Last week, we started making our way south along the coast of Madagascar in preparation for crossing the Mozambique Channel to South Africa. This is a notoriously tricky crossing, with strong low pressure systems that generally sweep up north every five or six days and run into the infamous, south flowing, Agulhas Current, creating conditions that no one should be out in. The key seems to be to wait for the low to blow through, then sail or motor as quickly as possible before the next low arrives, making it all the way to Richard’s Bay, South Africa if possible (a 1,100 nm passage that rarely has a window open long enough to do in one go) or getting to one of the bailout anchorages in Mozambique (~700 nm) and waiting for conditions to improve for the next hop of around 400 nm. 

Unfortunately, right as we started making our way south to Baly Bay, our planned jump-off point in Madagascar, a weather window looked like it was opening up, slightly earlier than we had planned for. The unfortunate part was that we had to make the decision whether to sprint south almost 300 miles, missing several places we wanted to see, and try to make it while not fully prepared. We almost went for it. We plan to be in the Caribbean by mid-January. We have a lot of miles to go to get there, and we need to resume our westing. But the fact was that we just weren’t ready. We had only ticked off a few items on our lengthy pre-passage checklist. We probably could have done some of this on the way, but racing 300 miles south unprepared, then immediately turning west and trying to make it on this weather window would have been an exhausting beginning to a tricky 1,100 nm passage.

We reluctantly decided to wait for the next window, while continuing our original plan of making day hops down the coast of Madagascar, while we keep an eye on the weather. Playing these games of sliding doors with passage weather windows is something that we definitely won’t miss when we’re back on land. The months of November and December in Cape Town are busy and require a marina stay (due to the strong winds that blow through). We booked our stay in January this year and we’re locked into a stay that we definitely will be late for. 

While we still have the uncertainty and stress of not knowing when we’ll be able to leave, we did enjoy the last week and the beautiful spots we saw along the way. This included two particularly spectacular islands with soft white sand bars, surrounded by turquoise water—quintessential tropical paradises. Then two days ago, we anchored at a desolate island with dramatic white cliffs and the barest, scrubby vegetation, where we explored the eerie stone remains of a prison from the late 1800s. Madagascar is truly lovely, interesting, and a country of contrasts. It is unlike anywhere I’ve been or probably ever will be again. We’re trying to appreciate the extra time we’ve been given.

Having arrived safely to an anchorage where we’ll stay for the next week or so, we’re tackling our pre-passage list, prepping and freezing meals, cleaning, organizing, and just generally making sure we’re ready to go. As a bonus, it looks like we will have some other boats joining us in our wait and hopefully, crossing with us on the next window. Whether that’s all the way to South Africa or a two-part passage with a stop in Mozambique remains to be seen. If you’d like to see where we are or follow along on our next passage, you can track us at www.saillogger.com/svatlas.