Author: kerri

At The \”Top\”, Cap d\’ Ambre, Madagascar…..

25 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere +3 UTC)

Dear F&F,

Land Ho! at 5:30 local time, we spotted several hills ashore on Northern Madagascar from about 25 miles away. We\’ve flown the spinnaker all night and it was a lovely night and sail. The winds were from behind us at 14-18 knots, the seas smooth and we\’re zinging along.

I noticed the lights of Diego Suarez (Antsiranana) about 40 miles out and have heard one radio conversation this morning on the VHF; a first in the last 1500 miles. We did 176 miles yesterday and actually had to motor for 2 1/2 hours as we lost the wind for awhile. Steadily, it came back all day and into the night.

Our plan is to sail up to about five miles from the top (all things permitting!) and drop the spinnaker. We\’ll see if the main should then be furled or not? We will motor around the top as to have easy and quick maneuverability. We\’ve been told there can be two strong currents meeting there and cause standing waves. As the conditions have been pretty benign these last few days, this may not be the case. The suggestion has been to stay very close to the shore and get around as quickly as possible. The other side may or may not have wind, but the seas should be flat. The entire West Coast of Madagascar is very shallow a long way out toward the Mozambique channel. We\’ll have to keep an eye on our track and the depth sounder.

Our next report should be from the west side of the island and I may do another blog later in the day after we\’ve rounded.

We\’ll speak with \”Sunflower\” later today to give them a report; email if the radio propagation isn\’t good. Nikki just got up to see Land Ho!….Ho, Ho, Ho!…

KIT, Scott and Navigator Nik

A Slow Day…..

24 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Yesterday was a slow one. It started out fast but then we hit a strong and unexpected \”head current\” which retarded our speed up to 2 knots for awhile! This along with the diminishing winds (as predicted), have slowed us considerably. Yesterday\’s run was a paltry 160 nm.

The sun is up, the seas calm, the winds around 10-12 knots. When Nikki gets up, we\’ll hoist the spinnaker and get going as I\’m concerned about rounding the \”top\” tomorrow during daylight hours. The spinnaker is the large kite like sail most of you have seen in the sailing photos. It\’s three times the size of our genoa which is what we\’ve had up for three days.

I\’d planned on being there tomorrow at first light, now I\’m hopeful for noon! If it gets really light, we\’ll motor to insure a day time passage of the \”top\”.

Dave and Kathy on \”Sunflower\” we\’re 125 miles behind us last night and hanging right in there. Very impressive for a 44 foot monomaran!…:-)

Nikki\’s been navigating, cooking, reading and watching the stars on her IPAD program every night. Last night was a good one for it too. Very clear, nice moon, but you could still see Jupiter, Mars and the brightest stars.

We expect an easy sailing day today, but I\’m a sailor and hence I knock on wood and am superstitious of such things….:-) KIT, landfall tomorrow…

Scott and Sleeping Beauty Nik….:-)

We\’re Getting Close…..

23 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

Last night was a beautiful sail. The seas at only 2 meters, long and pretty smooth. The wind has been around 17-20 knots just aft the port beam, but we\’re able to carry our genoa winged out to weather on the pole. We\’re starting to see lots of birds (getting close to land). I\’ve never seen more flying fish than on this trip. My first job of the day is to remove them from the deck. Yesterday, I had 10 to throw back.

We just moved our clocks again to +4 on UTC (Greenwich); were getting closer in longitude to the Western European and US World\’s.

Interestingly, I\’ve been able to listen to the Presidential Debates on the BBC!

We\’ve 360 miles from the \”top\” of Madagascar, another 100 from there to where we\’ll check in at Nose Be (Big Island). The weather looks to be good and maybe getting a bit lighter from here to Madagascar. We should arrive on our Thursday morning and hopefully going around the top won\’t be too bumpy. The \”top\” has a notorious reputation for standing waves and big currents. The strategy for others who\’ve gone before us is to stay very close to the beach and get around quickly. The other side (West side), is supposed to be nice and calm. We shall see?!….

Short blog today, not much to report other than the back to back 197 mile days. Day 6 run – 197 miles.

KIT, Scott and Sleeping Celestial Navagatrix-Nikki

Thoughts from the West Indian Ocean…..

22 October 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We left Los Angeles, California 5 years ago. So much has happened. Yesterday \”Beach House\” was literally half way round the world from where we started.

Playing on the old riddle, \”How far can you run into the forest?\”…..\”Half way, as beyond that is toward home\”.

The sail yesterday was brilliant once we made our turn down wind at the top of the Mascarene Mountains. A bit of unusual sea surface disturbance was seen as we went near the 100 meter depths, but nothing exciting.

The skies seem to cloud up at night and get clear during the day when the sun heats everything up. No real rain in the last 24 hours and we\’ve about 525 miles to the top of Madagascar\’s Cape d\’Ambre. The weather should be pretty good from here to there and we plan on approaching the Cape from the Southeast as the winds will come more from the south up the East Coast of the island. We\’ll be very near the port of Diego Suarez, but don\’t plan on stopping there. We\’ll hopefully arrive at the Cape just after day break on our Thursday and stay very close to the shore as has been recommended to stay out of the turbulence at the top. Apparently it can be pretty exciting for about 10 miles…we shall see. After that, if we\’re feeling strong we\’ll sail the short overnight passage to Nosy Be (Big Island) where we\’ll check in at the Port of Hellvile (named after French Admiral Hell), locally known as Adonay.

As I write, we\’ve taken down the headsail and are just going on one reef in the main till the day\’s winds let us know what\’s up. We had wind from the SSE last night at 20-25 on our beam, so we were a bit over canvassed and just rolled up the genoa. We also took advantage of that and headed a bit south to begin positioning ourselves for landfall in three days.

We\’ll hear from Dave and Kathy on s/v \”Sunflower\” via email and radio this afternoon and see how there crossing of the Mascarene Plateau went.

We had a nice enough day to start to clean up, do the chores and relax. Here\’s hoping that\’s how the rest of this ride goes!..:-) Day 5 run, 197 nautical miles.

KIT, Scott and Nikki