Madagascar to South Africa Day 10 – the wind moans, howls and screams

Anchored in the bay of Maputo, we took turns to catch up on sleep as we waited patiently for the winds from the north to shift to the south. The plan was then to move Adina to a new anchorage that would provide shelter from an incoming storm. Two hours on, two hours off. Looking through the binoculars we could see Maputo in the distance and hoped no officials could see us as we had no plans to check in and just wanted refuge for 48 hours. On Tom’s shift a speedboat came out directly towards Adina, full of what looked like people in uniforms. It stopped a way off, sat there for a few minutes and then sped off in another direction. Relief. You like to think they know yachts use Maputo as a bolt hole and coming out and demanding they check in is just not worth the hassle.

Looking at the forecast it looked like the winds would start shifting around midday and they duly did. We promptly upped anchor and moved. Two hours later we arrived at our new anchorage under a cliff with a big white lighthouse just as the winds hit due south. Perfect timing but alas not perfect shelter. Perfectly sheltered from the wind but still big swell and breaking seas. We put out lots of chain and tried to ensure we were well dug in. Susie was on the bow, which was bouncing away, saying it was hard to tell if we were really dug in. The currents here are very strong and it’s not helped by being spring tides right now. At one stage we were stern to the waves. It was a good old rollercoaster ride at the fairground.

The winds started whistling away, we sat playing backgammon (a magnetic set of course!) and recorded our track so we could ensure we were holding. Susie called home to wish her mum a happy birthday.

Sunday night is pizza night on Adina and Susie said she was sticking to tradition and made pizza! The winds picked up and started howling and we enjoyed pizza on deck while our wind instruments kept us entertained! Far better to have fun and smile at it all than worry yourself sick.

We set the anchor alarms, shut all the hatches to eliminate some of the noise and went to sleep. We just couldn’t see the point in staying awake, the alarms work well and would wake us. The winds screamed and were easily 30-40 knots but on the whole we slept well.

Monday morning we’ve woken to a grey day. We’re still bouncing away, the winds have calmed to a gentle moan. Who needs the Beaufort wind scale – far better something like whispering, whistling, blowing, moaning, howling, screaming.

Fingers crossed, the weather forecast says we can continue south on Tuesday afternoon. Today we will check the boat over and make sure everything is ready for the final leg. It will be a windy leg and there is strong current. We need to remain focused, there is still work to be done but there is light at the end of the tunnel.