Busy times

We've had a great time in South Africa but now I'm back working on a boat in Australia and Julie is at home in Argentina visiting family and we don't arrive back to the boat until the first week of next year.

After we finished checking in at Tuzi Gazi marina we wandered over to the Zulu Land Yacht Club to check it out and see if they had any space for us. The world ARC rally was coming in a couple of days with 22 big boats but they still found a great spot for us and were super friendly. We loved it straight away. Big grassy areas all around with lots of BBQ Or Braais as they call them and a good bar with cheap beer, couldn't ask for much more?! The floating pontoons were in a lot better shape also than Tuzi Gazi and you could point your bow into the Southerly wind, were as the other marina you are side onto it and there were many problems with pontoons breaking up. The only downside was most of our friends stayed in Tuzi Gazi as they prefered being closer to all the restaurants ect but it's still not far to go and catch up with them. It got busy when the 22 ARC boats arrived and was a good buzz with lots of Braais and beers going down but after a week they were gone, on a mission to sail around the world without taking a breath, good luck to them;)

My South African friend Simon who has a boat is Langkawi also came up to see us which was great to catch up over a few beers.

We did a few boat jobs including cleaning out our 3 water tanks properly. The water we got in Madagascar didn't do much for our stomachs so was good to get them cleaned out with bleach and properly flushed out and was surprising how much sediment was in the bottom! We also fitted a second automatic bilge pump with an alarm which we had been meaning to do for a while.

Then it was time to go and explore, we hired a cheap little buzz box and bought a tent and went for a drive up north into the parks. Was brilliant. We drove the first day up to the north enterance at Umfolozi game park and stayed at a backpackers not more than 5 mins from the gate. Up at 5 the next morning       

And in the rain we drove in, animals were pretty quiet to start with but as the morning progressed we saw a heap, pretty well everything except chetah and leopards. Ended up driving until 2pm doing over 150kms through the park and was knackered after it, lots of concentration driving dodging potholes and looking for animals but was definitely worth it. We then drove to Cape Vidal which is another game park were you can camp, we arrived late arvo and set up our tent and stayed a couple of nights.

Very nice place, right on the beach with good campsites, a popular place for the locals to get away for the weekend. A little bit worrying though that our neighbour said the next morning that late that night after coming out of the toilet block and there was a chetah there looking at him! Apparently there haven't been any attacks for a long time;)

We also went on a boat trip on the lake and saw hippos and crocodiles which was pretty good.

Then it was back to the yacht club to clean and pack up Sunflower ready to leave on our flights back home.

Richards Bay

Well the last night out was a little exciting. The breeze started to fill in early evening from the NNE and by midnight we had 25kts with rain. It was directly behind us so we had to put in a few gybes to stay reasonably close to the coast. We had 2 reefs and a scrap of headsail and were averaging 8kts. Should have put a 3rd reef in really as it continued to grow with gusts especially as we went further out. The waves weren't too bad, sloppy for sure but could have been a lot worse. About 2am the shackle on the traveller connecting it to the mainsail broke, shit. Ended up being ok as it broke down the bottom and made a hook so the mainsail didn't go wild and I was able to lash it together but it could have been catastroff! Chinese shackle is all I can say:) they will all be replaced soon.

Mantra was also around hanging for daybreak to enter the channel and by 7am we were inside and very relieved to be here! Timing is everything and we wouldn't wanted to be out there much longer at all as by early evening it filled in from the south with a vengeance. We were out for dinner with a couple of other boats eating lamb shanks and chicken cordon bleu with a smile on our faces when it did hit thinking how lucky we were to have good weather forecasting!

Happy days, loving Richards Bay. 

We arrived in Tuzi Gazi marina to clear in but today we are going over to the Zulu Land yacht club.

Back in the western world and it feels alright!

Almost there! Mon 3rd Nov

Well I even got a tad emotional today when we spotted the South African coast.... Paul Simons "Grace town" got thrown on, Malagasy rum came out, and well there was a bit of a party going on in Sunflowers cockpit for an hour!
Had a good nights sail last, but today we had the motor on again switching it off at 4pm. The forecast is for strong NE winds with some rain after midnight so we might be in for an exciting run into Richards Bay. We have 80 miles to go and plan to enter the channel at daybreak.
Will be happy tomorrow we're sure ;)

Current! Sunday 2-11

Well after deciding yesterday that we weren't going to burn any more diesel and just cruise on into Maputo the wind slowly filled in. We also got a text from Tom on Ever After saying they had 2-3kts current inside of us so we headed on in. Our "Google Earth Live" waypoints for the current were thrown in the bin as they proved to be a waste of time! Just follow the coast along the deeper contours and you're laughing! Not the opposing currents we saw on live. Anyway, we had a great night and found it and were doing 7-8kts under full sail until half 8 this morning.then the breeze died and left a sloppy sea so we have motored a while as we are now back on for arriving in Richards Bay for Daylight Tuesday all going to plan! The forecast is for the breeze picking up tonight with easterlies, building until Tuesday afternoon from the North at 20+ and then turning Strong southerlies by early hours of Wednesday morning so we should make it in plenty of time.
It's now Sunday 1800 and we have 220nm to go until Richards Bay and have a couple of kts current that will hopefully build also.

Happy Days! Sat 1 nov

Well yesterday we were starting to forget that we are actually a sailing boat. We had been Motoring continually in a flat calm sea although we did manage to sail slowly for 2 hours early morning but that didn't last long. So it was back to watching more episodes of Seifield and transferring more fuel to fill in the day until lunch. Then we busted out the solar shower for a bit of a scrub and Julie gave me a haircut which was a big improvement from the "dumb and dumber" style I got last time and then the wind slowly filled in from the SE which was perfect as we got a little apparent wind. So the windvane was set and the last lime sacrificed with a drop of the delicious Malagasy Rum with Bob Marley cranking and we were off! Doing 6.5-8kts with the current, Happy Days!
Had a slower night as we lost the current although still sailed with enough wind. There is another big weather system with strong southerlies hitting Richards Bay Tuesday late at this stage. We were hoping to make it there for the morning just before it turns but at this speed we won't make the 450nm and no point burning diesel if we can't make it anyway so we will just plod along and head for Muputo and hang out on the cape for a few days until it turns good again.

Back in the Mozambique Channel!

Well we left nearly 24 hrs ago and have been motoring for nearly 20hrs of that in an oily slick of water with a left over southerly swell. Have just got the motor ticking over using 2ltrs an hour and we are doing 6 knots with the help of the current so we are happy with that. Forecast for more light winds the next few days but you never know we might get to sail sometimes with some luck! Will just keep heading south while the weather is good and see were we end up, at this stage the weather is turning bad about the 5th so we should get a good run out of it especially if we keep getting 130-150nm days.
Our 1300 pos is 18.52s 37.52e approx 200nm NE of Bazaruto and 670nm to Richards Bay SA.
Maybe with some luck we might catch a fish:)

Birthday Forecast!

Well it's been a great couple of days waiting for the weather to change. We had dinner the other night over on Mantra. Helen cooked us a beautiful prawn pasta with flans for desert, Spectacular! Then we hosted on Sunflower last night, I cooked a vege Sri Lankan curry, Julie made a beetroot curry and a dhal with papadums and Helen made some fresh pita breads and it all went down with bottles of champagne, white and red wine! Doing it tough once again on the high seas!
We also moved yesterday to Casuarina island just 3 miles south and it's a lot better. We were rolling like mad at the other island as the swell seems to wrap around and hit you side on but it's fine here. Luckily Julie can speak Portuguese and we met some fishermen here and they are very happy bunch, not the cannibals we thought after all! Nope they eat turtles here but not too many we think as there seems to be a lot around that we have seen. Anyway we gave them a few old shirts and they were very appreciative and even offered us a turtle! We declined there offer, Julie saying she likes to see them swimming and they looked at her like she was mad!
Then this morning I downloaded a very promising forecast for favourable winds for at least the next 5 days, looking better to leave tomorrow but I think we will make a head start this afternoon to get as far south as we can while the weather is good, may be a couple of days of motoring but should still be enough wind to sail most of the time after tomorrow we are hoping, as long as it's not strong southerlies like it has been we are happy!
Julie has just baked me a very nice looking cake and we will go over the Mantra after to cut it and blow out the candles, great birthday:)
Maybe the next time around we can stop and have a proper look up the African coast, I think it would be amazing.

Well we haven't been eaten so that's always a good thing. We had a very rolly night last night at anchor, big cross swell wasn't too comfy. Then this morning while we were doing an oil change we heard a big call out for Sunflower! To our surprise it was Mantra, a couple called Helen and Gordon from Glasgow who we had met in Thailand nearly two years ago. We are going over there for dinner tonight which should be very nice.
We have seen 2 guys on the beach this morning looking out at us, they were wearing green old clothes, can't work out if they work for a national park or are some kinda army!
So now we have neighbours and have only a 50/50 chance of being eaten...
Ha, all good on the fine ship Sunflower!

Mozambique!!

Ha we arrived at Ilha Epidendron just after day break this morning 17*05.05s 39*07.08e and the Navionics charts all seemed spot on. We anchored about 250m of the N side of the island with a long sandy beach. The islands only a tad over .5nm long but offers good protection from SW-SE winds anchoring in 9m on sand.
We haven't done any research at all on Mozambique really except for a couple of spots to stop incase of bad weather 300+nm south but don't know much about the country or people.
We could smell smoke from the island just as we arrived but not since and haven't seen anyone on the island but did see some old footprints which is a bit strange and now Julieta is convinced there are cannibals living on there! If you haven't heard from us in a couple of days we may have been eaten:)

Illas Primeiras Saturday 25-10

The sea now is almost like glass with just a couple of knots of breeze behind us. We are literally doing 3.5-4 kts with the current alone. The forecast for Sunday night till Wednesday morning is for 15-20kt headwinds and into this current I don't expect it to be very comfy to say the least. So we have spotted some islands about 5 mile off the Mozambique coast called Illas Primeiras and we will go and hang behind them for a couple of days and wait until we can carry on south. Plan to arrive at daylight tomorrow.
Looks like there isn't much around on the mainland there close so hopefully it might be good fishing and that can keep us busy for a couple of days.
Been pretty uneventful here just rolling around cooking bananas, watching episodes of Seinfeild and taking it pretty easy as now there is no rush at all and it's good to just be cruising in the current without having to motor.
Up until last night we were pushing at least half a knot of current the whole way but now it should hopefully be with us all the way until Richards Bay.
Our midday position is 16*42s 40*37e about 40nm off Mozambique coast and 90nm from the islands and doing 4.5kts and the cabin is getting hot! There's a few ships around also heading up and down the coast.

24th of october Friday

Motoring with very little wind doing 5kts. Panic over as freezer has started to work once again as it gave up for a couple of days after that bad weather, we can have Cuba Libres with ice once again. Irish stew in pressure cooker last night wasn't too bad either.
We have made about 200nm good since leaving and have about 100miles to go until we should see some good current helping us off the Mozambique coast.
Midday pos 16*0.000s 42*38.000e
KasteHelmi still in sight.
Forecast for light winds until Sunday still showing so might be more noisy motoring.

Mozambique Channel

Well unfortunately for this passage you can be waiting a long time for a perfect weather window, basically I dont think it really happens. The winds are variable, from all over the place sometimes light others blowing a gale. So you just have to wait and get one that doesn't look too bad and may have lighter winds were you may have to motor for some of the time before the next southerly "Buster"comes. The other obstacle is the Agulhas current. This races down the Mozambique coast from North to South apparently getting to speeds 3-4kts. This is were it can get tricky if your caught in a southerly blow with the current against it and massive waves form so you have to go inside the 200m contour were there's no current. But also in the middle of the Channel there are massive canyons that spin the current around all over the place but luckily for us we have internet means of seeing were they are, hopefully:) and when you do get in it and the weather in favourable you're laughing!
So just pick what looks like a reasonable 8 day forecast and go for it! That's what we and the 2 Finnish boats have done as it looks like we he fully won't get too strong a southerlies when we hit the other side of the channel.
So we left yesterday morning with the strong tide helping us as there was no wind so we motored until lunch. Then it came in from the west, exactly were we wanted to go. So it was a very long night bashing to windward 50degrees off course on each tack with 20-25kts over the deck with 2 reefs and the staysail just plugging away. Then about 3am it finally went SSW and we could head west and make some ground. We have been sailing nice since 8am with full sail again making good progress!
Our midday position is 15*16.000s 44*16.000e
140nm sailed since leaving but only 100nm made good until the first waypoint. 1052nm to SA.
Weather is fine now and we can stop eating noodles!

Cruising

We got to the island of Nosy Be at the end of September and our first anchorage was Sakatia island on the west coast. There's a South African couple living there that have sailed this area for a long while called Des and Nel. We met up with them and they gave us the low down on what goes on about the place with immigration formalities, security ect and a good bit of info on the Mozambique Channel and coast. Very nice people who off course liked to chat over a couple of beers which is always good with us! We then went down to Hellville the main town on the island and officially checked in and got our visa ect, all went relatively smoothe, well sort of... Nothing has a set price here, everyone wants a little something and when you can't talk Malagash or French you end up paying a little more because you basically just can't argue as you start running out of hand signals! All good though, went to the bank and did a load of shopping at the supermarket and stocked back up on a few necessities including the local beer. 

We left the same afternoon for Crater Bay just north and that is were all the action for yachties is. There is a yacht club of sorts there with a good bar and does great pizza. There's also fresh water available at a small price and the people running it are all super friendly bunch. A lot of French about that I think have been in the area for a long time and maybe do a few charters ect to get by. There was a good few boats also that we had met up with in the last year so it was a pretty social time hanging out at the bar in the afternoons for a couple of coldies. Our friend Marcia celebrated her birthday there and had a party which was great fun and the night ending at a local disco tech with a little bit of dancing!

Then it was off to a couple of the small islands around there for a few days hanging out and relaxing and doing a few little boat jobs and then heading back to Crater bay for a final top up of fresh water and a few more supplies.

We then went accross to Russian Bay but the wind was very light and we ended up motoring for a couple of hours but also managed to catch a couple of nice mackerel. Was a nice spot in a huge sheltered bay but for some reason the swell gets in there and we rolled like mad all night so decided to leave the next day. Our friends on Kantala told us of an island around the corner with Lemures so we went for a look. Definitelly not disappointed as they were jumping like mad everywhere! Ha was crazy, Julie in heaven as they also climbed all over you in hope of a bannana! Really nice guy there who spoke good English and showed us around feeding them the bananas. 

We just anchored there a couple of hours and then left for an overnight sail to Moromba Bay. There is normally a good sea breeze from the west and we had a great sail for the 100 or so miles there arriving just after lunch to see  our Finnish friends there on Ever After and KasteHelmi. We caught another couple of mackerel on the way so we had a BBQ on the beach and I took my Xmas present which is a mini fish smoker along, delicious thank you Emma and James!!

This place is like the Kimberly's in Australia. Big Boab trees, granite gorges, sheltered water and loads of places to anchor, beautiful. We stayed a week. Locals really friendly, would occasionally come over to trade stuff but mainly just sail on past with a wave, not bothered. There's boats sailing everywhere. Little kids sailing there own dugouts going fishing and hanging out with their mates. The people here have nothing, living VERY basic life but happy out and healthy. Lots of mud crabs, crayfish and off course fish but not a lot of rain so the landscape is very dry so not a lot of vegetables I'm guessing. KasteHelmi has a beautiful sheltered cockpit, Maila standing under the shelter was very unfortunate to have a jumping mackerel of about 6kg come flying through a little gap in the curtain and hit her in the back of the head opening it up quite bad. Heikki managed to do some good doctoring and fixed her up and her sense of humor still high so all ended not too bad but I'm sure she was very sore. The chances of that happenning??!

From there we did another overnight sail 80nm south to were we are now, Katsepy. Not a bad spot but nothing special. We went into Mujunga by ferry and did some shopping for veges ect and get credit for the internet. Now we are waiting for a weather window to cross the Mozambique Channel. We won't get a perfect run I'm sure but it's not looking great to leave but we will see. We're ready to leave now anyway when the time comes, hopefully in the next couple of days.

Our thoughts on Madagascar for people coming here.....it's great! There's a lot of bad stories going around and I'm sure some are true. But these things happen mainly in the busier ports were there's always crime in cities. Diego Suarez seems to be a big one to avoid if you don't want stuff stolen, we didn't go but just from what we have heard. We saw no trouble and only met very friendly people everywhere we went. The people are super poor but happy and live of the land. Because they have no money to buy stuff there is very little rubbish, it's amazing not seeing plastic everywhere, it's great.

Our only regret is not having more time to spend here, I think 3 months would be perfect amount of time. There's a lot to see from the top of west coast to Nosey Be and that's were we would have liked to spend longer.

MMMMadagascar!

St. Pierre is a windy place for sure. It just seems to funnel down from the hills and we left with a good 25 knots behind us. We headed offshore a little while and then jibed around to head north but still later that day we ended up in the lee of the island and had to motor for 20nm until we found enough breeze to sail in again. The course for Saint Marie Madagascar was set and the wind was straight behind us so we decided to not sail directly but have the breeze on our quarter which made for faster more comfortable sailing with less rolling. We probably sailed an extra 100 miles with all our zigzagging but it was a really  fun and enjoyable passage and we were back on a palm tree island in just under 4 days.

We dropped the anchor at 3am off Isle Nattes at the bottom of Saint Marie and then woke up at dawn to what looked like a postcard. A few casual fisherman rowing around in dugouts on the back of the reef and white sandy beaches ashore. Is always a great surprise after arriving in the dark!

Our Finnish friends on "Ever After" and "KasteHelmi" arrived also and the champagne was cracked just after noon and that set the scene for a fun afternoon!

The next few days were just about exploring and doing a bit of fishing. Didn't have much luck in the fishing department, we did catch 1 big Kingfish but let it go. The locals seem to be pretty fond of their nets here and I think there isn't a lot left close to the island. We walked around the island stopping at a couple of places for a beer in the way. We went past 1 very nice bungalow and after saying g'day to the people got invited in for a beer. They were South Africans and live out here for 6 months at a time and also another young South African couple there that are building a resort. Very interesting people that have found this little slice of paradise and don't want to leave.

 There are a few nice places to stay for tourists but it is very quiet with hardly any around, which is nice.

The locals are super friendly happy bunch all smiling and saying Bonjour and going about their things. We have heard quite a few stories of other yachts getting stuff stolen here in Madagascar, mainly in the bigger towns but we are told there is absolutely no theft going on from this island which was very nice to hear!

Saint Marie was a real life pirate hang out back in the day and they used to hang there and rob the spice ships that went passed. We went and checked out the pirate cemetery which had a few dodgey old graves from the early 1800s.

We also went to town to get some  supplies including a couple of samples of the local rums. The good bottles are between $3-4. We invited Vincent the fella building the resort over and got pretty carried away testing the samples but they all passed!  Was a great fun night but had a cracker of a hangover 

the next day.

The weather forecast was looking good for rounding the north Cape Ambre later that week which is just over 300nm away so we struggled on with the mighty hangover and got the anchor up and were out of there! 

A very special place to visit and we would highly recommend to anyone looking for a bit of a different chilled out holiday!

Cape Andre

Saint Marie to Cape Andre is about  330nm or just under 3 days sailing for us and the weather forecast was looking good for the Sunday morning so we timed it to be there for sunrise. In Jimmy Cornell's Worlds Cruising Routes he talks it up saying it's like a witches caldron and we have heard other peoples tales that it's not too nice. Forecast was for 16-20knts but we had 25 for the last night and that morning. Our problem the last night was trying to slow Sunflower down. We had 3 knots of current  with us and put the 3rd reef in with just the clew of the headsail poking out and were still doing 7 kts easily! So we just tried to stall a little and at daybreak our Finnish friends on KasteHelmi and Ever After were also around. The plan was to go as close to shore as possible to round the cape as it's out of the current and meant to be nicer but heading in there we saw whales all over the place so jibed back out to sea. Anyhow it was a bit rolly but in all pretty good sailing not near as bad as we thought it was going to be. Once around the cape in flat water with still 20+kts alongside KasteHelmi we got a few good photos which was nice and good to see a pic of us with the 3rd reef in!

We had a great sail 25nm south to an island called Nosey Hara and managed to get a fish on the way which was nice. Didn't expect much of this place so it was a great surprise to see how beautiful it was and a great anchorage for shelter from the east. Us 3 boats there and later Freya from Germany arrived. It's a national park with 2 young guys living in a little hut to look after it. We had the grand tour of the hill and into a cave and realized how unfit we are! Was good though. They have a BBQ there also so the next day Julie and I went and caught a decent size Mackeral and made a BBQ for the 10 of us. Was a great laugh although I did get a little carried away with the local rum which is pretty lethal!

We also went to Cathedral rocks which is a really beautiful place in itself just a couple of miles from the anchorage.. We went by dingy towing a lure but didn't get anything but arrived amongst these islands going ashore to one of them for a swim to what looked like an abandoned beach bar. Was unreal, like a movie set. All these little bungalows built into the mountain that felt haunted! Very creative minds that built this place and it turns out that people come to stay here that are into rock climbing. Unfortunately the camera was out of battery so we didn't get many pics of the place!

The next day I took  the local lads out fishing but unfortunately we didn't have any luck.

It was then time to leave and we headed for Nosey Mitsio 50nm away and had mixed sailing but last few hours were great. We also got a couple of fish on the way enough for the next few days easily.

Mitsio is a great sheltered bay with just a few little villages each with 20-40 people and all very friendly. A young guy called Francis offered to show us around and introduced us to a few people. He is building himself a little hut on the beach and plans to sell beer to passing yachties which is a great idea and surely going to be a winner! They really live of the land here and have just the VERY basics but are happy out and healthy. Guys come out in dugouts with a couple of coconuts or 3 eggs or whatever they have to trade which isn't much. They have been very happy with my old shirts and a few fishing hooks!

Yep, this place is another world:)