Mozambique Cyclone Idai – Sailing towards a storm, a little earlier than planned, during cyclone season…
Late April, May and June is the right time to sail this coast….We left mid March because of an extraordinary weather window which would carry us the first 1000 miles downwind, instead of upwind…
Was it 100% safe? NO.
Did we get more than we bargained for, or just what we signed up for? Watch the video to find out…
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What do most people do when they see a cyclone on the Predictwind forecast with their Iridium GO or other ways of getting weather at sea? They stay safely in port, right? We saw an opportunity to go south with the north winds that would be north of the cyclone in the the Southern Hemisphere near Tanzania and Mozambique. It promised, if we played it just right, to carry us at least 1000 miles south with nice north winds!
So we grabbed our last veggies and eggs for 3 weeks, and set sail to South Africa, chasing Cyclone Idai down down the coast of Mozambique. We wanted to be close enough for the winds, but not too close!!! We later found out that this cyclone was the worst cyclone to ever hit Mozambique, killing thousands of people and demolishing even more homes. It’s a good thing we played it just right!
Even with that, we did get the remnants of it when we got a little too close…and we were socked with 50 knot winds for a bit, complete with driving rain and lots of thunder and lightening. Seas mounted fast. Luckily it was short lived.
Too bad it was too rough and most off all too dark, to film during the very worst of it, or I know Patrick would have been up filming it!
Hope you enjoy the video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe, and have a lovely Easter weekend! If you have any spare change, leave it in the TIP jar in the top right corner of the screen…thanks!
We studied the two following books/guides (click on either to see more detail), and utilized our Professional Subscription at Predictwind to help make these very important and intricate decisions about our trip south. Des Cason, a local Weather and anchorage guru and long time cruiser in this area also provided daily updates and advice as we moved south.
So happy that you lived to publish this riveting video 🙂
Haha 😉 Lisa…We actually had awesome sailing for the first 800 miles due to that cyclone…downwind and so flat that I woke up from many watches wondering if we had anchored while I was sleeping 😉 But that last 150-200 to Bazaruto were a little daunting for ME at least. Patrick and Lily had fun though! Next…”The Wild Coast” but not til the end of the year…Patrick has many HOW TO Videos to make here now, during our haul out.
Congrats on your circumnavigation BTW!!!