A few excerpts from "Southern Indian Ocean Passage Notes" INTRODUCTION
The majority of cruising yachts transit the Indian Ocean in a westerly direction, taking advantage of the trade winds and a mostly favourable current. If one is on a circumnavigation, there are two choices of crossing the Indian Ocean from Australia, en route to either Europe or the America's, one being via the Red Sea, the other, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.
Following recent piracy attacks in the Red Sea and approaches, many are opting for the southern route via South Africa. This also gives one the opportunity of cruising and visiting some of the relatively unexploited areas in east Africa and Madagascar; or if a more southern route is followed, Rodrigues Island and the Chagos Shoals are seldom visited. For the adventurous, the east and south coasts of Madagascar sees very few yachts.
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See the Passage Notes for photos, chart details, safe anchorages at islands en-route, etc. ............
