Mike lucas yachting monthly
Mike lucas yachting monthly.
Practical boat owner
When Mike and Nicki Reynolds were crossing the Indian Ocean to South Africa, strong currents, volatile conditions and lightning made for challenging sailing
Zen Again was heading west for Africa.
We had departed our home port of Fremantle, Western Australia in June. We visited Shark Bay, Cocos-Keeling Islands, Rodriquez, Mauritius and Reunion. Now it was late October and the cyclone season was approaching.
Two days after departing Le Port in Reunion Island, we found ourselves in adverse current.
Yachting
We gybed towards Madagascar to get into positive current, using RTOFS (Real Time Ocean Forecast System) ocean surface current GRIB files to guide us.
On day five we passed 80 miles off Madagascar. We ignored the 150-mile recommended range since adverse current was predicted there.
This proved fortuitous as we later learned that a yacht, following the advice, had been pooped and their cabin flooded while rounding further offshore. We rounded with typically strong Southern Indian Ocean tr