Leaving Saint Marie
27 August 2014
Gina & Paul
Time to leave Saint Marie and we had a glorious sail to the top of the island. Once again we were in the company of the great mammals - humpback whales. We had them on both sides of us again and it was a pleasure to watch them. We anchored the night behind the island in the last of the calm waters. When we left the next day and left the protection of the island, we were once again out in the Indian Ocean. We spent one night anchored behind a headland but it was so rolly that we ended up leaving at 0300. We sailed through the next night and made our way to the next bay. By now the wind had increased along with the swell and we were seeing surfing breakers along the coast. We looked at the approach to Iharana, and after seeing the breakers on the reef each side of the very tiny pass, decided to give it a miss and keep sailing till we got to Diego Suarez further north. By now the wind was 30 knots and more, and the sea was around 3m but all was not too bad as it was mostly behind us. We did end up breaking a preventer as we tried to furl the mainsail, but a spare rope got the boom under control. Once again, it all happens at nighttime. We managed to reach Diego Suarez after dark and broke one of our cardinal rules about not going into a strange place at night. But the weather and sea was deteriorating enough that it would have been difficult to stay out in those conditions so we decided to trust the chart and Google earth and go in. It is a major port so we figured it wouldn’t be too bad. Our plan was just to poke our nose in the bay and anchor around the corner then make our way to the anchorage at daylight. Even though the chart indicated good sector lights, it seemed there was only one lighthouse working and we used this as a reference to assure us we were in the right place. When we anchored, we were grateful to be out of the wind and big seas. Our friends on Tahina joined us not long after. In all, it was a quick trip for us, not stopping at some of the places we wanted to but we made it safely.