by Judy Handley | Jun 21, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
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.
by Judy Handley | Jun 20, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 237, Year 5 Father’s Day River Trip
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010
Weather: Mostly Sunny AM, Overcast PM; Winds SE 18-22 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers we know. Ed and Lynne graciously let us use their SAT phone to call our son-in-law Jed and son Justin to wish them a happy day. We got through to Jed, but not to Justin. So Justin, if you are reading this, we hope you had a wonderful day. Heather and Jed were getting ready to take off on a bicycle ride with Jonah and Sam, so we caught them just in time. Sam talked to Granddad and told him he missed him and Jonah waved at the phone, so Mark is a happy father/grandfather. My present to Mark was to hang individual tiny photos of Heather, Jed, Justin, and Jo on the wall by his side of the bed. Now every morning when he gets up, the first thing he will see is photos of his kids. His other present was a reprieve from work for a trip up the river. At first the river was about 100 feet wide, but by the time we got as far as we could go, it was less than 10 feet wide. We saw birds–a bee eater, a black egret, and a fish hawk-and we really enjoyed the quiet without incessant winds blowing. We saw zebu (Madagascar cows) along the way and lots of jumping fish. When we got as far as we could go, we got out and explored. We were surprised to find coconut palms, lots of zebu and a man tending the cows. We were even more surprised to find fenced stockades for the cows, and a fenced off garden area where banana trees and tall grasses grew. By the time we left, there were three men tending the cattle along with a little white dog. We got waves from the men, but no one approached us. We saw more young baobab trees, some in bloom, and lots of jumping fish. There was one little bird that looks like an iridescent bright blue flash that kept crossing our path, but it was impossible to photograph. All in all it was just a nice quiet reprieve from being on the boat for so many days. Later in the day, Mark, Ed, and I went to shore to burn garbage and explore a bit more. I ran into a flock of Sicklebilled Vangas, a black and white bird with a long curved bill. I also found another flowering baobab. The baobabs we are seeing here have white flowers with a yellow center and sometimes a red tinge to the edges of the white flowers. So it was a good day of exploration.
Ed and Lynne came over for dinner and we finally celebrated our arrival here with a little champagne. Ed hopes to get up at 5:30 in the morning and try to raise a headsail before the winds start blowing, so we will get up and be there to help. We will then pull up anchor and head south, maybe 20 miles to an island or maybe 50 miles to another bay. It will all depend on how the sail raising goes and what the winds are like. But one way or another, we should be leaving Ampanasia Bay tomorrow.
by Judy Handley | Jun 19, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 236, Year 5 Finally . . . An Explore on Land
Date: Saturday, June 19, 2010
Weather: Mostly Sunny AM, Overcast PM; Winds SSE 20-28 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
No let up in the wind except at night. In fact, last night was very quiet and peaceful until just about 8 am and then the winds returned with a vengeance. And according to Graham on the South African Maritime Mobile Net there will not be the let up early in the week as previously forecast. He says we should have what we have now for the next five days. So we are going ahead with repairs in the wind and do plan to try and leave on Monday. Constance now has a secure headstay but the roller furler has a problem. But with this wind, we won’t need headsails anyway. Our smaller staysails should work just fine. To stem the leak, the plan is to plug the scupper drain with a plug using the Life Caulk early tomorrow morning and then we will all head up the river to see what we can see.
After finishing the job of securing the headstay on Constance, we all got in our dinghy and headed out for a little explore on land. Through the binoculars we can see a beach area to the southwest and this morning I saw a number of cows there. I can also see the tops of some very large baobabs in that area, so we decided to land the dinghy on that beach, walk on land a bit, and then dinghy around to the beach with the baobab in bloom. I still don’t know for sure that the tree in bloom is a baobab, but I did read in the Lonely Planet that baobabs do not bloom until they are over 100 years old. Many of the baobabs in Madagascar are over a 1,000 years old, and since the one on the beach is no more than fifteen feet tall, it is a youngster. And since everything about its shape tells me it is a baobab, I will call it that for now.
We picked up Ed and Lynne and off we went. As we got closer to the dark-colored beach we could see that it is covered in what looks dark paving stones. Not exactly the best landing spot for a dinghy, but we pulled the dinghy on the beach and enjoyed standing on ground for the first time in twenty days. Our last walk on land was on May 30 when we walked on the reef flat from Ile Mapou to Ile De La Passe. So today’s walk was a true pleasure. To the left of the barren beach area there were mangroves and two other trees that are very salt-water resistant as they grow right below the tide line. Maybe they are mangroves as well, but they did not have the gnarly, knotty trunks and roots of the mangroves. As we walked up the little hill from the beach area we were met by hundreds of small Wild Tamarind trees. These are also called Mimosa, Acacia, and Cow Tamarind. The reason for the last name is that the leaves and seed pods of these trees can be used as an extremely high protein fodder for cows and goats, both of which graze here. However, if horses, donkeys, and pigs eat the fodder, they lose their hair. Since there are none of those here, we have no problem. The Wild Tamarind have thorns all over their trunks and branches as do most of the other trees that we saw today. So I guess this is how the ‘spiny bush’ gets its name. We found a fishing hut over the hill on the beach at another little bay and it had a dugout canoe sitting beside it. The hut was built of small branches and covered with thatching for the roof and the walls. It sits right on the tide line and inside was a floor and even a trash can. So obviously someone comes here and uses it. We found a number of other interesting trees, all with seed pods or fruit that we have never seen before. The nightshade plant here looks like the one that grows in the eastern US, but the one here has thorns on the leaves and has beautiful, bright yellow fruits that look like cherry tomatoes. I’m assuming this plant is poisonous as I believe all members of the nightshade family are, but again, I’m going on memory. We had to fight the wind to get the dinghy off the shore and then got soaking wet as we motored into the wind to get around a point and to the bay with the baobab tree in bloom. One thing about this wind, you don’t stay wet too long. We scrambled up the gravel beach and found that the blooming baobab is about fifteen feet high. We took lots of photos and then as we started looking around we found more little baobabs. These were knee high to waist high and had no branches. They actually looked more like a straight cactus. Evidently baobabs are some of the slowest growing trees on earth, so the ones that came up to our knees were probably no more than ten years old. We found another one about ten feet tall and it had branches at the top but no blossoms. So we assume it was just not old enough yet. We gather from what we have seen that baobabs grow straight up for a number of years before branching out at the top. None that we have seen have leaves, so we are yet to learn about that.
It is 5:15 pm here and the sun is getting ready to set. It sets at 5:30 pm and rises again at 6:00 am. The temperature is 77 degrees F which feels very cool to us. We don’t have to use fans anymore (Who would with this wind?) and when the sun goes down, we feel chilly. I guess that’s what happens when you are used to temps in the 80’s, but we are not complaining. This is a wonderful temperature. We even have to sleep with a sheet over us these days.
by Judy Handley | Jun 18, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 235, Year 5 Windier Than Yesterday
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Few Light Showers; Winds SE 20-30 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
Some things never change. It is still windy. In fact, it was as windy today as when we arrived. So we sit and wait. Ed did go up his mast early this morning before it got too windy, and he did get the headstay reattached. But he is not done with the job and it was just too windy to go back up today. He also did not get to go in the water and plug the drain that is leaking. He’ll go up the mast first thing in the morning and we’ll see where the day goes from there. Mark wanted to do some epoxy work on deck today, but it was too windy for that as well. It was a good day for inside work. Mark worked on the VHF radio trying to get the DSC (digital selective calling) option working, but he was not successful. We can’t use this until we get back to the Caribbean, but since there was nothing else to do he played around with this. He did a few other odd jobs and I baked bread and a cake, did laundry, and worked on those Chagos photos. Like I already said, some things never change. Wind or not, we plan to go back to the part of the bay where we saw the baobab tree (or whatever kind of tree it is) in bloom so that I can take more photos. We’ll also explore on land a bit. Then on Sunday morning we’ll explore the river as a special Father’s Day trip. If everything goes as planned, we’ll be out of here on Monday morning-wind or no wind.
by Judy Handley | Jun 17, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 234, Year 5 Still No Break in the Weather
Date: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Weather: Sunny, Winds SE 18-25 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
You can’t have it all. Yesterday it was overcast and rainy but the winds were down a bit. Today the sun shone brightly all day but the winds were back up to 18 to 25 knots with no let up all day. We were getting white caps on the bay once again but as the sun fell lower in the sky the winds stayed closer to 18 than to 25 and the number of white caps were greatly reduced. Mark and I took advantage of that and headed out in the dinghy to explore the shoreline. Mangroves line the shore. There are breaks in the wall of mangroves here and there and in one of those breaks we found a pebbly beach with two dugout canoes on shore. We saw three cows but were not close enough to see if they had the fantastic horns of the Malagasy zebu (just another word for cow). And we also found a beautiful tree in bloom. I have no way to identify it as I have absolutely no resources outlining Malagasy flora. I thought this tree was a baobab based on the bottle shape of the trunk, and it might be, but on close inspection of the photos, I see the trunk and branches all have spiny thorns and I didn’t know baobabs were thorny. The tree had no leaves but the blossoms looked like little bouquets. I have to go back and beach the dinghy so I can inspect this a little closer. There are a few others scattered here and there, but none so close to the shore. In this stark environment, a tree in blossom is such a beautiful thing. So on the list for tomorrow is a return to the area where that tree is located for a little land exploration.
Now back to the progress being made on repairs. Mark completed the caulking job on the deck chain plates and I continued cleaning the stainless. It was so windy that one of my rags blew away and the container of stainless polish went flying and landed upside down on the deck making a nice little mess. So I finished the bow pulpit area and quit on that job for the day. I washed the cockpit seat cushions and made pizza for dinner. In the late afternoon Mark went up the mast to inspect the rigging one more time and found a problem we had not seen before. The lower stay on the starboard side has one wire sticking out where it connects to the mast. This same stay had this same problem when we reached New Zealand in 2006 and we had it replaced. Now we will have to replace it again and we have no idea why this same stay keeps having the same problem. Since we cannot replace this until we get to South Africa, we will use some Amsteel line made from Dyneema and fashion another lower so if the wire one goes, the rope one will be in place. Dyneema is a very strong line, actually almost twice as strong as the wire rigging, so we think we should be fine. And even if both lowers broke, it should not affect the stability of the mast. At least that’s the theory.
Constance is still battling the slow leak. They had to take out the contents of yet one more cabinet to dry it out. So their boat is just full of stuff that should be in the cabinets but cannot go back until the leak is completely stopped. Putting the Life Caulk on the outside yesterday slowed things down, but now Ed needs to actually plug the underwater drain that is cracked. He will push a wooden peg in the hole sealing it with the Life Caulk. I don’t know what we would have done without the tubes of this stuff. When Lynne flew back to the states to see her mother in March, we contacted my sister-in-law Sue and her husband Brad in Boynton Beach where Lynne’s mother lives. We had Brad and Sue go to West Marine and buy three tubes of this caulk along with some other stuff and take it to Lynne so she could bring it back to us. We were going to use it to redo the caulking in our teak deck, but that didn’t get done, thankfully, and now we have it to help seal off the leaks in Constance and our leaky chain plates. What a stroke of luck that we happened to have the caulk. I now call it Life Saver instead of Life Caulk. So thank you Brad and Sue for shopping for us.
The South African Maritime Mobile Net tells us that we will get a bit of a break in the winds on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. So if Constance is ready to go, we will plan to head south. Windbird is down to the last two tomatoes from India, the last two eggs from the Maldives, and the last case of beer. We haven’t seen a fresh green vegetable in a couple of months, so it is time for a stop with a store. That would be Nosy Be which is more than a hundred miles from here. But by this time next week, we should be there. Super Marche (the name of the grocery store there) here we come!
by Judy Handley | Jun 16, 2010 | Madagascar, Sailing Logs Year 5 |
Day 233, Year 5 More Boat Repairs and MoreYucky Weather
Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Weather: Overcast with Rain Squalls, Winds SE 15-20 Knots
Location: Ampanasia Bay, NW Madagascar
Evidently our information that it rarely rains in June in northwest Madagascar is just wrong. It rained off and on all night and off and on all day. And as we go into another evening, it doesn’t look like that pattern is going to change. So we have still not been to shore and I’m getting a little stir crazy. But I’m not really interested in walking through the bush in the rain, so we will wait. We did launch the dinghy today but used it only to go back and forth to Constance. Being stuck on the boat means that we are getting lots of work done. I keep plugging away at those Chagos photos and Mark keeps ticking things off the boat repair list. The inner forestay is back up but it was too wet to put caulk under the port side chain plate covers. So that is tomorrow’s job. Ed and Lynne were up early and Ed was up his mast by 7 am. What he found was good news. Their head stay is not broken. The attachment to the mast is, but that can be replaced without taking the whole rig down. He does need calmer weather to unwind the head sail and take it down and that might have to wait until we are further south. I don’t think the wind ever stops blowing up here. Ed then went in the water and used some Life Caulk that Lynne had brought back for us when she went home from India in March. We didn’t know it until a couple of days ago when we read the tube, but it can be applied underwater. So Ed found the ten-inch hairline crack in the hull, sanded the area, and applied the Life Caulk. That has not stopped the weepage on the inside, so more exploration will take place tomorrow. But progress is being made.
We saw more signs of life in the bay today. Two men in a homemade boat went rowing past Windbird on their way to the south side of the bay. I was surprised that they didn’t stop but I have heard other cruiser say that there are fishermen in this bay that do not come to sailboats to trade. The other sign of life we saw today was a huge flock of beautiful white birds that swooped and danced past Windbird at sunset. I’m going to take that as an omen of good weather to come!
