by Judy Handley | Jul 17, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 264, Year 5 Exploring Bays within Bays
Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010
Weather: Another Sunny Day with Madagascar Clouds
Latitude: 13 degrees 44.522 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 10.426 minutes E
Location: Andranira Bay in SW Ampasindava Bay, NW Madagascar
The very tip top of Madagascar looks like a triangle with Cap d’Ambre being the point at the top. We have traveled down the west side of that triangle to the island of Nosy Be. The bottom of my triangle would be Nosy Be and just south there is a mainland peninsula that extends out into the Mozambique Channel further west than we have been to date. We are currently in a deep bay on the east side of that peninsula, Ampasindava Bay. Our first stop in this bay at the northwest corner was in the little bay across from Nosy Kisimani. We now know that was Ambararata Bay. Then we ventured further south in the larger Ampasindava Bay to Nosy Mamoko, still staying on the west side. Today we headed to the southwest corner to an anchorage off a tiny village with a little waterfall right in the village. Then we decided that we just had to explore the only other anchorage in the larger Ampasindava Bay by tucking Windbird into a tiny little bay called Andranira Bay. So for five days we have been exploring bays within bays. Tomorrow we will go back north and across the top of the peninsula to fan-shaped Ambavatoby Bay, more commonly referred to as Russian Bay. Once we get there we sit still for a few days, so you won’t have to learn the names of any more bays beginning with ‘A’ and rambling on for ten more letters.
The waterfall village anchorage was the first stop this morning. We could see the traditional huts peeking out from behind the mangroves and just as soon as we were anchored a young boy rowed out to greet us. Bon Jour is as much as we can mutually understand but we motioned to him that we would come to the village. We took the dinghy in an opening in the mangroves and could then see that the little village was on the right bank, the waterfall was directly in front of us, and there was a man on the left bank motioning us to come in there. There were two brand new picnic tables on the shore that looked like they just came from Home Depot but everything else was totally traditional. I figure resort boats must bring tourists here to see the little waterfall and village and have a picnic lunch. The man motioned for us to walk up a path and this led to the waterfall. Once there we saw a pipe hanging over the top of the waterfall rock and a steady stream of water was coming out of the pipe. Fresh water for laundry! We hurried back to the dinghy and back to Windbird to get our water jerry jugs. By the time we got back a couple of women were sitting at the base of the falls doing laundry. One was dressed but the other was topless, I stayed with the dinghy and sent Mark to get the water. The young woman pulled a wrap around her top when Mark arrived. Then another women come to the falls and immediately started taking off her clothing. We have been where you cannot show your knees or shoulders for so long that it seemed strange for women to be so nonchalant about not being covered. But Mark survived and the second woman waited until he walked away with the full jugs before starting to bath. Whew! I gave the young woman who been topless a bag of sugar in trade for the water and tried to motion that she should share with the other women. I guess I really do need to learn at least a few French or Malagasy phrases.
Once back on Windbird, we decided to up anchor and move to the only anchorage in this area that we had not yet visited. We motored a mile and half to the west and into tiny Andranira Bay. It is protected and there is supposed to be a walking track here, but we could not find it. There are two tiny villages or maybe just single huts in two different places, and we have been visited by people from both. Two young women came with four eggs that we traded for rice. Then they returned wanting something else that we simply could not understand. The teenager motioned for something to write on but when we read the words it was obvious that she was writing in Malagasy and not French. I could have looked up French words, but we have only a few phrases of Malagasy in the back of our Lonely Planet. Then two men came by wanting a pair of reading glasses in return for some fish. We have a whole bag of reading glasses to give away, so we got one pair out and just gave it to the man rather than trade. The fish were very tiny and Mark decided he’d rather wait for the big guys. The man put the glasses on, looked at his hand, then stood up in his dugout and started to boogie. I guess we made at least one person in this world a happier person today.
We just talked to Ed and Lynne on the radio. Lynne saw the doctor this morning and he confirmed her suspicion that she was probably bitten by something and that it is now infected. He prescribed an antibiotic that none of us have ever heard of, Pyostacine, and it is super expensive here. She has to take four pills a day for ten days and each pill costs $2.50US. But if it does the job, the expense will be nothing. She has to go back to the doctor on Monday or Tuesday and at that point, they will make a decision as to what they are doing next. The doctor indicated that the healing process might take a long time. What a bummer for Lynne. We just hope that the antibiotic works and that things are better soon. They might catch up with us in Russian Bay or as we work our way further south. We’ll just have to wait and see about that. In the meantime, we are just hoping that things heal quickly for Lynne.
by Judy Handley | Jul 16, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 263, Year 5 All Alone
Date: Friday, July 16, 2010
Weather: Sunny Day with Madagascar Clouds
Location: Nosy Mamoka, NW Madagascar
It was a quiet day here at Nosy Mamoko. Constance left before sunrise headed back to Nosy Sakatia and the other two boats which were here also left early. So for the first time in a long time, we were all alone. Lynne has a place on her ankle that has developed into an open sore that will not heal. At first thought it was a bite, but now she is just not sure as another place has developed beside the first one. So she needs to see a doctor and she talked John at Sakatia Towers and asked him to help her make arrangements for this. She couldn’t get an appointment today, but has a 6:15 am appointment tomorrow morning. The doctor has to fly out to one of the islands to do an operation and is only available early. Getting from Constance to land in a dinghy before dawn won’t be fun, but when they get there, John’s driver Anatole will pick them up and take it from there. We won’t know what the doctor says until tomorrow evening at 6 pm when we will talk to Ed and Lynne on the radio. There is absolutely no cell service here, so there is no chance of a phone call. We’re certainly hoping this is a simple infection, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, we are going to move a little further southwest to another anchorage tomorrow that is supposed to have a village and a waterfall. The next day we will probably leave very early and try to make it to Russian Bay where we plan to spend a week or so. Hopefully, Ed and Lynne will be able to catch up with us there. Today we had lots of visitors wanting to trade for eggs, small fish, bananas, and papaya. We traded rope, fish hooks, and empty glass and plastic bottles for a beautiful stock of bananas and three papayas. I don’t need eggs yet and we keep hoping to catch our own fish, but that is looking grim at this point. Fish are jumping out of the water all over the place here, so we went out in the dinghy this afternoon and tried to catch some of them. But no luck! We have some beautiful dinner-sized fish living under our boat, but we can’t catch them either. Even the locals tried with their spears, but they were not successful. But we’ll keep trying. We walked along the beach at low tide this afternoon and enjoyed seeing many of the same trees and bushes that we saw in Chagos. We found one stand of baobab trees and chased a heron to get photos, but that was about it. We took the dinghy past the village but we did not go ashore. Tomorrow we will go ashore at the village in the next anchorage, so I’ll report on that tomorrow night.
by Judy Handley | Jul 15, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 262, Year 5 Beautiful Sail to Nosy Mamoka
Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010
Weather: Sunny Day; Afternoon Winds NW 18-20
Latitude: 13 degrees 43.440 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 11.312 minutes E
Location: Nosy Mamoka, NW Madagascar
Our strategy of not leaving our little bay near Nosy Kisimani until noon worked. The winds started to build and came in from the northwest just before noon. This is the sea breeze being sucked in as the land warms up during the day. And we successfully used that wind to have a beautiful broad reach sail for most of the 17 miles. So now we are anchored in a pass between the mainland and the island of Nosy Mamoko. It was high tide when we arrived here so we will be interested in seeing what it looks like in the morning at low tide. We are close to a village on the island and there was a charter catamaran anchored here when we arrived. The yacht Swerver, a Dutch boat we met in Chagos, is also anchored over closer to the mainland. We enjoyed watching the play of light on the mainland mountains to our east as the sun went down. The mountains look like the Rockies, and that is part of the beauty here. You are anchored by an island with a mix of deciduous trees and palm trees, watching dolphins play near the shore, and looking in the distance at these beautiful mountains. It is quite striking.
by Judy Handley | Jul 14, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 261, Year 5 Some Work, Some Play
Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Weather: Back to Fabulous Weather; Some Rain Overnight
Location: Bay SW of Nosy Kisimani, NW Madagascar
It was a baking day-granola and chocolate chip cookies, and another marathon day researching and naming fish photos. I now label every fish photo with the common name and scientific name, but with the limited resources we have onboard for this part of the world, it takes a search through four different fish identification books to finally decide on the right name. I love doing this and have no idea why, but I am starting to put together my album of Indian Ocean fish which I hope to share with my grandchildren when they are a little older. And now when I snorkel I no longer have to say that I saw a yellow fish. I can saw I saw a Golden Gregory. And I have so enjoyed ‘meeting’ the various anemonefish, butterflyfish, and wrasses. I now have names for them and I love that. While I worked on these things, Mark worked on his fishing gear, put a new tether on our anchor chain stop (locks the anchor chain in place), and put a new latch on the gate in the life line. I have not been able to open the gate for two years, and now I can. That and the fact that a young boy came by in his dugout and sold us a humongous mud crab and a smaller one for 5,000 Ariary has made me a happy woman today. The amount we paid is equivalent of $2.50 US. This same young boy had been rowing through the bay in his dugout with a small wooden replica of a dhow in tow. We had been admiring his little dhow and couldn’t resist buying the crabs from him. They will make a yummy dinner tonight.
Late in the afternoon, Ed, Mark, and I went out in the dinghy to explore the bay in which we are anchored. This little bay is just across from Nosy Kisimani. From Nosy Kisimani there is a reef that is only exposed at low tide that runs all the way down to Cape Makambi on the south side of this bay. The reef helps protect the anchorage and makes it calm and serene. Our explorations this afternoon resulted in no fish (we were dragging lines from the dinghy), but we did discover one little village, maybe just one family, on the southwest shore. We also meandered in among the mangroves in what seemed like a little river. We went about a mile or so, but finally decided that it was getting too shallow and turned around. We had some bird sightings-a few crested drongas, some fish eagles flying overhead, Madagascar bee-eaters darting about, and a heron perched on a mangrove branch that let us get very close to him. The shore was covered with deciduous trees dotted with Traveler’s Palms. These fan-shaped palms sparkled in the afternoon sun as if welcoming us. It was a fun trip, no fish caught, but a few more glimpses of wild Madagascar.
Tomorrow we will head go out of here the way we came as there is no other way out because of the protective reef. Once we get to the north side of Nosy Kisimani, we will then head south to Nosy Mamoka. We’re going to wait until noon to leave in hopes that we can sail using the afternoon sea breeze coming from the west.
by Judy Handley | Jul 13, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 260, Year 5 Nosy Sakatia to Tani Keli to Nosy Kisamani
Date: Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Weather: No More Rain; All Sunshine
Latitude: 13 degrees 34.820 minutes S
Longitude: 048 degrees 05.112 minutes E
Location: Nosy Kisamani, NW Madagascar
The trek south has begun. We left Nosy Sakatia early this morning and picked up a mooring ball off Tani Keli at 9:30 am. Just this year Tani Keli has become an official national park and marine reserve, and as soon as you arrive someone comes out in an official national park boat to give you directions on where you can anchor or pick up a mooring ball. We arrived just before Constance, so we picked up the only mooring ball available for bigger boats. I would never spend the night on that mooring, but it was great for today’s use. We hopped in the water and swam over to the designated snorkeling area. Mark and I had on our 3 mil dive skins which protected us from the little stingy things in the water and kept us warm. Ed and Lynne only have thin Lycra suits and they had to get out before us as they were very chilly. But we all enjoyed the very clear water and the fish. We saw all the same varieties that we had seen at Nosy Sakatia, just more of them, plus a few new fish. The wrasse and coris which are always colorful fish, were really a highlight at Tani Keli. They were larger than we have seen before and therefore easier to photograph, so we got a few good photos of species that we have been trying to capture for months. We saw a huge grouper and a scary looking giant moray and then we saw a nursery full of baby butterfly fish and loads of anemones and different types of anemonefish. So snorkeling was a success and then we returned to Windbird to clean off the prop and the waterline. While we were cleaning we saw that the three Remoras that attached themselves to our keel in Nosy Sakatia have stayed with us. Remoras are commonly called shark suckers and they attach themselves to sharks and other large fish, sometimes whales, and in this case, to a sailboat. They’ll eat any good garbage thrown overboard and can’t hurt anything, so we don’t mind having the hitchhikers. After two hours in the water, we got out to eat and then headed to shore to take a short hike to the lighthouse at the top of the island and to see the fruit bats, lemurs, and birds that live on the tiny island. The lemurs were Brown Lemurs, different from the Black Lemurs on Nosy Komba, we were excited about seeing a different species. They charge 10,000 Ariary which is the equivalent of $5 US per person to enjoy the Tani Keli experience, but it was worth it. We will probably stop there again when we return from our trip south.
We motored three hours into the afternoon sea breeze coming from the west as we headed southwest to Nosy Kisamani. This is a little island just off the mainland. We actually decided to anchor in a bay off the mainland across from Kisamani, but we will explore that island by dinghy tomorrow. We are anchored off a part of the mainland that juts out to the west before heading south again, and we might spend a few of days in this area exploring other islands before heading to Russian Bay which is at the end of the westward jutting piece of mainland. Once there, we will probably spend a week or so before moving further south.
by Judy Handley | Jul 12, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Captain’s Ramblings 1, Year 5 – Dinghies
July 12, 2010
Sometimes folks who follow our website write us with questions, ideas, or suggestions. Rich Corbett has written often and recently asked our opinion of dinghies. This is an area where everyone has an opinion and every prospective cruiser would like some suggestions. I know we would have liked more information when we were purchasing the dinghy we would take with us around the world.
In 2004, as we were preparing for our circumnavigation, sailing friends Suzie Klein and Jim Hammitt invited us to dinner with friends of theirs who had sailed around the world. We had hundreds of questions for Tom and Harriet Linskey. It turned out that Judy had just taken a “Suddenly Alone” course that Harriet taught. The point of the course was how to cope if something happened to your spouse and Judy only wanted to find out what to do with the body! But that’s another story. We had a small inflatable dinghy at the time and seemed to get wet any time there was the slightest chop. So Judy suggested to Tom that we probably needed a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) with a hard bottom and much larger tubes than the current dinghy. The purpose of the larger tubes would be to keep us from getting wet all the time. Tom replied, “Judy, didn’t anybody ever tell you that sailing is a water sport!” We bought the RIB anyway and it is much drier than our old inflatable, but we have more than once repeated Tom’s reminder about a water sport. When the seas are really rough and the wind is blowing hard, we still get some spray over the bow, but not often. We have learned a lot from the three dinghies we have owned and from many other cruisers with all sorts of different means of getting from their boat to shore or to another boat or to their favorite snorkeling spot. What follows is what we have learned.
Your dinghy serves double duty as a family car and a utility truck on the water. You use it as a snorkeling or diving base, to haul fuel and water jerry cans from shore, to carry tons of groceries and drinks, to visit cruisers on other boats, as a platform to clean the topsides and waterline of your yacht, and to sail or paddle around the anchorage to explore. Sometimes you even use your dinghy for fishing which requires top speeds. The uses you make of it will determine the dinghy you need. Some people carry two because any one dinghy won’t meet all needs. For instance, a hard dinghy (fiberglass, plastic, or wood) can be easily rowed and may be adapted for sail. We know one boat that never uses an outboard as they sail their hard dinghy everywhere. On the other hand, a hard dinghy is difficult to get into from the water. If you do a lot of snorkeling (and you will) then this may not be the dinghy for you. Of course, your age and agility also have an impact on this. On the other hand, a RIB is much easier to enter from the water, especially if you get a dinghy ladder. But a RIB is difficult to row and is usually much heavier than a hard dinghy.
Many boats carry a kayak tied to the lifelines. A kayak can be an easy and efficient way to get around. There are many times when we would love to not have to put the dinghy in the water, lower the outboard, get out the gas can, and hook it all up. A kayak could be a perfect solution in those cases. However, you won’t be ferrying jerry cans of fuel in a kayak, nor many groceries either. People who have kayaks always have another dingy on board.
Inflatable dinghies are the most popular choice. If you decide on an inflatable, you now have a lot of decisions to make. If you get a RIB, do you have enough room on the foredeck to store it? Even if you have dinghy davits on the back of your boat, you will want to store the dinghy on the fore-deck on passages. We sized ours to fit between the inner staysail and the mast. We are a cutter so room was limited; a sloop may have more room there. Another option would be to get a collapsible or roll-up dinghy. These are easier to store, but more difficult to set up when you need them. They also have less carrying capacity, tend to be wetter, and are even harder than a RIB to row. Though they will have something on the floor to stiffen them when inflated (either boards, slats, or an inflatable floor) the floor will tend to flex with the seas passing under the keel. Speaking of keels, collapsible and roll-up dinghies usually have a small inflatable tube beneath the floor which acts like a keel. However, it is not very effective at keeping the boat from skidding sideways on a turn. The deep keel of a RIB tracks and turns much better.
The most popular choice among cruisers we meet is an inflatable with a hard bottom. Rigid inflatable boats (RIB’s) commonly have hulls made of fiberglass or aluminum. Fiberglass is probably cheaper and can be patched by most cruisers themselves. Aluminum is lighter which may prove very important when you and your spouse try to haul the dinghy and outboard above the high tide line, but it will take special equipment to repair a gash in the bottom. Ours is fiberglass, but I would seriously consider aluminum if I were buying again because of the lighter weight. We had installed wheels on the transom of our fiberglass dinghy to help when pulling her up a beach. However, if the sand is soft, as it usually is, then they only add to the friction as they dig in to the sand. Some wheels are better than others. I would go for the largest diameter wheel with the largest rubber tire I could fit on the dinghy. Of course, this means even more weight!
The next decision involves the tubes: What material and how big? The usual materials are PVC and Hypalon. Both have their adherents. Ours is Hypalon which we bought because it is supposed to have superior UV resistance. However, the glue for Hypalon (you will need glue and patches for either material as you will get leaks) is expensive and should be stored in a refrigerator. Refrigerator space is already at a premium on a boat so this can be a drawback. PVC is easier to patch, and if UV is a problem, you can get a cover made to protect the tubes. You may want to do this no matter which material your dinghy is made of. But the most important thing about the tubes is the size of them. Get tubes as big as you can; seventeen inches in diameter is a good size. They make for a more comfortable ride and will keep you drier.
Your dinghy will come with a seat and oars. Our seat is rigid fiberglass and attaches to the tubes with end brackets that slip into straps built into the tubes. I think it comes out far too easily – just when you don’t want it to. Friends have a seat that lashes to PVC tabs on the tubes – much more secure! Some seats are inflatable – just another small tube set athwartships, usually attached with Velcro to the tubes. You will need the seat in order to row, which you will do from time to time–like when your outboard won’t start or you need to tilt the outboard up so you can go over coral. While we’re on the subject of oars, it is worth considering the location of the oar mounts on the tubes. Ours are outboard and require us to turn the oar upside-down to get it into or out of the mount. The effect of this is that the oar is usually still in the mount as we come along side of our boat and it sticks out so that it can scratch the boat. Luckily most dinghies we have seen do not have this problem.
Our dinghy has a double floor which is nice as it provides a flat floor in the dinghy while allowing for a “V” keel. Some even have storage compartments built into the bow. But remember, every little bit of weight added will increase the difficulty of beaching or hauling the dinghy on board. There are many options that complicate the decision making process, and we haven’t even discussed the outboard motor yet.
I will make only a couple of comments on outboards. First is that Yamaha and Tohatsu motors have world-wide distribution and maintenance facilities. Many other brands do not. Check on that as you will need parts and perhaps even professional maintenance somewhere along the line. Secondly, consider size and weight. Check to see what the maximum horsepower outboard your dinghy can handle. We had an 8-horsepower Suzuki when we bought our 15-horse Yamaha in Malaysia. We made a mistake when we got rid of the Suzuki. We love the Yamaha as it allows us to plane our nine and a half foot fiberglass RIB with four people onboard. But it is heavy and it is a desirable target for theft. The Suzuki was old and needed constant attention, but it ran and we wouldn’t have to worry if it were stolen. Ideally we would have two outboards: the Yamaha for big loads and going long distances and a smaller outboard (maybe 2- to 4-horsepower) for normal running around. The Yamaha requires a 5-to-1 block and tackle to lift it from dinghy to its mount on the boat. A smaller engine can be lifted with one hand.
Everyone has their opinions as to what makes the best dinghy. I am no expert. I can only speak from experience. We currently own an AB fiberglass dinghy with a double bottom and seventeen-inch Hypalon tubes. It has a hard fiberglass seat that broke once when we came off a wave so has been reinforced. We also bought a dinghy ladder to facilitate getting into the dinghy from the water and this is a real plus when snorkeling. This dinghy has served us well. However, it is heavy and the older we get the harder it is to handle. If I were to start over again I might choose an aluminum hull. I would get more patches and glue for my tube repair kit. I would make, or have made, a protective cover for the tubes. I would definitely look for one with better mounts for the oars and a better way to attach the seat to the tubes. And I would have a small outboard in addition to the 15-horse Yamaha. Your dinghy is your only way to get from your boat to land, so don’t underestimate its importance in your cruising plans and budget.
