SAMMNET

With a firm, clear and caring voice Sam gave us weather info for our specific situation. It was re-assuring at the times we were in for some bad weather. And it was most valuable during the times we could not get proper connections to Sailmail for our own weather info.
Send an email to zs1sammnet@worldonline.co.za with your position, boat speed and course.
Our information was registered at the South African Maritime Net for in case of emergencies. During the transmission we could not call in since we are not a Ham station, but Sam would call us and then give weather.
SAMMNET on 14316 USB at 06:30 UTC
From Simonstown the South African Maritime Mobile Net operates on Ham radio frequencies twice daily, 7 days a week and 365 days a year and provides weather reports from around the South African coast and the deep-sea areas from Brazil and Argentina in the west and to Australia in the east and into the Mozambique channel, the Seychelles and Maldives area.
We are grateful for his concerned help during our voyage from Madagascar to South Africa.

INDIAN OCEAN CROSSING 2015

From Cocos Keeling to north Madagascar was a hard, looooooong sail. Uncomfortable. Heavy, huge seas and swell which ran in no co-herent fashion - all the time. 30-40 kn winds were a constant. Two days - out of the twenty four days - were ideal blue water sailing. The windvane steering sometimes could not keep up with the repetitive onslaught of the seas. In due course the steering line snapped. Eelco dressed up in his safety harness and clipped himself to the pushpit then clambered over board down the stern while the liquid mountains charged onto us. He retrieved the broken line and strung the replacement line successfully. I was so uptight and worried, I forgot to take pictures. The heavy seas took its toll on the steering gear too. A couple of times there were a big 'bang!'. One of the 'bangs' was the starboard main stay snapped off a 12mm rod. We also discovered with dismay that the weight of the danbuoy has rusted off. Hooray for life on the saltwater.... Two good things about the Indian Ocean. 1) The current is a true plus. 2) The weather was mostly sunny, warm and dry. 

YAMBA, Clarence River, NSW, OZ

We have avoided Yamba for two years. The channel to get there goes around tight hairpin bends and over worrying shallows, hugging small islands closely in other places. My bravery to be on the water do not need to get stuck somewhere in the mud. Two years ago we bumped over some boulders here on the Clarence River and that event seriously rocked my ‘security’. How the fishing fleet of Yamba comes and goes is something I just don’t even want to know about – practising my ostrich head-in-the-sand approach. But guilt for being here and not explore, which goes against the grain of being a tourist, made us decide to try it. Then during our last social visit with another cruising yacht in Iluka, they mentioned with detail how a friend of theirs dragged numerous times at Yamba. Oops, that meant poor holding – and a strong blow was predicted for two days. ‘Maybe we shouldn’t go.’ ‘What the heck, we just go’ the boss man said. I stayed below decks busying myself with all kinds of nothing in the galley during our trip to Yamba, to prevent being confronted with my what-ifs. Only once did we plough through the mud when we gave way to the ferry and left the channel. When we anchored further up the narrow channel, the anchor gripped immediately the sticky mud and we stayed put for a few days. We were in Yamba after all, and enjoyed the climb to the lighthouse and looking over the coastline dotted with surfers. We also supported a local dentistry once again.