PREVIOUS CROSSINGS

Previous crossings of the Indian Ocean,
a rich and complex history

Crossing the Indian Ocean single-handed from the north west coast of Australia to Reunion Island is presented as a project hitherto unknown in France. However, in spite of the Indian Ocean’s “bad reputation”, it has never ceased to be crossed in all directions by diverse craft, probably well before the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were sailed across.

Greco-Roman writings show that from the 5th century BC, the Indian Ocean was the centre of an important trade in spices, medicinal plants and condiments, then silk, with trade established between South–East Asia, Africa and Madagascar. Indeed, the populating of the great island of Madagascar is one of the great enigmas of history. Could large outrigger pirogues have left Malaysia or Indonesia to travel to Madagascar on a direct route through the Indian Ocean? Or, more probably, did they progressively follow the Asiatic then African coastlines? Like in the Kon-Tiki expedition by Thor Hejerdahl, two traditional pirogues, the Sarimanok and the Amanagapa were thus recently chartered to prove the feasibility of such an ocean voyage from Asia to Madagascar. Leaving from Indonesia, Michaël Pitiot’s junk, the Sao Mai, also crossed the Indian Ocean in 1999, with a call at Chagos.

It was from 1498, with the voyage of Vasco of Gama then the return of Magellan’s expedition, with the first circumnavigations and the discovery of the Australian continent by the Europeans, that more southerly maritime routes, closer to the one chosen by Raphaëla, have been taken. Today, for amateur circumnavigators, Reunion Island and Madagascar are privileged stages, marking the end of the great ocean crossing from Australia, skirted by the south.

Recently, several rowers have set out from the north west coast of Australia. Two men carried out this adventure single-handed: Anders Svedlund in 1971 – a Swede who crossed the Indian Ocean between Australia and Madagascar in 64 days – and Simon Chalk in 2003 – a British rower who left from the same point as the Swede had 31 years earlier (Kalbarri), and reached Saint-Raphaël (60° east) on Saint-Brandon in 108 days. Others however have been less fortunate. Teams of 2 English rowers in 2003, and 2 Russian rowers in 2005, had to be rescued, which proves the difficulty of the crossing.

Fairly recently, a Ukrainian rower, Theodore Rezvoy, left Carnavon on 3rd August this year to cross the Indian Ocean, with Madagascar his destination. But he had to stop at the Coco Islands on the 23rd August for health reasons.