by Judy Handley | Aug 9, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 287, Year 5 Baby Turtles on Nosy Iranja
Date: Monday, August 9, 2010
Weather: More Perfect Weather
Location: Nosy Iranja, NW Madagascar
Turtle Quest III was a success!!! We got to watch a nest of 154 eggs hatch late this afternoon. Just as Christian at the Iranja Lodge told us last night, at exactly 4:30 pm this afternoon the first little turtle head started emerging out of the sand inside a circular wire netting that was buried about a foot down. We have no idea how they know the exact time, but it happened on cue. Once the first head emerged, Artur, the young man in charge of turtles in Ignance’s absence, started digging around the circular netting with a shovel. He dug all around until he could pull out the wire netting and then he started digging with his hands so the little guys didn’t have so far to climb out. One little turtle head after another emerged. As soon as the head was showing, Artur would sprinkle a little sand on its head and that would get it wiggling so it could climb out. And then there was another one, and another one, and on and on until we had a wiggling pile of baby turtles. Probably the first fifty climbed out with no shell, but then Artur dug deeper and we could see babies just partially out of the shell. It all happened very quickly and we were watching with guests from the resort. At first there were two families with small children and then some older children started arriving. Other adults from the resort didn’t come to watch. I guess that makes us kids!
Artur was counting the turtles as he put them into a plastic tub. Out of 154 eggs laid on June 9th, 113 babies hatched today. Out of the first fifty or so turtles there were only two that didn’t make it, but as Artur dug deeper thirty-nine more of babies near the bottom of the nest didn’t make it. I guess it is best not to be among the first eggs laid. Once the nest was empty, Artur carried the plastic tub down near the water and the babies tumbled onto the beach. They rushed toward the surf, would get carried back up on the beach by the next wave, but eventually they were off and running. It is sad to think that most of them will not survive, but we are truly grateful for getting to watch this birthing experience. A million thanks to our son-in-law Jed who researched the web and found the name of the turtle man, Ignance. Having that name is what opened the door for us. We also thank the Iranja Lodge for allowing us come ashore to watch this incredible event. And it really was incredible.
by Judy Handley | Aug 8, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 286, Year 5 Turtle Quest III
Date: Sunday, August 8, 2010
Weather: More Perfect Weather; Winds 10 Knots
Location: Nosy Iranja, NW Madagascar
We’re back. We arrived here at Nosy Iranja the “turtle island” in mid-afternoon. We had a beautiful sailing day. In the early morning when we were headed WSW the winds were just right for a gentle beam reach. Around noon we had to motor for about an hour while the winds switched to come from the sea and at the same time we turned and headed SSW and the winds once again cooperated and went to the NW giving us another gentle broad reach all the way to Iranja. All we could think was, “Wouldn’t it be great to have winds like this all the way to Richard’s Bay?” That just won’t be the case, so we’ll enjoy the coastal sailing for now. Ed and Lynne of Constance are sailing with us and at 4:30 pm we went to shore to the Iranja Lodge to ask for Ignance the Turtle Man. A manager from the lodge named Christian met us and spoke very good English. He explained that Ignance has gone to Nosy Be but that his colleague Artur might be able to help us. We told him that we wanted to see the baby turtles hatch and he said he would go to talk to Artur and come back and let us know if there was going to be a hatching today. In the meantime, we enjoyed the lovely surroundings and had a beer. When Christian returned he said there would not be hatching today but that we should be on shore at 4:30 pm tomorrow and that we might get to witness one. He said he would alert security so we could bring our dinghy to shore on the end of the island where the turtle nests are located. So we are hopeful. Tomorrow might be our day.
Last night we were actually able to send the log, and after that I called my sister Patsy and our son Justin. Justin is back in New Mexico missing Jo and Ziggy, but doing fine for now. They have hired a lawyer who is certain he can get Jo back in the US no later than mid-September. She just simply forgot to renew her Green Card and certainly no reminders are sent out. What a price they are having to pay, living apart. Justin is still considering flying back to England and staying with Jo and Ziggy until they can return. They will make that decision in the next couple of weeks. It was wonderful to talk to Justin and know that he is doing fine. My sister Patsy’s daughter Jennifer has breast cancer and will have surgery this Thursday, so I wanted to talk to her and send our best wishes to Jennifer. When everything is fine, it is not so hard to be away from home. But when there are problems and health issues, it is really hard not to be able to be with family. But we are here and at least we have email. I really don’t think I could have done this prior to time of email. Not hearing from family for weeks or months would make me crazy.
by Judy Handley | Aug 7, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 285, Year 5 Quick Trip to Nosy Komba and Back
Date: Saturday, August 7, 2010
Weather: More Perfect Weather
Location: Lokobe National Park, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar
I’m writing this log but do not believe I will get to send it until morning. We are really struggling with communications. Without the ability get email on the internet, we are severely limited as to when we can send and receive on the HAM radio. We had a very busy day traveling to Nosy Komba and back and went over to Dream Catcher in the early evening to share photos of the South Pacific with them. So we weren’t here at the time we should have sent and received mail and we don’t know if we have heard from our son Justin. We really hope he made it home safely and is doing okay without Jo and Ziggy and that they are doing okay without him. What a crazy situation that they have to be separated like this.
I got another chance to play with the lemurs today and to see a couple of different chameleons on Nosy Komba. We met up with Peter and Carla of Odulphus over lunch to discuss travel plans from here to South Africa. They would like to travel at the same time and would also like to travel south with us for the next couple of weeks. So they will go to Hell-ville on Monday to reprovision and then catch up with us. We will leave at 6 am tomorrow morning and return to Nosy Iranji to try and see the baby turtles hatch. After that we will just hop, hop, hop down the coast and back.
by Judy Handley | Aug 6, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 284, Year 5 Lost in the National Forest
Date: Friday, August 6, 2010
Weather: More Perfect Weather
Location: Lokobe National Park, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar
So much for a small compass! Tina, Barry, and their youngest son Devin, Ed and Lynne, and Mark and I went to shore this morning, found a South African camp where a boat is being built, and arranged for a young man to lead us through the national forest to Ampasipohy, a village to the northeast. We knew that the resort called Jungle Village is there and that it is a tourist destination. We wanted to walk there on the hope of seeing lemurs and birds as we walked through the forest, but we had only two wildlife spottings. One was a beautiful black and blue butterfly that I have seen showcased on post cards here and the other was a very young panther chameleon that I almost stepped on. I saw something white underfoot and hopped to avoid stepping on it. We then saw that it was a young chameleon and were able to pick it up and let it crawl up our arms. But we saw no sign of lemurs or birds on the way across. We stopped and had a cool drink, looked at the items the villagers had for sale for tourists, and then confidently started our walk home. Being confident was the first mistake and I’m not sure what was the next mistake, but somehow we found ourselves not on the path from which we had come. We used the compass and tried to find our way but in the end we walked for about two hours in the wrong direction and found ourselves on a beach on the east side of park when we should have been on the south side. Thankfully we had cell phones with us and Barry and Tina’s older children had cell phones back on their boat. Once we knew where we were, we called and their older son Michael came to rescue us. We learned a couple of lessons. One is when you know you are not on the path from which you came, go back and find the right path. The second is when there are guides available, don’t be cheap. Pay them to lead you.
Barry and Tina of Dream Catcher and Ed and Lynne of Constance came over for sundowners tonight. Barry and Tina, along with four of their children, left South Africa in April and have made it this far. This is there first long distance cruising experience and they are trying to decide whether to continue on around the world to the east or whether to return to South Africa and then across the Atlantic. Tomorrow we are pulling up anchor and going across to Nosy Komba so I can have my lemur fix, but then we will return here tomorrow evening and are going to show the Dream Catcher crew our PowerPoint presentations of our trip across the Pacific. That should be fun.
The news update on our son Justin and his wife Jo and baby Ziggy is that Justin is on his way back to New Mexico and that they have hired a lawyer who says he can get Jo and Ziggy back into the US in five weeks instead of six months. The whole situation seems surreal and we have recommended that they contact their Senators and Representatives to see if there is anything they can do. In the meantime, we now have absolutely no internet connection as the virus on Mark’s computer has gotten more invasive. So we are back to only HAM radio only for communication. That means we can only receive and send emails very early in the morning and in the 6-8 pm part of the evening. If you have sent messages to our website, we cannot read those. Hopefully, we will figure out how to deal with this virus soon, but in the meantime we are a bit handicapped. Bear with us.
by Judy Handley | Aug 5, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 283, Year 5 Wild Shopping Spree in Hell-ville
Date: Thursday, August 5, 2010
Weather: More Perfect Weather
Latitude: 13 24.798 S
Longitude: 048 20.287 E
Location: Lokobe National Park, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar
Staying on the boat in the Hell-ville harbor overnight turned out to be just fine. The place has gotten a really bad name with cruisers as theft has been common, but we have everything locked down tight and we had no hassles. Everything was going fine until we checked our email this morning. Yesterday I had written to our son Justin and his wife Jo and Ziggy to welcome them home to New Mexico after a month’s visit with Jo’s family in England. Justin wrote back explaining that they are not home but are still in England. When Jo went to get on the plane to come home they wouldn’t let her on as there is problem with her Green Card. Evidently it expired while she was out of the country and as of this morning’s email they don’t think she will be able to return for at least six months. We haven’t heard an update so we can only hope that something could be worked out to let her return.
After receiving the email, I didn’t have long to sit and worry as Barry and Tina of Dream Catcher arrived in their dinghy to pick us up before I could even get an email sent back to Justin and Jo. The taxi was waiting on shore, so off we went. We paid 10,000 Ariary or about $5 US an hour to have the taxi driver stay with us, wait while we shopped or filled up fuel jugs, take us back to the dock to deliver fuel to the boats, wait while that load was delivered, and then take us back into town again. We got six 5-gallon jerry jugs filled three times, Barry got three 6-gallon jerry jugs filled two times, we got propane for Ed and Lynne and Barry got propane, and Tina and I filled huge bags with fresh veggies and eggs and then carried those bags to the SuperMarche. We then realized we had no way to contact Mark or Barry and Tina didn’t have enough money with her to check-out. We waited and waited and the taxi never came back for us, so I finally left Tina with all the bags of food and walked back up to the fresh market. It is in the center of town and I figured I’d see our white station wagon taxi eventually. The strategy worked and I found out the reason for the delay. The guys had to go out of town to get propane for Barry because he had a tank that he was trying to return and the taxi driver took them to a place that might take the tank. So while they were filling the tank, the taxi driver came back to look for Tina and me. But other than that little glitch the morning went brilliantly. In three and half hours we were back on the wharf with cases of beer (these plastic cases are HEAVY with twenty BIG bottles of beer) and bags of food to be returned to the boats. Barry and Tina’s son Michael was doing all of the shuffling back and forth in his dinghy and we are truly grateful to him for that. We couldn’t have made this work without him. But we still had one more fuel run and Ed and Lynne joined us at that time. We did the last fuel run, sent the fuel out to Windbird with Michael, paid Samuel the taxi driver, and then Ed and Lynne, Barry and Tina, and Mark and I went to Nandipo for lunch. This is a small restaurant/bar in Hell-ville that is the favorite hang-out of the local sailors and ex-pats. We had a great lunch, stopped to get ice-cream cones on the way back to the boat (a real treat), and then pulled up anchor and motor sailed the four miles to our present location. Tomorrow we are hoping to walk in Lokobe National Park and on Saturday will move over to Nosy Komba to revisit our lemur friends. Someday we are going to slow down, but not just yet. We are having too much fun.
by Judy Handley | Aug 4, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 282, Year 5 Anchored in Hell-ville
Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful Day
Location: Hell-ville Harbor, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar
We moved to Hell-ville today and tomorrow is our mega-shop morning. Dream Catcher and Windbird have a taxi reserved for the morning and we will do fuel runs and food and beer shopping runs until we drop. Everything closes at noon so we have to be done by then. If all goes well, we will leave the harbor just after noon and go to Nosy Komba or around the corner on Nosy Be to Lokobe National Park.
I stayed on Windbird this afternoon while Mark went into town to the internet café. He was trying to download updated Norton Antivirus software but it was going to take 46 hours to download. I guess that won’t be happening. So his computer is giving him fits and there is no way for us to upload photos to the website until he somehow gets his computer virus-free. We have a copy of Norton 2005 onboard with the virus protection updated to 2008, so he is now doing a scan of his system with the old virus definitions. If this doesn’t work, we just have to wait until we get to South Africa to upload any photos. In the meantime, Mark’s computer runs incredibly slow but it does run. He is still able to get on the internet with our modem and download and send email. However, doing searches on the internet are just impossible. He has spent hours working on this with no positive results. What a frustration!
