Reunion to South Africa - Day 2/3
Anastasia
Phil May and Andrea Twigg
Tue 6 Nov 2012 18:36
26:44.0S 045:18.8E 700 miles covered, 700
miles to go
So far, the most striking thing about this leg has
been the variations in the weather. This part of the world is dominated by
low pressure systems moving up the coast of South Africa and then pushing east
across Madagascar. These can be vicious storms along the South African
coast, but they die down as they move northeast.
We encountered a small example of these
depressions just off the tip of Madagascar. It was almost spent and so all
it produced was an uncomfortable night of 30-35 knot winds, rough seas and a bit
of rain. Fortunately the winds were in the right direction (south) so we
just had to reef down, follow our course and wait for the
depression to blow over. Once it had passed we entered the center of
the depression, where the wind dropped and we had to motor across it for a
couple of hours, Finally we reached the back side, with clear skies,
relatively calm seas and a gentle breeze to move us along, together with a 2
knot current which really helps.
We passed a boat today whose AIS said it was towing
and had limited maneuverability. It was
pulling a huge barge and was just about to encounter 35 knot
headwinds. I hope it had a good engine.
Stop press. The newly repaired clew ring just
ripped off the mainsail. It looks like the stitches just ripped out, but
it will have to wait until daylight to see exactly what was at fault. The
rest of the trip we will have to use the mainsail reefed. We will probably
be able to switch to the parasailor for some of tomorrow.
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