by Judy Handley | Sep 30, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 339, Year 5 Happy Birthday, Heather!
Date: Thursday, September 30, 2010
Weather: Sunny Day; Winds E 5 – NNW 15-20 – NE 10
Latitude: 14 32.628 S
Longitude: 047 37.150 E
Location: Nosy Lava, NW Madagascar
Thirty-five years ago today our daughter Heather was born. My but the years pass quickly. This afternoon just before we sailed out of cell range we called to wish her a happy birthday. It was 8 am and she was leaving in twenty minutes, so the timing was perfect. We only talked long enough to wish her a happy birthday as we know how busy those morning minutes are when you are getting ready to go to work and are trying to get two little ones ready to go as well. We didn’t even find out if she has any special birthday plans. So Heather, whatever the plans, enjoy your special day!
Our day started when the alarm went off at 4:45 am. We had planned to leave at 5 am but it was still too dark. So we delayed the anchor up time by fifteen minutes and the sun cooperated. When we got out of the bay we had virtually no wind coming from the E, so we motor sailed for the first five hours of the day. Mid-morning the wind picked up to 7-10 knots on the beam and we had a good sail. And then around noon the wind picked up to 15-20. We had a great sail for the next four hours. When we had no wind we changed our destination to a closer island but when the winds picked up we changed course for our original destination of Nosy Lava which made it a 55 mile day. Mark was kept busy putting up the pole to sail wing and wing and then taking it down as the wind moved around and then putting it back up again, but all in all it was a great sailing day with less time spent motoring than many of our jaunts recently. Tomorrow we have 40 miles to go to get to Moramba Bay but that won’t require such an early start. And who knows where the wind will be coming from tomorrow. The net controller on the South African Maritime Mobile Net tells us our winds seem to go in circles here in Madagascar. And that is certainly true. The only problem is that it doesn’t start coming from the same direction any two days in row recently, so making sailing plans is a bit difficult.
It was a bread baking day for me, banana bread as well as multi-grain, and I did a fair bit of reading about South Africa. I used the Lonely Planet to start figuring out the costs of visiting the game parks and it isn’t cheap. A tent on a platform with an attached bathroom and separate kitchenette costs about $45 US per person per night. We might get by a bit cheaper, but not much. But I guess that’s not a bad price for staying right in the park where we’ll see the Big 5-buffalo, elephants, leopards, lions, and rhino. But we have to get there first, so back to the sailing plans.
by Judy Handley | Sep 29, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 338, Year 5 Pink Quartz Agates
Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Weather: Sunny, Clear Day; Winds NW
Location: Baramahamay Bay (Honey River), NW Madagascar
The big find of the day was a beach with beautiful little pink quartz agates. After a morning of cleaning the boat waterline and the area around the tail pipe that always has a little black from exhaust fumes around it, doing more computer spreadsheet planning for our trip down the coast of Madagascar, and finishing the naming of the last underwater photos, we took off in the dinghy for an explore. We picked up Ed and Lynne and went over to the honey village. We left the dinghy there and walked along the beach out toward the point at the entrance to the bay. It was low tide so we were able to walk most of the way to the point. All along the way there were the most beautiful little pink quartz agates. I had everyone collecting them for me. Lynne asked what I was going to do with them and I had to respond by saying that I have no idea. But I’m sure I’ll find some sort of decorative use for them. Or maybe grandchildren can just use them to sort. Whatever, I just had to take this little bit of Madagascar with me. We also saw some beautiful sandstone rocks along the shore that were partly eroded in the most unusual patterns.
Tomorrow we have a long sailing day down to Nosy Lava. We will up anchor at 5:00 am and be on our way. On our way we will pass Nosy Valiha where there is a cell tower. If it is late enough in the day, we’ll try to call our daughter Heather to wish her a happy birthday. As we walked this afternoon, Lynne and I talked about this cruising season being the toughest either of us has had in terms of not being able to go home to see family. And it really is hard. We are seeing fantastic things and meeting wonderful people, but there is no place like home. And we have nine more months before we will be home. Sigh. Deep breathe. I’m sure the 10,000 miles of sailing we have to do between now and then will take much of the time, but if we had wings, we’d certainly be flying home between now and then to see family and friends.
Tonight we watched a gorgeous sunset. Ed and Lynne swear they saw the green flash last night, but there was no green flash tonight. The sun looked like it was on fire as it set, so that was good enough without the flash.
by Judy Handley | Sep 28, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 337, Year 5 Staying for Another Day in Honey River
Date: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Weather: Same, Same-Rain Overnight, Cloudy Early, Sunny, Clear Day
Location: Baramahamay Bay (Honey River), NW Madagascar
We had a quiet day until late afternoon. At 2:30 pm we listened to the weathers on the South African Maritime Mobile Net. The net controller, Graham, says we are going to have winds from the SW tomorrow and the next day and that is exactly the direction in which we are headed. If the winds are actually from the SW, Ed has come up with a plan to sail out to sea and then tack back in so we could use the winds instead of bashing into them. We went to the “honey” village in the late afternoon to take two huge bags of glass and plastic containers that we have emptied over the last few months. We have been giving them away a bit at a time, but we decided that it was time to get rid of all of them. The villagers were delighted to get them as well as a bag of old clothing and I was delighted to get another two wine bottles full of local honey. It is a very light honey but it makes the tastiest granola ever. On our way to the village we saw that Armelle T had come in and anchored, and Dream Catcher and Muneera were looking for a space to anchor when we got back. All of these boats are headed to South Africa and I think all three are staying here tomorrow, so we have decided to do the same. I told you this trip south was going to be mora, mora, and it is certainly starting out that way.
We got emails from both of our kids this morning. Justin, Jo, and Ziggy are on the road again. They are now in California. They were finally able to get the bus started after letting it run out of fuel, but they are hoping that bio-diesel will be easier to find in California and Oregon. We also heard from our daughter Heather and her email prompted a flurry of Caribbean research. She and Jed are thinking that Brazil is just too expensive and too many hours of travel with two little ones, so now we are trying to find a spot that they might join us in the Caribbean. In order to do that we needed to get our tentative sailing schedule set up so they will know where we will be when. That took all morning but we are feeling really good about getting the next cruising season planned out now so we won’t have to think about it until time to leave South Africa. I have a feeling once we get to South Africa we are going to be very busy with inland travel to game parks and boat work that needs to be done. Not to mention the weather watching we will have to do to find our windows of opportunity for doing small hops down the coast to Cape Town.
Since we are here for another day, we hope to go back to the honey village, leave our dinghy there, and walk out to the beach at the entrance to the bay to look for quartz agates that we have heard are there. That plus an afternoon of baking bread are the big plans for tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Sep 27, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 336, Year 5 Mora, Mora (slowly, slowly)
Date: Monday, September 27, 2010
Weather: Dark Clouds Early, Clearing to Sunny Skies; Wind NW 10
Latitude: 13 42.778 S
Longitude: 047 54.102E
Location: Baramahamay Bay, NW Madagascar
We have started our trek south but we will be going “mora, mora”-the Madagascar phrase that means slowly, slowly as that is the way of life here. We are going mora, mora trying to bide time until mid-October which should be a better time for crossing the Mozambique Channel to South Africa’s east coast. That passage will take anywhere from seven to ten days depending on where we start across. So for the next two weeks we will just meander down the Madagascar coast. Tonight we are back in Baramahamay Bay which is known locally as Honey River. The chief of the village on the south side of the bay sells local honey, thus the name. Tomorrow we will visit that village to buy honey and visit the village on the north side to try and see the school there with children in it. Children have been on winter vacation since we arrived in Madagascar and I’d love to see a school alive with children before leaving here.
On Saturday I wrote “one more snorkeling day” but it ends up that we had two more snorkeling days. We snorkeled yesterday morning before John’s birthday party and on our way south today, we reached a small island that has a mooring that you can pick up for a short period of time. We got to snorkel what cruisers call Passage Island and others call it the Italian Island as there is a resort owned by an Italian on the island. The reason for the nicknames is that the real name of the island is impossible to pronounce. It is Nosy Ankazoberavina, thus Passage Island. The only thing on the island is the resort and Private Property signs are posted on the land and there was even one on a float in the water! That’s a new one on me. We had been able to sail in the early morning but then the wind totally died. So when we reached the island it was the perfect time to stop and snorkel while waiting for the afternoon wind to pick up. We took the dinghy around a rocky point, anchored it, and snorkeled against the tide so we would have a free ride back to the dinghy. At first we thought we had been misled by our good friends who told us about the amazing snorkeling at this spot. Both Ed and Lynne on Constance and Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen on Pioneer had great snorkeling experiences then. Just about the time we were ready to give up, we saw why they have raved about it. The Bluebarred Parrotfish (Scarus ghobban) and Snubnose Pompanos (Trachinotus blochii) were HUMONGOUS. Both were more than two feet in length and that is just about their maximum size. Usually what we see is half that size or even smaller. And there were hundreds of False Moorish Idols (Heniochus diphreutes), huge Ringtail Surgeonfish (Acanthurus blochii) and Yellowfin Surgeonfish (Acanthurus xanthopterus), and even one Palate Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus), a spectacular fish we have only seen previously in the Komodos in Indonesia. This is a bright blue fish with a darker blue design on its body that looks like an artist’s palette topped off with a bright yellow tail. And then we saw the prize of the day. Swimming along on the sand below us was a moray eel longer than either of us. It was the color of the sand with tiny speckles all over. We aren’t sure what species, but we think it might have been a Laced Moray (Gymnothorax favaineus). Whatever it was, it was quite a treat to swim along with it. As it led us to shallower water, however, we backed off not wanting it to feel cornered. That ended a very successful snorkel. We won’t have another chance until southern Madagascar (if we get that far south before crossing), so the snorkeling gear is drying is will be stored for the next couple of weeks.
Just after we left Nosy Ankazoberavina the cell phone rang. It was John back at Sakatia Towers wanting to thank us once again for our birthday gift to him. We had ninety-nine underwater photos from Sakatia snorkeling forays copied at the Kodak shop in Hell-ville and put them in a photo album for him to share with his guests. The photo album was a quite a hit and John and Heidi really appreciated it. It made us a bit homesick to get a call from John but we were so glad to hear from him. We are out of cell phone range now and will be for a few days, so he called just in time.
by Judy Handley | Sep 26, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 335, Year 5 Happy Birthday to Commodore John
Date: Sunday, September 26, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar
We were told when we arrived in Madagascar that there is no yacht club here. But that is not correct. John at Sakatia Towers on Nosy Sakatia has an anchorage area and his Sakatia Towers deck offers a haven for sailors. So we are calling the deck the Sakatia Yacht Club and have christened John as the Commodore. He is a center of information for sailors and has become a good friend. Today was his 47th birthday and we spent the afternoon on the deck with many friends. Joanne, Wendy, and Manfred from the Rotary Club were there as well as other friends from around Nosy Be that we had not met before. And there were the cruisers from the anchorage. So we had a festive afternoon with a great lunch provided by John as his birthday gift to us. It was hard to say farewell at the end of the day, but after being in and out of here for three months, it is time to move on. We will be forever grateful to John for his hospitality and somehow I keep thinking that our paths will cross again sometime in the future. But for now we must say farewell . Thank you, John, and to all of your staff for making our stay here so comfortable.
by Judy Handley | Sep 25, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 334, Year 5 One More Snorkeling Day
Date: Saturday, September 25, 2010
Weather: Rain Overnight, Beautiful Day
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar
It was a Sakatia happening this morning out in the channel. An hour before low tide, Mark took Peppe of Far Niente and me out and dropped us off. He then went to get John and Heidi from Sakatia Towers. John came with Mark, but Heidi swam all the way out. Ed and Lynne of Constance joined us, so we had a great group snorkel. One person would call out, “Octopus over here.” And then someone else would call out, “Nudibranch over here.” And then someone would call out, “Starfish here.” So we were zigzagging all over the place looking at great sea life. We snorkeled for almost two hours. Mark and I were on a mission to see the strange fish that we have seen in this area twice. It has a head that looks a little like a black and white polka-dotted grouper with a motley-designed red body. I did see it again momentarily and then we saw a much smaller fish that had the same black and white polka-dotted pattern all over its greenish body. It sits on the coral in the same manner as the larger fish and we wonder if it is the juvenile stage. I again searched the fish identification book and the closest thing I can come up with is some sort of scorpion fish. We’ll try one more time tomorrow to make a positive identification. We saw the same Nudibranch that we have seen before, but the two we saw today were slightly smaller. Mark and I differ on the size, but I would say that both were about the size of his whole thumb. He thinks they were smaller. A nudibranch is like a very colorful flat snail without a shell. The ones we saw today were black with patches of baby blue that have bright yellow tips. If I have identified it correctly its scientific name is Phyllidia varicosa. I enjoyed following what I think are Blue-and-Yellow Snapper which are neon blue with a bright yellow zone all across the top. They are about eight inches long, bullet-shaped, and just stunning. We also saw a lot of a fish I call a Smiling Gregory. They are just five-inch long black oval fish with a wide white stripe down the center and a thin horizontal white stripe forward that looks like a mouth. They do look like they are smiling. We’ll snorkel the channel one more time tomorrow and make sure the image stabilizer is ON in the underwater camera. Many of the photos from the past two days have been out of focus and when we checked the camera after today’s snorkel we discovered the problem. We still have some good photos, but not as many as we should. Electronics!
Tomorrow we will celebrate John’s (owner of Sakatia Towers) forty-seventh birthday up on the deck. He is providing lunch for a huge crowd of friends and we are invited to join in the celebration. It is going to be very hard to say our goodbyes at the end of the birthday party, but we must move on. We leave on Monday morning for ports south and then west.
We talked to our children this evening. Justin, Jo, and Ziggy should have been in Reno last night for a Silvermouse performance, but the ‘bus’ ran out of bio-diesel in a small town south of Reno and they have not be able to get it started. Mechanics are working on it, but they had to cancel the Friday night performance in Reno but are still hoping to make the Portland, Oregon performance. We’ll just have to stay tuned and see what happens with the bus. Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Sam are doing fine. Jonah is so funny. Whatever Sam says to us on the phone, Jonah repeats. So we heard “Love You” in Jonahese over and over. It is fall on Cape Cod and the weather is turning cool. We will be there this time next year and I’m wondering if I will survive the cool turning to cold weather.
