Zululand Yacht Club

 

 The last day and half of our trip into Richards Bay was pretty bumpy. We forereached (aka hove-to-light) for the night offshore to let things calm down and wait for the southerly to start to move toward SE. Then sailed in from offshore. We arrived at Richards Bay and proceeded to the International Wall (also known as the Small Craft Harbour or Tusi Gaza). We tied up to this rather rough wall and waited for the testing company to come down to give us all some nose swabbing. Once the Covid tests came back negative we waited on Health and Immigration to clear us in. We got our 90-day visa stamps in our passports and then got a ride from Natasha, the Ocean Cruising Club Port Officer, to Customs. Then we were clear to head to the Zululand Yacht Club after waiting for the tide to get high enough to make it up the channel.

The Zululand Yacht Club has been over the top accommodating for the international yacht arrivals. They have shifted member's boats around to make dockage space, given us very low cost rates and been very friendly. We were treated to a "braai", which is a South African BBQ. If it is a potluck then they call it a "bring and braai".

This is one of the club members, Morgan, offering up what they call venison. It is wildebeest that he shot while game hunting.

The club gives each arriving foreign boat a bottle of local Champagne as an arrival gift.

. Learning a little about South Africa and the languages.

Interesting signs around the yacht club.

They put this sign up at the head of our dock a few days after we arrived.

The grounds around the yacht club are pretty much owned by the Vervet monkeys. The one on the right has a baby between her legs.

The adult male Vervets have some distinctive turquoise blue parts.

It can get pretty windy around here. We had a storm come through a couple of days ago and woke up to our neighbors headsail destroyed and flapping in the breeze.

It's interesting to see which cruisers make it as far as South Africa. It's a hardy group. The boat above is Baluchon, from France. The builder/Captain is Yann Quenet. The boat is 4m long (13 feet) that he sailed from France across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The story goes that when he arrived in Richards Bay the authorities questioned whether they would give him permission to continue along the coast to Cape Town. This is a tough, 800 mile, passage where you have limited places to stop yet the weather windows change every few days. With some luck a normal performance cruising boat can make it to the next port and wait for the next window. Not a 13 ft boat. With the wind against current along portions of the coast there have been documented 20m (65ft) waves. Yann has apparently decided he'll do like he did to get across Panama, being too small and slow to use the Canal, he will put the boat on a trailer and drive it to Cape Town.

Yann receiving his bottle of Champagne from the Zululand club.

Paul

Iha do Fogo, Mozambique

 

On our passage south from Mayotte to Richards Bay, South Africa, we stopped off at the Mozambique island of Ilha do Fogo to hide from some strong southerly winds. On the way in we had a nice greeting from these dolphins. Since we were not cleared into Mozambique, we were a little unsure about stopping anywhere. The island was supposed to be uninhabited and it is located about 10 miles off the mainland in an area with no cities.

At some point in its history the island must have been important in navigating the Mozambique Channel as it has the remains of a large, powerful navigation light. We were the first boat to arrive and anchor. In the next few hours another 5 cruising boats arrived, all with the same plan to get out of the upcoming southerly. The boats had started their passages from Seychelles, Mayotte and Tanzania, yet all arrived within 4 hours of each other in this remote island. This is the first anchorage in a long time that we have been in with cruising boats where there were no catamarans.  All of the anchored boats had made the long trip crossing the Indian Ocean.

The uninhabited island was actually inhabited by about 5 workers who were very slowly building a small eco-resort. The waves wrapped around the island making the shore landing tough. We decided to anchor our dinghy ashore outside the waves and swim in, rather than entertain the workers with a dramatic surf landing. We were greeted by this guy who was very friendly and invited us ashore with hand signals and a few words of English.

 I explained to our host that we wanted to walk the beach and look for shells.

An old, dugout canoe washed up on the windward side of the island.

After an hour and half of beachcombing we walked back and were greeted by this display of shells that the workers had kept in their huts. After a little negotiation Chris picked a few she liked and agreed to trade for some sugar and coffee.

Our host was very happy with his haul of sugar, coffee and cookies Chris packed up for him.

We used our asymmetric spinnaker more than on any passage in the last 3 or 4 years! Much of the passage was flat seas and light winds. Perfect for the spinnaker. We didn't have any bad weather till the last day and a half, when it all turned rambunctious. 

Ilha do Fogo anchor 17*13.7S, 038*52.7E 34ft in good holding in sand

Paul

 

Richards Bay, South Africa

 Made it into Richards Bay, South Africa this morning around 7am. This is a picture of the quarantine wall where the boats are tied up waiting for the health officials to come down and administer Covid tests. Once the results are back then it is Immigration and Customs. Then we are free -- probably to drink a beer and fall asleep. Long passage.

Paul

Enroute Richards Bay

I was going to put the passage day in the title, but I've lost count. We skipped stopping in Bazaruto to wait for weather and continued southward. When the predicted southerly started to look a little more menacing we changed course to head deeper into the Mozambique Channel. The onshore South African weather router referred to it as a 'pesky southerly' At about 80 or 90 miles offshore we were at the eastern edge of the south bound (Aghulas) current, This would allow us to take the south winds into minimal current. Further toward shore the winds were predicted to be stronger, 30kts, and would be directly opposed to the current. Wind against current means large, square and ugly waves.
When the winds turned southerly a few hours before midnight we set the boat to forereach (a version of hove-to). In this way the boat moves very slowly forward at less than 1kt. The movement is greatly reduced and the ride below is actually fairly comfortable, given the outside conditions. We spent the night like this giving everyone off-watch a chance to catch up on their sleep. In the morning we started sailing back toward land in a SW direction. A bumpy, unfun ride. The southerly has now past and the winds are light. We are about a day out of Richards Bay with an arrival time in the early morning. We need to be in before the evening, as another southerly is predicted on the coast.

Paul
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Enroute Richards Bay

Another day of light winds. Mostly spinnaker sailing in the daylight hours. Only made 133nm noon to noon. We decided to continue south instead of stopping in the island of Bazaruto. We have about 500 miles to go to South Africa. There is one southerly showing on the forecasts that we will try to head out away from the coast to avoid getting hit by it while in the strong south going currents. The Mozambique Channel is well known for its nasty conditions when wind opposes current.

Had a dolphin visit by a small pod of three who wanted to play on the bow. At about midnight we had two vessels running in a straight line one behind the other pass us at about three miles with no AIS, proper running lights and doing 17kts. Probably some military craft.
We are now 22* south of the equator. I had to put on jeans and long sleeve shirt last night. The water temperature has now dipped below 80*F!!!

Paul
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Enroute Richards Bay - Clewless in Mozambique

Last night we blew out the clew on our mainsail (the clew is the back lower corner of the triangle that holds the sail to the boom). As in all good sailing stories it occurred at 3:00am. This leaves us with a main that can only be used reefed down (made smaller, usually for high winds). For most of today we have flown our asymmetric spinnaker as the winds have ben light. We have just dowsed it for the evening and to be able to point higher.
We have not committed yet whether we will head into Bazaruto to wait on weather or just continue on toward Richards Bay. The forecasts have been in lots of different directions but not very strong. We'll need to commit tomorrow morning.

Happy Halloween!

Paul
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Enroute Richards Bay

We had a few goods days waiting on weather anchored at Ilha do Fogo. It's a pretty good anchorage for southerly winds, although it has a merciless roll onboard at times with the swells wrapping around the reef. We had to anchor the dinghy offshore and swim into the beach due to the surf. There are a few locals living on the island 'building' a resort. Not a lot of progress yet. They were very friendly with very little English. Once they figured out that Chris was combing the beach for shells they brought out some of their finds. A little negotiating and we had deal in trade for coffee and sugar.

We motored for the morning out do Fogo and now (4:30pm) are having a good sail south. We will most likely stop on a sand dune island Bazaruto, still in Mozambique, in a few days and wait out weather there for our final push into Richards Bay.

Paul
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Ihas do Fogo

After a four day run from Mayotte we are anchored in the Mozambique island of Ilha do Fogo. The island is about 10 miles off the mainland in the upper third of the country. do Fogo is a part of the Ilhas Premieres string of islands. It looks like there are about 3 locals who are on the island doing some minor construction. We stopped here to avoid the strong southerly winds that are predicted over the next few days.
We haven't decided if we feel comfortable actually going ashore, as we are not cleared into Mozambique and there are a number of cruiser stories that float around of cruisers having some fairly severe issues with local authorities.
It is pretty strange as there are currently 5 other boats anchored here. They all arrived today and are on passage to Richards Bay. They started out from three different locations at different times, Seychelles, Mayotte and Tanzania. All making the same weather decision to duck out here for a day or two.
Anchored in 32ft at 17*13.68S, 038*52.79E on sand with a littleroll coming into the anchorage.

Paul
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Enroute Richards Bay, South AFrica - Day 1 and 2

It's been a very slow passage so far. Day 1 noon-to-noon run was 122nm and day 2 was 101. We are minimizing any motoring to save fuel for the other end of the trip. This morning we even dug out, dusted of the musty asymmetrical spinnaker to get a little more boat speed. At least the current has been mostly with us.

Paul
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