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.

100717 Day 264 SW Ampasindava Bay, Madagascar