Day 247, Year 5 A Little Help from Friends
Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Weather: Tenth Straight Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10
Location: Crater Bay, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar

Constance has had a string of bad luck recently, but with a little help from friends, things are taking a turn. There are so few boats here this year, six compared to a usual twenty, and on one of those six boats is Barry who had all of fiberglass and epoxy needed to patch Constance and he has the know-how. And since there is no other fiberglass or epoxy in Madagascar right now, finding Barry was very lucky. Constance went on the wall early this morning at high tide and by 9 am the water was low enough for the fiberglass patch job to begin. Barry of Dream Catcher and his son Michael ground out the crack in the hull and covered the whole area with new fiberglass. They worked quickly and were actually finished by noon. But, of course, Constance had to wait until after 5 pm for the tide to rise high enough to come back to anchor. We had to go in with our dinghy and tow them out to deeper water as sailboats just don’t back up the way you need them to. And unfortunately, they have to do a repeat performance tomorrow as the new fiberglass was not ready to sand and coat with bottom paint today. So once again we will go in early to assist them in getting tied to the wall. Hopefully by day’s end tomorrow, they can put this episode behind them. They will have to do more fiberglass work on the inside, but that might wait until South Africa. The boat is once again safe, no holes or cracks, so Constance will soon be set to enjoy Madagascar. The past two days their bad luck had to do with their dinghy. Yesterday it filled with water and this morning when Ed came over to get Mark to take him to the wall, his dinghy engine wouldn’t restart. So we got our dinghy down and served as the transport to and fro. That, and an email we got from Rich Corbett who is a faithful Windbird log reader, has prompted us to think about how lucky we are to have made the choices we have with our dinghy and engine. Mark is writing a Captain’s Rambling about dinghy choices and I’ll post that when it is completed. The only thing we wish we would have done differently would have been to keep one of our old dinghy motors when we got the new one. We didn’t need it for a back-up, but we sure could have used the old motor here in Madagascar where shiny new Yamahas are tempting fate. Theft is a real problem, but we keep everything locked tight and raise the dinghy and motor every night and lock them securely to Windbird. We are hoping this is good enough because the Yamaha is just too big to hide.

Tomorrow after we help Constance get on the wall, we plan to catch a taxi to Hell-ville and do a little more exploring and shopping there. We are enjoying Crater Bay. We get to watch net fishing from small outriggers and large Dhows sail by. And tonight we are going to enjoy calamari that Constance bought from a local fisherman for us. At the same time, we are anxious to visit another island called Nosy Komba that is very close to here. Black lemurs live there and we’re just dying to see them. Maybe this weekend.

100630 Day 247 Nosy Be, Madagascar–Crater Bay Anchorage

Day 246, Year 5 Contact!
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Weather: Ninth Straight Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10
Location: Crater Bay, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar

The last twenty four hours have been all about communication. While in Hell-ville yesterday, Mark bought a SIM card for the Sierra USB modem that we bought in Thailand. This looks just like a flash drive but you can replace the SIM card in it with one from a current provider and be on the internet. We used it in Thailand, then in India, and how it is working for us in Madagascar. This means we can have internet on the boat anywhere we have a cell phone signal, and evidently that is most places we will be stopping along the coast. The only issue is how much it will cost us to use it. We have service for a month, but we think we have limited usage. We’ll just have to figure this out over time. As I mentioned in yesterday’s log, we were able to see photos on the Picasa websites of our children and grandchildren, but we are having trouble getting Skype to work. Our cell phone does work, however, and should cost us only 20 cents per minute to all the US, but SHOULD is the operative word here. It seems to be costing more than that as we have already gone through three or four top-up cards. But in doing so, we have talked to my sister in North Carolina, to our daughter Heather in Massachusetts, and to our son Justin who is in England. We heard our grandsons–Sam talking on and on about what he was doing and Jonah and Ziggy squealing and squawking as one-year olds do. It was delightful. So we have made contact, albeit without Skype video, and for now we are happy cruisers. If the only contact we can have is by phone, we will have to send photos back and forth so we can see each other. But that is certainly better than waiting months for a letter that might not ever arrive. It has not been that many years since that was the only way cruisers could connect with family, so we are elated that we can have reasonably priced phone and internet connection. It will probably be the end of October before we reach Richard’s Bay in South Africa where we hope to have an internet connection good enough for Skype video. So for the next four months, we will have to make do with what we have.

Ed and Lynne picked us up this morning and we all went to shore and got a taxi into Hell-ville. Ed and Lynne went to buy a modem so they can get on the internet and to get some papers notarized. Mark and I went along to check the prices of groceries at the Shampion Super Marche and at Akhem Oliver’s, known as the Chinese store. We did buy a few more items at the fresh food market and took a few photos, but we were rushed as things start closing at 12 noon and don’t reopen until 3 pm. We learned that the SuperMarche only closes from 1 pm to 3 pm, but we forget to ask about hours at Akhem Oliver’s. We got back to Crater Bay to find that Constance’s dinghy was full of water. Something had hit their transom and broken the ball that keeps water from coming into their dinghy. Yikes! We bailed out the boat and went back out to our boats. Ed fixed the problem, so hopefully Constance will no longer have a dinghy full of water. Tomorrow Constance goes onto the wall at 5:30 am at high tide and will have fiberglass work done on the hull during the day when the tide goes out. We will probably hang out just in case they need help and not go back into Hell-ville until Thursday. Just hanging out here is most interesting as there is a lot of local fishing going on just around our boats. Huge nets are set out and brought in, dhows are sailing by all the time, and huge schools of small fish thrash through the water. The dhows are old wooden boats built like huge row boats with a single mast that holds a yardarm that raises a giant triangular sail. They move along so smoothly through the water sometimes are almost within arm’s reach of Windbird. It is a downwind boat so they sail out in the morning with the land breeze and back in the afternoon with the sea breeze. We are enjoying the views.

Day 245, Year 5 Day in Hell-Night in a Crater
Date: Monday, June 28, 2010
Weather:  Yet Another Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10
Latitude:  13 degrees 23.930 minutes S
Longitude:  048 degrees 13.114 minutes E
Location:  Crater Bay, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar

What at day!  We left our snug little anchorage at Nosy Sakatia at 5:30 am and arrived in the anchorage off Hell-ville three hours later.  We were immediately, and I mean before the anchor was down, met by boat boys in various boats.  But we had been forewarned to steer clear.  We tried to tell them we didn’t need any of their services, but they continued to hang around.  By 9:30 am Lynne was taking Mark and Ed to the dock to meet Frank.  John Sheppard at Sakatia Towers said we could borrow his bookkeeper Frank for the morning to help with the check-in process and as it turned out he was invaluable.  Mark speaks no French and Ed very little, so Frank served as the interpreter and got them through the process quickly.  Lynne and I stayed on the boats just watching.  You are warned to never leave your boat without someone on it in Hell-ville as things can go missing very quickly.  In this part of the world, everything closes from 11:30 am to 3 pm, so by noon Mark and Ed were back having ‘almost’ completed the check-in procedure.  They still needed to go back in at 3:00 pm to pick up the cruising permit, but all else was done.  It cost us a total of 320,000 Ariary or $70 per person for a three-month visa, a $10 charge for the boat, and another $10 Custom’s charge for something-not sure what.  But in total it is costing us the same amount for three months here as it did for one month in Chagos, so no complaints.  And all of the officials were friendly and easy to deal with.

Break.  Break.  (That’s what you say when you need to interrupt a radio communication.)  And I need to interrupt this email to say that Mark just got online (Yes, on the internet on the boat at anchor in Madagascar . . . something we never thought could happen.).  And the first thing he did was go to the Picasa photo websites for our kids.  I just saw Sam’s graduation from nursery school and he looks so grown up.  And there were wonderful photos of Jonah’s birthday party with a perfectly round soccer ball cake.  Heather, how did you do that?  Jonah’s hair is getting lighter and longer and he looks more like Sam than I have ever thought before.  They are two beautiful little guys (no prejudice here).  We got see photos of Ziggy’s first birthday back in April and some photos from Father’s Day.  Ziggy is another beauty.  Smiley blonde chunk describes him.  But the biggest shock were some photos of my son with a shaved head!  For years he has had longer hair than mine, so to see him with none at all was a bit of a shock   Justin, what brought that on?  It is killing me to think that it will be almost another year before we really see our little ones face to face, but in the meantime, at least seeing photos of them helps.  We still don’t know if Skype calls will be possible and we are not expecting Skype video to work, but we can try.  But I just can’t tell you how exciting it was to just see photos after three months with no visuals.  I am one happy Oma.

Now back to today’s happenings.  I went in with Mark and Ed in the afternoon to pick up the cruising permits and to make a quick trip to get the internet SIM card for our computer modem and to buy a few fresh veggies at the market.  As soon as we hit the shore, we were inundated by boat boys wanting to help.  And they do not give up easily.  We kept saying we needed no help, but when we got in the taxi to go to the internet provider shop, Julian got in the taxi with us and stayed with us for the afternoon.  So we ended up having to pay him for his help.  While Mark waited for the internet provider office to open, Ed, Julian, and I walked to the gas station to check out the price of fuel and oil and went to the fresh market and quickly bought some carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, green peppers, and bananas.  The produce is not great, but it sure beats nothing!  So we are eating a fresh cabbage salad tonight for the first time in two months.  We didn’t get our cruising permits until almost 4:30 pm, so we then had to go quickly back to the boats and race the four plus miles to Crater Bay to anchor before dark.  The sun goes down here at 5:30 pm and we just barely made it.  Ed and Lynne have made arrangements to tie up to the wall here on Wednesday, wait for low tide, and then have the fiberglass work done.  Tomorrow final arrangements will be made for that work and Mark and I hope to get a taxi into Hell-ville to do some more shopping.  Hell-ville is named for one Admiral de Hell.  He was once the French governor of Reunion and I’m not sure what his connection was to this little place in Madagascar, but his name certainly catches your attention.  And actually Hell-ville was much nicer than we anticipated and we look forward to returning there.  The architecture is crumbling colonial but it is a clean town with friendly people.  The main street is Cours de Hell which we think translates as the Road to Hell.  And it is very ironic that the street sign hangs on the Catholic Church.  You’ve got to love a place with this sense of humor.  We had a great day in Hell . . . ville and so far we are enjoying our evening in Crater Bay.

100628 Day 245 Nosy Be, Madagascar–Hell-ville Check-in

Day 244, Year 5 A Day at Nosy Sakatia
Date: Sunday, June 27, 2010
Weather: Yet Another Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10
Latitude: 13 degrees 18.147 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 10.729 minutes E
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar

Our first day here was spent just getting acclimated. The boats from the regatta were anchored all around us until early afternoon when they took off to the south. We have met Red and Shirley on Solaire and Tina and Barry on Dream Catcher, both from Richard’s Bay in South Africa. A are learning a lot from them about sailing to and around South Africa.

We are leaving here at 5:30 am to head for Hell-ville for check-in and then we will check out Crater Bay near Hell-ville as a possible haul-out for Constance. Barry on Dream Catcher from South Africa has done extensive fiberglass work and might be able to help Constance with their hull repair. Barry and Tina on Dream Catcher are traveling with four of their five children, aged eight to twenty-five. We met them this evening but hope to be able to spend more time getting to know them. But check-in first and then socializing.

Day 243, Year 5 Happy First Birthday to Jonah
Date: Saturday, June 26, 2010
Weather: Yet Another Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10
Latitude: 13 degrees 18.147 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 10.729 minutes E
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar

Happy Birthday, Jonah!!! One year ago at this time Mark and I were taking care of Sam while Heather and Jed were at the hospital welcoming Jonah into this world. I simply cannot believe Jonah is now a one year-old. Evidently he is absolutely crazy about balls, so the theme of his party is spherical. Heather and Jed got him a hundred plastic balls the size of baseballs and filled the kiddy pool with them. I’m sure Jonah will love that. And his cake is shaped and decorated like a soccer ball. And there is also a full moon for his birthday just to ’round’ things out.

We also want to wish Madagascar a happy birthday. Today is Independence Day and we arrived in the midst of a sailing regatta that evidently happens every year on this day. We are now anchored off Sakatia Towers, a very small resort, and the party for the racers is here tonight. So we are surrounded by lots of “overly” happy sailors celebrating. We are getting ready to go ashore for Happy Hour and hope to meet some of these sailors.

Day 242, Year 5 Nosy Mitsio to Tsara Banjina
Date: Friday, June 25, 2010
Weather: Another Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10
Latitude: 13 degrees 01.453 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 32.692 minutes E
Location: Tsara Banjina, NW Madagascar

Here we sit in front of the Constance Lodge on Tsara Banjina. The Lonely Planet says this is the place to “drop your swanky anchor” in Madagascar. They describe the resort as “very swish and back-to-the-basics” and that is a perfect description. After dropping our swanky anchor in crystal clear water, we went ashore and walked the perfectly groomed paths that wind through the resort. There are twenty-one bungalows that are built of wood with thatched roofs to help them look native. Each bungalow has a hammock out front and access to the beach with beach chairs. We inquired about having dinner, but it was a bit pricey for us, so we are going in for cocktails at 6 pm. We spent our afternoon snorkeling around some rocks to the east of Tsara Banjina and then we came back to the south side of the island and pulled our dinghy as we snorkeled the southeast corner and up the east side. The water felt wonderful but it was not as clear around the rocks to the east as it was in the anchorage. There was no coral there, just fish, and we decided to head on back to the island and snorkel the southern coast. Here there was coral, but unfortunately, it was nearly high tide, so it was far below us. Because of the upcoming full moon, we have a fifteen foot difference from low to high, so I know the snorkeling would have been much better earlier in the day. There were huge schools of black and white, bigger than normal, Sergeant Majors and bright blue Fusiliers. There were loads of white, yellow, and black Moorish Idols, parrotfish, and just hundreds of tiny fish in the water. We snorkeled up the east side of the island and finally decided to call it quits. Just when we got out of the water, a lone tropic bird with its long, trailing tail put on quite a show for us. I think it must have been a female trying to lure us away from her nest, but she would fly over us and out to sea, the come back and go right up the cliffs, stop with her tail hanging down, and just flutter for a few seconds. Then the whole show would start again. We’ll have to come back and snorkel here at low tide and spend more time observing the birds, but we are leaving early in the morning and heading to Nosy Sakatia. There is another resort there, not the high end like this one, but it has internet. We are so hoping to be able to talk to our kids. We’ll let you know if that works in tomorrow night’s log.

100625 Day 242 Tsara Banjina, Madagascar–Best of…Nosy Mitsio to Tsara Banjina

Day 241, Year 5 Day Trip to Nosy Ankarea
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2010
Weather: Another Gorgeous Day, Winds 15 From Land, Then from Sea
Location: Maribe Bay, Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar

Bolatara! I really have no idea how to spell this, but it is the equivalent in Malagasy (pronounced MAL-a-gash) of ‘Bonjour’ in French. And it was a good day. Ed and Lynne came over in their dinghy at 7:30 am. We attached their dinghy to Windbird, pulled up the anchor, and motored Windbird the four miles out to little but high Nosy Ankarea. We arrived by 8:45 am, took Constance’s dinghy to shore, and walked the beach at low tide. It is always fun to see what kind of shells wash up in different places Here it seems that small cowries, cones, and nerites (little dome-shaped shells with ‘teeth’ at the opening on the underside). We also found some heavy shells that I can only describe as ‘bumpily.” My find of the day was a Textile Cone. My two front pockets were so heavy with rocks and shells that I was sure my pants were going to fall down before we completed our walk. But I made it just fine and am enjoying looking at my haul of smooth black rocks and shells from the beach. When we came to the bigger black rocks at the end of the beach, we had another delightful surprise. There were lots of small baobab trees in bloom and some VERY large baobabs as well. One of the big trees was about thirty feet in circumference and had a large hole in it so that you could see that it was hollow inside. After investigating the baobabs, large and small, we walked on a trail that led back in the general direction we had come from. We immediately saw that this end of the beach, in the forest just off the beach, was the location of a resort at some time in the past. We could see the foundation posts of beach huts and further back in the forest we found two buildings which at some time in the past had three bathrooms each-with running water for showers and a toilets. So the huts on the beach were probably built like the traditional huts here since there is no sign of them left except for the foundation posts and the bathhouses were constructed of brick, concrete, and tile and were quite modern and durable. There was a lovely Morning Glory Bush with delicate pink morning glory flowers, a Coral Hibiscus with a red, fringy flower with a long stamen hanging down several inches with stigmas at the end that looked like a little bottle brush. There were a couple of Frangipani trees in bloom with white flowers with yellow centers and the required Bougainvillea with dark red blossoms. There were mango trees, papaya trees, and banana trees. You could see that this resort was its own little paradise at some time. We kept following a path and then made our own path until we reached a boggy area. We saw a dead crab that gave us some idea of what the live critters who live here look like and we saw a beautiful butterfly, maybe a dragonfly, with clear wings that were tinged with a bright, bright red. There was an orange butterfly and a white one with red and black spots. So we chased butterflies for a bit and than took the path back out onto the beach. It was a lovely explore.

We fought the incoming tide to get the dinghy off the beach and went back to Windbird to have lunch and then motor back to Maribe Bay. We are at anchor not far from where we have been the past two nights, but in the morning we will up anchor again (weather permitting) and head around the south side of Nosy Mitsio to an island called Tsara Banjina. It is about twelve miles from here, so we should arrive early in the day. The water there is supposed to be crystal clear and the snorkeling very good. Our plan is to spend only one night there and head for Nosy Sakatia near Nosy Be on Saturday. We know there is internet there and we are trying to reach there in time to talk to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy before they head to England (on Monday) and to ‘talk’ to Jonah on his first birthday. If all this works out, we will then check-in on Monday in Hell-ville. Constance is not leaving with us tomorrow, but they hope to join us in Hell-ville for the check-in process. I hope the name of the town doesn’t indicate the type of check-in process we might have!

Day 240, Year 5 Walk About on Nosy Mitsio
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Weather: Gorgeous Day, Winds 5-10 SE to SW to S
Location: Maribe Bay, Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar

It was up early this morning so I could get a laundry on the line and Mark could try to fix our pressure water pump before heading to shore. We had made arrangements for Constance to pick us up in their dinghy as it looked like low tide and their dinghy is much easier to carry up the beach. We were delayed when Constance realized their dinghy fuel tank was stone dry (hopefully fuel was not siphoned from it during the night) and while we were waiting the man who greeted us when we arrived yesterday returned. He speaks no English, but he understood that we were going to land to go for a walk. Now I know to call it a promenade, but I learned that as the day progressed. Anyway, Zachary (Zac-har-EE) met us on shore and became our guide for a three and a half hour walk about the island. What looked like a couple of little huts near the beach turned out to be a village of about forty people. We met Zachary’s mother and father who were 73 and 88 respectively. We know Zachary’s mother was born in 1937 as she showed us her Malagasy identification card, but the father didn’t really look 88-but maybe. The mother was sick and needed an injection that had been prescribed for her. Lynn gave her the shot as they didn’t know how and there is not medical personnel on the island.

We met mothers with tiny babies, lots of smiling children, goats, chickens, and zebu. There was a little store, what looked like tables where tourists could be served food, and an outdoor dancing area with sound equipment in a small hut. We assume all of this is to serve the tourists who come and stay at some huts to the left of the village as you look at the island. We walked across the island from north to south, up and over a small hill, and visited more villages on the windward side of the island. There was very little beach on that side of the island and many of the little huts were right on the water. The huts were small but I could just imagine how wonderful the sound of the lapping waves would be during the night. Huts are constructed of poles (small branches from trees) and then the sides and roof are covered with palm fronds. The fronds from the palms here are small and rounded, not long like coconut palms, so they are arranged in fan shapes in the walls. Everywhere we went women were winnowing a grain that looked something like barley, but we could never understand what they do with the grain. They have bananas here, but plantain seemed to be the food of the day. When we went as far as we could go, we stopped at a hut and were offered some of the plantain and coconut crème staple. Even with the coconut crème, it was not sweet and actually was very filling and had a pleasant taste.

As I write this log, Mark is outside negotiating for spiny lobster. It is dark but we can see that that the lobsters are good sized. But we had to ask Ed and Lynne to come over in their dinghy to help with the negotiation. Four lobsters ended up costing us $5US and a t-shirt. Not bad. But with absolutely no comprehension of French, we do not understand anything. It is very frustrating. We did learn to say goodbye in Malagasy today and that is ‘veloma’ pronounced ve-low-mah. We were taught to say Bon Jour in Malagasy, but neither of us can remember that one. We’ll have to add that tomorrow.

Day 239, Year 5 Andranoaombi Bay to Nosy Mitsio
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Weather: Gorgeous Day, Winds SE 20-25 ’til 1 pm, then SW 5-10
Latitude: 12 degrees 54.498 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 34.713 minutes E
Location: Maribe Bay, Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar

Today was all about rainbows and seaweed, eggs, bananas, crab, and a new location. Yesterday we traveled 46 miles from Ampanasia Bay to Andranoaombi Bay. This brought us from the tippy top of Madagascar down around the first major cape. Today we traveled 31 miles from Andranoaoambi Bay down to Nosy Mitsio. Remember that in Madagascar, ‘nosy’ means island. So we are anchored in v-shaped Maribe Bay on the northern side of Nosy Mitsio. Immediately upon entering the bay, the dugout canoes came paddling our way. And there were two sailboats in the bay and one anchored off an island just a couple of miles north of the inner bay. But before I go into more detail about where we are, I’ll go back and explain what today was all about.

We left Andranoaombi Bay just before 9 am, but already the crabs that we trustingly ‘paid for’ with a t-shirt were delivered and they were beautiful. A huge papaya was also brought out to us. We traded a pair of Mark’s shorts and an old t-shirt for this. Then we ate fried eggs, over easy, for the first time since leaving Thailand in January. We had traded a t-shirt for thirteen eggs yesterday from Chief Jean-Pierre and the eggs turned out to be a great trade. Two of the four eggs we had this morning were so fresh I think they were taken right out from under the hen. The other two were a little older, but not bad. We then ate bananas for the first time since arriving in Chagos. After not visiting a store for two and a half months and a fresh food market for more than three months, getting any fresh food of any sort is a real treat. We were still boiling the crabs as we left the anchorage this morning and had just gotten those out of the pot when we exited the bay and hit the waves and wind. We were sailing into 20 to 25 knots of wind and doing the hobby horse thing. As we passed Nosy Antolo, a little island just out Andranoaombi Bay, I looked around to see if there were any whales. Friends who were there in September last year stayed for a week watching mother humpbacks and their babies swim all around them. We saw no signs this morning as I think they have just not arrived from Antarctica quite yet. The whales come here in July to have their babies and then head back south in October. So we will revisit this area in a couple of months. As we hobby horsed south Windbird made rainbows every time she hit a wave. The water would spray and the little rainbow would form. It was just beautiful. While watching the rainbows we were making, I noticed that there was a huge amount of seaweed in the water. It is the first seaweed we have seen in a very long time–certainly the first we have seen in the Indian Ocean. So I’m wondering if the reason the whales come here to raise their young has anything to do with the seaweed. This is another question for my scientist daughter. When I get an answer, I’ll let you know.

When we approached Maribe Bay, one of the sailboats at anchor called us to give us anchoring information. It was Single Malt, a boat from Switzerland that was in the Maldives with us and again in Peros Banhos in Chagos. We were then approached by an older man with what was probably his son in a dugout wanting to know if we spoke French. I told him no French only English, but somehow we managed to order two kilo of spiny lobsters for tomorrow. We haven’t had those since the Vanua Balavu in the Lau Group in Fiji. I have no idea what the gentleman will want in trade, but I’m sure we can come up with something. Then another dugout came offering oranges and giving us the same story they had already given Constance about needing food for a baby whose mother doesn’t have enough breast milk. This story was all told with sign language, but quite understandable. It is probably just a line to get more for their trade, but I gave them dried milk powder anyway. Then they wanted rum, cigarettes, and who knows what else. But we just smiled and said no and they just smiled and left. I’m sure we’ll see those two guys again tomorrow

Tonight we enjoyed the crabs we got in Andranoaombi Bay as on appetizer at happy hour with Ed and :Lynne.

Tomorrow will be a day of exploring on the island. The next day we will visit an island out in the entrance to the bay to do some snorkeling and exploring, and then on Friday we might head just south of here to Tsara Banjina. This is an island where the Lonely Planet recommends that you “drop your swanky anchor.” It is tiny island with a very nice resort, crystal clear water, and great snorkeling. Sounds like a winner to me. And after a stop there we will head to Nosy Sakatia and then on to Nosy Be to check into Madagascar and go to the super market. I’ve never been so anxious to go shopping in my life.

Day 238, Year 5 Moving On
Date: Monday, June 21, 2010
Weather: Sunny Day; Winds Variable 5 to 30
Latitude: 12 degrees 26.991 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 46.201 minutes E
Location: Andranoaombi Bay, NW Madagascar

It was a good day for Windbird and we’re hoping it was a good day for our daughter-in-law Jo as it was her birthday. Happy Birthday, Jo! We are with you in spirit and hope you enjoy the little gift we sent from India. We have another birthday coming up later in the week. Our youngest grandbaby, Jonah, will be one year-old on Saturday. And sometime yesterday or today was summer solstice for you and winter equinox for us. Or does it work that way? Anyway, it is a week of celebrations. But for sure the stars were aligned today and allowed us to finally get out of Ampanasia Bay. Constance almost didn’t make it. They went aground right after raising the anchor. They put up their mainsail and were able to sail off the soft mud, but it made for a bit of early morning drama. Constance had hoped to put their headsail back on early this morning before the winds came up, but that didn’t happen either. We had winds all night which we hadn’t had for days and it stayed windy until almost noon today. So we sailed away with mainsails and staysails. This was fine as the winds were 22 to 30 knots and we flew for the first four and a half hours. We had gone 30 miles by 11 am, but then the winds started clocking and instead of SE winds that we have had since leaving Chagos all of sudden the winds were from the NW . . . and then the W . . . and finally from the SW. The last twenty miles of the trip we had to motor sail as the winds were so fluky. But we made it and it felt good to put down an anchor in a new place.

Andranoaombi Bay is a deep bay running north-south. There are tiny villages around the bay, only three of which we can see, but we are told there are five. As soon as we arrived, the outriggers started arriving. Jean-Pierre and his son, probably eight years old, brought limes and eggs. Two other men came with bananas. And a man came in a third canoe promising (we think) crabs tomorrow. We traded hats and t-shirts and fishing hooks, gave them bottles of water, and gave Jean-Pierre’s son writing books and colored pencils. We are not very good at the trading thing. We give away much more than we get in return, but it feels good to do this. Besides, we have too many t-shirts onboard that haven’t been worn in more than four years, so this is a great way to clean house and get much needed supplies in return. It is a win-win situation, albeit a bit frustrating that we can’t understand a word of what is being said. The people we met today spoke a mix of Malagasy and French, and we speak not a word of either, so trading is quite interesting. We’re not sure if we will move on tomorrow or spend another day here. I guess it will depend on where the wind blows us.