LONG INDIAN OCEAN PASSAGE REPORT COCOS KEELING TO MADAGSCAR.

Aug 13 2011, 930 am departing Cocos keeling.   The weather was borderline “sailable” at the time I left, being very light winds and somewhat variable, most boats deemed it to be ‘unsailable’ and it probably was in their bigger yachts which require a bit more of a breeze than little Salsa.  Then again as I write this, 48 hours into the trip the wind and seas are so big I would consider it ‘barely sailable’ in Salsa and the other boats would be flying along having a ball, albeit I suspect with at least a bit of discomfort.  Right now the seas are around 10 to 15 feet high, and the winds 25 to 35kts.  It’s just pure crap out here.  It’s been so cloudy and rainy I haven’t seen the moon or sun since the day I departed until now.  When I left there was a slight breeze from the north and as I was sailing west, it was perfect; just barely enough wind to fill the sails and keep them from slapping around in the big but gentle southerly swell that just never goes away, even when there is no wind.  This Northerly breeze (a bit unusual as we should have SE trade winds around 20kts or so I thought) kept going until around 9PM when it just got too light, I was only sailing at 3kts and the sails started to bang around too much to make any headway.  So I prepared to just drift a while, well actually we kept sailing more or less west but only at about 1 to 2 kts since I put 3 reefs in the main and nearly took down the Jib to protect the sails from all the banging around with no wind, however there was just enough wind to keep moving under reefed sail, and I went to sleep for a while.  After midnight I awoke to the GPS alarm telling me that I was off course and turns out the winds had finally gone back to the SE, but still at a miserly 10kts.  Even with the main deeply reefed I let out most of the genoa and we were making 4kts again, not bad, and then it started building, the wind and seas.  By morning conditions were very uncomfortable, winds over 25kts, seas over 10 ft, cloudy, rainy, I completely furled the jib by then and was sailing with only the triple reefed mainsail,  (and have been just like that for 24 hours as things just seem to get worse, but not dangerous).  Currently I’m making near 6kts (that means up to 10kts when I start surfing down these waves) and I’m thinking I might have to completely douse the third reef in the mainsail and go back to just a tiny bit of the jib.  I tried going out this morning for a shower in the rain but before I could dry off a huge wave smacked me and it seemed the salt water spray was hitting me more than the fresh rain water, lovely.   So yes, this is one of those moments when you think, why the hell am I out here.  I just spoke to my friends still in Cocos on the radio that are fishing, diving, having BBQ fish on the beach, and I’m here in the crap.  Funny how they have Sunshine and light winds just 150 miles away.  Last night I took a wave into the cockpit so big that it was almost full of water; I was surprised how long it took to drain, several minutes, hmmm….   On top of that, my radar is acting up AS USUAL, worked fine the first day, but today I have had to reset it 4 times to get it to work, and I really need it as I am actually around shipping lanes and with this weather I couldn’t see any ships outside even if I was looking.  THEN about half way through writing this I hear my fishing line go, and I see a nice Wahoo (my favorite fish) jump clear out of the water, and before I could even begin to pull him in, he got loose.  So that’s how my day is going.  It’s funny because back in Bali someone asked me about sailing and said, wow you must have some amazing times, and some awful times out there on the sea.  And that is the exact truth.  If every day was like my last 24 hours I would never be doing this.  The really hard question is does all the nice days make up for the crappy ones!?  Sometimes it’s hard to say.  But I think somehow our little brains tend to remember the better parts and therefore convince ourselves to keep doing this kind of thing.

On my second day underway from Cocos the winds maxed out gusting up to around 40kts  and seas were up to around 15 feet, been taking a lot of water into the cockpit and even a bit into the cabin which just makes everything wet and salty.

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SALSA IS BACK IN THE ATLANTIC!

As I am sending this message I’m rounding Cape Algulhas, the southern most point of Africa dividing the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.  At the moment I’m about 4 miles offshore (just close enough to get internet!) @ 34’53 South and 20′ 00 East.  So after transiting the Panama Canal about 3 years ago, Salsa is finally back in the Atlantic!  Next stop, somewhere around Cape town hopefully tomorrow if the wind holds out!  All well here with settled weather however the swell is still around 10 to 12 feet.  For anyone following my wake, the sailing conditions in the Mozambique Channel and South African coast has generally been a %#**;#$!!  Can’t wait to get back in to the trade winds.  After an extended stay in CapeTown through March
I’ll move on to St. Helena and then Brazil maybe around April.

-Kirk

The current outside of RB was the opposite as when we arrived (before 4kts South right up to 100m line).  This time there was 1-2 kts counter current out to the 500m line!!  You had to beat SE something like 10 miles or more to around the 1000m line to pick up 2kts southerly, and stay well offshore beyond 1000m (I was like 50 miles off shore when rounding Durban), people further in got no current or counter current, I made a current map based on reports from the radio but giving it to you is useless as the damn thing seems to change all the time.  SO 2kts average most the way to EL then you can move in to 200-500m line and get 3 to 5kts!  WOW, for one 24 hour run I AVERAGED 9.5 KTS!!.   Once you hit the shallow (<200m) area East of P.E. you loose it all again or maybe you keep up to 1kt at times.

To truly appreciate Richards Bay one must only sail to Port Elizabeth.  :-).  Actually I know NOTHING of the city here (other than it is BIG) so I am referring to the docking situation.  Sime, Vintas, and Shearwater all got in before us, (us being Luna, Parpar, and Salsa).  And we three took the very last births (there are still some fore and aft mooring balls open and MAYBE a small boat could squeeze between two other small ones, maybe.  You can always tie to a fishing boat, and I don’t think you can anchor anywhere.   Its DAMN calm outside the harbor (1-2m seas)  and STILL there is a surge here so you have to be VERY carefull how you tie up to this (barely) floating dock. Fenders need to be ALL the way down at water level, the jetty you tie to is HOSTILE with sharp metal bits sticking out (use a fender board) and for this they charge 50 rand a day ($6usd) and another 15 (2usd) for shower access.  But I guess its not all bad.  I got in at dusk last night and have not even had a beer at the YC yet, just slept, it was a good passage but a bit more of motoring in the calms than I would have liked but this is one coast where I’m not going to drift around waiting for wind because half of the time the wind you get won’t be what you want!, otherwise great passage, no beating.  Next weather window looks like Saturday or Sunday.  Holger;  You get your rigging sorted yet?   Mom; I copied you so you know I’m OK, this is not for the website. James; Captain Cook (roy from Peri Peri) had very fond memories chatting with you when you were sitting N of Madagascar for a while something like 15 years ago, then laughed his ass off about the time you were caught off Cape Point (Chapmans Peak Dr?) in a gail (I vividly remember you telling me the same story! but you didn’t seem to find the same humor in it as Roy does today)  So anyway Roy said he still thinks about you all the time and I gave him your email.  That’s it for now! Oh what the hell, Mom go ahead and post this to sailing salsa in case It takes me a month to write up something better :-).     -Kirk