We are in La Reunion Island, a self-described “French Gem” in the southern Indian Ocean.

Piton de la Fournaise – a shield volcano

We were scheduled to depart at 10:00 today on the final leg of the Indian Ocean crossing to Richards Bay, South Africa.

Having known since the start of this circumnavigation that this would be our most challenging crossing, the weather angst is HIGH. It feels like we need a PhD in meteorology to figure out the weather models and predictions. Who knew there were so many different ways to interpret lows and highs and currents and swells and wave heights and seconds of wave height and spacing of wave height and wave versus wind action and highs converging on lows etc etc…….. ?  There are European models and US models. The end result of the debate among twenty skippers, crew and all the independent weather router experts that we have all hired is that we wait a day or two or three. 

Forecast model options

A huge part of the challenge is that we will be crossing the Agulhas Current which runs north to south along the east African coast south of the Mozambique Channel. The Agulhas Current is formed by the confluence of the warm Mozambique and East Madagascar Currents. When this current is met by southerly winds steep, massive waves are the result. This is all before we even attempt to go around the Cape of Good Hope to get to Cape Town.

We have been enjoying Reunion Island and loved Mauritius which we left a week ago.

Golf in Mauritius

These islands have been a delightful respite from life on a boat and have both scored well in our number system of availability of good food, good restaurants and even some good golf.

Shopping in Mauritius

We hope to leave tomorrow at 10:00 now that our provisioning, planning, cleaning and engine and rigging checks are complete. Have even made a double batch of yogurt for good luck.