We are the cheeky boys ...

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Tue 21 Jun 2011 06:01
Tuesday 21 June 2011 0506UTC 0906 Local Time
 
27:11.331S 043:39.275E
 
I guess we need to change the clocks to South African Time which looks like two hours behind our current time. I'll check it out and perhaps change tomorrow.
 
Our plans to round south Madagascar were complicated by the weather patterns which would have favoured staying as far north as possible and the various bit of advice we had been given to stay as far south as possible. Eventually due to the favourable winds, the sea state and gut instinct ( and the desire to shorten the dog leg any southing put into the passage) we rounded at seventy miles south.
 
This position while well to the north of a big low which was passing through would put us in a hole in the wind caused by the wind shadow of Madagascar. Looking further down the line to Friday, some serious winds are forecast to set from the south near to Durban. The first time they appeared on my GRIB files they were wall to wall 40 knots. Yesterday the Grib showed an initiall 40 knots easing to 30 - 35. However they are blowing from the South West right over the Agulhas current and here is what the chart says about that:
 
ABNORMAL WAVES
Between 29deg South and 33deg 30min South abnormal waves, up to 66 feet (20metres) high, preceeded by a deep trough, may be encountered; these occur mainly seaward of the continental shelf, where the Agulhas Current flows most strongly.
 
Lovely.
 
The reason for telling you this is that with normal sailing we cannot be expected to get near to Durban until late Friday early Saturday. Right slap bang in the middle of this forecast full Gale.
 
So ...... we sailed way above our intial waypoint of 100 miles south of Madagascar but still well into the very deep water, right into the slack wind.
My hope was that, looking at the sea state we were in and the winds on the Gribs, that the sea state in this location would not be as we were advised.
 
The cheeky plan was to motor sail through the slack winds pointing straight for Durban and try to gain a few valuable hours. The intention was to keep motorsailing until the forecast 20 knots on our port bow arrived. I think that may be it calling me to the deck now actually....
 
Picking up strong favourable currents we motorsailed along from 2300 until now at 10 knots. Cheeky but as we had hardly used a drop of fuel since our windless passage from Sri Lanka I knew you wouldn't mind.....
 
More importantly we do not have an option to sail stright into a southwesterly gale (which I am hoping may be forecast slightly more favourable when I check the weather today)  over the Agulhas current. So when up against it one has to use all the tools in the box.
 
We have gained a lot of time and though I will have to turn off the engine now because we are starting to slam it is just possible to slide into Durban before the forecast gale comes through. Only just, and we need 600 - 700 miles of good sailing speeds to hit the coast near Richards Bay and then slide down towards Durban inside the current which resides just seaward of the 200m contour of the Continental Shelf.
 
The reasons for this approach are threefold. We will be hard on the wind towards South Africa and without tacking and adding time to the passage we may be able to lay Richards bay some 85 miles to the North. Richards Bay will do fine as a land fall, and is a port of entry, if we can't make Durban. Thirdly and as already mentioned above, by getting to Richards Bay we can follow the coast down inside the strongest currents on the continental shelf contour, and by hugging the shore can avoid the worst of the forecast winds.
 
The forecast however may change as forecasts of 4 - 7 days out are prone to, so all this may change. But hey - it's a plan. A cheeky wee plan - but a plan.