Reunion to South Africa - Land Ho!

Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Sat 10 Nov 2012 08:51
28:33.4S 032:43.9E  1386 miles covered, 38 miles to go
In Treasure Island and similar works of fiction there is always a triumphal cry of Land Ho when land is first sighted.  In our experience the land just gradually emerges from the mist on the horizon so that it is difficult to say when "may be a mountain" changes to "is a mountain".  Even so, when you can definitely see it is land there is a moment of elation and dancing around in the cockpit.
 
In the end our route turned out to be a good one.  We had good wind overnight to bring us south and then, 60 miles offshore and much further than expected, we picked up a the strong southerly Agulhas current.  Had we not been so far north we then would have been hard pressed to make Richards Bay without having to sail against the current. 
 
To put it in context, below is a photo of our chart plotter.  The red line is the direction we are steering, the blue arrow is the direction of the current and the green line is the direction we are actually moving.
Land Ho, but only if you look closely
Anastasia is going like a crab today