Year 7 Day 284 Passage to Richards Bay, Day Seven: Landfall - AFRICA!
12 October 2014 | At Linga Linga, Near Inhambane, Mozambique
Dave/Overcast In The Morning, Sunny In The Afternoon
After a quiet night of sailing with multiple reefs in the head and main sails, we arrived at the mouth of the river, in front of Linga, Linga, right on schedule. It was an hour before high tide and right as the sun was rising above the horizon. The way points we had which ran between the shallows were spot on as was the chart. This was a relief since we had to motor almost right up to breakers that broke over the sand bars in order to get into the board mouth of the river. The shallowest depths we saw using the waypoints was 30 feet, however this was during a 10 foot high tide. The waypoints we used were: Fairway 23 39.00'S:035 30.00'E A 23 1.30'S:035 26.00'E B 23 2.50'S:035 6.00'E C 23 44.50'S:035 25.00'E D 23 44.50'S:035 4.00'E Our anchorage is at 23 44.13'S:025 23.67'E, in 30 feet of water at high tide (+10feet).
It is a well-protected anchorage and very quiet. However, we are THE attraction, as a number of one man dugouts have paddled by and one even dropped its anchor to fish right next to us. He was after the fish that our boat attracts. A number of dhows have sailed by and everyone has smiled and waved. A dhow with a couple of South African ex-pats came by just to say hi.
On the other side of the wreck that is on the beach near us is a beautiful house with a large catamaran at anchor in front of it. On the other side of the house is what looks to be a very nice restaurant, which we would like try one of these days. However, if you look upriver, our vista looks like nothing has changed during the last 500+ years since the Portuguese first discovered this river.
This anchorage is a nature lover's paradise. We have been greeted by dugongs and dolphins and we can watch the egrets and herons walking the shallows while they fish. The bird songs we hear from the trees that line the shore are very pleasant.
We are pretty tired after our passage. We did not sleep well with all of the bashing we took crossing the channel and then the nights of high winds (two nights ago Mary Margaret had 35 knots of wind where we had to throw in a number of reefs).
We will be spending a number of days here making small repairs that are so typical of long passages. The most significant is that a few nights ago the bashing was such that our generator moved about an inch or so and is now pressing against the wall of the lazarette. It is making the wall groan with each wave and it is bothersome when we try to sleep. I am not sure yet how we will move it back since it weighs over 550 pounds. This job may have to wait until Richards Bay where I can get some professional help. We shall see.
We expect to be here until the 19th. I need to watch each day's GRIB files and spot forecasts carefully. Right now, there may be a two or three day window starting the 19th where we can get to Richard's Bay. Time will tell...