6. WEATHER PATTERNS
6.1 Introduction
There is weather in the region - Work in Progress...
6.2 East Coast
6.3 North of Nosy Be
6.4 Nosy Be Area
6.5 South of Nosy Be
2017 Adina - Once you leave Russian Bay the only real all-round weather shelters are Baramahamay (Honey) River and Berangomaina. Stopping at any of the offshore islands overnight requires calm weather which becomes less common the more south you go due to the land and sea breezes strengthening. We had calm weather at Nosy Kalakajoro and were able to stay there. Once we got to Nosy Saba and Nosy Lava the evening east/south-east winds became stronger meaning over night we'd have been on a lee shore in the popular anchoring spots and it gets very bumpy. We used the tactic recommended by SY Gambit of anchoring off the mainland coast overnight.
We downloaded satellite images and looked for areas where there were breaks in the reef, shallows, mud or any extra shelter. Bing has better satellite images for this area; don't trust Navionics' depths inshore. We motored in slowly watching the depth and often anchored in 5-6m of mud, 300-500m off the shore. The only trick is the sea breeze dies off around 7pm so you get some initial bouncing but the peaceful night pays dividends. You could get lucky and get calm weather and not need to do this. We have found no decent internet access until now in Moramba Bay (Orange). Fill your water tanks in Nosy Be as clean water is hard to find and the bay's are murky/muddy. Similarly, stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables as these are hard to find.
6.6 Cap St Andre
7. NAVIGATION
7.1 Electronic Charts
We use OpenCPN with CM93 charts and overlays of KAP files that I produce from Google Earth. We also use Navionics charts on our 8” Samsung Tablet and our Raymarine Chart Plotter.
Both the CM93 charts and Navionics charts are very inaccurate in this area, showing very little detail and can be out by up to ½ mile - they are okay for rough planning.
Our primary charts are KAP files produced from Google Earth using the GE2KAP utility written by Paul Higgins (http://www.gdayii.ca/). These are very accurate (although some of the Google Earth satellite images are very low resolution in this area).
Cruising in this area would be more difficult without a good set of KAP files or using another way to view Google Earth images off-line.
Other cruisers use Ovitalmap on their iPad, but it is essential to download the satellite images into the application while you have a good wifi connection.
Another alternative is to use SASPlanet, which will also cache satellite images for use off-line. It can be used as a basic chart plotter with an interface to GPS via a serial port; and free access to Navionics charts, but it lacks some of the features of OpenCPN.
SASPlanet can download satellite images from other sources in addition to Google Earth. The Bing images are sometimes much better in certain areas. The GE2KAP utility can be used to create KAP charts from SAS Planet's cached images.
Good sunlight and eyeball navigation is essential practically everywhere.
My KAP files can be downloaded from http://www.thehowarths/cruising-information/downloads
A good explanation of how to create KAP files written by Ocelot can be found at:
http://svocelot.com/Cruise_Info/Equipment/KAPFiles.htm
7.2 Tides.
Total Tide has tidal information and we found the tidal predictions to be accurate. Navionics also has tidal ports in their charts.