Thread: Agulhas Current
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Old 02-03-2016, 10:31 AM   #3
Larry M
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City: Jacksonville
Join Date: Nov 2008
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The problem with going out on a marginal forecast, if it is wrong you can be very screwed.

Lena and I sailed from Richards Bay, South Africa to Simonstown in 2004 in 4 jumps; Richards Bay to Durban to East London to Port Elizabeth to Simonstown. We waited 30 days combined at the various ports to make the trip. The weather windows were short. You never left port with northerly winds. You looked for a forecast with south and east. We had great local knowledge from a SSB operator in Durban and a Ham operator further south. We checked in daily from the time we left Madagascar till we arrived in Simonstown.

We left Durban twice, the first time on a forecast that should have been good to East London. After 8 hours we had only made it 26 miles. We turned around and were back in Durban.


We had to file float plans when we left each port and get permission from the Port Captain to leave. It was not uncommon for ports to be closed for days, even for the big guys. In Durban, at the time, the float plan was good for 4 hours. If you didn't leave, it was canceled and you had to start all over again.

The current is pretty amazing when we realized we were adding 4 knots at times to our boat speed but also a bit of a pucker factor thinking if the winds went north. Transiting the East Coast of South Africa, local knowledge is king.
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