Mauritius is a small listing — three crewed catamarans, all of them at La Balise Marina in Black River — and a destination where the base's location matters more than anything else you will read about the island.
Black River is on the west coast, in the lee. That is excellent news for the sailing: the south-east trades blow across the island rather than onto this shore, so the water is sheltered, the lagoon is calm and the anchorages are usable. It is the reason this is among the easiest cruising grounds in the Indian Ocean. But it also means the postcard the island is sold on — Île aux Cerfs, with its sandbars and lagoon — is on the opposite side. Mauritius is only about 45 kilometres across, yet reaching the east coast means going round the island and doing much of it into the trade wind. It is a passage, not an afternoon, and on a three-day charter it is not realistic at all.
What the west coast gives you instead is Le Morne Brabant rising straight out of the sea at the island's south-western corner, the long lagoon behind Île aux Bénitiers, Tamarin bay with its resident dolphins, and Grand Baie further north. All of it within a few hours of the marina, all of it sheltered.
The season is the dry half of the year: May to December, with south-east trades and air between 20 and 28 °C. January to April is warmer and wetter and carries genuine cyclone risk — you will see that window recommended elsewhere, but it overlaps the cyclone season and the two facts belong together.
All three boats are skippered only, averaging 13.2 metres with an average build year of 2020, and weekly rates of roughly €9,800 to €12,500 reflect a crewed, largely all-inclusive product rather than a bareboat.
