by Judy Handley | Sep 8, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 317, Year 5 Decision To Go South
Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Weather: Sunny Day; Winds 0-2 Knots NE Turning 10 Knots NW
Latitude: 13 24.802 S
Longitude: 048 20.285 E
Location: Lokobe National Park, NW Madagascar
After three magical days of snorkeling off Nosy Ankarea we headed out this morning hoping the wind would make the ‘go north’ or ‘go south’ decision for us. But there was no wind. We motored out of Nosy Mitsio’s Maribe Bay and I couldn’t enter Miles To Go in the Captain’s Log as we still didn’t know where we were going. I really wanted to go north to try and see the mother and baby whales, but with no wind we would be motoring all morning and then would probably be fighting a strong north wind in the afternoon. That plus the fact that the Dominiques on KEA just came from up north and saw no whales probably helped to make the decision to head south. Since there was no wind we decided to motor the twelve miles to Tsara Banjina and stop there for a snorkel before heading on to Lokobe National Park on the southeast corner of Nosy Be. We have a whole page of things we need to do once we have cell and internet service again, so we will hang out between Lokobe, Nosy Komba, and Hell-ville for two or three days and try to get some of those things done. We left Nosy Sakatia the morning after Mark returned from Hell-ville with a virus-free computer, but we really haven’t had a chance to be online to see if everything is working properly. When they did the last fix, they had to take Microsoft Office off the computer and reinstall it-in French. So now our anti-virus program and Microsoft Office are all in French. While we have been gone the computer shop was going to get the English versions and will install them when we return. So we’ll spend a day or so playing around with the computer online, hope we don’t get another virus, and then go back to the computer place in Hell-ville for the replacement programs.
Tsara Banjina is a beautiful little island. Coming from the north it is hidden by larger Nosy Toloho until you are almost there. Then this incredibly white sand beach surrounded by turquoise water starts emerging from behind Toloho. It really is breathtaking. The only thing on the island is the Constance Lodge and it is mostly hidden behind the casuarina trees that sway in the wind and serve as the backdrop to that beautiful beach. We were in the dinghy on our way to snorkel by 9 am. Just as when we were there before, we headed out to the rocky islands to snorkel, but the tide was so low that much of the coral was exposed. And we saw no fish. So we carefully motored around to the south side of the island to a rocky point. On the way there we saw literally hundreds of small jellyfish, all about five inches across. They were clear but outlined in an electric blue. They all seemed to be headed across our path and back to where Windbird was anchored. When we got to the snorkeling area we saw no jellies, so in we went. It was not as clear as Mitsio and the bommies were either too deep or too shallow, but we still managed to have a good snorkel. I saw an incredibly big and ugly grouper and a school of about twenty-five Moorish Idols. There are photos of schools of Moorish Idols in our fish identification books, but we have never seen more than two at a time. I always wondered where the photographers go to get such photos. Now I know, except my photographer did not even see them, so we don’t have that photo yet. We also saw a new fish. It looks like a Humbug Dascyllus which is white with three vertical black stripes, but this one has only two stripes. We actually saw one tiny one like this back at Nosy Sakatia and thought it was just an anomaly. Evidently that is not the case since we saw many of them today. After our snorkel, we pulled up anchor at 10:30 am and started motoring through an absolute maze of those electric blue jellies. If anyone knows why there would be so many of them in one place, please email and let me know. We saw a few clear jellies while snorkeling off Nosy Ankarea, but only a few, and then yesterday when Mark and I got in one last time to explore underwater off the east side of Ankarea, rather than the south where we had concentrated our time, I did get into a nest of the same jellies. They looked just like the ones I saw today but they were translucent-no blue. And since we are always suited head to toe when snorkeling, I was able to fend off any that headed toward my face, so I didn’t get stung and Mark didn’t even see any. I sure hope these guys stay up north and don’t come down to Nosy Be as I really want to do more snorkeling at Nosy Sakatia and back at Tani Keli. No jellies allowed!
We had a wonderful sail, sometimes with a motor assist, from Tsara Banjina to Lokobe. Mark caught an enormous fish but it took the hook, line, and sinker and off it went. At least it left the pole behind. Just as we approached the anchorage here, the wind piped up to the 20’s, so we are having a bit of a blow this evening. Pioneer is here but will leave early tomorrow for a snorkel at Tani Keli. We will probably go to Nosy Komba for the day to see the lemurs and buy more recelet. Constance called on the radio this afternoon and said they might be coming this way tomorrow. And that’s the news from Madagascar.
by Judy Handley | Sep 7, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 316, Year 5 KEA and a Baby Langford Arrive
Date: Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Weather: Cloudy, Then Clearing but Hazy; Winds 15 NE, Then W
Location: Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar
We spent another blissful morning snorkeling at Nosy Ankarea before the west winds piped up around noon. It was no longer blissful, so we got out of the water. About that time, KEA, a French boat we met in Chagos with Dominique and Dominique aboard, arrived. We had a quick reunion and made plans to get together after 5 pm back in Nosy Mitsio to catch up. KEA left Chagos and went to Rodrigues, Mauritius, and Reunion, and then came up the east coast of Madagascar. Even though it is the dry season, they had rain every single day on the east coast. I guess they mean it when they say they have rainforest over there, while here on the west coast we have dry forest and spiny desert. We had a great evening on KEA and answered many of their questions about Madagascar. We are the first cruisers they have seen since arriving in Madagascar.
Pioneer left early this morning headed for Tsara Banjina. KEA doesn’t know where they are headed tomorrow. And we still don’t know which way we will go in the morning. I don’t think we realized how lucky we were that the weather changed just when we left Nosy Sakatia and headed north. We did have to motor all the way here, but we have had three wonderfully calm days here and enjoyed the snorkeling immensely. Now it appears the normal wind pattern is back and we have strong winds good for sailing if you are going in the right direction, but not good for snorkeling. When we leave here in the morning we will go which ever way the wind blows us. I think we have finally become true cruisers!
We want to send a great big congratulation to our sailing friends Neil and Ley Langford of Crystal Blues. They emailed this morning letting us know that their first grandson was born at 12:50 am. I know they have no idea just how much their world is going to change with the arrival of this little bundle of joy. Our favorite quote used to be one from the The Wind in the Willows. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” That has since been replaced by, “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about with grandchildren.” Congratulations to Grandma Ley and Grandpa Neil!
On the not so happy side of things, the frame on my back-up pair of glasses broke today. So much for titanium frames. I lost my good pair overboard in Chagos chasing Brown Noddies from the bow of our boat. Today the frames on the back-up pair just broke. So now I am wearing my pre-titanium prescription glasses from 2001. Amazing, I can actually see through them, so not all is lost.
by Judy Handley | Sep 6, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 315, Year 5 Happy 7th Anniversary to Heather and Jed
Date: Monday, September 6, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; Land/Sea Breeze Back Again
Location: Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar
Happy Anniversary, Heather and Jed! It hardly seems possible that our daughter has been married for seven years, but statistics tell us that is so. This must have been a big Labor Day Weekend for them, beginning with the threat of Hurricane Earl on Friday and ending with their anniversary today. It is also the first weekend after Heather has started working full-time and we know that life has been a bit hectic for them. So here’s hoping Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Sam had a chance to take a deep breath and celebrate the anniversary.
We celebrated Heather and Jed’s anniversary by snorkeling and then snorkeling some more. I know there is nothing they would rather be doing, so we enjoyed it for them. We headed to Nosy Ankarea at 7:45 am, as Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen on Pioneer headed for the long beach on the northern arm of Nosy Mitsio. We arrived at Nosy Ankarea by 8:45 am and jumped in the water for a wonderful early morning low tide snorkel. The fish always seem to be more active in the morning and even though the wind was blowing 15-20 from East causing a bit of chop on the water, we had a fabulous snorkel. We got to swim with a large Green Turtle and got good photos of many of the fish. After about an hour and a half the camera battery died so we came back to Windbird to get another battery. We were both famished, so I fixed French toast for the first time since we were at Heather and Jed’s last summer. We gobbled it down and got back in the water. The winds had calmed down so there was no longer a chop, but the tide was higher and the fish were not as numerous. Maybe they take a three hour mid-day break like everyone else in Madagascar. We snorkeled and then took the dinghy around to the west side of the island to see what is there underwater. I got in but saw only more of what we had been seeing, only much deeper. For the first time that I can remember since Fiij, Mark is even more smitten with the snorkeling here than I am. So we have decided to stay here at Nosy Mitsio one more day and make another day trip to Nosy Ankarea tomorrow. I think that island is enchanted, or at least it is enchanting. We love visiting there.
Pioneer is headed south to Tsara Banjina tomorrow, so we will meet up with them again at Nosy Sakatia in a few days. Tomorrow we will make the decision about heading further north in search of mother and baby whales or heading back to the south. KEA, a boat we met in Chagos, will probably arrive here tomorrow from up north and hopefully they can tell us if the whales are up there. We are making decisions one day a time, so tomorrow we will report on whether we are headed north or south.
by Judy Handley | Sep 5, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 314, Year 5 Nosy Ankarea Revisit
Date: Sunday, September 5, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful Day; AM Winds NE, PM Winds W
Location: Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar
At 8 am Bruce and Tristen of Pioneer picked us up in their dinghy and delivered us to Pioneer. Mark and Nadine brought the anchor up and off we went. It is only three miles to Nosy Ankarea so we were there and anchored by 9 am. The water was so incredibly clear and beckoned us to jump in. As fast as we could, we all got suited up and in the water. Pioneer is a catamaran and it is so easy to just walk down the steps and slide into the water. We must have been in the water for at least two hours. It was just a great place to snorkel. It is the very first time I have snorkeled anywhere and seen the ‘Big 3’ angelfish all in one place. Today we saw the Emperor with its horizontal yellow and purple stripes, the Regal with its vertical white, orange, and blue stripes, and the Semicircle with its black, blue, green, and yellow spots on a blue and yellow background. We simply saw a smattering of most of the fish we have seen in Madagascar all in one place. As I was swimming back to Pioneer, I spotted an octopus that put on an unbelievable show. Nadine was most of the way back to Pioneer and Mark, Bruce, and Tristen were in the dinghy, so I put my head up long enough to let them know to get back in the water to see the octopus show. When I first spotted this creature I had no idea what it was. I could not see the tentacles. I could just see a spotted blob that was creeping across the sandy bottom and over any coral or rocks in its path. The blob then turned a brownish-maroon color and extended all its tentacles to propel itself forward. Just as quickly, it became a spotted blob again. Eventually everyone else headed back to Pioneer but I stayed behind to watch just a little longer. Usually when you see an octopus it finds cracks and crevices to hide in and you don’t get the opportunity to watch their movements for such a long period of time. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity, but eventually I moved on and found that I had to struggle to swim against a strong current all the way back to the boat. It was hard, but it was worth it.
Back on Pioneer we put our land clothes over our bathing suits, had a banana bread feast, and then headed to the beach before the tide got too high. Bruce and Nadine’s daughter, Tristen, is such a polite and beautiful little girl. She had wanted to go to the beach to do shelling since our arrival, so she was delighted when we got to shore and found shell heaven. She has been collecting shells for her classmates back in Cape Town and in thirty minutes had a bucket full of cowries, cones, and nerites. I once again forgot to bring a bag for the shelling and ended up with my pockets so full of shells that my pants were hard to hold up. But despite the heavy shell load, we took Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen on a tour of the island. Almost immediately Nadine decided that she needs to move to this island. It is just so idyllic. The resort that once existed there planted all the right kinds tropical plants and trees, the sand is white, the water is crystal clear, there are papaya and banana trees, and even a wetland where mud crabs abound. We had such a wonderful time today and thank Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen on Pioneer for providing the transportation. Tomorrow they are going to a long, long, long beach on Mitsio to do more shelling and snorkeling and Mark and I will return to Nosy Ankarea on Windbird for one more snorkel and one more shelling session.
The winds are not doing their normal thing. We are getting a morning land breeze but it is from the NE not the SE, so traveling further north is a bit difficult. The afternoon sea breeze is coming from the NW as it should but it seems to set in later in the day than normal. So we are questioning whether or not we will beat into the NE winds to head further north. We’ll think about that while snorkeling off Nosy Ankarea tomorrow and let you know the decision in tomorrow evening’s log.
by Judy Handley | Sep 4, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 313, Year 5 Nosy Sakatia to Nosy Mitsio
Date: Saturday, September 4, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day with No Wind
Latitude: 12 54.412 S
Longitude: 048 34.663 E
Location: Nosy Mitsio, NW Madagascar
It was a lovely day with calm seas, but we had to motor the full thirty-eight miles from Nosy Sakatia to Nosy Mitsio as there was absolutely no wind. We followed Pioneer out of the Sakatia anchorage at 6 am and arrived here just before 3 pm. Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen on Pioneer saw whales on the way, but we did not. We were so thankful that we didn’t have to motor into twenty knot headwinds as predicted, so I’d say it was a good day. When we arrived here in Mitsio, Peppe and Bob of Far Niente were here. They are a US boat that we met in Chagos and they have been in Mayotte waiting for replacement parts for the last seven weeks. They had to motor all the way from Mayotte and arrived at 7 am this morning. We had Far Niente and Pioneer over for sundowners and then Bruce, Nadine, and Tristen of Pioneer stayed for a chicken masala dinner. I used the spices from India and it was HOT, but nothing a little yogurt couldn’t calm a bit.
Tomorrow morning Pioneer will pick us up around 8 am and we will go with them to Nosy Ankarea. This is the charming little uninhabited island that we visited when we were here two months ago. We didn’t snorkel when we there in June, so this time we plan to do a bit snorkel exploring. We have heard from Barry on Dream Catcher that the coral is deep but the water is crystal clear and that we should see large game fish. So we’ll give that a try and do some exploring on the island as well.
We have heard from my sister in North Carolina and from our daughter on Cape Cod and the news about Earl was good. It seems the hurricane lost speed and moved far enough away from land to be no threat. So all my worrying was for naught and for this I am very thankful.
by Judy Handley | Sep 3, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 312, Year 5 Cleaning and Computer Repair
Date: Friday, September 3, 2010
Weather: Beautiful Day
Location: Nosy Sakatia, NW Madagascar
Mark left at 7:15 am this morning and returned at 5 pm. The computer shop in Hell-ville worked all day to solve our problems and they downloaded and installed every possible fix and anti-virus program that many of you have sent to us as suggestions. But we won’t know for at least 24 hours whether or not everything they have done has really gotten to the root of the problem. And since we are leaving here tomorrow morning and heading north where we will not have cell service, we might not know until we return to this area in a week or so whether or not the problem is solved. But we think we are making progress and we thank our son Justin, our friend Alan Kanegsberg in New Hampshire, and our friends Neil and Ley on Crystal Blues currently in Singapore for all their advice and suggestions. Hopefully something will work!
I spent my day getting into storage areas and reorganizing and cleaning out any food that looked suspicious. I also went through my clothes and took out anything that I want to give away. It was not exciting, but it is a good feeling to clean out and get rid of those things that are no longer good or useful. This evening we went up to Sakatia Towers and had a great evening on the deck with Constance, Dream Catcher, Muneera, Irene, and John’s special guests, Dr. John and Pam. John and Pam were good friends of John’s parents in South Africa and this was their last night in Madagascar. So a good time was had by all.
Tomorrow morning we leave at 6 am headed north to Nosy Mitsio with Bruce, Nadine, and their daughter Tristen on Pioneer. We are not sure what the winds will be like as we head north, so we will just start our trek and see how things go. Every day is an adventure here, so tomorrow will be no exception. And while on the subject of winds, we are certainly thinking of daughter Heather and her family on Cape Cod. This morning I heard from my sister that lives on the border between North Carolina and South Carolina and she felt like they were being skirted by Earl and would have no serious effects. Our daughter Heather on Cape Cod also wrote and said they were expecting to feel the effects of Earl tonight (Friday). So we will wait and see what happens. We surely hope this hurricane decides to head out to sea before reaching Cape Cod.
