6 October 2017 Madagascar to Mozambique (Day 4)
Our position at 07:00 was 18:22S 039:25E
The wind picked up at dawn again, so Glenys was able to get us sailing on a port broad reach. Last night’s cunning plan didn’t go as well as I expected – we had a favourable current this morning, but it was only 0.5-1.0 knot rather than the 2 knots that we were expecting. Still, mustn’t grumble.
Interestingly, at 08:00, we had small “puff ball” cumulus clouds, which are caused by the convection rising from the warmer south-flowing current, but by 10:00 we were back to solid blue skies. We’re only 6 miles east of the position where “Wairima” reported 2 knot currents, but we can’t find these elusive strong currents.
The weather forecast this morning shows that the strong southerlies, which were expected to arrive in Inhambane at 01:00 on Tuesday 10th (Monday night) are not going to arrive until 18:00 on Tuesday 10th. This gives us an opportunity to try to get to Maputo, which is 210 miles further down the coast. To achieve this we’re going to have to average 6 knots over the next 4 days, which is achievable if we continue to get favourable currents.
Mid-way through the morning, the wind backed, going more behind us and reduced in strength, so I poled the genoa out to port. This worked for a couple of hours, but the wind dropped even more to 5-8 knots, so we dragged out the spinnaker, but even with the main sail and the spinnaker, our boat speed dropped to 3-4 knots. We took advantage of the calm conditions to run our water maker.
While we were bobbing along, a huge pod of dolphins joined us to swim in our bow wave. It wasn’t terribly exciting for them because we were drifting along at only 4 knots, so they entertained themselves by making huge leaps out of the water, spinning 2 or 3 times. Unfortunately, they did this at random times and places, so I have many photos of huge splashes, but none of dolphins spinning majestically in the air.
At 15:00, our water tanks were full and we needed to get a move on, so we dropped the spinnaker and turned on the engine. In these calm conditions, our boat speed was 5.7 knots at 1700 rpm and we were doing 6.7 knots over the ground. Maputo here we come...
Glenys produced a Zebu Curry and rice for dinner and we watched another lovely sunset, by which time, the wind had picked up to SE 10. We pulled out the sails and set off on a close reach, which in these calm seas, gave us a boat speed of 5.4 knots. The current has picked up to 1.5 to 2 knots so we were doing 7.0 knots over the ground - I’m so glad that we’ve found the current.
With nothing else better to do on my night watch, I did a little analysis of our performance compared to “Wairima”, which is a similar sized monohull.
Alan and Vicky took the “classic” route by heading west until they found the Mozambique Current at about 16°15S 41°10E and then followed the current along the coast. They had 1 knot of against them for 130 miles from the drop off at Cap St Andre across the Mozambique Channel, but after that had 1 to 2 knots of current with them.
We “cut the corner” trying to go a shorter distance and use the Current data in grib files to make the best use of the currents. This strategy didn’t work very well because we had adverse currents of between 0.5 to 3 knots for 250 miles from the drop off at Cap St Andre. Our route was only 20 miles shorter than “Wairima’s”.
“Wairima” left Baly Bay 24 hours ahead of us, but at 0800 this morning, they were 250 miles ahead of us. Assume that for the last 24 hours, they have done 6.5 knots average with the current, then they have gained 94 miles in 3 days (and shortened their passage by 14 hours.) If I ever do this passage again, I will definitely be heading west until I find the current.
After a beautiful sunset, the first half of the night was idyllic, sailing in flat seas with a full moon, clocking speeds of up to 8 knots over the ground. After midnight, the wind increased slightly to ESE 15, so we were screaming along at 9 knots. In the 12 hours up to dawn, we covered 95 miles, which is an average of 7.9 knots over the ground – probably one of the best overnight sails we’ve had in ten years of cruising.
Unfortunately, just after dawn, the wind suddenly dropped to 6 knots and backed to the East, so we had to turn on the engine.
7 October 2017 Madagascar to Mozambique (Day 5)
Our position at 07:00 was 20:29S 037:28E
With very light winds, we spent the morning motoring south, achieving 6.5 knots over the ground.
Today’s weather forecast shows that gale-force southerly winds are expected in Maputo on the 10th at 15:00 - a few hours earlier than forecast yesterday and the low pressure system causing the southerlies has also deepened bringing stronger winds.
Des Cason has been sending me an email every day and today he said, "The small cut-off low which would have brought light SE to Inhambane/Maputo on the 10th has intensified. A high pressure has ridged in behind it bringing some pretty hectic SW/S winds along the coast. 40+ knot winds are expected off Richards Bay on the 10th. This will spread up the coast to Bazaruto and persist up to the 13th at least in the 25kts range. At 21:00 on the 10th, the low will be at 30S 37E, 1007 Mba with SSW/S 40kts at the epicenter. By the 11th it has moved to 29S 42E, 1003mba, SSW/S 30 kts."
Our plan was to head for Maputo and then dive into Inhambane if we thought that we weren’t going to make it before the front. However, Des has warned us that after a few days of NE winds, the outside anchorage at Barra Point, Inhambane will “not be fun with 1.5 to 2 metre swell”. The inner anchorage at Linga Linga doesn’t sound good either because there’s a shallow 0.4m sand bar at the entrance, which means that we can only enter and leave at 2 hours before high tide, which is very restricting.
So, we had two options:
1. Head for Maputo, which at 07:00 this morning was 430 miles away. If we give ourselves an 8 hour safety margin and aim to get to Maputo at 07:00 on the 10th, then for the next 3 days, we will still have to average 6.0 knots (143 miles per day). We have averaged 150 miles per day for the last two days and the last 24 hours was 168 miles. If we retain the favourable current and have good winds, then we should make it.
2. Head for Bazaruto, which is 115 miles away. We could be there tomorrow morning without any problem. We then hide there, leaving after the system goes away, probably on the 13th.
The risks of heading for Maputo are that we may lose the favourable current and the low pressure system may develop faster. If we have light winds, we’ll have to motor hard for up to 3 days and if the engine has a problem, we’re doomed. If something doesn’t go as planned, then we will be trapped at sea in a serious storm (up to 40 knot winds and 6 metre waves) for several days.
The only disadvantage with going to Bazaruto is that we’ll be delayed getting into Richard’s Bay by at least a week, but we’re in no hurry – our son isn’t coming out to visit until the 17th October, so we have plenty of time.
So, we either have three days of stress, racing to beat a big storm or we chill out in a secure anchorage for five days with some other cruisers. It was a no-brainer - at midday, we turned west towards Bazaruto.
I chatted to “Red Herring” on the SSB radio and they have also turned back to Bazaruto. “Luna Blu”, “Continuum”, and “Mowana” are already on their way. “Wairima” are now south of Inhambane, so they will make it to Richards Bay. My only concern is that we might not have enough beer.
We had a very relaxing afternoon, sailing along at 3-4 knots in the light north winds, which carried on into the night. After midnight, with only 40 miles to go, the wind picked up to NE15, so Glenys rolled away the main and we ran on a reefed genoa at 3 knots until dawn. Unfortunately, we had confused, sharp 1.5 metre waves, which made us rock and roll all night.
We encountered some strong currents in this area, which would suddenly change direction and alter our course through the water by 20 degrees. There were also noticeable changes in the sea state as we went from wind-with-current to wind-against-current. I guess that these are eddies being generated at the edge of the continental shelf.
8 October 2017 Madagascar to Mozambique (Day 6)
Our position at 07:00 was 19:43S 061:27E
At dawn, we had light north winds, so we were only able to sail at 3-4 knots. This was okay because we wanted to wait until midday, when it was low tide and the best time to start to negotiate the channel through the sand bars. Unfortunately, the sea was still very confused, making us bounce around unpleasantly for six hours.
We had a bit of confusion with time zones. Our Ship’s Time was UTC +3 with all our clocks set to Madagascar time. Our normal source of tides is the Navionics Chart app on our Samsung tablet. It told us that low tide was at 12:00, but indicated that the tide was in the “Central Africa” time zone, but what was that? Was the low tide really at 11:00, 12:00 or 13:00 in Madagascar time? The last thing that we want to do after five nights of sleep deprivation is wrap our heads around the conundrum of time.
Fortunately, technology came to our aid. We configured our tablet to automatically set the local time zone and it used it’s GPS position to work out that we were now in the Central Africa time zone (UTC +2) - an hour earlier than all our other clocks. Phew! So low tide was actually at 13:00 (Ship’s Time). To avoid any more confusion, we turned all our clocks back one hour, so Ship’s Time is now UTC +2 and low tide is now at 12:00. (I think!)
We started our approach into the channel at 11:00 (UTC+2), following a set of waypoints published by Des Cason. They were spot on, but we were eye-balling the water depth all the time, using the colour of the water. There are many sand banks along the 12 mile route, but the water is clear and the lighter colour of the shallow spots is easy to see. We had to do a bit of a dog-leg around one shallow sand spit - 21°35.711S 035°24.441E and 21°35.930S 035°24.819E gets you around it.
All the way points are: 21°30 00E 35°25 00S; 21°32.50E 35°23.40S; 21°35.50E 35°22.40S; 21°35.90E 35°24.10S; 21°35.711S 035°24.441E; 21°35.930S 035°24.819E; 21°38.77S 035°25.60E.
“Red Herring” and “Luna Blu” came in with us and there was much debate about where to anchor because the normal anchorage north of Ponta Gengare was very gnarly in the NNE15 winds, which had picked up as we came in through the channel. Eventually, we all headed to the south of the point and anchored at 21°40.39S 035°25.87E in 12 metres, which was much more sheltered.
Once settled to anchor, we had a shower, an afternoon nap; a few cold ones; dinner and early to bed.
Today’s weather forecast shows that the low pressure system is not going to produce very high winds, but the south winds are hanging around the coast for longer (until the 15th.) This means that we won’t be able to start heading south for a week - at least our time here in Bazaruto will be pleasant without any storm force winds. Of course, that could all change tomorrow.
9 October 2017 Ponta Gengare to Ponta Milixa, Mozambique
We slept like logs and spent most of the morning pottering about, tidying up after 5 nights at sea. Glenys made a couple of loaves of bread and I ran the water-maker to top up our tanks. Our dinghy is still on the front deck and I couldn’t motivate myself to put it into the water, so I’d resigned myself to spend today on-board. Fortunately, “Red Herring” called by and offered us a lift ashore - I went but Glenys decided to stay on-board and chill out. Oliver from “Mowana” also came with us.
It was approaching low tide when we landed ashore and the water was very shallow a long way from shore, so we had to carry the dinghy 100m from the water’s edge and left it high and dry to fend for itself. As we walked onto the dry beach, we attracted a lot of attention and a small crowd of adults and kids soon gathered, but mostly kept their distance with a few braver children approaching us.
Being low tide, the beach was a hive of activity. Kids were digging for lug worms for fishing bait and people were wading in the shallow water looking for clams, which they dry on platforms on the beach.
A couple of National Park wardens came over and chatted to us in broken English - they speak Portuguese, but none of us speak that language. The wardens were very friendly and nicely told us that we would have to pay $10US per person (plus $10 per boat) entry fee into the National Park. We said sure, but we had no money with us, so they’ll have to come out to the boats later.
The island of Bazaruto is mostly made of huge sand-dunes and it was a very steep climb up to the village above the beach. The villagers live in round huts called Rondavels made from wood and some kind of cane - we’re definitely in Africa. We walked around looking at the way of life on this barren island. The people appear to live in family groups with a few Rondavels for living/sleeping and one Rondavel for cooking. Each family had a rough set of shelving outside their cooking hut which held the pots and pans.
It was very arid, sandy ground, but we saw coconut palms and payaya trees growing. Each family has a garden area where they looked to be growing some kind of yams. The Park Wardens said that the villagers survive by exporting sea food to the mainland, which is used to buy rice and vegetables. It looks like a tough life living on a sand-dune.
Back at the boat, I found Glenys painting a Mozambique Courtesy Flag - we hadn’t managed to buy one before we left Thailand and we were hoping that we’d not have to spend any more than a couple of nights here. There are rumours that the authorities are red-hot on having a courtesy flag and have even fined people for having a courtesy flag smaller than the boat ensign. Ridiculous I know, but the officials are even more corrupt than in Madagascar and will take any excuse to lever money out of westerners - we hope that we don’t meet any officials.
The wind is forecast to be NE 15 tonight and tomorrow morning, but will then veer around to 20+ knots from the south tomorrow night. The plan is for our small fleet to move tomorrow to an anchorage at Benguerra Island 10 miles further south, which we hope has good protection from the strong southerlies.
We all moved a couple of miles further down the coast to an anchorage at Ponta Milixa at 21°42.56S 035°25.86E (7m LAT on good holding sand). The anchorage wasn’t as good as the previous one and it was a bit bouncy in the NE20 winds at sunset, but at least we’ve probably escaped the $30US park fee.
10 October 2017 Ponta Milixa to Ponta Gengare, Mozambique
The NE wind continued blowing strongly until the early hours of the morning and, to make matters worse, the current switched at midnight and turned us so that our stern was pointing into the wind and the waves. We have a “sugar scoop” stern, which is a low angle extension to the hull, designed to increase the waterline length and make the boat sail faster. Unfortunately, it’s hollow and when waves slap underneath it, the loud bang is amplified and it sounds awful in the back cabin where we sleep. There’s nothing worse than being “slapped up the sugar scoop” to keep you awake.
After breakfast, the Park Rangers arrived in a small power boat and we had to pay $10US per person and $20US for the boat - we didn’t escape after all. I tried to negotiate them down and didn’t want to pay for the boat, but they produced an official looking receipt with the tariffs clearly shown, so I paid up. We’re not cleared into Mozambique, so we want to keep a low profile and don’t want any trouble with the local officials.
A cynic might say that the money we paid out will go into their pockets, but we’re clean - we’ve paid what we should officially pay. I’ve heard that one scam is to put a piece of card behind the carbon paper, so that nothing is imprinted on the “office copy” of the receipt book. They then later write in lower figures on the “office copy” and pocket the balance. On the other hand, they may be honest…
I downloaded the latest weather forecast and the southerly winds expected after midnight have intensified to 25 knots and could possibly be slightly west of south. We were all planning to head down to an anchorage at Benguerra today, but the prospect of SSW winds made us rethink because Benguerra might not be so good in that wind direction.
After some debate, our mini-fleet upped anchor and sailed back north a couple of miles to anchor to the North of Ponta Gengare, which is better protected from the SW. We dropped our anchor at 21°38.66S 035°26.43E in 5 metres on a huge area of good holding sand. (There’s a recommended anchorage closer to the point, at 21°39.13S 035°26.04E, but there seemed to be too many coral patches for my liking.)
As a matter of interest, if we’d have tried to out run the storm, hopefully we’d be approaching Maputo today. Gale force winds are forecast to hit Richards Bay at 14:00 and Maputo at 18:00, so the forecast that we had a few days ago was very accurate. The low isn’t coming up north as much as the earlier forecasts, but at midnight, the winds 100 miles east of Richards Bay are forecast to be 40 knots with 6.5m seas - you wouldn’t want to be out there.
At sunset, we had NE 15-20. It was a little bit bouncy, so we hunkered down below and watched a movie.
11 October 2017 Ponta Gengare, Mozambique
At 02:00, the wind veered around to the south and picked up to 25-30 knots, blew hard for a few hours and then settled down to 20-25 knots. As forecast, the wind was SSW and soon a swell was hooking around Ponta Gengare bringing in 2 foot waves from the south-west. This made it a bouncy, noisy night with the waves slapping on the side of the hull.
We’ve heard that there were 70+ knot winds in Durban and 50 knot winds in Richards Bay yesterday, which caused damage and flooding in the heavy rains. The BBC News is calling the storm that hit Durban a “Super Cell” - 3 cargo ships dragged closing the entrance to the port; harbour patrol corralled yachts that had broken free from moorings and yacht club pontoons were damaged. Richards Bay escaped damage (although the yacht club bar was closed last night.) This weather is not to be taken lightly.
The forecast for today is for the wind to drop overnight and become East 5-10 knots tomorrow. Our plan is to move to Benguerra tomorrow before the next set of strong southerlies arrives late tomorrow night. These winds look to be more SE, so we should be good at Benguerra.
Yesterday, it looked like we had a 4 day weather window on Saturday 14th, but that has now closed up with SE20-25 hitting Maputo on the afternoon of Monday 16th. These systems are very closely packed, so I think that we might have to do short hops to Inhambane - Maputo - Richards Bay.
It would be good to try for Maputo on the 14th. We would have to leave at 9:00 (high tide is at 11:00). That would put us out into SE10 for 8 hours, but we can cope with that if we know that it will turn East and then NE. That then gives us 56 hours until the SE 20 hits Maputo, which is 330 miles away - we’d have to average 6.0 knots. This is a very tight plan, but we'll see how the weather develops - with luck the southerlies will be delayed…
Apart from a brief route planning session on “Continuum”, we spent the rest of the day on board - Glenys did some chores and some more research on places to visit in South Africa, while I edited photos and played the guitar.
12 October 2017 Ponta Gengare to Benguerra Island, Mozambique
We had blue skies at dawn with a light South 5 knot wind - a beautiful day. It was Graham’s 70th birthday, so Karen arranged a tea party on “Red Herring” in the morning, which was fun.
At midday, the fleet of 5 boats set off for Benguerra Island, 15 miles south. The route was a little torturous passing through a shallow area, where we did a dog-leg west, but the minimum depth that we saw was 4.5m at low tide (3.2m LAT).
Our waypoints were: 21°42.96S 035°25.02E; 21°44.78S 035°23.33E; 21°45.46S 035°23.28E; 21°46.73S 035°23.12E; 21°46.49S 035°22.19E; 21°47.07S 035°21.83E; 21°51.20S 035°23.75E.
The entrance into the anchorage was very shallow. There’s a 0.4 mile long channel leading to a deeper “pool”, which went down to 2.4m (1.0m LAT) at one spot. “Red Herring” and “Luna Blu” anchored in the 7m deep pool, which is ¾ mile from the shore and exposed to the south, so we went further to see if there was somewhere closer to shore to anchor. Unfortunately the depth dropped to 2.1m (0.7m LAT), so we turned around and anchored back with the rest of the fleet. We slowly dragged (on weed?) a couple of times before settling at 21°51.29S 035°24.42E in 8 metres of water.
It’s not a very good place to be. We’re ¾ mile from land and exposed to SSE winds; the “pool” that we’re in is only 200m wide and surrounded by very shallow water. I’m not a happy bear. If the wind picks up from the south tonight, then it will be very, very unpleasant. The plan is to go to another anchorage tomorrow morning. High tide is at 09:00, so we’re planning to weave our way through the sand bars starting at 07:00.
As it was Graham’s birthday, we all piled into dinghies and went ashore hoping to be able to buy a beer or even have a meal at the holiday lodge ashore. It was actually an up-market resort catering to honeymooners, so we weren’t allowed to buy anything. After a short walk on the beach, we retired back to “Red Herring” for a rum or three.