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.

100621 Day 238 Andranoaombi Bay, Madagascar