Diary of a Tricky Passage - Tanzania to South Africa

[Pete] When we decided 4 years ago to head to the UK via South Africa, we knew the sail through the Mozambique Channel from Tanzania to Richards Bay (the first port of entry into South Africa) would be one of our trickiest passages.

Usually, I use our Iridium Go to post daily updates on the website, but a technical failure meant it was not available to us for this passage.

Instead, Jen decided to capture the passage from her perspective in a daily journal, which is reproduced below.

Day 1 (Sat 23 Oct)

Left Mtwara anchorage at 7am bound for Richards Bay South Africa. At 1,300nm (nautical miles), it should take anywhere between 9 days and 21 days (depends if we have to stop to hide from Southerly winds or not).

Ugh! 6 hours in found a chafe in our genoa clew (the corner of the sail) that we are concerned about. Set up a disaster line in case it rips all the way through. And tried stitching it, whilst the sail was up, to add some strength.

Clew Repair Number 1 - look closely and you can see the stitching at the top of the webbing

But before we could focus on it we had the Tanzanian Navy come pay a visit. We were 1.8nm from the Tan/Moz border and they came screaming up in a large rib to Erie Spirit. They questioned them for about 20 min then came over to us. ES told us on the VHF they are friendly and just want to confirm our details and that we don’t have any Moz ISIS peeps onboard.

They came alongside us and tied up rather bossily and asked a number of questions and wanted to see our exit paperwork. They clearly got bored with this game as they asked about Sonrisa, if we knew them and are they the same, ie just checked out, heading to RB, and 2 POB. We said yes. So they went "ok, we’re done." And buzzed back towards land.

Next, fun and games - our fridge wouldn't turn on! Pete opened up the compressor controller and I went forward and checked the strainer and bled the intake hose. Tried it again and yay it started! Ok, so is that our 3 things?

Alright, back to sailing. Its time I tried to get some sleep. So went down below for an hour nap. And just as I got cosy in bed "FISH ON" yells Pete. Ugh! Quick, put some clothes on and help Pete bring in the fish. Woop woop! It’s a yellow fin tuna and a good size. Its my job to fillet, so once landed I get to work.

It’s a yellow fin tuna - and it’s a lot bigger than it looks in this photo - we got 16 fillets out of it!!

Done. Ok back to my nap!

Note: ran the engine 7am to 3pm

Day 2 (Sun 24 Oct)

Pretty much all quiet on the western front still. The winds are super light but the current is awesome, +2kts.

I made a lovely sushi, nigiri and sashimi lunch with our tuna from yesterday. Thanks Jen from Skylark for the seaweed sheets! The only thing missing from lunch was a nice chilled glass of white wine!

Move over Tetsuya - sushi on Steely is as fresh as it gets.

After lunch we decided to put up Big Pink, its been about a year since we last deployed so we hoped we remember how to rig it. No probs - got all the lines right the first time. Oh boy Steely looks good in a deep blue ocean, a bright yellow sun and a neon pink MPS casting a warm pink glow across the water.

We decided discretion is the better part of valour and dropped Big Pink at dusk and sailed on under white sail only.

Note: ran the engine from 5am to 3.30pm

Day 3 (Mon 25 Oct)

Big strategy discussion with the 3 boats this morning as the distance between 1st and 3rd boat increased overnight. Steely was in the middle and was finding it hard to choose which boat to stick close to (remember we can't get weather at the mo without our Iridium Go, so we are relying on our friends to keep us up-to-date). It felt like we needed to choose 'mum' or 'dad' in the divorce!

Sonrisa are better in light airs but were trying to slow themselves down, Steely was playing piggy in the middle. After much discussion it was decided that Sonrisa would take the brakes off and sail the light winds and Steely would try to keep up. And we would all head towards Fogo Island with another decision to make at 5pm tonight whether we “go” or “no go” to Fogo.

The yellow fin kept on giving, this time with Tuna Nicoise for lunch.

Technically not quite a Nicoise (no olives or anchovies), but was still pretty damn good.

Oh and Big Pink went up again. Pete, I swear, is in race mode, as he had us trimming constantly, trying the staysail in and out about 53 times to keep our speed up. In the end the wind angle defeated him and we had to drop Big Pink and go back to white sail. Sonrisa sailing off into the distance, uh oh Steely back to playing piggy in the middle and needing to stick close to one of them!!

The beginnings of a beautiful sunset - one of many on the passage.

No fish.

Note: no engine

Day 4 (Tues 26 Oct)

We are still “go” for Fogo. So up went Big Pink at 9am to try and get us in to Fogo in daylight tomorrow. Wow that's 3 days in a row now that we have flown Big Pink. A new record and we are getting quite good at hoisting her.

Coco: “Sheet that spinnaker, you silly hoomans - we’ve got to catch Sonrisa”

Sonrisa is still in the lead, Steely in the middle and ES slightly behind and out to sea a bit. But all on track for Fogo.

We are now sailing quite close to Mozambique as we have passed the scary northern section. But that means we need to keep an eye out for fishing boats. Our line is out and we have activated the white fish fairies 🧚 - hopefully they were listening and we catch a nice mahi mahi for lunch.

The fish fairies delivered late today and at 4.30pm Pete yelled "FISH ON" it was almost time for my off watch to finish so I wasn't too annoyed at the fish fairies for missing lunch. I scrambled up and had one leg in my shorts, hopping about trying to get the other one in when I hear a "BOOOOO. NOO!" from Pete. The fish got off before he could reel it in.

Fish 1 : Steely 0

We reefed the genoa and put away the staysail to slow us down so we don’t arrive at Fogo before dawn. But Steely thinks she is a freight train and is burying her shoulder, kicking up her heels and trucking on! (Mixed Metaphor Alert!!) May need to put away the main also to rein Steely in!

Note: no engine

Day 5 ( Wed 27 Oct)

We wanted to arrive at Fogo at 7am in the morning. Was quite a frustrating night as we were being pushed ashore by the wind but thankfully also being pushed out to sea by the current. And trying to not sail too fast so that we arrived at the anchorage in daylight.

After 12 hours of sloppy, chunky seas we managed to achieve our objective and dropped the sails at 6.30am and motored in at 7am. 4 days and 15 mins and we have sailed the first third of the way to Richards Bay. Joining us here in the anchorage is Sonrisa and Erie Spirit, of course, but also S/V Georgia and S/V Florence, both of whom left from Mayotte on the same day as us, and also S/V Enchantress, who sailed directly from Seychelles. Amazingly all 6 boats arrived within 2 hours of each other from 3 different countries.

Naptime Coco style - seriously , this is how she sleeps half the time!

Everyone briefly said hello and then went to get some shut eye. Most resurfacing at sunset to wave hellos and chat on the VHF as everyone’s dinghies are lashed down for the passage. Tomorrow the reason for this stopover should appear in full force - the southerly.

Day 6 (Thurs 28 Oct)

I wake up, after a long uninterrupted sleep, to hear the wind whistling in the rigging, wavelets slapping against Steely and a swell bouncing us from side to side, up and down. The southerly is here. It's averaging about 15kts so far, but these unpredictable beasts can turn fast and be blowing 50kts in the blink of an eye. So today we will stayed tucked in behind Fogo island and watch and wait.

Sorry scratch that, we will stay at Fogo but first move anchor up the island and set up a sideways bridle to combat the swell. 53 hours (slight exaggeration) later we are re-anchored and the new bridle set up has us facing into the swell so no rolling. Discussions of a shore excursion are put out on to the airwaves. All boats are in.

The shore excursion was delayed slightly due to a storm that passed through but when the sun came back out we all scrambled to get ashore. Austin from Enchantress paddled in on his SUP, Amy and Matt from Florence paddled in on their inflatable (but has a serious leak, so actually their DE-flatable) kayak, Leslie and Andrew swam in, we paddled in on our one person kayak and the other two boats decided the beach break didn't look that much fun in dinghies so sat the excursion out.

Pete and I did what we thought was an awesome job squeezing the two of us plus some beers on to a one person kayak. We had a few wobbly moments but made it ashore without falling off right until the last 2 metres when we did a disgraceful dismount and landed face first onto the beach. But the beers survived!

The island was deserted up until a few years ago when the owner decided it was a nice place for a resort. And so a small eco friendly resort is currently in construction. The crew (locals) met us on the beach and the only one that spoke English showed us around. Its only in its first stages of build but it is going to be awesome! The resort is centered around a big tree with a wooden platform built underneath with a huge stone firepit and bbq, plus wooden bench seats and a dug-out canoe cut in half to sit in.

You could fit three people INSIDE the barbecue!

After touring the resort and a little bit of the island, we found a shady spot on the beach and chatted about everyones onward plans over a few beers. Does this count as country that we have visited?

Day 7 (Fri 29 Oct)

Stayed on Steely all day today doing small boat jobs. Including repairing the clew on the genoa again. It’s only got to get us to Richards Bay but the repair needs to be able to withstand 50kt winds. The webbing where we attach the genoa sheets has 3 webbing loops. One has completely ripped apart on one side and on the other side all 3 have ripped halfway through. We don't know when this happened probably been gradual but we hadn't picked it up on our rig checks in the Seychelles or Tanzania.

So today i spent a few hours stitching the ripped sections then adding 3 more layers of webbing stitched over the top. Some stitches were going through 12 layers of material. It was hard, slow work but I am pretty happy with the repair. We plan to take the sail to a sailmaker in RB to get the clew professionally fixed.

The black webbing is extra, and note also the emergency control shackles that will allow us to furl the sail in a controlled fashion if the clew DID rip out.

Day 8 (Sat 30 Oct)

Depending on whether the forecast changes during the night we will be making the group decision today to stay or go.

So today’s number 1 job, get the genoa hoisted back up whilst the winds were light so a quick coffee and it’s hoisting time. We then spend the day puttering around doing odd jobs, jumped in the water to scrub Steely’s bottom, baked some bread, engine checks, tightened the shaft seal, and of course running the weather forecast and checking and re-checking if its best to go today, tomorrow or the next day.

Pumpkin and Feta Bread from the Steely Bakehouse

One by one the boats in the anchorage decide its today, with Georgia leaving in the morning, then Enchantress just after lunch, Florence went next at about 3pm and the 3 Amigos got FOMO and pulled up anchor and left about 3.40pm.

“Bye, Fogo Island “ - it’s been a nice but swelly interlude. After lifting anchor within minutes of rounding the island we are champagne sailing at 50° off the wind, relatively calm seas and 15kts of true wind. Steely is loving the conditions and is on the lean.

Unfortunately going from 0 to 100 was not quite as good fun for Coco. She is generally a good sailing kitty, happy to sail, hates the motor. But today the boat heeling a lot and pitching a bit, going 8kts she had a nervous throw up. She was very embarrassed and hung her head in shame but lots of pats, "its ok and you're a good girl" words softly whispered to her and she decided her wisest course of action was to curl up in the nav chair, clean herself then sleep.

Note: ran the engine from 3.40 to 3.50pm

Day 9 (Sun 31 Oct)

At watch change at 1am the wind had turned from a wind angle of 90 to 130° and the current was pushing us into a wind hole that would develop tomorrow on the other side of the rhumb line. So we needed a new strategy, and a gybe and pole up was the plan.

Hmm we haven't had the pole up in over a year, so yeah lets do it at 1am! But all went smoothly even though we had the dinghy on the foredeck so had it and all its tie down ropes to clamber over. By 2am we were settled into the new plan and Pete went to bed 1 hour late for his off watch. So we split the difference and i'll do an extra 30min and he will sleep an extra 30min.

Aaah I wake up to the sounds of ... the morning sched. ES, Sonrisa and Pete chatting on the VHF about the weather and the plan for the day. Huh - today’s plan does not sound exciting. It’s all about light wind and holes in the wind. Well better get to it - my alarm is buzzing and it’s time for my watch.

Due to the light air and holes in the wind, we need to make some major changes to the sails. We need to gybe the mains, put away the genoa, drop the pole and put up big pink. Coffee and breakfast will have to wait.

Sweet. Job done, now breakfast. I had just finished making my brekky and about to take a sip of coffee when Pete says nope big pinks got to come down and the genoa needs to go back up. So close.

OK, all sorted again and we are settled in for a slow sail in sloppy seas. Except the wind filled in and Steely stretched her legs and started sailing fast. ES was down on our stbd side and gradually coming up. By the time Pete came up from his off watch ES and Steely were sailing side by side about 20m apart. ES had crossed our bow and were now on our port side. Steely was speeding up but ES were bearing down on us, woo hoo we have a race on in the Mozambique channel. Steely ducked their stern (10m behind them! Less then a boat length!) and had them on our stbd side, Steely accelerated with the better wind angle and ES bore away. FUN FUN FUN.

This wonderful footage, captured by Susan on Erie Spirit, was taken just moments before we “ducked their stern” and overtook them on their starboard side. Thanks Susan - awesome video!

Here’s the scene on Steely in the exact moment that the above video was shot. You can see Erie Spirit in the background, and Coco egging us on to try and get past.

But the fun was over, 2min noodle and fried egg lunch was consumed and time for some off watch. Was a bit too awake still to sleep so Coco and I curled up on our bed and watched Outlander.

When i came up from my off watch Steely was screaming along doing hull speed of 8.9kts! Pete was grinning from ear to ear proud of Steely and her speed. Although we did reef her down to just jib and jigger for the night.

Note: no engine

Day 10 (Mon 1 Nov)

Woke up to the sounds of the engine and a critical discussion on whether we try for Richards Bay or not. We have a few small southerlies to dodge and therefore need to keep our speed up, hence the engine on as the winds are very light.

Engine at cruising revs - 1,600 RPM gives us 5.5 knots per hour and burns 5.5 litres per hour, so it’s our sweet spot - essentially we burn one litre of diesel per mile. With 1,245 litres on board, we have an effective range of over 1,000 miles (leaving some for our diesel generator, and of course we wouldn’t want to empty the tank completely)

It is quite a dance sailing the Moz channel. So many steps to consider: distance, wind direction, currents, fuel capacity, bail out points, boat capabilities. We have 590nm to go, so about 5 more days. With the current forecast if we keep our speed up we can make it, but that may change if the forecast changes. The worst thing about the engine being on when we are motor sailing is that Coco takes the best sitting spot. She tucks herself into the corner on the low side and won't come out til the engine is turned off. Except if we catch a fish - fresh fish trumps engine.

Whilst I was off watch Pete got busy. Normally the on watch person sits in the cockpit monitoring the sails, the wind direction, sea or sky changes, the chart-plotter for other ships and ensuring we are on course. But with no wind and relatively flat seas Pete got bored and instead of reading a book or just staring at the beautiful blue sea he came up with a new plan for our mizzen preventers. And 2.5 hours later we have a new cleat on the mizzen mast that holds the preventer lines perfectly in place ready to be deployed. Sounds simple but like any boat job it demanded 25 bits and pieces and tools to complete the job, and not one thing lost overboard.

Note: ran the engine from 9.25am to 5.25pm

Day 11 (Tues 2 Nov)

I wake up at 12.50am for my 1am-5am watch. Its the start of day 4 sailing since Fogo Island. My mind and body are now in to the routine but a general tiredness has settled over me. Pete starts his off watch with a shower and I can smell clean, and I am now lusting over a shower (its been 3 days since my last one!) But I will need to wait till my watch is over. The first few days of a passage sleep always trumps a shower but by day 3 or 4 clean wins over sleep.

The 4 boats (ES, Sonrisa and Florence) are still sailing together and we are on track for our timing to get into Richards Bay, but still 530nm to go so no definites yet.

All 4 boats (Steely, Florence, Sonrisa and Erie Spirit) in “formation” heading through the Mozambique Channel

By my next watch the seas are sloppy, lumpy and chunky and the wind direction is awkward and we are struggling to lay our mark. Steely is not liking it at all, she is being rolled by the swell which makes the sails flop violently which puts stress on the rigging. My anxiety about my clew repair is pretty high and I am counting every mile made and sending wishes to the universe to please please make the wind and sea play nice.

We are now motor sailing to try and make the turning mark before the forecasted southerly hits. Pete and I assess the deck and decided to clean up some lines that were lying loose from the pole and to also bring in the spinnaker bag. We want the deck to be as ship shape and organised as possible in case the southerly is bigger than predicted and we have waves crashing over the deck. We are expecting 15 to 21kts of wind (not including gusts) at an AWA of 45° and 3 to 4m waves. Definitely within Steely’s wheelhouse but it’s if it gets bigger that we want to be prepared for. Now its a waiting game, the southerly is predicted to arrive between 11pm and midnight. Pete’s gone down to get some sleep and I keep watch, it’s 7pm.

Day 12 (Wed 3 Nov)

Oh boy, yep the southerly came. Steely is on a lean of 20° crashing her way through the waves. Some waves she parts and they waterfall away on each side. Other waves she buries her bow in them and a rush of water comes flying back across the deck. One thing about Steely - she does not slam like some boats when close hauled but with her extra weight at the bow (55kg anchor and 100m of 1/2in chain = 400kg) and stern (large solar panel arch) she does hobby horse. So today feels like we are living on a rocking horse with one leg shorter than the other.

The southerly is meant to last for only 24 hours, fingers crossed.

Moving around the boat whilst sailing is usually harder than when at anchor but some sails (downwind, flat seas) it’s pretty easy. Not today. After a sketchy sleep, and the today’s sideways stepping and falling around the boat, hanging on always with one hand but having to do two handed tasks, I am going to be grumpy. Oh dear.

Another grumpy soul on board Steely is Coco. She came in to bed with me for my last 45min of my off watch. She meowed her displeasure at Steely’s bouncing and flopped next to me. She wanted pats but they irritated her so she bit my thumb, not hard but enough to say "hurumph, this sucks" she then moved down and lay against my legs but couldnt get comfy so she bit my leg and glared at me. She decided to go find her own spot to sleep and slunk back into the saloon. Where she meowed at Pete and told him off for Steelys bouncing. Poor Coco!

Coco was fascinated by the waves rushing by the window.

Day 13 (Thurs 4 Nov)

My day did NOT start well. The morning sched at 8am woke me up (I am off watch till 9am, so its an hour off my sleep). I resolve to turn over and try and go back to sleep but as I turn over I hear the sails slatting. As I am awake I might as well get up and help Pete get things under control whilst he is doing the sched.

Bad to worse; the fridge needs running but first i need to bleed it as it likely has air bubbles in the intake line after our night of bouncing through and over waves. I go into the engine bay to bleed it but Pete is trying to explain between talking and listening to the radio not to start it yet. Something to do with batteries? Anyway he gets enough out that we need to start the genset first. So I start that, all good so far. But Steely is wallowing in no wind so next we need to start the engine, i go to turn the port engine on - nothing, zip, nada. Pete, still on the VHF, tells ES that he will have to get back to them as we need to sort out our boat.

Ok, now both of us are focused on Steely. But we are both a bit tired so we grumble at each other first then get to solving the problem. Pete goes into the engine bay to try and find the problem. (Yes we do have a second engine and could have just turned it on but Pete wants to know why port is not starting before it gets hot and uncomfortable with stbd running). So I sail Steely in 4kts of breeze and Pete finds and fixes the problem - a loose wire on the starter motor. And the engine is up and running, the sails either put away or trimmed for motor sailing, the VHF call concluded, and Pete and I kiss and make up our earlier grumble.

Time for coffee and breakfast. I have finished the book I was reading, “Shipwreck or Shangri-la?” by Peter Lickfold ( an awesome sailing book about being shipwrecked in Chagos, the author lives in Richards Bay) and I start “The Long Way” by Bernard Moitessier. It is embarassing that I have not read this book already as it is the ultimate sailing book. So its not surprising that on page one I am hooked and I think my watch is going to go super fast as i read his adventures.

If you only read one book about what it’s like to sail the oceans, it should be this one.

Side note: have switched the squid lure out on the rod for a fish lure and put the reel out with a squid lure. (We lost our exciter bird 2 days ago when travelling at 9kts). C'mon fishies, Pete wants sushi for lunch!

When the seas are as calm and the wind as gentle as it is now I could sail forever. Steely is gliding over the ocean with just the genoa. But as we have seen over the last 2 weeks this is not the case and the ocean has many sides - sporty, lumpy, flat, windless, too much wind. And so i am excited to be reaching land tomorrow. I have no preconceptions of Richards Bay, South Africa but I look forward to a cold beer at the YC, solid ground and a good full nights sleep. One more night and we should be there!

Note: the engine ran from 9am to 1pm

Note: still NO fish

Day 14 (Fri 5 Nov)

We have arrived!! We are safely tied up to the concrete wall for arriving international yachts. It was a very tiring night as the sail was downwind with a following sea just off the stern so Steely rolled a lot! But that doesn’t seem to matter now as we have just sailed one of the hardest passages that we will ever do and it was rather tame! Good job Pete and the guys from ES and Sonrisa on choosing a perfect weather window.

Gradually one by one the Fogo island fleet arrive, Florence, then Erie Spirit, then Georgia then Sonrisa. Austin (single handing) on Enchantress will arrive tomorrow. Its a bit of a squeeze but we make room for all of us to fit on the concrete wall.

Now we wait for the officials to come: PCR test, Port Health, Immigration and Customs. Once they have all given their sign of approval we will be free to go ashore and move the boat to the Zululand YC.

But even before all that we must have our traditional 'made landfall' fried egg roll and coffee. And relax.

Postscript

[Pete] Well, we got away with it. While there were a few tricky moments, some expert planning and routing from our friends on Erie Spirit and Sonrisa kept us in the right place at the right time throughout the passage and thus helped us avoid the worst of the weather. The technical failures before (Iridium Go), and during (clew ripping and engine failure) were taken in our stride, and we were delighted to find the passage not as fearsome as anticipated.

Like every other major challenge on hits journey (and indeed in life in general), all you can do is plan carefully, take steps to mitigate the risks, and then just get on and do it. Nearly always things are better than your worst fears - in this case substantially. And remembering that is key to being able to tackle ever bigger challenges as our circumnavigation progresses.