We’ve made it to the continent of Africa! It feels so good to finally be here, and that feeling was made even more rewarding by the passage it took to get here.
So what was the Seychelles to Tanzania sailing passage like?
Well—tough in one word, gnarly in two… This was one of our worst passages yet, and I don’t say that lightly. Let me explain.
Related:
Sailing Seychelles: Cruising Highlights from Mahe to La Digue
Indian Ocean Crossing: Part Four – Chagos to Seychelles
Ruins and Rules: Two Weeks Sailing in Remote Chagos
Indian Ocean Crossing: Part Three – Maldives to Chagos
Sailing in the Maldives: Our Top Stops from North to South
Indian Ocean Crossing: Part Two – Sri Lanka to Maldives
Indian Ocean Crossing: Part One – Thailand to Sri Lanka
DAY ONE: 11/07/2025 – Departing Seychelles
O’dark-thirty (aka first light), we anchored up and waved to the rest of the boats in Eden Anchorage. We made it out and unrolled the genoa for a few miles of downwinding as we headed around Mahé. We had to motor for around an hour to get out of the lee of the island, then we put the white sails up and were away.
This is when the ocean got messy. We were zooming away from the main island and hit short-period waves that knocked us around a bit. We just hoped it would get better.
Something that’s unique about the Seychelles is the shallow banks surrounding it—the depth stays around 50m until you’re almost 80NM out. We hoped that when we crossed into deeper water the short, messy swell would ease. By sunset, we made it to the edge of the banks, and it did improve… just not as much as we’d hoped.
We went into the night with two reefs in the mainsail and a reef or two in the genoa. We kind of adjusted the genoa and left the main double-reefed throughout the night—the first rough night of our Seychelles to Tanzania sailing passage.
DAY TWO: 12/07/2025
Dad woke me up around 5:00 a.m. I headed up to the helm. The handover was a brief one: still blowing around 17kts, same sail setup. Nothing on radar—no ships, and nothing to report. So it was a good night.
Though… the little two had to sleep upstairs because their rooms (port bow) were getting hammered by the swell. That tells you it wasn’t comfortable. Even for me up in the starboard bow—I was clinging to my pillow and rolling around.
The rest of Day Two consisted of baking sourdough in the oven (because we didn’t want to go outside the back clears) and holding on whenever we wanted to walk around. This was only the start—we weren’t even at the compression zone yet.
Heading into night two, we had second reef in, with the wind still in the 20kt range.
DAY THREE: 13/07/2025
Up again at 5:00 a.m., my watch passed fairly uneventfully. When Mum came up around 10:30 a.m. to trade, I had nothing to report. I headed down determined to make pancakes but, much to my annoyance, the heat wouldn’t work. I was already so tired, I let the others figure it out and hit the couch.
The result of this annoying situation? Oats with church that morning.
Then it was a movie, more reading, and then my workout followed by dinner. Trust me when I say working out on passage is no easy task!
Heading into night three we put the third reef in, as we’d started seeing 25kts pretty often. This turned out to be a very good decision.
DAY FOUR: 14/07/2025
Once again, I was woken early for my shift around 5:15 a.m. I was ready to take over, but Dad stayed with me as we watched yet another squall hit us with 30kts. We had the third reef in the mainsail and about 2.5–3 reefs in the genoa as well. We were still doing at least 8kts—mostly 9–10kts.
Dad did manage to sleep for about an hour or two. He’d had an eventful night helping everyone when squalls came through. I think this was one of our roughest nights at sea ever, and I don’t say that lightly.
As the sun came up, I think it was almost worse—because now you could see the 3m waves coming at you. One wave hit the port side of the boat and came all the way up over the roof, with water coming into the helm station on the starboard side—where I was sitting.
As the others woke up, we all just found a spot around the couch or on the floor—anywhere secure and dry. The outside area—even with the clears—was soaked. The helm was getting wet because now it was raining as well.
I think Day Four was our roughest day of the passage. Never has the boat had such a hard time. A wave would hit under the bridge deck and the whole table would shake like crazy. Then one would hit the side and send water all over the deck and waterfalling down the windows… Honestly, scary.
But by sunset—there was actually a sunset! Yep, the last few days had been cloudy, but today there was a break, and everyone came up to the helm to enjoy it. Hopefully, this was the end of the bad part.
DAY FIVE: 15/07/2025
When I got up, the ocean had definitely improved and I had a super uneventful watch. This was our last full day at sea and things were looking up.
By now, I believe we’d made it through the compression zone and were on the home stretch. Honestly, compared to the last few days, it was sweet relief.
The swell was smaller, we put second reef back in, and were just happy to half move around once again.
So yeah. Day Five was uneventful. Everyone was just ready to get there and excited to finally see land tomorrow.
DAY SIX: 16/07/2025
The last day! I was up again at 5:00 a.m. and we had 15kts of wind—glorious. We were still doing 8kts and everything was still very salty, but we were almost there!
I had a delicious banana muffin for breakfast with the little two and we enjoyed the smaller swell and lighter breezes. The surfboards went back on the side and the clears went up. We were still screaming along, but it was just so much flatter than what we’d had.
Everyone chilled, did the odd job, and before we knew it—we were yelling LAND HO!
The island of Zanzibar loomed closer. Okay, “loomed” makes it sound tall—it’s actually pretty flat. Anyways, we made it in before sunset and kind of didn’t know what to do with ourselves when you could stand without holding on to something!
Recovering from this one took a couple days of flat anchorage and good sleep. But really, it’s done now—and the sense of relief having arrived safely was amazing.
The Weather…
Route
The route we took was pretty much dead west, but we did intentionally head a little south at the beginning of the passage so that when the wind picked up, we could run off just a bit. Our COG (or Course Over Ground) was pretty much 260-275 degrees the whole way, with the wind at 60-90 degrees apparent.
So yeah, it was simple in the way of just heading straight for our destination. Also, for those doing this passage, we weren’t sure whether to aim for Dar es Salam or Tanga. In the end, we decided to go with Tanga because the check-in is easier and it was a more favourable angle. (As I write this, we’re beating back down to Zanzibar, sooo, up to you).
Wind
Let’s face it, this piece of ocean is wild. The wind that builds up around the northern tip of Madagascar is gnarly to say the least. Even miles above it, we were still getting crazy gusts.
The forecast predicted around 15–22kts for the trip, and it was mostly accurate—though the odd gust of 30kts had us a little scared. Good to know though, that the boat can handle those winds on the beam. This image from Windy is what that compression zone around Madagascar does almost consistently during this season.
Waves
The swell on this passage from Seychelles to Tanzania? Not awesome. Okay, it sucked.
Looking at the forecast before we left, it showed 3m swells at 8-second intervals. If you’ve ever run weather for a passage, you’ll know that is not a good forecast. But after watching the weather for weeks, this was the best window we had. So, we tried to mentally prepare and headed off.
Current
It’s worth mentioning we had 2–4kts of northerly current on the final day. Just something to keep in mind if you’re planning a similar route.
Final Thoughts
The Seychelles to Tanzania sailing passage was a gnarly one, as you can now probably see. The winds throughout were around 90 degrees apparent, and the swell on our port beam was uncomfortable.
But all of this made for a really fast passage. I reckon we had a couple of 200NM days in there (my 10am–10am log was 196NM… sooo close—but I’m sure we went faster in another 24-hour period).
So yes—the Indian Ocean is behind us! We are all stoked, relieved, and ready for the next part of the journey: the Mozambique Channel.
But first, exploring Tanzania. Oh—and we may or may not be planning a sneaky (or not) surf trip down to J-Bay…
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our experience and gained some insight into what sailing this part of the Indian Ocean can look like. If you have any questions, tips, or stories of your own—drop them in the comments!