Posted by Graham Cox
The next few weeks have always promised to be exciting, as the MGR fleet turned west after passing the southern tip of Madagascar, then headed for Durban across the tide-swept Mozambique Channel, with its frequent southerly ‘busters’, and eventually on to Cape Town. In doing so, they have departed from the zone of ‘easy’ (it isn’t always) SE trade winds, and will not find themselves back in that realm until about 700 miles north of Cape Town in the South Atlantic Ocean, on their way to Brazil. The region is living up to its promise.
Starting out with a brilliant weather window, the fleet hastened down the east coast of Reunion Island and clear of the shallow bank that lies off the southern tip of Madagascar. A strong, favourable current, running like a river in the sea, combined with fresh N to NE winds, led to some remarkable daily average speeds, although nobody has yet topped John Guzzwell’s 198 miles, set in the Pacific Ocean west of the Galapagos Islands.
Then, after a week at sea, came a period of light headwinds that scattered the fleet, ahead of a SW front. They had to decide which tack offered the best advantage, given their current positions. Some went SW, others NW. Josh, who has stayed well north, merely continued west. Then the vigorous but short-lived SW front that sent them scooting on their way.
Complicating these decisions was the need to navigate through fierce ocean currents that this area is notorious for. Right in their path lay what Keri Harris on ORIGAMI called a gyre, a widespread area where very strong currents were sweeping around anti-clockwise, like water going down a plughole. Passing south of the gyre promised to deliver a significant adverse current, while going north to ride the favourable current required a major detour from the rhumbline.
Before the front arrived, the boats in the middle pack traded places on a daily basis, as never seen before in the MGR. Jasmine, on NUMBATOU, was astonished to find herself moving up from 11th place (last) on 26 October, the day after the start of this stage, to 5th place on the 28th, then to 4th place the 30th. At 0000 UTC on 01 November, she had run 178 miles in the previous 24 hours, and I believe her noon to noon run that day was 182.
To achieve this, she hung onto her A7, screeching along in 30-35 knot following winds. She claims that she is not competitive but just doesn’t want to be left behind! The older, and possibly wiser, skippers could only shake their heads in admiration.
Jasmine posted, ‘It’s been hectic on board, with strong winds and just trying to hold course. Epic mileage, but 2 big ships got a little close for comfort despite my best efforts. 0.18nm away definitely isn’t far. Could do with the wind chilling out a little, which I know it’s due to. Need a good sleep! Another hole in my A7, and finding out what’s not fully secure below also isn’t that much fun. Very proud though, overall – like who would have thought my name to be towards the top of the list, definitely not me!’
A few hours before the storm hit, a beautiful pod of dolphins swam alongside NUMBATOU’s bow, one even doing a show of acrobatics to lift the mood! These creatures love it when the going gets boisterous.
When the front hit, Jasmine recorded the action with a camera strapped to her forehead. Don MyIntrye describes the action. ‘What you are watching is JAZZ down below as the front hits, and the wind direction swings at the same time. She gears up and heads outside. NUMBATOU has too much sail up and the windvane is set to hold the boat into the wind. She first adjusts the Hydrovane to steer downwind and get the pressure off the jib before it blows out (fortunately, it was not flogging). The wind is possibly blowing about 30-35 knots, heeling the boat. Then she starts easing the sheet so she can reef the sail and decrease the size, step by step. After everything is settled, she is taking the new wind on the port quarter and can go below again. The sea looks flat but is probably about 1.5m, and will build over the next few hours.’
Pilar has also made a remarkable comeback from her brave decision to go west of Reunion Island, where she encountered the large, windless zone that is known to lurk in the lee of that high island, falling from 4th place to 11th. Since then, she has steadily clawed her way back through the fleet, often posting the fastest daily runs.
In a video posted just before the front hit, a cheerful Pilar points out the high, cirrus cloud bank announcing its coming, and says she is well-rested and looking forward to a bit of excitement. She also posted, ‘Sailing, eating, sleeping, praying…nothing else on board. Out there, merchant ships, waves, wind, sun, clouds…and an endless ocean.’
On 03 November, just after the front came through, she was lying in 3rd place. Unlike most of the fleet, she did not point PETER PUNK’s bow NW when the wind shift arrived, choosing instead to sail parallel to the rhumb line, although this was taking her towards the southern, unfavourable quadrant of the current gyre. Later, she altered course radically to sail due north for 30 miles, before changing her mind again and heading back SW.
This indecision, if that is what it was, allowed the wily Jakub, who has also decided to head south of the gyre, to slip past with BIBI. This is a bold move by both of them. It will cut a lot of miles off the distance to the finish (DTF), but how much speed will be lost due to the adverse current remains to be seen.
Another factor at play is the future wind direction. If a strong southerly arrives before the leading pack can make it into Durban, Jakub and Pilar may be well-placed to take advantage of it and beam-reach to the coast, while those to the north are beating into the wind.
Jakub earlier reported from BIBI, ‘Last few days were a perfect weather, and BIBI was sailing happily with her own pace. I didn’t touch the tiller for two days nor changed sails. Used that time to prepare for bad days ahead. Last night, strong breeze came and I started to reduce the sails. Now I’m on the jib only, making 5 knots over the water and 7-8 over the ground. Sea is rough but sailing is smooth. Only got hit by one wave that splashed few drops into the cabin- no drama. Now I’m trying to find the place with little or no current, as the strong front will be passing me after tomorrow. We all worry about the big depression in few days, but looks like it’s easing. I think the worse could be entering Durban in Northerly gale which is coming after.’
In a video, he also showed how he had attached reefing points and a second set of sheets to his hank-on jib, effectively turning it into a moderate-sized storm jib. Another video showed BIBI hove-to under jib, waiting for the front, with the storm jib set on the inner forestay and sheeted to windward of the mast.
On 03 November, after the front passed, BIBI was heading WNW, striking a compromise track between passing north of the current gyre and staying as close to the rhumb line as possible. He was sailing at 4.8 knots and had covered 94 miles in the previous 24 hours, despite the light headwinds that preceded the front. Only Pilar recorded a faster daily average on this day. The next day, he changed his mind about where to go, and headed SW, chasing Pilar.
If racing through the trade winds in one-design boats can be likened to drag-racing, then the passage across the Mozambique Channel looks more like a steeple-chase.
At the front of the fleet, Renaud and CAPUCINETTE continue to lead the charge. For quite some time, he has been unable to shake Dan and IMMORTAL GAME off. At 2000 UTC on 03 November, he was 30 miles ahead, but the following day, Dan had narrowed the gap to 11 miles. Both boats averaged over 7 knots of boat speed for days, before the light headwinds slowed them down. CAPUCINETTE, however, never recorded less than 3.6 knots during this period, and in a short video Renaud posted, the boat can be seen working nicely to windward over a relatively calm sea.
After the front passed, he sent a note saying, ‘Hello, what a night it’s been! The first clouds signalled its arrival, but I wasn’t expecting such a rapid wind shift. In less than two minutes, a 90-degree turn! And winds went from 10 to 35+ knots. The sea was steaming. First, I was under half-rolled jib, then it eased, but with gusts, so I put more sail back up. Luckily, there weren’t many cargo ships. What a night! Everything’s fine on board.’
In another video the day after the front passed, CAPUCINETTE can be seen romping along under full main set to leeward, with the A5 poled out to windward. As always, Renaud seems to have positioned himself perfectly to slip over the northern side of the current gyre and maintain the shortest possible distance to his destination.
Dan headed further north, riding the full strength of the current, and it remains to be seen if the potential speed advantage of doing so will outweigh the extra miles he needs to sail.
Earlier, on 30 November, he posted: ‘Currently tracking near the southern coast of Madagascar, with 20-25 knot winds and currents starting to kick in. Managed to completely blow out a spinnaker furler, which made for a challenging spinnaker retrieval, but other than that, all is well aboard.’ The roller furling unit is now resting in 3000m at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.
‘This next week is likely going to be the most challenging of the race to date,’ he continued, ‘so to calm the nerves, I’ve decided to have a rum and go fishing. Currently 40nm south of Madagascar! Nearly one week in on the passage from Mauritius to Durban. Wind is on the beam and due to build through the day!’ At around 0830, shipboard time, on 01 November, he reported, ‘An uncomfortable night, and now currently pushing through a solid 40 knots of breeze.’
From Ertan Beskardes came the sobering news that his Hydrovane had broken. According to Don McIntyre, a connecting bolt worked itself loose. Ertan wrote, ‘TREKKA has a drive sleeve and bolt missing, no spares for that. It has been challenging, as rough weather is not tiller-pilot friendly. Steering a lot. Today, the cockpit filled with water several times. The pilot would have been lost if not tied on; I fished it out from the sea. My old Garmin handheld GPS died – too much water. I have a spare. To get rest, I run the boat downwind, hoping for calmer weather. Being outside also means getting wet. Keeping fingers crossed for good weather.’
On the same day, Keri posted, ‘With only my starboard solar panel working, I spent longer on port gybe than I would have liked, but I am now heading over for the southerly current, now that I have enough battery power to cope with emergencies. I also resewed some seams on my mainsail and added some patches. Today has been a fun sail to the west, accompanied by dolphins and blue skies. I don’t think next week will feel so relaxing.’
Since then, ORIGAMI has been clawing back through the fleet. From 9th place on 30 October, he came back up to 3rd on 02 November, just before the front arrived. In its aftermath, he briefly slipped back to 5th place, and was sailing NW at 6 knots. There were only 7 miles between him and 3rd placed Pilar, with Jakub in between them. The situation was so changeable, especially with regard to the current, that one had to regard these rankings as tentative, and by 04 November, Keri had regained 3rd place.
It will be interesting to see how ORIGAMI fares when the fleet meets some sustained headwinds, as Keri is a champion dinghy racer and feels he is at his best in those conditions.
Talking about the front that swept over the fleet, he said, “It was quite impressive. We knew it was coming, and you could sense it, see it in the clouds, but precisely when wasn’t clear. When it did come in, there was very little warning, as often with a reactive cold front. There was a brief lull, just enough time to get the jib down. The storm jib was already up, and I just reached off under storm jib alone until it abated a bit. I had my hatch open, and spray was getting blown into the cabin. Lots of spray just whipped off the water, the water went smoky.
“Then the waves started building up, not super-fast, but after about half an hour they were quite well-developed. The waves were not so violent. I then hoisted the triple-reefed mainsail, to keep ORIGAMI on course to the NW, and went below to get a little sleep.
“ORIGAMI is quite cosy once I cocoon myself up inside, when she’s running. If there had been big breaking seas, I could have just run deeper. The boat is very forgiving when she’s going down a steep wave. A lot of boats, you think the bow’s going to bury and maybe you’ll broach, but she never really buries. She just rides out gently. I think the curvature she’s got gives you that bit of lift as well. Maybe it’s that flat section forward on the forefoot, and the reserve buoyancy of the hull form.
“But if you’ve got to make ground against a big sea, I think she can do that. You could fore-reach into big seas with just the storm jib on the baby-stay and a little bit of mainsail. You could probably sail at about 45° to breaking seas, and keep enough way on to stop getting picked up by the crests and rolled.
“On this occasion, on the course I wanted to sail, the seas were about 20° abaft the beam. They’d kick the boat round a bit, luff ORIGAMI up slightly, but she responded very quickly under the Aries, came back on course and zoomed off. With these boats, the faster they’re going, the easier it is to steer them with the balanced rudder. Such a small rudder is sometimes an impediment to holding a good course, but when it’s very windy, when you’re hand-steering downwind in big seas, the helm’s featherweight-light, and the Aries can drive it really easily.”
Asked about working on deck in these conditions, he said, “There’s always an element of apprehension. You’ve got to plan everything ahead, because if you’re sailing deep and then you’ve got to go up to the bow, you’re going to round up very quickly, particularly if you’ve got a kite up. You just have to put the boat on the right course for the maneuvers you need to achieve, and then get on with it.
“I’ve become increasingly disciplined over the course of the race. I’m more prudent now. I always clip on when getting out of the cockpit, and if it’s windy, I clip on before I even go out into the cockpit. I rarely go on deck without a life jacket, which is something I’ve not been particularly conscientious about in the past.”
Because Keri did not have enough battery power to run Starlink initially, he didn’t know what the rest of the fleet were doing, and could not access updated current information. Eric told him, just before the start at Port Louis, that the other skippers were all going south. In order to stay with them, Keri abandoned his plan to head well west of Reunion Island and skirt the east coast of Madagascar. He also hung onto the port tack, to put as much sunlight as possible onto his remaining solar panel and charge his batteries. By the time he finally switched Starlink on, and realised that the others, following the current, had turned west, he was well south of them.
By paying attention to boat and sail trim, however, he made an excellent comeback, working up into 5th position on the 01 November, when he ran 176 miles. The following day, he made the most of a good breeze, sailing at 6.7 knots for much of the day, and managed the longest day’s run of them all, at 149 miles. This put him back into 3rd place, a position he has retained.
On 30 October, Josh Kali sent the following message from SKOOKUM, ‘Happy Halloween! Well almost. I’m guessing that being stressed about the restart, and having no time to rest, compromised my immune system, because yesterday I was sick. Sore throat, cough, fever, chills, aching muscles. Perfect timing for one of the most difficult passages. I’m feeling better today, though making sail changes at 3am while shivering with fever wasn’t great. Today is looking like sunny skies, decent breeze and following seas. Going to try and get some rest between dodging ships and getting ready for the kick in the ass coming in the next couple of days.’
Later he sent this message, ‘Life is good onboard. I chose to leave the main current stream a bit early to avoid the worst of the approaching southerly low, and was rewarded with moderate winds of about 25kts and a totally reasonable sea state. Had headwinds for a day but didn’t have to do any crazy tacking, as I had some sea room to just let it run. All in all, not too bad. Looking forward to the run into Durban!’ He is now well-placed to navigate past the current gyre. Although 170 miles behind Renaud, and still sitting in 11th place, he has closed the gap between SKOOKUM and the middle pack considerably.
On 01 November, Kerry Waugh, Adam’s partner and manager, posted, ‘Adam has been sailing in the biggest seas so far, with strong, favourable currents and 30 knots of wind for the past 36 hours. He is very impressed with how the boat is handling the conditions, sailing with just a little bit of jib and averaging 7 knots. Expecting the winds to ease soon before strengthening again as the front comes through.’
After the front passed, Adam reported, “It was very exciting, because it was such a textbook front. It got very, very warm and humid in the afternoon, the cloud formation completely changed, producing clouds that I’d never seen on this trip before. And then I got word from Renaud that the front had just hit him.
“That gave me an hour, I reckoned. I was making my hot food, and I got that finished just before it arrived. At the time, I had three reefs in the mainsail and a full jib. I’d stowed all my spinnakers down below, which I had done quite a bit on this passage, actually.
“The southerly came in at about 10-15 knots for about 10 minutes, and then went from 15 knots to 35 knots in about a minute. I just had enough time to drop my mainsail completely, and get some sail ties around it. It makes me happy when I’ve got all the spinnakers down below and the main properly tied away. I didn’t bother with a storm jib because I’ve got a furling jib.
“There wasn’t much sea state when it arrived – it picked up a fair bit during the course of the evening, but nothing like we’d seen a couple of days before, and the boat handled it very well. I quite enjoyed the experience because we were well-prepared, having been so well-briefed. I had to bear away for the first two hours by about 15°, but I wanted to keep as close to a westerly course as I could. LITTLE WREN was not on its ear at all – it was coping very well with it. I was pleased to be able to keep the angle that I did because I really didn’t want to give away too much ground by heading up north. I’m making a good way at the moment, doing about six knots.
“I was really interested to watch how quickly the sea dissipated a day and a half ago, after we got through that period of about two or three days of strong north-easterlies, We were sailing in the biggest sea conditions that I’ve had so far on this trip, certainly four or five metres, and then once the wind dropped, within eight or ten hours the sea state had completely dissipated. I am wondering how quickly the seas will abate if we confront a strong SW gale near the edge of the continental shelf approaching the South African coast.”
Note from Graham: The answer, I think, is within a few hours, certainly less than 12. In summer, the fronts are fairly fast moving, and they seldom get a chance to build up developed seas. Lin and Larry Pardey experienced a severe gale aboard TALEISIN that forced them to heave-to for a couple of days when just off the continental shelf NE of Richards Bay. They didn’t have the benefit of Starlink, but could clearly see the seas breaking as they approached the edge of the Agulhas Current. They were able to get underway almost immediately it abated. It is prudent to stay away from the edge of the continental shelf, where the current runs strongest, during southerly gales.
Even with the benefit of Starlink giving access to weather apps like WINDY, sailors still struggle to deal with ocean currents in this region. Keri wasn’t the only one to have difficulties while working south of Madagascar. Adam said, “I made the wrong call. I wanted to get into that Madagascar current as far north as I could, and as I was approaching it, probably about 10 hours before I hit it, I got into a back-eddy or a counter-current, something that was working against me by about a knot and a half, and I had fairly light winds. My boat speed dropped to about three knots, and I lost quite a lot of time.”
But he is enjoying the challenge immensely. “It’s very different. I’ve been looking forward to this passage, because there’s more to think about, and there’s more to work out tactically. I wouldn’t say I’ve enjoyed it all, because there are some moments that you just wish for those consistent southeast trades to make it a sort of fairly mindless sail! But it’s been interesting so far. I can cope with most things, though I find the high-pressure areas difficult, and a couple of days of going at two knots is always a big struggle. A bit more of that to come by the look of it.”
His mainsail, hastily repaired by Mike and Pilar just before the start in Port Louis, while he was clearing Customs, is standing up well, though he is treating it gingerly. He may have to get the top third rebuilt in South Africa, since there is no time to get a new one delivered. One of the wonderful aspects of the MGR is how the skippers band together to help each other where needed in every stopover.
One thing that is becoming increasingly obvious is that most skippers are starting to wear out their sails and other gear. Adam says, “My furlers are just starting to – I wouldn’t say wear out – but I think there’s a lot of salt in the ball bearings, and I’m having to do a lot of maintenance to make sure that they furl properly.”
But it is not all doom and gloom. “My sheets are fine, the repairs done on my spinnakers look good, my self-steering’s working a dream, and I upgraded my electrics in Port Louis. I had two solar panels that had almost completely failed, so I’ve now got three new ones. I’ve got 150 watts out all the time now, and that’s made a big difference in my power. We’ve had a lot of sun on this passage as well.”
Like the other skippers, he has seen a considerable amount of shipping. “We seem to be out of it completely now, but before that, I was regularly talking on Channel 16 to the bridges of cargo ships. I’m pleased that the response I’ve had has been so helpful. There’s been no problems, occasionally a little bit of a language issue. They have been happy to change course to keep out of our way, rather than vice versa.”
Talking about food, he said, “I got 30 eggs this time rather than my normal 24, and quite a few potatoes and onions, so I tend to do some sort scrambled eggs with potatoes and onions, or omelets with potatoes and onions, and then I’ve got some spam which I’m quite a fan of. A tin of spam lasts about two days, chopped up into chunks and put in an omelet.”
Asked about other highlights of the passage, he said, “Yesterday, when the front arrived, after about half an hour to an hour, I got out into the cockpit, and it was somewhat – I wouldn’t say biblical – but it was getting that way. I was just checking the rig and everything, standing on the cockpit seats, when I saw this huge fin on my port bow, gliding through the water into the wind and waves. I don’t know what it was. I’m not aware of any whales having fins of that size. Perhaps it was an orca, although the fin looked grey rather than black. It looked to me to be about the freest thing I’d ever seen, just gliding through the waves effortlessly, while I was in the midst of that 30-40 knot barrage, with seas starting to build. That was a very special moment for me.
He also mentioned that he and his team continue to raise money for the Ella Dawson Foundation, the charity that supports young adults living with cancer. “We’ve reached about £52,000, £53,000 now. Following on from the competition to guess how much rope there is on LITTLE WREN, we’ve got a number of other fundraising events happening in the UK around the MGR.”
In an update from SUNBEAR on 31 October, Eric stated, ‘Very light conditions for the last 24 hours, then a sudden, early morning SE change at 20+ knots. You can get caught out very easily with too much sail up! At the bottom of Madagascar now, and I need to put some mainsail up. All is well.’
After the front had passed, Eric gave a detailed report of his passage since leaving Mauritius. “We’re getting about two, three metres swells out here. It’s quite lumpy, although it’s starting to flatten out from last night. The wind strength has dropped back to about 25 knots now. It’s not too bad.
“I just had a headsail up overnight. I would have like to put a triple reef in the mainsail and get a bit more boat speed, but I wasn’t keen about going up on the deck the way the sea state was, so I left it. When the front came through last night, it would have been around 35-40 knots, maybe gusting a little bit higher I would say. It came through very quickly, but I was well prepared for it. I’d already lowered my furlers and strapped the main down. I just had a tiny bit of headsail out for about an hour or so, waiting for the front to come through.
Once things had settled down, I lay on the floor and went to sleep. SUNBEAR just rode it out, got a few big waves over the deck. I deployed the 100m storm warp over the stern, as I also did off Madagascar, which helped. Off Madagascar a couple of nights ago, there was a terrible sea state and quite big seas. I was getting 3-4m seas and 30-35 knot winds, and having a lot of trouble steering the boat with just the headsail. The warp really helped keep me on course. I attached it to the bridle and then pulled it round onto the windward quarter. I did 166 miles that day, and for 12 of those hours I had the warp out.
“I deployed it again last night when the front came through, though I don’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, to be honest, because I was going into the waves more. It was almost like heaving-to, though I was still doing four and a half knots of boat speed, five knots at times, with just a tiny scrap of jib rolled out.
“SUNBEAR was going up and over the waves at about 45° probably, which was quite comfortable. In the end, after some deliberation, I pulled the warp in, and put a bit more headsail out, and started sailing up and over the big swells quite comfortably.”
Asked how he was coping mentally, after his mishap on the last stage, he said, “I’m a lot more cautious about how I go about things, so it’s slowed me down a little bit, probably. But I’m enjoying this stage so far. We’re making pretty good ground. I’m heading at 280° now, straight to the pin, which is a good angle. I’m beam-reaching with a triple-reefed mainsail and a bit of headsail out.
“I set up a barber-haul yesterday on the headsail sheet, to pull the leech down and out a bit, because, being deeply reefed, it was starting to flutter. It’s working well, so I’m pleased about that. A lot of the (MGR) front-runners are using barber-hauls, they don’t run tracks. It gives you much more variation in your sail trim.”
Asked about SUNBEAR’s general condition, he said, “I think everything’s holding together, it’s doing really well. The sails should be fine – they should get through. I had my A5 and A7 clews stitched up back in Mauritius. Tiny cuts have developed where the sails rub on the shrouds. I’ve got little patches on them, but I’ll get them stitched. And I need to repair my jib. It needed fixing back in Mauritius but I didn’t have time. I put a big patch on both sides of the round window in it, which is cracked. Apart from that, no, all’s good, mate. I had a good sleep last night, even though I was lying on the floor and the sea state was bad.”
His experience with shipping has been starkly different to Adam’s, or Christian’s. “Shipping is bad news out here. I had one guy pass me just before that squall went through. I was doing something on deck, pulling the reef out of the mainsail and strapping the sail down, I think. The ship went past my beam, and I reckon it was only 100m away. I didn’t see him – he came out of nowhere.
“There’s been a few that have come straight at me, and I’ve tried to radio them, even using their MMSI number, and they won’t respond. One was coming straight at me at night, and I started flashing my high-powered flashlight that blinks really fast. I pointed that at my sails and then directly at him. About a minute later, he swung the boat hard to port and showed his starboard light. I could smell the fumes from his diesel engines as he swept past.”
Eric leaves his AIS and Echomax on all night, but often switches them off during the day when he is on deck, to conserve power. He notes that he is also unable to use Starlink as much as he’d like, and that lithium batteries would be an advantage.
Christian always calls at his allotted time, even when, as on this occasion, it is 0300 on board ship, and he has just gone through a strong southerly front. He said, “We got hit by the front a couple of hours ago, but ARGO was very prepared and it was not too bad -maybe 35 knots initially. After half an hour, it was a bit stronger.
“The wind went pretty quickly from 10-15 knots up to 35 in just a minute. I had full main and the jib up, so I quickly dropped them and hoisted the storm jib on the inner forestay. The boat handled the situation quite well. There have been no big waves so far, they are just short and steep, maybe a little bit against the current. There was lots of movement in the boat, but it was okay.
“The boat was just drifting sideways, as the storm jib was not enough. Maybe it would have been if I had gone downwind, but ARGO was kind of close-hauled. After half an hour, I decided to hoist the mainsail again with the third reef. So, here I am, sitting on the windward bunk and all is good.
“I have made some progress. I didn’t try to set a perfect course, just to head in the same direction as before, as there were some ships around, and I did not want to confuse them too much, going in a different direction suddenly.
“The balance might have been a bit better if the storm jib was hoisted on the outer forestay, but by using the inner stay, I could have the storm jib ready to hoist immediately it was needed, but still sail with the jib as long as possible.
“The wind eased off after maybe three and a half hours, so I hoisted the jib again. At the moment, I am beam-reaching with the storm jib, still on the inner forestay, and the triple-reefed mainsail, just going through the night. I’m doing about six and a half to seven knots, so must have a bit of current with me.
“I probably won’t do the whole loop to the north with the current, maybe cut the corner a bit. I think I might have the current with me going to the west now, and when it turns further north, it might pull me a bit up, even if I stay on the same course.
“I made a mistake when I was coming down the current from Madagascar. I didn’t close the app completely, and apparently it didn’t update my position, so I was thinking that I was still in the middle of the current and went to sleep. But I just dropped out, and the other boats overtook me.”
Asked about the short video of a wave breaking over ARGO’s transom a few days earlier, when he was running in a boisterous sea before the strong NE wind, he said, “I heard this noise right behind me while I was chilling in the cockpit, and I got hit by a breaking wave. I quickly got my phone out to film the stuff. The next wave was even bigger. That was the one that I recorded. My mobile phone got a splash on the screen, so it stopped the video – that’s why it is so short.”
He then continued, “Luckily, everything was secured inside. I have all my stuff like canisters, an outboard engine, and all the heavy stuff, my toolbox, etc, secured inside the boat all the time. The wave turned ARGO a bit upwind and sideways, throwing it on the side pretty violently. I was holding on in the cockpit, with my feet braced to the other side, and I was clipped on.”
Asked about ARGO’s general condition, he said, “I am worried about the sails. I already had problems with my A5 and the jib, and now the other spinnakers are really worn out. I use them a lot for sure, but I have lots of repairs to do. The fabric is so thin that I’m always worried when I touch the sails. When I get the A3 down, I’m really worried that I’m gonna break it, and I’m also worried about the mainsail. I can see from the color of my sail that the green is really fading in the upper part. The plan is to get more material to repair it in Durban.”
Worse was to follow on 04 November, when Christian’s A3 fell into the sea after its brand-new halyard snapped. Not only is his A3 seriously damaged now, but he can no longer fly twin headsails until he reaches port. He is not happy.
The good thing about the strong wind was that finally, for the first time, he was able to extract some energy from his wind generator. “I was thinking to get everything down, but my solar panel mounts are quite strong, so I said to myself, ‘Okay, it’s only wind, it won’t be waves. I left everything out.
“My batteries are in good shape. There’s lots of traffic, so I’ve got the AIS, Echomax, and VHF radio switched on all the time, plus I used Starlink a lot during the last couple of days. One battery is down to 50% at the moment, but it’s the middle of the night, so that’s okay. I could use my outboard engine batteries as a backup for the house batteries if needed.
“There are two ships near me at the moment – there’s always some. The active radar reflector is beeping all the time when I have the alarm switched on. When I use the Starlink, like now, I have to switch it off, because it interferes with that unit, but I can still see the lights flashing.
“I can’t keep a lookout all the time, but I trust the ships a little bit that they will see me with the Echomax and AIS on. I haven’t had to call them so far. I haven’t had any ships really close. There was one right behind me that changed course without me having to say anything. That was right when the front hit me.
“There’s one thing that I would like to add, because that’s the feedback that I got from friends and followers. They said it was so nice to have the mass restart and have all the boats together again. It’s so much more interesting to look at the tracker and see the updates when the boats are close to each other, and that would be nice to have more common restarts.”
And so, the fleet sails safely on, creating history every day. The first boats might arrive in Durban in a few days, or they may be delayed by another front. It is impossible to say in these waters, but one thing is for sure, they will create a sensation when they arrive in Durban, a port with a long history of making voyaging sailors welcome, going right back to the days of Joshua Slocum and Harry Pidgeon. They have seen small boats arrive before, though only a smattering of vessels under 20ft. They have never seen 11 arrive all at once!
