Passage Summary and Pictures - Mauritius to Richard's Bay, South Africa

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 21 Jun 2012 13:51
28:47.654S  32:04.700E

May 21, 2012 - May 30, 2012


My, how time flies.  It's been three weeks since our arrival in Richard's Bay.  We've settled in, and John has left us to travel with Sue and Australian friends Ray and Helen in Botswana and Zambia.  We'll meet the four of them next Sunday for a few weeks of South African travel before we head home mid-July.  So far, we've seen little pieces of the Richard's Bay area through day trips to nearby game parks, nature reserves, the beach, and inland to what used to be the site of several Zulu Kings' headquarters.  Between these excursions, and tidbits picked up from the most valuable local information sources (taxi drivers, hairdressers, waiters and boaters), we've reached the very beginning of what we expect to be a fairly long South African learning curve.  More on our South African first impressions later.  For now?  The fourth (and last!) Indian Ocean passage summary.

Yes, the last Indian Ocean passage summary.  It feels good to be typing the words 'last' and 'Indian Ocean' because it means the dreaded Mauritius to Richard's Bay passage is over, and the Indian Ocean is done, dusted, ended, complete, polished off, finished.  Yes indeed, it feels good to have the Indian Ocean pretty much behind us.  While it's true we still have to get around the Cape of Good Hope (or, to be more technically correct, Cape Agulhas), the 800 miles of Indian Ocean between here and there is more of a challenging coastal sail than a passage.  Or at least that's what we keep telling ourselves.  Never mind anyway - we don't have to worry about that until November.

So - the Mauritius to Richard's Bay, South Africa passage.  It wasn't so bad.   Of course having John aboard made it that much easier.  The long periods of lighter than expected winds didn't hurt either.  It was just those last few days fretting over the coming southwest wind change and the Agulhas Current that added to our excitement.  If it weren't for that, this passage could have fallen into the downright easy category. 


Actual track (purple) versus planned route (blue).
As you can see, cutting the corner close to the southern coast of Madagascar saved us a pile of miles and time.  We wouldn't have been able to do this if it weren't for the mostly benign conditions.  We created the curvy bits of purple-dotted line while sailing in light wind.  The straight bits resulted from sailing in good wind or motoring in none. 

It's too bad the label for waypoint 28 covers the last part of our track.  If the label wasn't there, you'd see the purple-dotted line zig-zagging down the coast where we attempted to sail into the ugly southwest wind like all good sailors should.  After the zig-zags, you'd also see the straight line where we gave up sailing and put the engine on for the last 11 miles/4.5 hours like all sane sailors would. 


Passage Statistics:

Total nautical miles traveled - 1,538

Total time - 9 days, 6.5 hours

Total time sailing - 4 days, 11 hours (48%)

Total time motoring and motorsailing - 4 days, 19.5 hours (52%)  Wow.  Lots of motoring - very surprising for this passage, although we did motorsail more than we normally would have during the last two days when we were racing with the clock to beat the southwest wind change.

Average speed - 6.9 knots (7.9 mph)  Not too shabby.  Of course we can't take full credit since we had lots of positive current along the way.

Degrees of latitude traveled - 8.5 to the south (away from the equator)

Degrees of longitude traveled - 25.5 to the west.   We are slowly creeping closer to home - only 6 hours separates us from US east coast time now.

Lowest wind - 1 knot  This occurred on day 8, although we had plenty of light wind throughout the trip.

Highest wind - 30 knots (35 mph)   We had 30 knots with higher gusts on day 6 while sailing past the southern tip of Madagascar, then again on day 9 sailing into Richard's Bay.  On day 6 the wind was mostly behind us, so we barely noticed it (except when it disrupted our dinner), and then on day 9 it was more than noticeable blowing directly on our nose. 

Highest cabin temperature - 85F (2 hours after leaving Mauritius)

Lowest cabin temperature - 75F (8 in the morning on day 8).  Chilly!  It's chilly here in South Africa in the winter.  We had to pull a blanket and the comforter out the vacuum packed bags they've been in since Australia just to cope with the overnight lows of 63F these past few weeks.  Our ski gear has threatened to make an appearance if the temperature gets any lower.  It seems we've become delicately thin skinned after two years in Southeast Asia's furnace.

Number of near calamities -  none   Full credit goes to John for keeping all calamities and near-calamities at bay.  Without him, we surely wouldn't have been able to change headsails and put up the downwind rig without sending something overboard.

Award for Steadfast Sailing - Bestowed upon Don and John for sailing the boat into the roaring southwest wind along the African coast for a few hours while I cowered below.  

Number of dinners consisting of microwaved frozen casseroles - 8 out of 9

Number of complaints regarding dinners consisting of microwaved frozen casseroles - 0

Number of wildlife sightings -  1.   Whales.  Sleeping whales.  And lots of seabirds…but they generally move out of the way before we run them down.  The whales seem much less concerned about such things.


Speaking of whales, here's one of the five or so we disturbed.  Not much to see, but it just goes to show how hard it is to spot these guys when they are hanging out just below the surface. 


Sunset, day 8.  Eight days in and everyone was still smiling - sign of a good passage.

Next up:  Richard's Bay and around.
Anne