Year 7 Day 271 Nosy Kalakajaro
30 September 2014 | Nosy Kalakajaro, Madagascar
Dave/Mixed Clouds
Once again the land and sea breezes failed us as the morning found the skies over Madagascar to be overcast. This retards the land from heating up so the breezes did not kick in during our short, 4 hour motor 20 nm down the coast.
As we coasted along heading south we spotted different pods of whales as they breached in the distance. One pod came within 500 feet of Leu Cat when they breached and it was a thrill to watch them. The lifting of their tails as they drive down is so dramatic.
This time we have dropped anchor behind the first of a group of islands called the Radama Islands. Called Nosy Kalakajaro ("nosy" means "island" in Malagasy), it is a beautiful little island of sandstone that juts out of the sea with white sandy beaches. To our surprise, there is a fishing village here and we watched a group of little children laughing and playing along the beach and in the water. Later in the day a large dhow sailed up and anchored just off the beach.
The water is crystal clear and at first we were anxious to hop in and finish cleaning the hulls. However, we spotted 5 large jellyfish floating by so we decided to wait until our next anchorage to do the deed. We could have donned our stinger suits but we have gotten spoiled these last few months and decided to test our luck tomorrow. Also, the island which we hope to sail to tomorrow is known to be a good snorkeling place so we will be highly motivated to don the suits if jellies are around there also.
As the day wore on the overcast skies over Madagascar broke up and by 1600 the sea breeze had kicked in and were blowing a nice 10 to 15 knots. We have hopes the wind will be better tomorrow and we can actually sail.
Our weather window prediction is still holding for starting the 3rd of October. It looks like we should have light winds (10 knots) on the 3rd, building to 20 knots on the 4th and easing to 15 knots on the 5th. After that, a blocking high moves in south of Cape of Good Hope and there should be a number of days of very light winds. Thus, we may end up motoring a lot once we get over to the African coast. If that is the case, we should still make a decent speed as we hope to ride the Agulhas (also called Mozambique) current. In October, it can reach up to 4 or so knots of strength but is usually in the 2 to 3 knot range. It goes all the way down to the Cape. While it is great to ride during calm weather, one needs to get out of it when the lows bring the winds up from the south. When that happens, the wind blows against the strong current creating large, steeps and very dangerous swells. We have been told that it is best to go seaward of the current and just heave to as the winds and bad seas along the current tend to last only 12 to 18 hours. It is to avoid this situation is the reason that we are watching the weather patterns so carefully.
Our position behind Nosy Kalakajaro is at 13° 57.093'S: 47° 46.634'E in 53 feet of water. The bottom is supposed to be sand with some mud.