was good. It was easier as it was dark but with one eye you to have to watch your steps more.
I did my last drops at 9.00pm and was ready for bed. I have one more day with the patch and then I can take it off. When I have taken off the bandage I could tell that already my right eye was focusing well. I have to be patient for one more day before I can cease to be a pirate!
The picture of the day is me having an ice cream as a reward with my eye patch.
Need/Opportunity Year Three
I am now in Mauritius and will be going to Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.
I have now found additional crew for Mauritius to Durban. There may be space from Durban to Cape Town from about the beginning of July and we should arrive in Cape Town on about 25-30 July 2026. If at all interested contact me on my email below or WhatsApp +44 7931360372.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com