Seychelles to Mayotte. 12: 46.719S, 045: 15.696E
Meikyo
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Wed 15 Jul 2026 12:31
This 800 mile passage has a worse reputation than Maldive to Seychelles so we were watching the weather very carefully. We can get forecasts up to 14 days but they tend to show a lot of change and are generally not to be relied upon that far ahead. We had watched the progress of other yachts which had left and they complained of strong winds, strong currents and rough seas. The problem is the wind which blows around the north of Madagascar which strengthens as it rounds the tip. This area of strong wind and current can extend as far north as the Seychelles. After this you meet the winds blowing up the Mozambique Channel from the south, but between Madagascar and Mayotte there is an area of light or no wind. We saw a possible window where the wind around Madagascar was forecast to ease down and stay down for a number of days. We needed six days for this passage so starting out as the winds began to ease and to follow this easing south made sense.  The normal wind situation strong winds which increase off the tip of Madagascar, the red area. Low winds in the wind shadow of Madagascar as you come into the southerly’s from the Mozambique Channel.  Strong current pushing westward around the north of Madagascar Unfortunately it meant leaving after our initial 30 day stay expired so we had to apply for an extension to our stay. This was easy to start with the assistance of Vincent, an agent, but the time required for it to be granted is an unknown. It actually hadn’t be granted before we cleared out but we had tried so that was okay and Vincent only charged for the work he had done. Alison and Brian on Ozone cleared out and went to anchor around the other side of the island intending to make short hops between island anchorages on the crossing if necessary claiming ‘force majeur’ (dangerous conditions) as a reason for the stops. In the end they left a day before us when the worst had passed. When they hit the windless area they were forecast a long time with no wind if they continued to Mayotte so decided to alter course to Nosi Be in Madagascar. The good forecast continued to show and if fact to stay favourable further into the future so we cleared out, a two day process, and left. Having motored around the north of Mahé, Seychelles, we were able to set full sail but found ourselves sailing close to the wind rather than with the wind on the beam and this held for most of the trip. We reefed occasionally when the apparent wind speed was above 17 knots but a lot of the time we were sailing with full sails and a long easy swell. When we hit the windless area we again motored, this time for some 15 hours as it extended for many miles. The current pushed us well to the west and we were hard pushed to sail a good course for the northern pass into Mayotte and had to put in two tacks and then motored into the lagoon. It was 14 miles from the pass to the anchorage off, Dzaoudzi, Petite Terre. We arrived at 02.00 and anchored in 18m a long way out and moved closer in when it was light. Clearance was easy, having printed off the pre-arrival form we took this with our passports and boat registration to the border police at the airport for stamping and sent a scan of the form to the Affaires Maritimes, all done. Now we have time to explore. |