Zac Sunderland's stopover in Rodrigues

"My name is Zac Sunderland and I am 16 years old. I departed
June 14th from Marina del Rey, California in an attempt to
become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world
alone by yacht."

His itinery comprises in total 23883 NM (nautical miles) with stops in Oahu/Hawaii, Majuro/Marshall Islands, Port Moresby, Darwin/Australia,
Cocos-Keeling, Mauritius, Durban/ S.A., Cape Town/S.A., St. Helena, Port of Spain/ Trinidad, Colon/Panama, Panama City, and then from there back to California...


So the stop in Rodrigues where he arrived on late Thursday, Nov 06, was not really planned, in fact if he hadn't been in trouble at sea the days before which cost him a sail and his family and friends certainly not only a good nights' sleep, he would have gone straight to Mauritius. I met Zac briefly on Friday morning when he was busy to remove the genoa, so we hadn't too much time for a chat. By the way, I am the lady referred to as the librarian in his blog.
In fact, I am not a librarian, the library was just supposed to serve as a meeting point as I spend a lot of time there, just in case of further infos needed. Most of the sailors meet there during their stay, local newspapers can be read there apart from the possibility to catch ADSL connectivity to the Internet which makes it an attractive place. (I won't tell anything now about the speed...)
Unfortuantely I missed Zac several times, we could just exchange our web site details today maybe 2 hours before he left Rodrigues in the afternoon. It was this evening that I learned more about him by reading in his blog which I will certainly follow now from time to time.

Zac is an extraordinary young man trying something out of the ordinary. We hope he will succeed, we wish him luck and fair winds and hopefully better weather conditions especially on his way to South Africa where boats are often facing difficult situations.

It's a pity that he hadn't the time for a rest and to discover our island, next time with more time, please and without any troubled water before...!

Please note: In the blogroll's linklist you will find a permanent link to his site as to all circumnavigators who have visited Rodrigues in the past, who will be added during the next days.
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Photo1 taken Nov 07 at 0744 from the jetty of Port Mathurin - I had seen the boat already the night before, not at all knowing about the story behind....

Photo2 taken Nov 07 at 0749 from the quay of Port Mathurin where people from the harbour and the tug boats were already working on taking off the dammaged sail

Photo3 taken Nov 07 at 1503 from our big game fishing boat Sealine at the jetty, Zac preparing the boat to leave soon, unfortuantely no more pics as I had to go before...