Dispatches from the Canal du Mozambique Day 15
Misterx
Mon 25 Nov 2024 06:00
25/11/24
8:30 am
Day 15
Mozambique Canal
D To Madagascar 66nm
DTD to Richard's Bay SA tbc
Had a fabulous sail up the west coast of Madagascar yesterday. The conditions were just perfect, steady winds, flat seas and the main sail enabled us to achieve excellent speed, in the high 6 knots, with peaks at 7.5 (I do have photographic evidence!). It was nice to see the main out looking so good, given that it was not new when we left 8 years ago, it really looks in good shape...little inside joke, the main does not see the light of day very often on Mr X. We do tend to do down wind sailing when the main sail would blanket the genoa. We have a big genoa and we find that we are going just as fast if not faster without the main. So we only use it when absolutely necessary like yesterday.
Another first for us, we are going to end up in a country we did not set sail for... so we have no idea what is in store for us. Admitedly, we only want to take shelter from the storm and this is the nearest bay, 300nm away from where we made the diversion. That give you an idea of how exposed and committing this bit of ocean is. Not many places where you can go and hide waiting for a blow to pass over.
As this is an emergency stop due to adverse weather conditions, we are hoping that the relevant authorities in Madagascar will be lenient with their check in requirements given the circumstances. We do not intend to go ashore as we will not be properly checked in and we certainly don't want to antagonise anyone. There has been interesting conversations about switching off our AIS, in effect staying under the radar. For us, the AIS is a security feature and not a spying device, I certainly take comfort in the fact that the world and the other vessels knows where i am at at anyone point, especially when at sea. And if this mean that the Madagascar coast guards are made aware that we are in their waters without due authorisation, I also believe that this is a regular occurrence for them, people hiding from the weather, and they will deal with this in a reasonable manner. We have nothing to hide so they are welcomed to come and visit. We'll have a cup of tea and a biscuit!