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Free & BrEasy - Bumpy Windy Indy



The Indian Ocean has a reputation for ever changing winds fuelled by a series of low pressure systems travelling up the South African eastern coast towards Madagascar. Also swells are constantly being generated by southern ocean storms, and turbulent seas are common off the southern tip of Madagascar and South Africa. This is largely due to the effects of the strong Agulhas current which runs in a south westerly direction along the African coast. The Indian Ocean has not disappointed us!

A lesson on the rapid changing weather was metered out to us while we were still some way off Madagascar. We had been watching the barometric pressure drop for 12 hours from 1023 to 1012 mb and were waiting for the wind direction to change from the north east to the north west, a text book sign of an imminent south westerly gale. We could see cumulus clouds approaching when the wind strength suddenly dropped. We were just in the process of preparing to take down our sails when the mother of all squalls hit us. Torrential rain with 40 knot winds that lasted an hour! Of course this was the moment that the jib lazy jack chose to catch around the spreader and the main sail reefing lines became so twisted that they did not pull in as the sail came down. Unfortunately, a line caught the wind generator and sheared off a blade. Suddenly there was a pneumatic drill on the coach roof over the cockpit, due to vibrations of the wind generator caused by the unbalanced blades turning in the 40 knot winds. A scary situation, which was sorted by Alejandro the Great, who calmly climbed on top of the roof and threw a length of rope into the fan, which immediately stopped. The lazy jack was cleared and sails stowed away but not before we were completely soaked. The only thing we could do was change into dry clothes and have lunch while the storm pushed us northwards off our track.

After lunch it was Michael's turn to climb on to the coach roof to sort out the reefing lines. With his back turned away he completely missed, a hump back whale leap out of the water, breech, swim back in front of the boat lazily slapping a fin on the surface of the sea like a warning. Alejandro and Roger took heed and turned the boat! Michael took some persuading that all this actually happened! Then it was sails up and off on our bumpy course to Richards Bay still 1100 miles away.

With all the pounding from the bumpy seas and big swells, the autopilot eventually gave up the ghost. A spare ram unit failed to commission and we were left with no choice but to self steer the rest of the passage. Autopilots allow the helmsman to relax, read, get snacks and drinks, in other words enjoy their shift. Steering a course by hand requires 100% concentration and we immediately adopted a 2 hours watch pattern. That's about as long as anyone can keep going, particularly when sleep is being snatched in the 3-4 hour intervals between shifts. At night the world shrinks to the dimly lit compass rose in front of the wheel. We have now been hand steering for three days and are grouchy and sleep deprived. At present we have under200 miles to go and are fantasising about beers and sleep when we get to Richards Bay. Then all the repairs need doing!

Just to keep us on our toes a bolt dropped from on high on to the coach roof with a loud crack. We soon discovered that the metal track for the outhaul at the end of the boom had sheared in three places. Again it was Alejandro the Great who leapt on to the roof and fixed a temporary repair and allowed us to sail on. Three cheers for ATG!

The good news is that Roger's back pain is easing - must be the hand steering! We still have to cross the Agulhas current with its reputation of heavy seas when the wind comes from the south west and opposes the direction of the current. But would we want the circumnavigation to be free of difficult conditions especially in the Indian Ocean? Of course not - it's the challenge of the Bumpy Windy Indy that keeps us going!!

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