The dragons that haunt this voyage are the currents and winds off the coast of East Africa, especially on this approach to Durban. The Agulhas current generally runs strongly to the southwest along the coast. When the wind blows with the current from the northeast the sailing is straightforward. When the wind blows against the current from the southwest conditions can be nasty, very nasty. The route from Durban to Capetown has a fearsome reputation. Researching it would give all but the foolhardy the willies.
Plan A was to head for a point about 200 miles northeastish of Durban anticipating that the current would carry us south as we sailed east. The risk in our trip is that when we left La Reunion (it seems so long ago) we couldn't get a remotely reliable weather forecast, so you pick a day that looks good for the next week and go, knowing that the trip takes more than a week and we will just have deal with what we find when we get there while hoping that the dragons are getting along that day.
According to our weather dude, there will be a nice southwesterly wind waiting for us as we close in on Durban, exactly not what we were not hoping for. Fortunately, we are told, the current will be very weak, around a half knot or so, so we should be good. Plan B then is to head a little south of Durban to ride in on the expected southwest wind unhindered by the weakened current. We expect to get to Durban in a couple of days. What we think we do know is that two days is a long time in forecasting the weather around here.
No comments:
Post a Comment