ReunionSA

For five hours we were slopping around in the lee of Reunion thinking we'd mis-read the weather reports. It gave us time to enjoy catching a gorgeous yellow dorado which was one of the best we've ever tasted.
By evening we were out of the wind shadow, with three reefs in the main and most of the headsail rolled in. For the first time we had steady SE trade winds of 25-35 knots, with a big rolling 2 metre swell from the S. It was getting quite cold, so we had the sides of the shed down, and were rugging up at night. After three 180 Nm days with a 1knt set with us we were feeling pretty smug, and nicely placed 180Nm off the SE corner of Madagascar ready to make our run into the coast of South Africa at Richards Bay.

That's when we were hit with the first SW front. It looked pretty sinister rolling towards us like a big black cigar, with the barometer dropping 10hp in 3 hours, but it wasn't as bad as we'd expected, and with plenty of sea room, we ran away to the WNW and after 12 hours were able to get back on course making excellent time.
As we closed the coast, the wind swung around to the NW, and we were able to sunbathe under glorious clear blue skies, but as the wind built, so did the swell, and a day out from Richards Bay we found ourselves in 35-40 knots of NW wind, side on to breaking 5 metre waves! This was not a good look, so we ran off to the SW and were in danger of missing RB and having to head for Durban.

Our weather info indicated that another SW front was moving up the coast. Not wanting to get caught on the dangerous 200 fathom line about 10-20 miles off the coast, we hove-to at about 7pm, 70Nm from our preferred destination, to wait for the So'wester and hopefully a better angle to approach Richards Bay.
We're getting good at hoving-to, and had just settled down for a more comfortable night of waitingwhen WHAMO, it felt as if we'd been hit by something solid, we both thought it must have been a container! The whole boat shuddered but nothing worse happened, so we assumed it had been a wave breaking over us. Next day Duck found a crack right across the front of our fibreglass dinghy strapped to the foredeck. Scarey stuff!
At midnight we realized the wind generator had stopped completely, we were in a dead calm. We rushed to get the boat under way towards the coast and cross the remaining distance before the swells built up from the South.
By mid morning we were being hit from the South, but the waves were no higher than 3 metres and the wind no more than 25 Knots.
Jude was able to do the Bon Jovi "It's my Life" jig while Duck raised the courtesy and quarantine flags, and with Ferdinand swimming behind, we entered Richards Bay harbour at lunchtime on October 18th, Jude's Birthday.
A fast boisterous trip, but safe and exhilerating.