‘Sometimes your boat knows best’

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. 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 trade winds. The seas were awesome in the moonlight.

We gybed back and forth to stay in favourable current.

The following morning the wind GRIBs predicted a ‘southerly buster’ storm on the South African coast a day after our estimated arrival at Richards Bay. We needed to keep our speed up to cross the Agulhas current and reach port safely. The GRIBs also predicted a large area of thunderstorms – indicated by high CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) – moving to cross our path over the next 24 hours.

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That afternoon the windward sky was filled with a solid line of distant thunderstorms. As night fell, continuous sheet lightning lit the horizon. We reduced sail to storm jib-sized staysail and trysail-sized double-reefed main. Zen Again was under the control of the autopilot since our vane gear didn’t like the Indian Ocean’s SE sea and SW swell. We were making great progress broad reaching along the rhumb line.

After dark it began to rain. Watchkeeping was tiring and stressful but Zen Again was eating up the miles. One of us was on watch and the other on standby. Gradually, the lightning bolts got brighter and the thunderclaps louder, and the gap between flash and bang closed. At 0300 we changed watch.

The squall hit while I was below. First, the wind rose from 20-25 to well over 30 knots, and torrential rain began. Seconds later, Nicki saw a lightning bolt strike close alongside.

The autopilot tripped out and the boat gybed all-standing. The boom brake let the boom across gently. Zen Again hove herself to. The motion of the boat was stilled.

When our senses recovered, I raced on deck to tie the tiller down, swap to the new windward checkstay and trim the sails. We rapidly realised this was a much nicer situation than the wild sleigh ride we’d been enduring. Richards Bay would have to wait. Zen Again was happy hove-to and she clearly knew best.

African arrival

Back down below, we checked the electrical systems. The autopilot and the AIS transmitter were out of action. Other systems appeared to be working, including the AIS receiver. We set the AIS alarm and then it was time to sleep.

Later analysis of our track showed we had been averaging 8 knots over the ground in the hours prior to the storm. That’s hull speed after subtracting 1 knot of current. I clearly wasn’t thinking straight while ‘racing’ away from the storm.

Accounting for current, while hove-to, our drift downwind varied from 2 knots initially to 0.5 knot before we resumed sailing. That was in 30+ knots down to about 15 knots of wind. Useful to know. While hove-to, we both rested for four hours, having a quick look around hourly. By then the thunderstorms had passed, assisted by our being almost stopped in the water. Cycling the power on the AIS brought it back to full operation. We set course for Richards Bay using our backup autopilot.

Completing the passage took a further four days. Three of them had very light winds and we motored for part of that period to beat the buster. Arriving in Africa was the fulfilment of a long-held dream and we spent a wonderful three months exploring South Africa.

Lessons learned

Heaving to – We should have heaved to well before the squall struck, especially with so much lightning about. Doing so would have lessened the chance of a lightning strike since the storm would have passed over us more rapidly.

Pushing on – Stress and tiredness both encourage ‘press-on-itis’. We now try much harder to avoid being caught in that trap.

Gybing – We’re pleased we had a boom brake. A preventer would not have been helpful in this scenario as it would have held the boom dangerously to windward and would have required releasing to complete the gybe.

Currents and storms – We’re pleased we used ocean surface current and CAPE GRIB files. They were as important as wind GRIB files.

Carrying back-ups – We’re pleased we had a fully installed and calibrated back-up autopilot as it meant we could carry on sailing without having to resort to hand-steering.

Wireless connections – We have minimised wired connections between instruments to reduce the risk of lightning damage. We now use wireless laptops and tablets for chartplotting and carry fully configured spares for them too.

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