10-05-01 We're anchored at Nosy Androtara in the Barren Islands, Lat 18°29.7'S/Lon 43°48.4'E, after a 2-day, 2-night sail. Good passage, taking full advantage of the diurnal SE land breezes and NW sea breezes along the way. We rounded Cape St. Andre, the western most point of Madagascar. The six Barren Islands are well south of the cape and about 10 miles off the mainland coast with lots of beaches, sandbars and coral reefs. The small islands are uninhabited except for sailing fishermen and their families who temporarily camp here to fish the surrounding reefs. They collect and dry sea cucumbers for Chinese merchants and catch lobsters and fish to bring back to the mainland. They have to transport everything from the mainland when they come, including fresh water as there is none on the tiny island. They are a friendly group of 30 or so on this island - we've traded clothing, line, and glass jars for fresh lobsters and sea shells. Pat has actually caught a few lobsters himself, but we've been trading with the locals for them. It's one of their few sources available to use as a trade item and when they paddle out with a pirogue (canoe) full of lobster, they are eager to get a tee shirt, aspirin, soap, etc.... in exchange. You can actually eat lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner here if you wanted to. We'll visit 1 or 2 other Barren Islands before we head across the Mozambique Channel to Africa.
10-12-01 Left the Barren Islands yesterday morning. Our position is Lat 19°32'S/Lon 42°35'E and we've been motoring for the last couple hours with no wind. Hope it picks up soon, don't want to use the diesel unless we absolutely have too. We're still a long way away from Richard's Bay (800 nm) and no source of diesel until we get there!
10-18-01 We arrived in the continent of Africa - unfortunately an unscheduled stop in Mozambique, due to unfavorable weather. We are now anchored at Ilha da Inhaca, Mozambique at Lat 25°59'S/Lon 32°54'E, after a 7 day sail from Madagascar. We're 75 nm north of the South African border. The Mozambique Channel is a challenging place to sail with low pressure systems, cold fronts, strong currents, variable winds and not enough harbors along the coast for refuge. But we are well informed by excellent HF radio (HAM and SSB) operators who work the yachts offshore and provide weather info and recommendations. We get weather reports from Cape Town and Durban 4 times a day, so there are few surprises with the weather headed our way. It's wonderful to be anchored and the boat still, after a rough couple of days. We had increasing NE winds with big following seas and once we surfed out at 14 knots - that's way too fast for those of you not familiar with boats. Monohulls our size aren't supposed to go that fast! Our radio contacts said "time to hide for a couple of days", so we really pushed the boat to get into Inhaca before adverse weather was upon us - 2 low pressure systems and a trailing cold front. The coastal lows bring strong SW winds against the strong southerly current in the southern Mozambique Channel - and create dangerously rough seas. For awhile we were uncertain if we were going to make port in time, but Colleen's numerous "Hail Mary's" were answered and we tucked in just before the big wind shift. SIMMER performed superbly - she is solid, dry and untiring ... unlike us! We're usually very conservative when we sail, but it was time to get her into port. Looks like the weather window to sail the 200 nm to Richard's Bay opens up in in a couple of days. Our HF radio contacts will tell us when the winds are predicted to shift back more easterly so we can move on. In the meantime, we'll catch up on some sleep and have a wonderful meal of the 4 foot long Mahi Mahi (a.k.a. dolphin fish, dorado) we caught. Probably a nice bottle of wine also to celebrate this unplanned, but welcome harbor of refuge.
10-28-01 Reached another milestone and popped the champagne cork when we entered Richard's Bay, Republic of South Africa (RSA) a week ago, Oct 21st at 11pm. (Richard's Bay: Lat 28°49'S/Lon 32°06'E). We were chased into the port by a impressive thunderstorm and just managed to tie up to the wharf before the strong wind, torrential rain, huge lightening bolts and ear-splitting thunder were upon us. Couldn't have time it any better! We're well rested now and settling into marina life. No weather worries, plenty of power, water, hot showers, supermarkets, pubs and restaurants. And everything is extremely cheap for us Yanks. Sadly for RSA, their currency, the Rand, is falling and the exchange rate is currently 9.5 Rand to $1 USD. We can buy a bottle of lovely South African Chardonnay for $2 US and the marina berth only costs $90 US/month. We plan to stay here in the Tuzi Gazi Marina in Richard's Bay for a 2-3 months, working on the boat and touring. Richard's Bay is about 100 miles north of Durban and a good location to travel to game parks to see wildlife. We hope to visit 2 or 3 parks in the area, maybe even the famous Kruger National Park. Thankfully, English is one of the official languages of RSA - others include Afrikaans (based on Dutch), Ndebele, North Sotho, South Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. The people we've met so far speak English with a beautiful Afrikaans accent, but sometimes difficult to understand. They laugh at the way we pronounce our surname "DeGroodt", as it is Dutch in origin and the Afrikaans pronunciation is much different than our Americanized version. There is a guttural emphasis and rolled "r" that we have a hard time mimicking. Maybe before we leave RSA, we'll be able to pronounce our name properly. We both just read James Michener's "The Covenant" an excellent book if you're interested in the history of South Africa, highly recommended.
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