Nearly but not quite....

The next gap was too brief to make it the 280nm to Richard's Bay so, despite not wishing it, we could only make it to Inhaca Island just outside the port of Maputo.

We rose early to catch the high tide across the sand bar which proved to be a very unpleasant excursion especially for Chantey.  They took on three huge waves in a row which blew out the windows of their spray dodger, broke their canvas canopy and threw poor Karen across the cockpit.  It was really quite a ride.  We both just went back to the point with the lighthouse to sit it out until the weather calmed sufficiently to move on.  By late afternoon, we decided to give it a go as we needed to get to the next anchorage before the next big blow which we did manage in time.   

As predicted, all hell broke loose that night and the entire following day in which we discovered that Inhaca really wasn't a very protected anchorage at all.  However, fortunately, the holding was very good.  In the 24 hours that we rode it out, Chantey broke three snubbers and we broke one.  The snubbers are lines attached to the anchor chain which take the shock of heavy jerks which, in turn, protect the windlass from damage.  Paul came so close to losing a finger while trying to sort it out as the chain ripped through his hands.  We placed it in a splint fearing it may be broken but it was just badly bruised.  Phew.

The next morning, conditions had improved so we upped anchor to get across this sand bar on a high tide.  Chantey's anchor got stuck so we returned to stand by but Will donned his scuba equipment and managed to free themselves and this sand bar caused us no grief.

The next blow was predicted for Monday morning and we felt that was sufficient to get us into Richard's Bay.  Not so as after the first hour, the wind died completely and we had nowhere near enough fuel to motor for hours and still leave us with a safety margin for emergencies.  After trying every tactic in the book, we eventually gave up and simply drifted and, as Murphy would have it, we drifted in exactly the wrong direction!  By mid Sunday afternoon, a bit of wind arrived allowing us to get underway again but we'd lost a lot of ground.  We prepared Calypso for heavy conditions by hauling out the storm and trisails and prayed for the best.