Passage from Madagascar to South Africa

We left Madagascar from Baly Bay, just north of Cap Saint Andre, on October 13 and arrived in South Africa at Richards Bay on October 20. We had several anchoring spots on the Mozambique coast researched and plotted since most boats are not lucky enough to get a weather window long enough to make the entire trip non-stop. The planned passage covered 1113 miles in seven days. Here are more details about our planning and experiences:

Planning the Mozambique Channel Crossing

Cyclones became a slight threat in northern Madagascar in November. South Africa was warming in the southern hemisphere Spring season and temperatures there were becoming more suitable for us. Some cruising boats made the crossing a month or two earlier and they encountered chilly air and somewhat stormy conditions. Jimmy Cornell's "World Cruising Routes" says the best time to go down this channel is October-November. Some South African cruisers also recommended leaving in November. We decided to leave Madagascar early before any chance for a cyclone.

The Agulhas Current is famous for its strength and for the tremendous waves which can be produced by winds blowing from the south against it. This current becomes important south of Madagascar's latitude, near the end of the passage to South Africa. Directly west of Madagascar a fairly weak current of 1-2 knots runs northward along the Madagascar side of the channel while the Mozambique Current of 1-3 knots runs southward near the African coast. Large ships apparently take advantage of these currents by traveling north on the Madagascar side and south on the African side. 

Some cruisers chose to work slowly down the Madagascar coast against the current as far south as Tulear but there were few secure anchorages south of Cap Saint Andre and we did not see any advantage in that route. We felt the best course was to sail west from Cap Saint Andre until we passed north of Juan de Nova Island where we hoped to enjoy the south-flowing Mozambique Current and then ride that down towards South Africa.

Typical winds along the Madagascar west coast were easterly in the mornings, westerly in the afternoons and seldom strong. This made for delightful coastal motoring in almost flat water. This wind pattern extended out into the Mozambique Channel and affected boats trying to sail the rhumb line from Cap Saint Andre to Richards Bay. The combination of light and variable breezes plus a slight northerly current resulted in very slow progress for some of those sailing boats. The two sailboats that left with us had very slow going and were forced to stop in Mozambique and wait.  We had a forecast of several days of light northerly winds when we started across the channel and we enjoyed flat water for the first 4 or 5 days towards Africa. Tropical latitudes usually do not have strong winds (excepting squalls and cyclones) so we had no worries about winds in the northern part of the Mozambique Channel. Below the Tropic of Capricorn the winds were often stronger. Low and high pressure systems constantly moving from west to east across southern Africa seemed to spawn fronts which swept up the channel about once per week. Most important to avoid were strong southerly winds blowing against the strong Agulhas Current.

Weather Forecasts

We seldom bothered with weather forecasts while cruising along Madagascar's northwest coast. Winds there were almost always light, usually blew from the land in the morning and towards the land in the afternoon, and waves were never large. When we needed forecasts for the crossing to South Africa we obtained GRIB files through Airmail and listened to SSB nets hosted by volunteers in South Africa. The passage from Cap Saint Andre to Richards Bay was over 1000 nautical miles. Extended weather forecasts for a week or more in the future were not accurate enough to insure good weather for the last part of the passage, the part where wind strength and direction was most critical for cruising boats. The best we could do was leave with what appeared to be a good "weather window" and be prepared to duck into emergency anchorages in Mozambique if the forecast changed.

The most-used SSB weather net was "Peri-Peri" on 8101 khz at 07:00 and 17:00 South African time (GMT + 2). The net controllers used BuoyWeather to get forecasts for the locations of calling boats. Another valuable net was the South African Maritime Mobile Net hosted by Graeme on 14316 khz at 8:30 and 13:30 South African time but we never heard him with our lousy radio.  We seldom called but often listened and found the Peri-Peri net very useful. We were very grateful to the dedicated South African volunteers who made sure weather information was available to cruising boats every day.

Madagascar to Africa

We raised anchor in Baly Bay and left Madagascar at 3AM the morning of October 13. Lovina and Daemon were going to wait for first light and be 3 hours behind us. The wind was a light, as usual, and we headed out into deep water before turning west. Along the coast we were bid a final farewell.

By midnight we were about 30 miles directly north of Cap Saint Andre and had already landed a 1 meter long Spanish mackerel and had enough fish for our passage.  

Alternator Troubles

Unfortunately, a gremlin returned with our main engine 200 amp alternator and once the batteries were full, the alternator output started pulsing.  I have a meter on my main electrical panel that shows the alternator output and I could watch it swing back and forth from 100 amps to 0 amps.  I suspected that it was a failure of the “sensing” wire between the alternator and the batteries but had no desire to spend extended time in the 130 degree engine room.  We also carry a complete spare alternator, but changing that underway was similarly not desirable.

Although this condition was worrying, it was not critical since the batteries were remaining fully charged.  The main concern was that these large current fluctuations were creating a lot of interference in my SSB radio and I could barely hear any boats or weather nets more than about 200 miles away.  Since my generator starting battery is completely separated from the house and engine batteries, I ran some temporary wires from the radio to the generator battery but saw no noticeable improvement.  Ultimately, we were unable to get any weather GRIBs or send in position reports during this passage. We figured that we could still talk to other cruising boats and would be able to hear the African nets as we neared Mozambique.

Over the first two days we made steady progress and were able to speak daily on the SSB with Lovina and Daemon. We still had not found the helpful Mozambique Current, but we also had no adverse current and we kept on moving.  We were visited by leaping dolphins and humpback whales and we fell into passagemaking mode.  Emily even did a regular watch after dinner until 9PM to shorten Kim’s normal watch.

Lovina and Daemon could not find good wind so they headed more westward and we slowly drifted apart and after 4 days we could not hear them anymore.  We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and continued southwest looking for helpful current. Two boats, Mojombo and Cats Paw, had left two days before us and as we caught up to them, we started communicating with them on the SSB.  They had good radios and verbally relayed weather reports, and we all decided to push non-stop to Richards Bay.  We passed our safe anchorages on the Mozambique coast and still had not found the Agulhas Current 60 miles off the coast.

Dirty Fuel

We had taken on almost twenty 55 gallon drums of fuel in Madagascar over our stay there and even though we had filtered it all, Tom noticed the vacuum gage on the primary engine filter steadily rising (indicating the engine working harder to suck through the dirty filter).  We do have two filters installed and simply changing two valves, we switched over to a clean filter and all was well for a few hours.  This secondary filter housing, however, must have a small air leak and we were getting air into the fuel that would cause the engine speed to surge as the air moved through the engine.  Tom managed to remove the old dirty filter, install a new one with the engine running in the 130 degree engine room in record time.  Unfortunately, enough air got into the fuel line and the main engine died.  The seas were relatively calm still, so Tom managed to re-prime the main engine and get her running again quickly.  He still carries a burn on his priming finger from the hot metal pumping handle on the engine-mounted priming lever!

Finally just south of Caldiera Island and only 20 miles from the coast, we started to fly.  Most of the next 2 days we had more than two knots of current and had speeds over ground of 7, 8 and 9 knots.  Emily had fun watching our boat speed go past 10 knots as we surfed down some of the steeper following seas.

As we got closer to Richards Bay, the seas got bumpier and more confused although not too big.  The last 20 miles were really bumpy as we had 25 knots of wind on the nose. We snuck ahead of both Mojombo and Cats Paw even though they had left 2 days ahead of us.  

Before entering Richards Bay it was necessary to call Harbor Control on VHF channel 12 (or 16) and ask permission to enter. They controlled movement of large ships in and out of this port. We were told it was the largest coal exporting port in the world, also exported large amounts of aluminum, chrome and wood chips and accounted for over half of all South African shipping. On October 20^th at 11AM, we motored to the International Dock area of the small craft harbor guided by friends on Erica who heard us on the VHF and guided us in.  We did not have long to wait for official clearance. Immigration and Customs officials arrived later that day to quickly clear us into South Africa with three-month visas. It was very nice to deal with professional officials who charged no fees and asked for no "gifts." We then moved into the Tuzi Gazi marina to take care of business, enjoy good Internet and telephone services, and begin our visit in Africa.

We had some outboard motor parts and a new mileage flag from the Nordhavn folks waiting for us at the marina.  Monkeys scampering across the docks gave us a hint that we are not in New England any more…

Tom