Mayotte Letters

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Mayotte Letters

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Mahorais woman, Mayotte

At about 2 pm on 15 July 2009 we fired up our engines and, after almost 20 months, motored out of Richards Bay. But instead of turning south towards Cape Town as originally planned, we turned north, hoping to re‑cross the Indian Ocean! Our first leg took us up the coast of South Africa before turning northeast to cross the Mozambique Channel. While we'd originally planned to head for Madagascar to meet our friends on Dancyn coming in from Chagos, it looked like we were about a week ahead of them. So we headed for Mayotte instead, a French atoll 200 miles west of northern Madagascar, in the small group of islands collectively called The Comoros.

July 2009	South Latitude	East Longitude	Day's Run	Miles to go	Wind Speed	Wind Direction	Comments
Thurs 16	26° 49'	32° 45'	(136)	1,141	15-25	150°	Very pretty scooting up the coast
Fri 17	24° 51'	34° 49'	161	980	17-24	115°	Cut NE across Maputo Bay - 8 Humpback whales!
Sat 18	23° 15'	36° 44'	146	834	20-26	110°	Cut across Agulhas Current - lumpy seas
Sun 19	21° 02'	38° 11'	159	675	20-30	120°	Keeping strong winds at 120°
Mon 20	19° 12'	40° 10'	164	511	20-28	120°	Rough seas but wind moderating slightly
Tues 21	17° 44'	42° 18'	155	356	25-10	100°	Winds down so point up higher to make some easting
Wed 22	16° 14'	43° 47'	126	230	10-4	110-160°	Winds light & variable as we approach Madagascar
Thurs 23	14° 28'	44° 32'	113	117	13-5	150°	Catch sailfish just at dusk, our first
Fri 24	12° 48'	45° 15'	114	3	<10	variable	Motor-sailing most of the day, through Mayotte reef

Land HO! Mayotte, after 9 days at sea

Our passage up from Richards Bay covered 1,277 nautical miles (our 3^rd longest passage to date!) and took us just under 9 days for an average speed of 6.2 knots, despite the very light winds the last 3 days. We picked a good weather window and therefore had the wind behind us virtually the whole way. The winds were somewhat stronger than expected once we jumped off from the African coast (up to 35 knots) but the last several days were delightful.

Unfortunately, our radio email refused to work so we were unable to send out our usual "Passage Notes". However, we did write those emails, and we've included them here with illustrations.

The newsletters we wrote are:

Lifetime
Commodores
of the
Seven Seas
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