Azores to Home,
On the 5^th of July at 11.00 I left Praia Vitoria Marina on the Island of Tercieria in the Azores. The local weather forecast was for one day of fair north-westerly winds then days of very light north or north-easters. So I decided to leave a day or two early and go north where the westerly winds blow.
During the first day the wind was fair but over night it went very light and pushed me well east of my intended track. It then went so light from 10 am to noon that I put the motor on for 2 hours. At 15.00 there was a wind shift and I edged more to the north with a strengthening breeze. 83 miles in the first day and 103 in the second, but the wind going progressively into the north.
The AIS radar detector fitted at Horta worked really well giving a warning of all ships over 1,000 tonnes one of which came within 500 metres.
On the 8^th the wind went further west and by evening I was wing on wing but the weather was deteriorating steadily and the waves got nasty. I ended up using a tiny little fourth reefed main sail in the grey overnight rain. But the 9^th dawned fine and sunny but the sea had got bigger with waves to 3 metres and lots of white water about. The wind had gone into the north again so it was just a case of keeping on keeping on with the wind just aft of the beam, to reduce the discomfort from the big sea. By night fall I was down to a well furled jib and the violent motion in the cabin put cooking out of the question. I bore off the wind a bit more and got a fair nights sleep.
At dawn on 10^th the main sail went back up and I started to try and win back some of the 15 miles I had been pushed south over night. Hard on the wind and by midnight I had got all but 5 miles back. But the wind strengthened as the pressure slowly rose and the hard fort for 10 miles was lost in no time. The Azores high was building and I had to get north ASAP. Poor old Cariad had her  starboard taffrail under water most of the day. Then as evening came on the 11^th the pressure stabilized at 1020 mb, it became overcast, the sea abated as the wind eased and backed into the north-west. I was through to the westerlies. Shipping was heavy with up to 4 threatening  me at one time. The A.I.S. makes it so much safer and easier.
The 12^th dawned overcast with a good north-west breeze and we started to get north and back on to track. The dull weather continued right through the 13^th with 106 miles in the day with little effort.
Light wind and poor visibility started as we crossed the King Auther under sea canyon where the 4,000 metre deep Atlantic Ocean rises to the 100 to 200 meter deep continental shelf known as the Sole bank, 200 miles west of Lands End.
It was thick with fishing boats. During the morning I was having a nap to be wakened by a foreign fishing boat hooter, this was not good. I am supposed to keep a good lookout, but these fishing boats have no AIS transponder so it has to be a visible watch which is very difficult in the poor visibility. I sorted this out by just dozing in my reclining seat then heaving too at 20.00 hrs  till 3.00 on the 15^th which dawned a little brighter.  Though  there were dozens of small local fishing boats out of the Scilly Isles and Cornwall mixed in with many ships, but they didn’t give me any real problems.
The 16^th was a great day made for me when I met a 3 masted square rigger under full sail 40 miles off Lands End tacked about 5 miles ahead of me. It was glorious to see the 20 or so sails all change as she went through the wind. There were 2 other large sailing ships with sails furled and motors on and lots of ships and fishing boats. As evening came on I passed Lundy Island and entered the Bristol Channel. I almost made Ilfracombe before the tide turned but not quite so it was not till 2.00 in the morning of the 17^th that I dropped anchor in King Authers North Devon port.
England again after 4 years.
I spent 9 days in Ilfracombe virtually on holiday and relaxing then it was back into the Bristol Channel to an anchorage off Sandy Point by Weston Super Mare for the night. And at 9.30 off across the channel and into Newport Uskmouth Sailing Club at 12 noon on Sunday the 27^th  July for my official return to the  point where 4 years and 1 week previously my life changing voyage began. The club put on an excellent buffet and lots of friends turned up.
Unfortunately Uskmouth SC has very few moorings and it’s quite a long drive from Ross so on the 29^th I set off for Lydney dock this time with company and it’s a good job John helped me as the starter decided to give up the ghost so I had to hand start the. The wind was a strong breeze so we just shot up the river at 10 knots after first anchoring in Newport Deeps then rounding the Welch grounds. We had to heave too twice so as not to arrive too early at the Lydney Lock gate which looked very narrow as we approach with a fare speed on so as to keep good steerage. Then we were in the lock and all went quiet with Peter Kirby and Godfrey to lake the mooring lines.
This was the real end of my voyage and poor old Cariad  my fantastic sadler 34 coastal sailing yacht is in need of a great deal of TLC after being hammered around the world.

Tony

The Azores,
My stop at Horta Marina on the Island of Faial was to clean the boat and prepare for the last leg to home. The cleaning went OK and I fitted an AIS radar which should see me safe across the main shipping lanes from the USA to Europe, but despite repeated washing of the electronics in water and alcohol I have been unable to get the electric tiller pilot working. So it may mean hand steering again if there is no wind and I am on the motor. My bad Stomach disappeared within a day of arriving, good food and some exercise was the cure.
Cariad was hauled out for a hull clean and a coat of antifouling, but the shoe on the bottom of the skeg was in danger of becoming detached and the strengthening done in Thailand had blown off exposing the aluminium block cast into the bottom of the skeg. There is no anode on the rudder and the aluminium has been acting as a very efficient sacrificial anode. By now I am used to these sort of problems and know that you take advise but then you decide on the engineering solution and tell the local engineer what is to be done. My decision was to have a boot made out of 3mm stainless sheet and then pour in epoxy resin to fill the gap thus transferring the shoe bolt forces into the boot which is bolted through the skeg with one of the bolts carrying an anode. It looks a bit rough but should get me home.
This left me 2 or 3 days to explore Faial with its hedges of Blue hydrangeas  which are just coming into bloom and a glorious Caldeira at the top of the volcano (last eruption on the island 1957 when I was at school). There are no trees in the pit which takes 2 hours to walk round but there are lakes and shrubs and the views off the island to Pico, Sao Jorge and Graciosa are great.
Next I took the 3 euro ferry ride over to Pico Island which is the highest mountain in Portugal at 2351 metres. The tourist information said a guide was compulsory but the ones I contacted were not interested in the Sunday I wanted to go up, or suggested a night ascent the one said he could do it for 120 euros so I packed my GPS, compass, map, phone, warm clothes, water, food and water hired a car and set off first to the fire station then to the mountain rescue centre at the ascent start point. I had to fill in a book giving my details and estimated time of arrival back and the fireman/mountain rescue warden checked my gear assured me it was OK gave me there phone number and saw me off on a good old scramble to the top. 3 hours up and 3 back down, brilliant views some easy rock scrambling and wild flowers amid the old volcanic debris. I still had time to drive around the island and sight see till the last ferry at 20.30 hours.
It was time to move on so we left at midday on the 27^th June thus getting the reduced monthly marina fee of 6 euros a night including water and electricity (I don’t use electricity except for power tools as the solar panels run the light and fridge easily. I anchored for the night at Veles, Sao Jorge and whilst Having a quiet sun downer the dingy from the next yacht (Snow Bird) came by and invited me for dinner. Frances owns the 47 footer ans Christine and John are guests. Francis wanted to talk about French Polynesia which she visited 10 or 12 years ago. The food was very good and the company excellent so a late night was had.
Next morning it was off round the north end of Sao Jorge and 20 miles to Graciosa where the marina is as yet unfinished, but it was OK to tie up against the new wall then a French boat came in ant tied up ahead of me. The little town of Vila da Pria was nice and friendly with 2 good cafes and a small super market. Next day I was just about to go off for the day when a small (27 foot) British yacht Auld Meg came in and I told the skipper (Denise) to tie up alongside Cariad. I then went for the bus which I found didn’t run on Saturdays but I got a lift to the capital Santa Cruz with a local who spoke good English as he had worked in Canada. He showed me the windmills and detoured to give my the best views. Santa Cruz is an almost unspoiled Portuguese town with a quiet beauty which is very hard to find. As I tried to find a good map the one shop had a poster advertising a running of the bulls through the town of Guadalupe starting at 17.30. After a little more sightseeing I set off around the north end of the island hopping for a lift but there was very little traffic and a good day for walking. So when I arrived at Guadalupe I was just about knackered. The town was preparing for the festivities and the bulls street was being boarded up to protect property.
Then at 18.15 they released the first of 4 bulls and it was wild. Graciosa is a country island and they know bulls are dangerous so it all went well with only the fit local farm boys playing at matador and touching its horns. All the same my one photo catches the serious look one the face of one of them as he held a horn and ran a tighter circle than the bull who was virtually free to gore him if he misjudged it. There was a rope on the bull with 3 men in white shirts and black matador hats to try to pull it off anyone who got knocked down. The bulls each had about 15 minutes rampaging up and down the street and none were hurt, everyone had a good time and I got a taxi back for only 6 euros.
Next day which was a Sunday I got know Denise and another single hander John, both of whom had taken part in the Jester challenge. A Blondie Hassler organized race from Plymouth to Pria, Terceira. I then spent the afternoon walking up to the Caldeira. Totally different from the other islands with a road tunnel into it but it was all closed as it was Sunday. Denise cooked that evening after cycling to the other side of the island and having a sulphur water bath at Carapatcho. He was a cook in the Navy and is very professional. John was good company and next day after seeing the French man and his badly treated crew off we all caught the 9.00 bus which was in fact the 8.50 and for 1 euro had a trip round south half of the island arriving at Santa Cruz which did in depth in clouding the museum and a church with 5 very good paintings reputed to be 500 years old. We then went to the caldeire which was open and went down into the massive cave which stinks of sulphur and has very hot mud boiling up through the cracks in the rocks. We then walked to Carapatcho and thanks to John fluent Portuguese (his wife is Brazilian) all got hot Sulphur water baths. Then several beers a very good meal and a rather rough night with the boats chaffing at the wall so baldly that my stern  line chaffed through with a loud bang. So a first light we all departed. John of England, Denise for Horta to meet his children who are flying in and me to Pria in Terciria. It was the most difficult departure I have had to make as I was last out so on my own. Once the stern spring was off I thought the short centre spring was going to tear apart but it held for the minute it took to get the stern line off. I was still sorting things when I left the tiny main harbour and there was a ship coming in. The sea was big as the last 2 days had been windy as a low pressure system went through but it was sailable and the wind vane worked well. As I was having a sleep in the afternoon the AIS alarm went off as the ship I had met coming out of Graciosa returned to its home port in Terceira. Good test for it as the waves were at least 3 metres. The breakers were smashing onto Terceira and the off lying islets. Then into the marina at Praia for a quiet night.
Terceira is the most sophisticated island I have been to in the Azores with the capital Angra do Heroismo on the UNESCO list of World Patrimony and it is nice.
Washed, fuelled and inspected the rudder and skeg which are all OK as far as I can see. Met Ivor an American, his wife and daughter who are crewing PAX an Exeter boat to the UK. He has bought a Sadler 34 in the states and is preparing it to go on a cruise similar to mine and he knew Cariad as soon as he saw her as she’s on the Sadler web page.

Tony

Have arrived at Ilfracombe and will be here until 26/7/09, then I will leave to be at NUSC at 12 noon on the 27^th July for an official completion.
Will post reports in the next day or two.

Tony

On 21^st April the weather was tropical showers and hard on the NNE wind I caught a nice fat skipjack Tuna and was just starting to eat when a storm came out of nowhere and drenched me and the meal, I am unable to recommend rain as sauce for fish especially for tuna. The boat was now at a heel of 25 degrees for 10 days and nights. First I passed through a very busy shipping lane from south of the Cape Verde Islands to South America that was over 50 miles wide and with no clear separation zones. I will have to fit a radar detector before starting the next leg which crosses the main Europe to US shipping lanes. At 19.27 hrs. on 28^th April 2008 at 15 54.1 N and 36 12.9 W we crossed our outward track thus technically completing the circumnavigation
The boat was taking water in steadily  and every 4 hours the bulges had be dried out. I was starting to suffer from a bad stomach caused by the rough motion of the boat, having to lie down so much, the lack of decent food as even boiling water was dangerous and the tank water full of debris which has been shaken off the bottom. The electric tiller pilot got broken when it got thrown cross the cockpit leaving me with only windvane steering which is no good if you motor. So I was pleased to have a quiet day on the 1^st of May. It was glass calm at times making it easy to sort out the poor old boat. Unfortunately this was the end of the good progress and I settled down to a long slow slog through the horse latitudes so called because in the very old days the mariners were often reduced to eating any horses on board, this probably meant all other meat was finished including the ships cat.
6^th May  started flat calm so I had a swim and decided to scrape off the worst of the Goose necked barnacles on the hull. The water was lovely and the exercise  was a tonic. At 18.00 the wind was enough to drive Cariad at 2.0 knots and by 20.00 we were  doing 4.5 with a wind that was of trade type but was pushing us way to the west and it looked like I would be over 40 degrees west before I get to 25 north, well I could get no tighter to the wind. At  4.00 am I crossed the 23 degree 27 minute latitude which is the tropic of Cancer and out of the tropics for the last time on this voyage. At daylight there was a massive jet stream sitting north-east to south-west and my course was almost north at last.
The furthest west I was pushed was 39 degrees 20 minutes on the 7^th May then during 8^th was just able to make a touch east of north, when suddenly at around midnight the wind started to turn into the south and by dawn on the 9^th I was wing on wing and the barometer dropping 1 or 2 millibars. Was I passed the centre of the high pressure at only 27 degrees north??
The answerer was yes but at 23.00 hrs. on 10^th a nasty little squall came in and as it passed  the wind turned 180 degrees, as I was removing the spinnaker pole when the foresail wrapped around the inner forestay and as I unwound it the sail tore. It’s an old sail and the sun has rotted it. Shut down till dawn then put up the second jib and started tacking to windward. The high pressure had moved north and west leaving me where I was 4 days ago and my stomach giving me trouble again as it’s not used to the poor diet I’ve been on lately (all meat and carbohydrates). Very slow progress on the 11^th eventually finding the wind at 18.00 hrs  then 2 to 3 knots of boat speed  during the night.
The 12^th was very slow, but the 13^th was almost no wind at all so I motored for 9 hours to cross where the chart shows a shipping lane then during the morning of the 14^th the wind came giving 2 to 3 knots of boat speed and we got 68 miles in the day.
It was at this time that the tummy trouble started in Ernest and was quite debilitating. I eventually put it down to the eggs I had taken on in Ascension and with only Rennie’s tablets to overcome the Listeria/Salmonella it was a hard time.
The evening of the 14^th and morning of the 15^th were quite different weather with a good breeze from the north-west, 113 miles in the day and only 465 to go. But it was the end of the lovely days just cloud and north Atlantic clag. The poor weather continued and my stomach kept playing up , but we put in another 100 miles. Then on the night of the 16^th the wind went quite contrary with only 46 miles in the day and lots of tacking and ships about. So at 16.00 on the 17^th I put the engine on and motored for 2 hours and found an easterly breeze that kept us going at 4 knots all night. Sometimes motoring just a short distance can significantly improve the wind. We made slow but steady progress on the 18^th and  19 th but ships kept appearing out of all directions as they skirted around and through the Azores Islands, small fishing boats also started to appear so I knew the Islands where close bye. The 20^th was very slow and tantalizingly close to Horta which I could not see then as it got dark I saw the lights of Horta town and Pico Island 12 miles away I travelled another 7 miles and hove too and went bed, getting up at 5.00 and sailing into Horta Marina at 8 am after 42 days at sea.

Tony

The island of Ascension is a communications centre in every way as it’s position, very close to the equator puts it under the orbit of the geostationary communications satellites that orbit the globe (yes I am now sure the world is round). NASA used it for monitoring the Apollo maned moon project. The French are here with Ariana, the BBC have there world service transmitters and there’s a lot of radar installations.
Geologically it’s the top of an undersea volcano that has only just stopped erupting. So the walks are very interesting and dusty. The Devils riding school and his ash pit are individual craters with Green Mountain the highest point at 859 metres.
Only the NATO airfield has caused much disruption to the topography with Green Turtles nesting and well protected on even the town beach. Local fishing is only to feed the workers on the island who are mostly from St Helena only 3 having been born on the island and whose right to live here is rejected by H.M.G.
As I was going to book out in horrible dingy I was not surprised to have a 3 metre span Manta Ray swim under me then 2 dolphins popped up to see if I was OK and all within 200 metres of the George Town jetty.
My stop was only for 4 days as I had decided to have the long stay at St. Helena which was a much nicer island. So on the 9^th of April I extracted the anchor from the rocks and set off for the equator with the south-east trade wind behind me on the 3,500 mile leg to the Azores.
The first 700 miles flew by then at 4.00 on the 15^th the wind disappeared and I had to put the engine on for 2 hours. There were storms about and I was in the trough between two of them. The wind returned and blew well until 13.30 when a large sort of storm cloud appeared ahead but the wind disappeared which was odd as I should not have been catching up the weather it should been leaving me, this was the start of the doldrums. The engine went on and staid on as I went into a cloud bank that had no wind in it. Just after midnight there was a gap in the clouds lite by the moon which seemed to have cut a circular hole in them revealing Cirrus clouds way above that looked like a jet stream. By dawn there was a tiny breeze from the west but the waves were now from the north-east and the engine still on. By now  the clouds were fair weather cumulus but there was still no wind. At 15.30 on the 16^th April having crossed into the Northern Hemisphere and toasted King Neptune I decided that 26 hours motoring was enough. So crafty sailing started and I seldom dropped below 2.5 knots with wind getting more and more from the north-east. We put  87 miles in the day with only 7 of them on the motor and after 2 more quiet days became established in the NE. trade winds.  (To be continued)

St. Helena is a trip back in time to Ye Olde England sort of. There are cars and tarmac roads a hospital and dentist with all the latest gear, but it’s the way the people are that immediately strikes you especially after South Africa. The only really white people are expats from Britain, the saints as the locals are known are olive skinned to very black and they all get on and treat each other as friends it’s like South Africa turned on it’s head and I loved it. You can leave any thing and when you come back it will still be there every one gives lifts so you can go walking and get a lift back to town.
I had decided to make this an in depth investigation of the Island so a lot of serious walking and hiking was done. Starting with the Napoleonic sites which include 3 houses where he stayed and his original tomb which is now empty as the French were given permission to take the body 4 years after its original burial  and he is now in Paris. Two of the three houses he lived in are now French territory and are maintained by the French government who have restored them as if he lived in the twentieth century, complete with concrete block work, cement rendering, tin roofs and modern square cornered plastering ( English Heritage would have a fit if they saw it). The tomb though is a beautiful wild garden looked after by a good handyman/gardener. The governor and Napoleon could not agree on the title to go on the tomb, Bony wanted Emperor and the governor said his title on the documents from England said he was only a general. So they compromised and there’s no plaque or name at all. It shows the very strained relationship between the then Governor and Napoleon.
The walks are spectacular and vary from desert to rain forest and from seaside and country walks to awesome cliff paths. There were many places where if you stop there is completely silence, this never happens at sea as the boat is always in motion.
My long stay resulted in many boats and crews that I had meet earlier and passed caught up with me. So lots of reunions and the crack was good at Ann’s Place the café where we all meet for happy hour a meal and the ferry back to our boats. At one time there were 4 of us single handers. Jeanne on Nereida (UK), Willhelm on Noah (Dutch), Harry on Rhiannon (US) and me.  Other boats of major note were Bob and Barbara on the Spanish Stroll (US) who were at Savusavu Fiji and Denis and Arigianne (Can) on Ciel & Mer who helped crew Cariad through the Panama Canal.
As St. Helena is British National Health I took the opportunity to get my teeth done. The dentist was from Northern Ireland where the best dental school in the UK is at Belfast so I was in the safe hands of RogerYoung who I think was a scum half for the all Ireland team at few years back.
On the 30^th of March I had to leave for Ascension Island 700 miles to the north. The pleasant journey took 6 days and was done partly in company with Wandering Albatross a South African yacht, which has just come up from the Antarctic via South Georgia.

Ascension to the Azores (short version)

I had 3 days on Ascension Island which is the top of a very big volcano most o which is under the sea. It’s beaches are full of green turtle nests and the lower parts of the Island are full of communications ariels.
On the 9^th April I set off for Horta in the Azores 3,540 miles to the north. Had fast passage to the equator then 3 slow days crossing the doldrums followed by 10 days hard on the wind and having to bale out the bilge every 4 hours due to water getting in through leaks in the coach house roof. This got across my outbound track on the 29^th April and only 1,500 miles to go. Should have taken 12 days, but it took another 21 days as the Azores high pressure played pin ball with Cariad as the ball. But it’s completed now and I’m in the beautiful Horta marina. Where I will stay until the end of June

Tony

Walvis Bay is the main port for Namibia were the coal, Iron Ore and Uranium are exported and the imports to sustain a desert country are brought in. Fishing and eco-tourism are also going well. The town is clean and efficient and there is much less unemployment than South Africa so the blacks are a lot happier as they have jobs crime is also much less. I liked Walvis bay the moorings were free and the yacht club had very good beer and food. I had a day in the desert and climbed dune 7 which seemed to be about 150 meters high and very hot. A complete contrast to the sea which is cold with seals swimming a round barking to be fed. The eco- tour boats feed the seals so the tourists get close up to them for photos and to see them playing, they also feed fish to the Pelicans who take fish from your hand as they fly past.
This should be my last mainland Port before getting home so I stocked up with food and fuel before leaving under at 15.30 on the 18^th February. Got about 30 miles off shore then the wind died returning very light at 7.00 next morning. Only made 118 miles in the first 2 days the 108 and getting into real trade winds in the afternoon of day 3 though the wind picked up the weather remained overcast throughout the trip and as I am only have solar panels and the engine for charging my batteries I had to ration electricity, so no tillerpilot steering and only LED lights for 10 days. The sea temperature got slowly warmer and the seals were replaced by Dolphins and the fish I caught were Dorado’s one of my favourites.
St. Helena is only a small island, but over 800 metres high so I expected to see it from 50 miles away at 20 miles it still hadn’t appeared but radio St. FM came through loud and clear so it had to be there and at 9.00 on 29^th the north east cliff (Sugar Loaf) popped out of the side of a mass of cloud which was shrouding the Island. It was 14.00 when I dropped the anchor in 55 feet of water next to 2 other yachts I know. So it looks like a good start to my stay at St. Helena.

Tony

By the 17^th  I had been to Cape Town, got my supplies for the trip up the Atlantic and was ready to go. The spare Genoa was to be delivered to Simons Town that day by Quantum sails but they hadn’t finished it. The weather window was only one day, but all I needed was 4 hours to get around Cape Point. By 16.00 hours the wind was calm (after 8 days of winds 30 – 40 knots gusting to 50) this was go time. We were away by 17.00 and all was OK for the first half mile, then the wind on the nose got up to 25 knots and stayed there I pressed on it was only local and I was out of it in 3 hours. It also tested the seals in the anchor locker done after similar conditions at Maputo had caused leaks, but all is now OK.
The wind dropped to 10 – 15 and I had the most gorgeous sail around Cape Point as the sun set behind it. Hope the photos using the new digital camera are OK. I stayed well off the Cape as advised by locals at the yacht club. Next day Kevin, Georgia, and especially Harry went in shore and got trapped in fishing nets, Harry had  to dive over the side and cut his prop free in freezing cold water where the Great White sharks are a common species. All part of life’s rich  pattern so they say.
By 22.00 hours I was well past the Cape with a light breeze and a smooth sea surface but an underlying 2 metre swell coming up from the south-west. There were a few fishing boats tearing about but the big ships were all well out beyond the 200 meter contour. So the night was quiet and by mourning I was abeam Cape Town and Table Bay, It looked very inviting and perhaps I should have gone in and cleared customs there, but I had been assured that Saldana Bay is a port of entry??
Had a lovely leisurely sail along the coast with Table Mountain slowly disappearing. As I came closer to the shore fish pots started to appear all over place in no set pattern, I was under sail so there was only a small chance of getting caught but, had to do some hand steering.
The entrance to Saldana Bay came into sight at about 15.30 and a very large bulk carrier that had been slowly overtaking me on the seaward side strated closing in, then it dawned on me that he to was going into the Bay which has an Ore Terminal. So I just followed him in under sail with just one short radio call to Port Control.
It’s a massive bay with a small entrance. The best harbour in South Africa. But in the middle of nowhere and three yacht clubs. There was a spare mooring out at the edge of Saldanha Bay Yacht Club so I took it and went ashore to find a lovely small yacht club with no hassles. The problems started next day when I tried to book in at the customs office.
Mr Kuys the Robo Cop clone, customs man at the Ore terminal took all my customs book out papers from Durban etc. and told me he would book me out for customs but not immigration. I asked where the immigration office was and he said Cape Town??? A port that takes 200,000 dead weight tonne ships has to be a port of entry. So I rang Cape Town and the immigration office said just come in and we’ll stamp your passport so I asked if they would pay for the 60 mile taxi ride. They said no and when I went to book out at customs on the Monday the 4^th February, Kuys would only give me an internal customs clearance within the Union of South Africa. Harry, Kevin and Georgia who had also come to Saldanha were trying to get to Cape Town as Georgia is an SA citizen and needs to return next year.
Well as I hadn’t been stamped out of Madagascar and Mozambique I felt that I mite as well add South Africa to the list and left at 18.00 that evening telling Port control I was going to Cape Town after first doing some cruising to the north. The wind was a strong Southerly and as I left the protection of the Harbour there was only one way to go. Down-wind towards Namibia with 4 reefs in the new main sail. Cariad just flew for three days and we were out of SA the most bureaucratic and bunglingly incompetently administered country I have visited so far.
Then the wind went very light and against me. I tacked and motored a bit for two days then the wind went back to the south lite at first with spinnaker up then in the afternoon we were away and in the evening I saw 9 knots of ground speed. This would have meant an entry into Walvis Bay in the night and as it’s noted for fog I felt we had to slow down and enter in daylight. The drogue slowed us to 3 – 4 knots. Then about midnight the wind started to drop I didn’t want to try to retrieve the drogue in the dark, but by 2 am it had to be done. At first I was able to pull in by hand but as I almost got the cable onto a winch it went tight an instead of letting go I hung on and got a bruised right hand (silly boy). Winch it in and learned but the wind just kept dropping and I had to motor in to Walvis Bay past the seal colony’s and the boats full of tourist watching then. I had been lucky enough to have seals inspecting the drogue in the night illuminated by the phosphorescence I’m so privileged to see all this.
I took a mooring at the yacht club and Arry ran me in to the immigration and customs. No problems just booked in all as normal.

Tony

East London, to follow



Port Elizabeth, to follow


Mosselbaai, appears to be a small fishing port with a tourist trade but it’s not so. The area around the harbour and fishing port is a bit touristy but just outside is greater Mosselbaai with light industrial areas, shopping Malls and a big population. The port is small and caters for the fishing fleet including very large trawlers, fishery protection vessels, work boats for oil rigs and ocean going tugs as it also contains the walk on yacht pontoons it’s fairly busy at times.
I had surfed in, in the middle of the night so had to move first thing in the morning. I moored next to Charles and Maria-Eugene (Nomad RWYC) from Liverpool who I hadn’t seen since Thailand. Then went exploring the town. This is where Bartolomeu Dias, one of the Portuguese explorers landed having found the route around the Cape in 1488. Vasco Digamma then extended this route to India 2 years later so the place is steeped in history and has a good museum to show it off. There is also a 30 mile steam train link to the transport museum at George (the town is named after George the third of England). It’s not that fuel effective at 5 tons of coal to do the 30 miles but I had to go on it. Getting back by taxi bus was not too difficult but the blacks around this area are not very friendly and you can only get directions from white people. I t was on this journey that I found the real size of Mosselbaai.
However a new weather window beckoned on Friday 18^th January, Wilhelm from the local chandlery liked and had most faith in the windguru model and as he is skippering a 48 footer around I agreed with him. Helmut and his son Jan on the 45 foot aluminium  yacht toof one look at the focast and left 2 hours later.. Tom from New York had only just got in after trying to get around Agualhaus the day after I got into Mosselbaai but had been driven back by 40 knot winds and 6 metre waves so he was repairing his boat and recuperating.
I left at 8 am on the 18^th and after an altercation with the Port Control radio who said I hadn’t put in a flight plan. I had and it was witnessed by 3 people who work in the Port Office. He seemed to think I would come back and help him find the form that he had mislaid.
The wind was very light so I motored for 2 hours then the wind came up nicely all day with only one or two local fishing boats. The night had a small fishing fleet but all the main shipping was just visible on the horizon in a ship separation zone around Cape Aguahlaus. The waves were about 3 metres but nice long regular ones as The Cape came abeam at 6 am on Saturday with the wind force 3 from the east. Took lots of photos as I passed the most southerly point in Africa which is only 90 miles north of the maximum Iceberg limit at this time of year (there has already been one yacht wiped out by ice in the Southern Ocean this year). This was all so easy and a nice day in prospect no fishing boats around so time to rest up. It was at 11 am that I just thought I better have a look outside to check even though it had been completely clear 30 minutes before. 300 metres in front was a wall of Limestone rock about 2 meters high with waves breaking over it and a green roofed building on the left my speed was 6 knots so it was about 2 minutes to impact. I put the engine on and turned 180 degrees this ripped the Main Sail just below the 4^th reef , but the jib was OK. The reef was Geyser Island a very vague area of reefs shown on my charts with little information. I had set my course to miss by only 1 mile as the area was just shown as a grey area. The wind had shifted and my wind vain steered me too far north. Cariad must have seen it coming and warned me, what a fantastic yacht she is.
The wind strengthened but as I was stuck with only a pocket handkerchief of a main sail I need it. Up came Kaap Hangkip and we turned into False Bay which I hoped would give some protection, but it didn’t. So it was surfing into Port again.
Simons Town is the old British Naval Base close to Cape Town with very easy access to the city but in a small town environment and after Durban you can keep South African cities. I expected a well lit port with a marina and anchorage sheltered behind it. The navigation had to be done virtually blind as the lights of Simons Town combined with some double red lights on the masts of 4 warships in  the port (apparently to stop helicopters flying into them) made identification of the port impossible till I was 300 meters from the harbour wall.
The wind was 35 knots but fortunately there was a docked Frigate that gave me shelter and light sufficient to get the dingy off the anchor winch and prepare to drop anchor. Which I did in 13 metres of water at just before midnight, with 60 meters of chain.
I was unable get ashore for a day as the wind didn’t die down. But on Monday it turned nice so launched Horrible Dingy booked in and then moved into the marine just as Kevin (South Moon) and Harry (Reanen) arrived after putting into Gordon’s Bay as they didn’t fancy Simons Town in the dark on Saturday night.
My new Main Sail was brought out by Quantum Sails from Cape Town and the local chandlery has access to all the kit I need for the rest of the voyage.

Tony

Durban to East London,
By the time the tiller pilot was fixed and the main sail measured so it can be made at Cape Town and ready for my arrival. I  managed to miss a weather window which happened a week before Christmas so I didn’t get away until the 29^th of December. The leg from Durban to East London is 260 miles so a 3 day window of north-east winds is advisable as the Agulhas current turns into large standing waves if the wind turns against it.
I left at 9am with wind still a light southerly but, forecast to go north- east about midday. It was a fight to try to get south at first but I was getting out towards the current which is usually about 15 miles out. All the talk about finding it by a 2 degree increase in temperature is OK if you have thermometers on the hull, which I don’t have. I just watched my speed over the ground and at 8 knots felt I was in and turned towards East London as the wind went north-east about 15 knots. The windpilot handled this well but later in the night it got up to 25  gusting 30, waves got bigger and we were surfing at up to 10 knots and did 87 miles in 12 hours. As day light  came the sea looked rather daunting with quite a bit of spin drift and the wind went up 5 more knots. By this time I only had the 4^th reefed main sail up and a smidgin of jib to maintain 10 knots down the waves. I think I was under sailed as one or two wave smacked into the stern. Bernard Motizier and Joshua Slocomb say to keep up a good press of sail up so the waves stay behind you. But they were in stronger conditions ?? 
Cariad seemed happy until mid afternoon when the first wave broke over the stern and into the cockpit, it was not a cool refreshing shower more a good soaking. The boat took this and 2 more similar waves as we lined up for East London 20 to 30 miles out and didn’t have any problem. I sat by the tiller and only touched it if a wave pushed us off line by more than 20 degrees.
I expected the speed to die 10 miles out but we surfed right into the harbour. 112 miles in 12.5 hours making 199 in 24.5 hours a new record day for me to round off 2007. Who said pensioners don’t lead exciting lives.
I was to tired to take up a trot mooring so just anchored in the Buffalo River by the bridge in 38 feet of water.
Next day which was the last of 2007 I took a mooring and found that with so much concentration and the wind on passage my face had got badly sun burned as I had just not noticed the sun. So it’s red nose day for me.
East London is not happy place it’s very like Chepstow without the Castle and the happy people. Aussies would call it a wingers wonderland as the weather is lovely the town and harbour excellent, but the people who are as well off as those in Richards Bay just seem to think the country owes them more.
As soon as the next weather window opens it’s off to Port Elizabeth.

Tony

Cariad was in a bit of a state when I arrived at the small ships harbour in Tezi Gazi (Richards Bay to all but the new politically correct politicians who are changing the names of all the old towns into incomprehensible Zulu ones, many be they think it’s going to be the new world language???).
So I hiked straight over to the Zululand Yacht Club. Where I found the repair facilities I needed with walk on pontoons, electricity and water. I hired Ishmael at only 100 Rand (7 pounds) a day to help with the cleaning etc, and set too making good the ravages of the Indian Ocean. Which included water in the tiller pilot (automatic steering).
I had a very nice stay at the lovely yacht club, which is only an hours drive from one of the best game parks in the world (Hluhuwe/Infolozi). The names have been  changed recently by the authorities to protect it from tourists who the local people desperately need to come to this fabulous park which stretches as far as the eye can see from the top of a 2500 foot mountain. All the big 5 are there with other parks which have marine and lagoon animals close by which the Kruger Park does not have. A stay at the Hill Top Hotel is very good value and flights via Abudabi are half the scheduled fares to Johannesburg. I would have liked to stay for Christmas, but a new main sail is needed so I had to get to Durban so Quantum sails could measure up the old one and make it in Cape Town ready for Cariads arrival in January.
I had done some crewing on Silhouette  for the Sunday races out into the Bay so I knew what to expect when I left on the 15^th December. A big dredger circling in the entrance and 20 ships manuvering around the anchorage. What I didn’t expect was the Autohelm to not work as it had been OK on test. This meant using the Wind pilot which is good when under sail but shakers itself to pieces under power. The forcast was for a light North-east wind which started southerly and was supposed to back, but it didn’t. The wind went west of south which is dangerous if it goes over 15 knots against the Agulas current. I decided that as its only 85 miles motoring would be best. So it was hand steering all night with a home made bungee cord and pulley system so that I could be in the cabin out of the rain, there’s lovely. At dawn anchored container ships hove into view and the lights of Durban started to become a city. A container ship just ahead of me tried to get the Port control by radio but had no luck an just cut his engine then died in the water, presumably he anchored. The port lights showed it to be closed (flashing red) so what do you do when fishing boats and tugs are going out? I went into the marina next but one to a local boat owned by Eric from Tunbridge Wells who took my lines at 6am. Then off to bed.
Durban is a City riddled with crime and poverty, but mixed with the very well off in flash cars and dressed very smartly. So I have had lots of lectures on how to be street wise (a six gun would be a lot more use). To get into shops and offices you have to go through locked gates and one them lead into a marine electronics workshop that has put a new circuit board into the Autohelm that now works in the harbour. After 2 days of gale force winds which have played havoc with the pontoons and the J22 world championships that are being held here I am now ready and very keen to leave for a safer environment in East London so when will the next weather window open???

Merry Christmas.
Tony

Got to Richards Bay South Africa on  Tuesday 23^rd. It was quite an exciting trip the 210 miles from Maputo, Mozambique. First with dead into wind and very low speed to  first get out of the mud in Maputo marina then crashing through the waves in the bay with a 30 knot headwind. Cariad had sever problems with the waves which were that critical length which en-shored that the bow went under the water at least every second wave and sometimes all of them. The result was the anchor locker filled with water pushing the bow down and the water seemed to lift the deck above the anchor locker bulkhead allowing water to get into the forward cabin sort of like happened to the Titanic. I went into the cabin and could first hear water sloshing around then saw it cascading in over the bulkhead as a wave struck. I started tacking across the waves to increase there length and slowed down this gave me time to start pumping out.
It took 6 hours to get out of the bay by which time it was well dark but I was able to cross the waves then and took on no more water. When I passed the Inhaca Light House where I sheltered on the way in there were Hump back whales blowing around the boat in the dark just to make me nervous. Current was against me as the main Agallusa current it 50 miles off shore at this point putting me in the counter current. Making only 2.5 knots at times with 180 miles to go and only 2 days before the wind was forecast to turn south-west this turns the current into waves up to 6 metres high. So I kept on pumping every 15 minutes and pressed on. By 8 the next morning the speed was up to 4.5 knots and the wind was turning north (behind me). At about 14.00 I started to get into the current and the speed went over 6 knots and I knew I could make Richards Bay next day. But the speed kept building and at about midnight the GPS speed gave 13.6 knots so I took the sails down and it didn’t make much difference then I went closer in shore as I didn’t want to arrive before daylight especially as there were 3 other yachts very close to me. I arrived at the breakwater in one piece at 5.30 with the sun rising behind me and the big Yacht Aquilia which had passed me at 19.00 hours 3 miles behind me. I cleared in at the small craft harbour and will be at Richards Bay, Zululand, Yacht Club for 5 weeks or so. I will be  back on the phone soon.

Tony

Left Russian Bay on  19^th August  after saying fond farewells to Andrew and Lisa taking with me a picture for Lisa’s brother in Port Elizabeth. Then 2 days in Hellville stocking up and easy sailing to Honey River and the Radarma Islands were I dropped anchor for the night then a 70 mile day sail to Marumba Bay where I arrived at 21.00 hours in the moon light so anchored just passed the entrance sand bar as the sea map charts are out by a quarter of a mile. The inner bay is guarded by black rocky islands which rise vertically from the sea on the north side and steep cliffs on the south. In daylight they were beautiful covered in Baobab trees but at night it was a different picture. So I slept in the entrance and moved in at 7.00 am finding 2 yachts where all ready inside at anchor. The bay was stunningly beautiful and as I anchored the skipper from the big aluminium catamaran came over in his canoe to let me know were the Lemurs where and to invite me over for a sun downer later on. Horrible dingy was soon launched and I did a recei of the near by beaches and just inland. A local fisherman sold me 2 large crabs for about one pound and so lunch was solved. The baobab trees are unbelievable you have to see them to comprehend there weirdness, the Malagash say they contain the spirits of the dead ??? The lemurs were the large creamy grey ones with reddish brown patches and blue noses ( I don’t know the name as I haven’t got an Observers book of Lemurs so there). Had a very nice evening on the cat Marula which is almost a super yacht at 60 feet long. They left next morning for Daresalam Tanzania, Prawn the skipper had chartered her to an expedition to the Island of Aldabra were there are giant Tortoise as per Galapagos and gave me the information on them.
Next day it was brought home to me how we cruisers have to be competent at first aid . The skipper on the South African sloop had been spear fishing around the rocks and when he went to retrieve a Cray fish he had shot grabbed a Stone fish which was in the same hole. His hand swelled to twice its normal size and he was in agony it took 15 minutes to get back to his boat to put his hand I hot water which is the treatment along with electric shock. He has the antibiotics on board to stop gangrene but will have to have the dead tissue cut away by a medic.
After a days cleaning and fixing I left on the evening of the 27^th just as the local boats were coming into harbour. There were Whales leaping about and smashing there flukes on the water to concentrate the prawns in balls ready for them to eat. This took my mind off the weather and I pressed on instead of going back to the anchorage. The wind just kept getting stronger and I ended up with just the storm jib up surfing down the waves which was all very exciting but meant no sleep as the automatic windvane steering went off line. The paddle had bent back, may be it hit a piece of debris, but I couldn’t see the problem in the dark. I didn’t have the time to navigate so went outside the reef into deep water and survived. It was bitterly cold and this was why the wind was so strong. At night the air on the highland Plato in central Madagascar is much colder than the air over the 30 degree reef water where I was so the hot air rises and the cold air rushes down to replace it, freezing me and blowing Cariad all over the place. By daylight I didn’t know where I was so I through out the drogue sea anchor sorted out the navigation and made a course for Baly Bay arriving at 14.00 and sleeping through till next morning. Then a day making repairs and off for another night sail this time around Cap St. Andre. The sand coloured shoal  water is very shallow for miles out and the tide tries to push you on to the sandbanks 10 miles off shore. But Cariad was on form and the GPS corrects the course for drift so all I had to do was keep away from the prawn trawlers that are every where, day and night around the Cap.
I had hoped to anchor at the island of Nosy Chesterfield but it was a desolate spot, the sand banks were out of position and the water 52 feet deep so I sailed on for 20 miles hove too and went to bed, continuing on to Maintirano. This is a bad anchorage so I put down 2 anchors and a 15 metre length of 20 mm nylon rope to take the shock, but the bow still kept going under the water. Next morning the wind had dropped and I debated whether to try to go ashore, then the local Mosque started up and I knew it was not my kind of town. It was only 33 miles to The Barren Islands and I found a lovely anchorage off Nosy Andrano, an island with 4 or 5 seasonal fishing boats,  had a swim, cooked and full nights sleep.
Then off to Morandau my last landfall in Madagascar. They don’t get many cruisers in  there so I was surrounded by fishing canoes and decided to go ashore with one of the fishermen. No sooner was I in the canoe than it capsized fortunately I had money cards etc in a sealed polythene bag, so I did learn from losing the mobile phone in the last dingy upset. Did my shopping at the very good market and spent the last of my Madagascan money as it wont be any use else where. Back through the surf to Cariad up anchor and off to Africa.
We made good progress during the day and soon were outside the Reef then it was quiet and then went dead for 3 days with 2 days under 40 miles. But it stated to improve on the 11^th and 12^th then it went south westerly which is counter to the current that I was just getting into and the waves went big, once I feared that Cariad might not have the momentum to climb up one of them, she nearly slid backwards only the wave moving towards us quickly saved the situation. Then a fast motor ship appeared out of no where and gave me a reassuring weather forecast followed by a second ship that tried to run me down (I don’t think they were keeping any visual lookout and hadn’t got collision avoidance radar) so I dodged out of there way.
Next day the radio forecast came through loud and clear another south westerly was due for the 15^th . I could not be sure to make the 388 miles to Richards Bay South Africa so I diverted to an anchorage off the Inhaca Light House in Mozambique and was greeted there by a mass of Dolphins, Pilot Whales and very close in shore 3 or 4 big Whales driving prawns into balls so they could have lunch. Anchor down at 16.00 welcome to Africa.

Tony

Mayotte is a very French Island 180 miles west of Nosy Be and the nearest place for me to renew my Madagascar visa. The island is about  20 miles north to south and 10 east to west with the highest of the rolling hills Mt Choungul rising  to 600 metres. The facilities here are first world but there are some very bad areas of poverty were the economic migrants from the other Comoros Islands have come in illegally and are now squatting in shanty towns getting money from there relatives who have EEC citizenship and dole money as in England. This has happened because Mayotte voted to stay French in 1964 and the rest of the Comoros islands went independent and are now ruled by a Dictator and Shari a law ( they could sell a lot of spare organs but they don’t have a freezer to store them in, so I’m told) .
I arrived on the early morning on the 23^rd of August 2007 and as there was no English speaker in the Port Captains Office I launched Horrible dingy and went ashore. It was great to be able to use the outboard without expecting to have it stolen (Madagascar is a very bad place for outboard theft). The booking in took only 45 minutes ever though very little English was spoken (the forms were in French and English) and it was free of charge. I then took one of the 3 times an hour ferries from the Petite Terre where the yacht anchorage is to the main Grand Terre island at a cost of only 0.6 Euros for the return trip. The town of Mamoudzou is nice with an industrial area that has quite a good stock of engine spares and boat repair items. The currency is the Euro and all bank cards work not at all like Madagascar. On Friday I filled my gas cylinders the last of which had run out that morning and during the weekend refuelled, filled with good EU standard water and explored the Petite Terre on foot.
Monday I took taxi buses and walked around the south of the Grand Terre where there are some very big Baobab trees, at last I have found some big trees. There have been no trees as big as those in England until now, all the islands, Panama, Borneo and Thailand were logged out in the areas I have been to. The hire of a scooter would have been 35  Euros a day but they demanded a 900 Euro deposit, the very good taxi buses cost me only 8 Euros a day and you get to meet local people who are good fun though being mostly Muslim they don’t have pubs or cafes as you do in civilization.
Tuesday I set off for the north of the island to do one of the footpath treks in the guide book. Doug and his wife from an American boat had lent me a very detailed map so I was able to find the start of the trail from where the bus dropped me off. It was well way marked for all the way up around Mt Duzani with breath taking views of the reefs and passes out over the sea. Then I came to new road construction on the line of the track completely obliterating it and the way marks I followed the new road for about 3 miles down hill where it just stopped with a turning area. Go back up hill 3 miles, not me. So as there was a dry stream bed through the jungle I set off down it and then I heard this sort of woofing cough and the Jackfruit tree above me was full off small Lemurs all looking at me it made my day they are so lovely. After a mile or two of rock hoping I came to a track crossing the stream. A (Zebu) cattle herdsman directed me as to the right way to go on the path which was way marked but not the same as my first path and 2 miles later came out on a road I know not where. The trip back to Mamoudzou was difficult because there is a gap in the taxi bus system that the locals could not explain to me but as soon as I left the bus stop I was given a lift to where there were lots of busses, it’s the same the whole world over there are either no busses or three come at once.
The trip back to Madagascar started at the sensible time of 9.15 on Friday the 31^st August as I didn’t want to go through the narrow passé Bandele until low tide close to slack water. It was a great passé but only 8 metres deep over the bar with several canoe fishermen people on the reef collecting sea cucumbers or lobsters. I motored for 3 hours then picked up a light breeze from the west. At times it was so light that I put up the spinnaker with 2 poles to hold it out. Cariad is a great light weather boat and made the 178 miles just inside 2 days with only 6 hours on the motor and we were hove too for 3 hours waiting for daylight and a storm to clear before entering Russian Bay, Madagascar. 3 days later in Hellville I met an Australian skipper who I had booked out from Mayotte with me, he had motored nearly all the way after tearing his jib as a result of repeated slating.
Then back to Turtle Island in Russian Bay helping Andrew with work on his old wooden Warren catamaran. I have all the woodworking tools and can make the bitter twisted pieces of plywood that are needed to fill the holes after the rot and Termites have been cut out. The big problem is materials. Andrew cadges epoxy glue and polyester resin off visiting boats and we use the plywood from the deck pod that is not to be retained, this means all the ply is second hand and covered in resin and paint which blunts the tools. By the 15^th September we were out of epoxy glue and it was time to prepare Cariad for the trip to South Africa. On the 16^th Lisa, Andrew wife returned from Port Elizabeth. She was very pleased with the progress on the old boat as she knows there own sea transport is vital if they are to make a paying business out of Turtle Island.
Good luck to Andrew and Lisa they are at  13 33.7 S  48 00.6 E and welcome visiting yachts, they have a small shop selling mostly to the local Malagasy, water and Cold Beer. Andrew is a charter skipper, diver, radio and electrical technician and Para medic, they both speak Malagasy. The beach by the house is great for drying out on with 200 mm of sand over coral.
I have saved money staying at Turtle Island and learned much more about running a boat around Africa, but now its back to the circumnavigation.

Tony

The 3 month visa issued to me in the Seychelles  for Madagascar expired  on the 20^th August so I had to leave or have the visa extended for a month. This would have meant a bribe to immigration and may be an official fee, you never get the real facts as to your entitlement while in Madagascar, official knowledge is power and power is money. So I cleaned and vaselined  my tools loaded them and the generator at Russian Bay. After fitting a new anchor light LED with Andrews help I said a reluctant farewell and off to Hellville to book out and take on a few provisions for a 207 mile sail to Mayotte. Cariad needed cooking gas, diesel and clean water all difficult to get in Madagascar, my tank water has a salty taste and the drinking water came from a spring at which I had to move an 8 foot python before filling my bottles (its also got sediment in it to but tastes good, just a hint of python pooh).
In Hellville I met up at lunchtime in the Spanish Civil War theme pub with the crews of Ocean Spray, St. Ledger, Reanan, Ty Mohr and Fenton whose boat name I cant recall. They are all waiting for the weather window to South Africa to open, except Harry on Reanan  who says he’s off now against all the advice and weather lore.
I decided to try a 22.00 hour start as the night winds were often south easterly and the tide was defiantly from the east. I expected very light winds for up to 40 miles as the high mountains of Madagascar deflect the south east trade winds to the north of the island. 5 of the first 7 hours of the trip were on the motor so very little sleep due to noise and looking for local unlit fishing pirogues. By 9.00 we were making 5 knots under sail. The wind was light and variable as forecast but there was a 3metre sea from the south where the rough weather is making for a rollie journey and only 70 miles a day but I only had to use 3 hours of motor and Its nice to be at sea again.
By 18.15 on the 22^nd I setting up for a dawn arrival at the entrance into the north Pass through the Reef at Mayotte when a Yellow light appeared ahead. It was a ship may be a fishing boat, but then it turned broad side about 1.5 miles ahead and I could see it was a war ship. The VHF radio came on with a French accent no indent on the warship but wanting my details. It was well done with minimum of chat and no problem much better than the Australian air patrols, I had been spotted from way over the horizon by some radar. Mayotte has a major problem with illegal immigrants from the Comoros Islands of which Mayotte is geographically a part, but didn’t vote to leave French control in 1974. It is now virtually part of the EU like French Polynesia, Novel Caledonia and thousands of French controlled islands all over the world supported by EEC funds ( that means English taxpayers fund French Civil Servants on very high overseas pay, ask you Euro MP about It for me please). So Mayotte is a very much richer island than the Comoros which also has Shria Law, this is a people smugglers mandate. Which sometime goes wrong like a few weeks ago when 28 people, including 8 women and 2 babes were being smuggled by boat were spotted and tried to escape by speeding over one of the Reefs where no French patrol boat could follow. The problem was there was not enough water for them either so 24 drowned or were cut to death on the coral only 4 were saved the rest were bodies. And its rumoured that there were more on boards who have not been found.
By 21.00 the northerly wind had died so I hove too and was please to find a 1.5 knot current taking me towards Mayotte. I awoke at 2.30 to find a southerly wind was starting and set sail soon getting 5.5 knots under sail, with the lights of Dzaoudzi and Mamoudzou 13 miles away confirming my position. The Mzambor passé was 22 miles to the north with the reef between me and the island. As dawn arrived later than in Madagascar I was pleased to arrive at 6.30 instead of 6.00 when it was to dark. The reefs where a mass of foam and spray with the entrance markers taking a real beating  but there was little current and the navigation markers were excellent (paid for by the EU??). I motored against the wind for the 8 miles into Dzaoudzi harbour and took up a mooring beside a concrete yacht that was wasted up on the shore, hope this wasn’t his mooring??
Tony

Russian Bay, Madagascar, is an inlet of about 5 square miles in the shape of a Horse Chestnut tree leaf providing good all round shelter from wind and waves. The water is full of marine life with Turtles, Dolphins, massive Crabs and Lots of fish. The bay got its name when a Russian warship the Vlotny was sent to fight in the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, the Uralian crew liked Madagascar so much they decided to stay here permanently rather than return to Russia or fight the Nips. The ship was hidden in the reaches of Russian Bay, and twice emerged to pirate trading vessels in the Mozambique channel before they ran out of coal for the boilers. The crew were quickly decimated by malaria and other diseases, but those who survived settled in Andassy Be, building a large Uralian style dormitory, the ruins of which are still here. They quickly adapted to there surroundings, living by fishing and trading parts of the ship, but were never accepted by the local Malagasy, and stayed isolated in there own little community. The last crew died in 1936 and parts of the ship can be seen at low tide.
Andrew and his wife Lisa have 19 hectares of land which is turtle shaped near the middle of the Russian bay. Andrew was a charter skipper and he and Lisa are South African. There are no roads and it’s a 2 day walk along bush tracks to the road so all access is by sea mainly to Hellville 20 miles away on Nosy Be island. The local Lateen sailing pirogues take about a day each way trading sea cucumbers and  charcoal made from local  Mangrove wood. Andrew and Lisa are trying very hard to make a go of there land employing a local family (Bruno, Patricia and 3 little girls) they live in there own house they built in a couple of weeks from local materials and the girls go to school in Hellville. The house has a fabulas view over the bay and its own beach and boat mooring. They are selling a couple of holiday homes which they will build starting in a few weeks time.
Andrew was given an old wooden Warren Catamaran which is in a bad state of repair with rot a few Termites and a hole in one hull. It’s a big boat around 40 feet long and I have worked on it for the last month trying to get the worst of the damage sorted. Its just the right boat for crossing the 20 miles to Hellville for supplies etc. and if it can be made good it will set Andrew and Lisa up until they can afford a better boat. It also keeps me occupied and current with my tools.
I am probably going to Mayotte in 10 days time. Its a French island 180 miles to the north-west where I can extend my visa.

Tony

Nosy Be (The Big Island) is 14 miles NS, 12  miles EW, (13 20 E  48 15 S) with Vanilla, Yalang Yalang (perfume), Banana, Sugar (Rum) plantations, lovely beaches Lemurs and no dangerous animals so far. However its desperately poor and there are few services so no rubbish collection, water of very questionable quality, intermittent electricity and the worst roads so far with a large rapidly growing population, who appear to be fit and well.
The scenery is very stunning with good anchorages and the sun not too hot some good walking and nice local beer.
There are quite a lot of French tourists but no Brit tourists However the 2 biggest local businesses are run by Englishmen and one has a collection of Lemurs some in the wild and old and infirm ones in enclosures. They are very territorial and the wild ones would not allow the old ones in there territories which are close to the house. They have to be supplementary feed because they are all ex-pets or invalids and have lost the ability to completely fend for themselves particularly at this time of year when there is a shortage of wild fruit. The fishing here is very good with locals catching very tasty small fish and Prawns and game fish for the tourists off shore. One Frenchman had caught a Sailfish a Marlin and Tuna on his 2 day trip to the north tip of Madagascar and was very pleased. . Dolphins regularly swim through the anchorages some of them are the acrobatic Spinner Dolphins the coral is very pretty and while snorkelling you  find Turtles and can swim with them .
In a couple of days I may move to the Mainland of Madagascar initially to Russian Bay.

Tony

The booking out procedure at Victoria is a 2 day job with layer after layer of bureaucracy. I had managed to get a Madagascar visa so this should make things easier at that end.
I set off at dawn on the 18^th May and was more up tight than usual, the weather was OK but it’s 3 days ahead that matters and the forecasts were for only 1.5 metre waves and 25 knots of wind at Cap d’Ambre this seemed to optimistic.
The buoyage around the Seychelles is very poor as they don’t replace and damaged markers this caught me out as I had left at low water and when I was on the route taken to the boatyard 3 weeks before even though I was on the correct side of the marks I ran aground at 7 am . What a good start to the voyage, but I wriggled off and put Cmap on and by 10 am the sails were up and I was clear of Mahe heading for the Wizard Reef and Providence Island 350 miles southwest. The wind was steady at 15 knots from the southeast and we made an average of 120 miles a day despite the odd heavy shower which made me think of those 5 days of storms a month ago and had me reefing down too much. The waves were up to 3 metres by the Wizard reef but then went back down to 1.5 as I got shelter from Providence Island. This was what I expected so by Cap d’Ambre at the north tip of Madagascar I expected 3 to 4 meter waves. This was the start of 30 hours of fast sailing with 3 and 4 reefs in, waves to 4 metres and 2 day runs of over 135 miles.
I enjoyed it and have overcome my worries Cariad was great and now takes green water over bows as routine making only token water in the bilges.
As I got close to the Cap Cmap indicated an area of shoals and as I didn’t have the time to check the route out properly I opted to go west of the shoal bank putting me about 40 miles off track but giving good shelter from the waves which were still 3 meters. By night fall all went calm and I hove too and had a good sleep then I was able to plot a route through the shoals and caught some very tasty fish. I started the engine the morning of the 25^th to get an early start, the throttle was open more than usual and on start up a rubber tooth tore off the water pump impeller. This should have been no problem as I carry 2 or 3 spare but couldn’t find them (have I thrown then out in Thailand ) so I sailed very slowly into Hellville, Nosy Be, Madagascar.

Tony

At 11am on the 26^th of April, I arrived at the customs dock, Port Victoria on the main Seychelles Island of Mahe. Cariad had damaged sails, a loose rudder and I was still a bit out of sorts after the 5 days of storms. It took quite a time to complete the booking in formalities as 5 groups of officials and officers needed to come on board so I went up the mast which afforded me an excellent view of the new missile battery and fire director at the forward midships of the American destroyer tied up 10 meters in front of me, the US guards were getting edgy but I had to get my mast head light down so as to order some new LED’s from my brother in England. The 40 watt bulbs just kill my battery’s and with the new deep charge domestic one wrecked I need to save electricity at night (the solar panels work great in the day).
When the booking in was done I went to the yacht club and was given a mooring and told of a boatyard 6 miles to the south. I took a bus and they agreed to lift me out next day. So after a night in Port Victoria I went to the Marzocchi boat yard and lifted out, rudder off and then back in while work on the rudder middle bearing was done. Charlie Marzocchi had all the lathes etc to make a sleeve and machine the bearing. Getting back into the water was more difficult due to the Mayday holiday and the crane driver having a day off. During the lift in there was no one fully in charge as the 2 assigned labourers thought they were in charge this resulted in my waterproofing getting scraped by one of the support stands it looked nothing but I was worried. The rudder worked well and we lifted in and I went back to the yacht club mooring.
It was my original intention to stay for about a month but the other skippers in the anchorage said we must go so as to pass Cap d’Ambre, at the north tip of Madagascar, before the end of May this sounded feasible and as my brother got the LED replacements to me very quickly I  revised my departure date to fit in with there’s. This reduced my tourist time but with the excellent bus system and some determined walking I saw most of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue islands. Little problem on the  8^th when I was rock hoping around the cliffs at the section of coast where there is no road. I slipped between 2 rocks and had to have 4 stitches in my head.
I had been introduced to Maxim a sail maker for repairs to my jib and main sail. He was very difficult to handle as he would make seemingly reasonable requests that I would agree with then find almost impossible to carry out. He wanted payment in Euros to a sailcloth company in Holland this cost me a fortune in phone cards to my bank and made me lots of problems as you cannot buy foreign currency in the Seychelles which I didn’t know. The country has been bankrupted by its Socialist government, who have spent money, such as that given by the EEC and the UN for repairs after the Tsunami to bribe the voters and win another term in office where they can continue to steal the counties money. This is a big problem long term as they have let contracts to multi national leisure companies who have ways of getting around this. So many of the tourists now pay for there holidays outside the Seychelles and spend very little locally as all is packaged for them, the result is very little money filters through to the local Seychelles people. Maxim next wanted to crew for me to Madagascar and without thinking it through I said why not (the 5 days of storms still fresh in my mind). Matt Brown sorted this out for me by saying it’s your boat your skipper if you don’t want him don’t take him, as a result I am still on for round alone.
The Seychelles are fantastic with lovely small white beaches, Granite rocks like Cornwall, lots of shady trees clear water with wonderful coral. If you go off the beaten track there are the most unusual sights such as rock plateaus covered with Pitcher plants, Forest with Orchids, Coco de Mare trees which have the biggest seeds in world and make the best Coconut cream for cooking fish which there are lots of and there’s Giant Tortoises wandering around the roads on La Digue. They originate from Aldabra Island (a world heritage site and very hard to get to).
It’s  not expensive if you come and pay in foreign currency using local accommodation, you get twice as many Rupees to a Euro on the black market as you do through the state controlled banks and every local who needs to leave the country  for a holiday or business needs foreign money.
It’s twice as nice as the Caribbean and very friendly you’d love it

Tony

I had been in Male the capital of the Maldives for a week and was not happy to stay any longer than necessary, it’s Islamic and even though most of the people don’t seem to go to the Mosques the laws, customs and goods for sale are Shariar whether your Muslim or not. I was told that this does not apply at the Atoll resorts but I’m sure there will be a hefty premium . I had had to use an agent to negotiate the beurocracy (Abdullah cost me $100 US) and on clearing out it took 6 hours of waiting for the Port Captain to sign the onward clearance form. So I received a clearance to leave on the 5^th April before midnight at 20.30 and my boat an hours journey away. So I left next morning at 6.00 after a bad nights sleep due to a local charter boat anchoring very close up wind of me. We had some strong gusts and I had the feeling his anchor was insufficient, many of the boats that go to the Atolls use Coral picks to anchor as they cause less damage to the reefs and are less prone to jamming in the coral, but there poor for anchoring in sand which we where in.
It was good to be off even though the weather was wet and by 20.00 we were out into the Indian Ocean but heading south instead of west. The wind continued light and from the west north west with about 5 hours flat calm after midnight and after 4 days we crossed the line back into the southern hemisphere where I had to keep going south as the wind kept going more into the west. The current was against me at 1.5 knots and any stopping resulted in a loss of ground which was a problem as my daily distances of 60 to 70 miles was only half what I normally make, this area is where the fishing ships come to catch tuna so a good lookout was needed day and night. Ten days out and only half way when I was hit by 6 days of  storms and squalls with periods of very light wind between them my best furling Genoa was ripped in half the main sail had to be repaired by hand sewing 3 times and the replacement jib twice. At night it was very difficult after the moon set at about 11.00 you just ran into storms with 40 knots of wind without warning. On the night of the17^th. I got swallowed by a storm and was reducing sail as fast as I could when lightning lit up the area it was like a painting by Hernomus Bosh. The rain was so heavy that it flattened the waves and covered the surface with a 2 feet layer of bouncing rain drops for 15 minutes then it would calm down and after an hour the storm would pass and I had to check for damage and make repairs. Then it was put up as much sail as possible to keep moving against the current. The sea was beginning to build up and at times was up to 3 meters but not breaking to badly, though “Cariad” must have been thrown about as one of the fire extinguishers tore out of the cabin wall and landed on the cooker.
The 23^rd was a much better day and the wind went south west so I could make my way north. I had been worried about going south of 5 degrees as this is where storms can start to rotate and become cyclones.
On the 25^th I was 64 miles from the Seychelles and my sextant readings where way out on longitude because I’m so close to the equator so as I should be at the Topaz bank I looked into the water and you could see the bottom 70 feet down as clear as crystal so that fixed my position. The wind was now very light and fuel was getting low but the current had disappeared so I just drifted slowly into Port Victoria on Mahle Island arriving at 10.00 on the 26^th April, 20 days to cross only 1200 miles this will have to change. So now it’s sort out the damage and prepare for the trip to Madagascar. The Seychelles are beautiful and I hope to see a lot of them.
Well that was my worst trip so far and I am still up for the section around Cape of Good Hope this coming winter.
Tony