Madagascar and the Mozambique channel
CARANGO AMEL 54 #035
PETER and VICKY FORBES
Sat 5 Nov 2016 06:50
| 24:06.55S 050:53.98E I awoke to a mighty crunch on Carango’s hull on the forward port side - just another massive wave at the odd angle - relax. Mark was being sick and most of us feel that way - it is a rough passage. I came up into the cockpit - actually it is quite cold now at night. There is a slit of a moon waxing so its light will help more and more each night. It is impossible to see forward through heavy rain. The AIS is OK but there are always the fishing boats, sometimes unlit sometimes with massive searchlights shining into the water. So on we go - there is an excellent wind and Carango is sailing at between 7 and 10 knots - we just saw a good patch of 10.5knots. We set off from Île de la Reunion at 17.30 on Thursday 3rd November and cleared the port entrance by 18.00 to set course for a waypoint 130 miles South of the island of Madagascar. One is advised that due to pirates/terrorists it is wise to stay well out from the cost of Madagascar. So we plan to do just that. It is now 10.30 am on 5th November and we are still sailing well in good wind and on course.  Sea smoother now and Carango is piling on the miles. 0.57 of a mile sounds a huge margin and of course it is when crossing the English Channel but somehow out here on the ocean it seems very close. Especially as I reported on an earlier blog one of our fellow yachts have a collision with a cargo ship in broad daylight. This is a very busy shipping area and we sometimes have as many as 4 or 5 ships showing on our AIS some coming up behind and some from forward - we don’t sleep on watch! This is a cargo vessel called STIGGLA 220 meters (one of the smaller one we meet]. We talked to him by VHF radio to check his intentions - he kindly changes course by 12 degrees so we can maintain our course and sail set.The weather forecast is some what mixed for our arrival in Richards Bay - we are hoping we don’t meet the much vaunted 60 foot waves. |