Yesterday we knew that we had to skirt around a small coastal low pressure system. We were preparing our “back door” manoeuvre where we would sail around the east side of the system and then west to Richards Bay. However, our morning update from Des Cason had mixed news. The low was not deepening as expected and would give lighter wind than previously forecast. Then the BUT. The light wind coastal systems often have extremely high CAPE values, which means there is a lot of energy in the atmosphere giving rise to squalls and thunderstorms. All yachts in the area should not underestimate the consequences of getting caught in the storm zone!

Des gives out general advice to groups of yachts in an area and personalised advice to individual yachts. For us this meant pulling out all the stops to get far enough south by midnight to allow the storm system to pass behind us. Also to stay more than 35 degrees east which would be the eastern limit of the storm. We had to do this to avoid being “nailed”. Good advice. The only slight hitch was that we were very unlikely to be able to get far enough south. Nevertheless we got out the spurs and whips as instructed, which for us meant the pole for the genoa. We clung on in the cockpit and headed south at up to 7kts speed over ground and awaited our nailing. However, in the afternoon we had a further update from Des to say that the system was weakening and furthermore the line of storms was moving away to the north west. IF the gribs were correct we could relax. Phew! Our strategy was to continue sailing south and as soon as the wind veered to the east follow it towards the coast.

By 2000 we had lightning ahead and to the west but the wind had died. Nothing for it but to start up the engine and head south east in the hope that, being on the edge of the system, we could avoid the worst. The gribs were wrong. The lightning was amazing. Huge bolts down into the sea or zig zagging across the sky. A display Guy Fawkes would have been proud of. We kept checking the radar but apart from the odd small blip nothing showed up. Unless we were further from the storms than we realised it was impossible to detect them individually and all we could go by was the general direction of the flashes. We had no rain for the radar to detect and so had we been caught within the storm area it would have been terrifying wondering where the next strike might be. Two boats that we know were caught but fortunately came through unscathed.

Today we are heading southwest towards Richards Bay but are waiting for the wind to back through south then southeast before we can make a direct course.