Late last October, a buoy was launched for a middle school from Mayotte Island in the Mozambique Channel, in the frame of the Cnes Argonautica educational project. The buoy made some turns around, going mostly South before acceleration close to the African continent, going South-South-West. It then went South of Good Hope Cape, before turning due East, and stopping. This path is a good illustration of several oceanographic features in the region, and of the possibilites of altimetry to observe them. 

The Absolute Dynamic Topography shown above is definitely a better variable to explain the acceleration of the path close to Africa, since it reflects the total dynamic height, including the height due to the main stable currents (and its derived geostrophic velocities the total geostrophic current) - here the Agulhas system, while the Sea Level Anomalies show more the eddies - and are thus specially interesting in the Mozambique Channel proper. When the buoy began taking the retroflection current East, both data show the very high eddies there. (Notice the buoy was undrogued, so may show wind effects). 

See also:

• Image of the Month, Sept 2021: A buoy spiraling at Burdwood bank
• Image of the Month, Feb 2017: Tidal currents make a buoy's path spiral
• Image of the Month, Nov. 2006: Argonautica buoys around a Tehuantepec eddy
• Image of the Month, August 2001: Currents, buoys and children
• Applications: Ocean / mesoscale circulation

Other web sites on this topic:

• Argonautica educational project and data access (in English)