by Judy Handley | Jul 23, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 270, Year 5 Trip to Hell-ville and MORE Info
Date: Friday, July 23, 2010
Weather: Nice Day; Partly Cloudy and Windier (10-15)
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar
How much new information can a person absorb? Well, I guess a lot. Today we went into Hell-ville with John Sheppard (Sakatia Towers). He arranged an informal meeting with us and Peter of the sailing vessel Cynthia at the expat bar and restaurant, Nandiapo. By the way, it is a neat little place. But we were focused on talking to Peter to find out his opinion of sailing way south in Madagascar before heading across the Mozambique Channel or heading across the Channel further north. Peter is an experienced sailor and has been to South Africa from here four or five times and he emphatically said not to go far south. That’s a bit of a bummer as I had gotten my hopes up of seeing Southern Madagascar. But after hearing all the details of why we should not, I do not think we will go that way. We know it is only one person’s opinion but Peter had information on the anchorages south and that news was not good. So back to Plan A or is it now Plan C?
The purpose of our trip to Hell-ville was to make arrangements for our inland trip next week. Early in the morning, we called the lodge in the park where we want to stay. A woman answered the phone. Both of us only understand about half of what the other said, so we told her we would call back. We hoped to have John call for us but he suggested that we go back to his accountant, Frank, who helped us with check-in and have him call. Frank speaks French, Malagasy, and English fluently. John speaks a little French and a little Malagasy, but he knew Frank would be able to better understand. We went to Frank and he was able to successfully book a place for us at the lodge and make it clear that we wanted Goulam as our guide. Frank also went with us to see Coolie to make the travel arrangements. I don’t know how we could have done it without him because even with him the arrangements are more like a promise than a sure thing. But in this country you have to trust, and almost always, things work out. Coolie gave us a piece of blue paper about two inches by two inches which is our ticket to and from Ankarana Special Reserve. That little blue ticket gets both of us from the wharf in Hell-ville onto a speedboat to the mainland, into a taxi that will take us to the mini-bus, and then on a mini-bus for the four hour ride to the reserve. We will do this on Wednesday and on Saturday we will do the return trip. Evidently we just stand beside the road in the same place that we are dropped off and another mini-bus will magically appear and bring us back. Since we won’t be able to communicate with anyone, the back-up plan is that we will call Frank if there is a problem and he will solve the problem for us. The phone provider here is Orange and it costs almost as much to call locally as it does to call the US. So we’ll take our supply of Orange top-up cards with us and hope for the best.
Tomorrow we leave for Nosi Iranja, commonly referred to as turtle island because each year the turtles come here to lay their eggs. Some time later those eggs hatch and many hundreds of baby turtles make their way to the sea. This is hatching season and it often happens near the full moon and that is Monday, so we are hoping to see this exciting event.
by Judy Handley | Jul 22, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 269, Year 5 Gathering Information
Date: Thursday, July 22, 2010
Weather: Really Gorgeous Day
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar
Mid-morning we headed up to Sakatia Towers to ask John Sheppard, the owner, a few questions. He is like an encyclopedia of information, so we spent the next hour or two asking and getting information. On the deck at Sakatia Towers there is a huge bird cage where two Lesser Vanga Parrots live. Since these are an endangered specieis, my questions was, “Where did they come from?” John explained that a friend rescued the parrots from mistreatment on the wharf in Hell-ville, brought them to John, and then left them there. So they are now residents of Sakatia Towers. Their names are Birdie and Num Num. John reminded us of the scene from The Pink Panther where Peter Sellers walks into a restaurant with a parrot on his shoulder saying, “Birdie, num num.” He wanted food for the bird, but the proprietor misunderstood, took the bird, and cooked him. “Nummy num.” Of course, we had forgotten this scene completely, but now we must see that old classic again just to see this scene. John also talked to us about the current political scene in the country. The once President Ravalamonana was removed in a coup last year. He was working hard to preserve the fragile environment. The current ‘president’ took power after the coup. He is a former disc jockey, high profile with lots of name recognition, who is selling the resources of the country to the Chinese as quickly as possible. The amount of rosewood headed to China everyday is shameful. And every tree that is cut down diminishes the home for many animals found only in one place in the world-Madagascar. What a disaster. But for now that is the way things are here.
In the afternoon we worked on planning our trip from here to South Africa. Writing down all of the possible anchorages, the mileage, and the dates for the various options is helping us to get closer to a decision. And we have also found out that it could possibly be time for sea turtle hatching on Iranja Island with the coming of the full moon. Iranja is about thirty miles from here, so we are contemplating going there for the weekend and then returning here, leaving the boat, and doing inland travel at the end of next week. Seeing the hatching of the sea turtles would be incredible, but no one has a calendar for these things, so we will just go there and take our chances.
We returned to Sakatia Towers tonight to meet some of John’s guests. We particularly wanted to meet Russell and Beverly from Cape Town in South Africa. They just rented a motor scooter and rode it to Ankarana Special Reserve where we want to go inland next week. They are not as old as us, but not far behind, and they fared quite well on a motor scooter. The roads here are full of pot holes, but they really enjoyed seeing the countryside from the motor scooter instead of from inside a mini-bus. But we will probably go the mini-bus route as transporting a rented motor scooter from Nosy Be to the mainland is yet another hassle. Tomorrow morning we will go into Hell-ville with John, make arrangements for the inland travel, make another stop at the ATM, and then return. If all goes as planned, we will leave here on Saturday morning for Nosy Iranja, the turtle reserve, return on Monday or Tuesday, and leave on Wednesday for a four day inland tour.
On the health front, my niece’s daughter Katie made it just great through her surgery so we are thankful for that. And Lynne’s skin infection is getting better. It will take another couple of weeks, at least, for it to heal, but for now all is well.
by Judy Handley | Jul 21, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 268, Year 5 Thinking of Katie
Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Latitude: 13 degrees 18.060 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 10.727 minutes E
Weather: Beautiful Day, 10 Knots of Wind-Perfect Sail
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar
We’ve been thinking of Katie all day today. She is my niece’s daughter, in her late twenties, and she has thyroid cancer. She had one operation last year, but some more nodes appeared and today she had surgery for the second time. Katie, we are thinking of you and hope all goes well. Katie is a brave young woman and has met each challenge with strength and grace, and we know she will do that again.
We are starting to get the hang of the land breeze-sea breeze thing here on the northwest coast of Madagascar, at least for the month of July. I’m sure it won’t stay the same, but for now it is pretty consistent. We waited to leave Russian Bay until the afternoon sea breeze started to kick in and we had a glorious afternoon of sailing. We only had ten knots of wind but it was right on the beam and then moved a bit behind us, but it was enough to move us along nicely. We only had to travel eighteen miles and it took us five hours, so it was slow but peaceful and calm. There’s something to be said about that! And I finished naming and organizing all of the Madagascar photos to date, so I am celebrating tonight!
Now the serious research begins on the best way to get ourselves to the Ankarana Special Reserve inland and north of here. There we will see the limestone pinnacle karst called tsingy, caves, and a forest full of critters, mostly lemurs of different types, chameleons, geckos, more ground boas, and birds. We’ve read the books we have about travel in Madagascar and tomorrow we will talk to John at Sakatia Towers. It could be that we will be going as soon as Friday, but probably we will wait until Monday. We are hoping that John can look after Windbird while we are away. When we return we will have to make a decision on which way to go from here. Some people leave here, go to Mayotte in the Comoros, and then hop down the Mozambique coast. Others leave here and continue the day hops to what I call the end of the northwest crescent and then hop over to the Mozambique coast and down. And now we have the new idea of continuing to follow the Madagascar coast much further south before heading across to Richards Bay in South Africa. We talked to Ed and Lynne tonight and both of us will continue to gather information. It is a real toss up, so what feels right to us might not be what feels right to them. One thing is for sure, we will both end up in Richards Bay no matter which way we go. Lynne’s infection is getting better. She has only been on the antibiotic for five days, so in a week when she is off the antibiotics she will know more. But things look good at this point.
by Judy Handley | Jul 20, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 267, Year 5 Mora Mora
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Weather: Mostly Overcast Day-Not the Usual
Location: Ambavatoby Bay (Russian Bay), NW Madagascar
‘Mora Mora’ means ‘slowly slowly.” And that is how things progressed today. Mark worked on the watermater doing the required 1000 hour rebuild. I wrote long overdue emails and worked on naming photos. The sun didn’t shine. The day went mora mora, but it was a good day. The watermaker rebuild went well and the watermaker is back up and running. I just about have all of the Madagascar photos organized and named and have a few folders with just three or four photos each ready to post when we get back to Nosy Sakatia where we can get on the very slow Madagascar internet. And Mark and I have made the decision that we are not going to continue our trip south right now. We are going to return to Nosy Sakatia tomorrow to talk to Ed and Lynne about the possibility of changing our game plan and heading for southern Madagascar by the middle of August. That means we need to do our land travel here now. So lots of decisions and lots to think about . . . mora mora.
Lynne saw the doctor today and things are progressing nicely. She has to go back to the doctor on Thursday for another check, but it looks like the antibiotic has things under control. We’ll find out more when we get back to Nosy Sakatia tomorrow afternoon, but basically it sounds like a good time for Mark and I to take off and do some inland travel while Ed and Lynne just have to sit and wait for things to get better. They can watch Windbird while they are waiting. And by the time we return (we’re only going for 3-4 days), maybe Lynne’s leg will be healed enough for them to travel while we watch their boat. Sounds like a plan.
by Judy Handley | Jul 19, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 266, Year 5 But on the Other Hand.
Date: Monday, July 19, 2010
Weather: Another Sunny Day with Madagascar Clouds
Location: Ambavatoby Bay (Russian Bay), NW Madagascar
It was a quiet day in Russian Bay. We got up at 6 am to try and receive email. The past few days we have been having great difficulty sending email in the evening and have not been able to receive except in the early morning. But this morning it took more than an hour before we got a connection. The problem is location and propagation and we just have to find the right time. We did finally receive email and I baked banana bread and two loaves of whole wheat bread before 10 am when we went to visit Carla and Peter on Odulphus. They reported to us what they have learned from the South African cruisers they have met and have given us a whole new option for getting from here to South Africa. We spent most of the rest of the day looking at the new option of heading further south down the Madagascar coast before going across the Mozambique Channel to South Africa. There is not a lot of information we have to check, but we plotted the possible anchorages listed in the East Africa Pilot and checked the mileages from anchor point to anchor point. Tomorrow I will read the Lonely Planet to see what the inland possibilities are from the anchor points. And slowly we will make a decision. If we do decide that we are going to southern Madagascar, we might return to Nosy Sakatia, to do our inland travel from here now, and then head south. So we keep weighing the options and saying, “But on the other hand.” We feel like Tevia in the Fiddler on the Roof.
We did take a dinghy ride deep into this bay today. We found another ruin from the days of the Russians, a long stretch of stone and concrete pier, but other than that there was nothing else. Not even any villages. Just after we returned to Windbird, a young man named Paul who lives in the village on shore came by in his outrigger. He speaks passable English and has a notebook with tours outlined. His tours cost somewhere between $10-20 US for two people. So this is another option for us to learn more about this area.
We know nothing more of Lynne’s situation except that she is feeling better. She sees the doctor again tomorrow and will see the infected area for the first time since the doctor bandaged it on Saturday. We are all on pins and needles waiting to see how things are going. We just hope the fact that she is feeling better and that the soreness has abated means that things are better. More on that tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Jul 18, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 265, Year 5 Russian Bay-Not Alone
Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010
Weather: Another Sunny Day with Madagascar Clouds
Latitude: 13 degrees 32.169 minutes S
Longitude: 047 degrees 59.826 minutes E
Location: Ambavatoby Bay (Russian Bay) NW Madagascar
We left Andranira Bay at sunrise this morning and motored our way north and then west. There was no wind but we did have current with us. Even with the motor running, we had an incredibly peaceful journey. The waters here are full of life. There are dolphins and fish that jump so high out of the water that they look like they are flying by the time they land with quite a splash. There were so many fish jumping this morning that I thought I was seeing whales blowing. And in the sky there are white terns and boobies. We caught a beauty of a fish, looked like a tuna, but lost it just as Mark pulled it up to the boat. By 11 am we were in Ambavatoby Bay where we found four other boats at anchor. All of a sudden, we were no longer alone. This bay is commonly called Russian Bay and according to the East Africa Pilot the story behind the name goes like this: “There are many stories about how the bay got its name, but his is the one we like most. It concerns the crew of the Vlötny, a Russian warship that in 1905 had been sent to fight the Russo-Japanese war. The mostly Uralian crew only needed one sight of life in Madagascar to realize that they did not want to go back to Uralia, even if they did win the war. They had barely organized a mutiny before their officers gave in, having seen more than the crew of the attractive Madagascan girls.” The story goes on telling how the ship was hidden in this bay. They went out twice to pirate other vessels in the Mozambique Channel, but then they ran out of fuel for the boilers. They settled in this bay but malaria and other diseases took their toll. Those that survived settled on the shore just in front of us and built a large stone dormitory, Uralian-style. We walked on the beach today and saw the ruins of the huge building. It is said that the last of the survivors died in 1936 and we met a local named Johnny on the beach who showed us where the Russians were buried. We spent a great deal of time chasing birds-bee eaters and some beautiful little kingfishers-and got a few photos. Bird photos are hard to get without a telephoto lens but we do the best we can. We also met some people from Reunion, France, and the Seychelles (all from the same boat). It turns out the captain is from the Seychelles and the boat resides there. Fred is the captain’s name and somehow we got ourselves invited to Turquoise, a Marquises 56 foot catamaran, for sundowners. The people aboard were Claude (a physican) and Mizou and Jean-Pierre and Jacqueline from Reunion. There was another couple from France and at least two crew. We had a delightful time and found that Claude, the physician, is very interested in following Lynne’s progress and will lend assistance or advice as needed. We got cell numbers and set up a radio sched to keep in touch.
We also found Peitra and Carla of Odulphus whom we met in Chagos. We spoke with them briefly and found that they have been talking with South African cruisers here who are recommending that the best way from here to South Africa is to go much further down the south coast of Madagascar than we had thought possible. They are planning on going south to Toliara (Tulear) before heading across to South Africa. They were meeting with two more South African couples tonight and have invited us over for coffee at 10 am to report on their findings. This cruising life is very fluid. I never dreamed that we could explore southern Madagascar, but evidently I was wrong. We may have a very different plan after tomorrow.
We returned to Windbird at 6 pm to talk to Ed and Lynne on HF radio. Lynne is feeling much better and walking on her foot is no longer painful. So the antibiotics must be helping. We are just so happy that things seem better. She will see the doctor again tomorrow afternoon or on Tuesday and then she and Ed will have a better idea of whether or not they will be able to join us as we make our jaunt south. We’ll know more about that tomorrow night.
