Mozambique Passage

I am going through my old email based blog for remembrance, and a few really stick out. Here is my email about sailing along the Mozambique coast from Madagascar to South Africa.

Nov 02, 2019 15:33

At 14:57UTC/5:57PM Local Eliana’s position is 17*33’S 40*05’E

Everywhere I have been, the locals talk about that area being the most difficult or most dangerous area to sail. Even in San Francisco, locals talk about the technical difficulty of sailing in SF Bay, and outside the bay over the “potato patch” swells can reach 15 meters (45 ft) high. The faralones race is known for it’s danger and some high profile deaths. I heard tales about the difficult passage from Fiji to New Zealand, and the Indian Ocean, which I wrote about recently (I hated that passage).

When you continue to hear these things, you become skeptical when locals start spinning on about how hard a passage is. After all, every ocean passage can be dangerous if you don’t check the weather and go at the wrong time. So when I kept hearing about the difficult Mozambique passage I was also skeptical. Everyone was talking about the difficulty, and seeking advice from a local, Des Cason, who routes people through the passage for goodwill. It’s free help, so I jumped on board, and left with a group of I think 10 boats.

This passage is insane. We have had 15-20 kts of wind the past 24 hours, which by itself isn’t anything to be concerned about. However, due to the strong opposing current, that has led to a mixed/confused swell of about 3-4 meters coming from 2 directions. There have been times they have aligned and a swell of 6-8 meters forms. Very lumpy, not like the swells in the middle of the ocean where the ship slowly rises and falls. Eliana is taking it like a champ, the entire boat awash with water from breaking waves, and being dropped from the top of a swell to crash below with a loud thump.

It is very uncomfortable, very intense, and at times a bit scary. Even though the primary swells are on my front and aft port quarters, sometimes the big swell from them adding will come right on the beam. The first time this happened, Eliana, “surfed” sideways for about 5 seconds or so, a very dangerous occurrence that could lead to Eliana capsizing. I was hand steering this afternoon to watch for that, so I could turn into it when it came. That phenomenon seems to have subsided, thank goodness. The latest forecast is that the worst is behind us, and by noon tomorrow, we will be motoring in less than 5 kts.

This is the “good” window we waited for, the fairly common conditions of 25+ knots being described as suicidal. This is also why we plan to stop in Mozambique, to ensure that we don’t get caught in stronger winds if they reappear.

I have passed very close to 3 other sailboats, including my friends on Vilja. I chatted with all of them on VHF, and all are doing well in the rough conditions. This passage has also seen the most cargo ships of any passage so far. There is almost always 1 or 2 on my AIS, and several times as many as 5. An interesting happening one night, a cargo ship hailed my to know my intentions. I told him I was attempting to hold a course of 260T, but struggling with the conditions. The cargo ship let me know he would alter course to pass me to astern. This is a normal thing. Often cargo ships will just alter course to avoid a sailboat, but sometimes they hail me first. What was funny, was that because my class B AIS isn’t as powerful as those on a cargo ship, the other 4 ships were not close enough to see me yet. So when the first ship altered course, it set off a chain reaction of ships wanting to know each others intentions, why they were altering course, and then altering course to avoid each other. I created chaos for 5 cargo ships.

-warren