Day 286, Year 5 Turtle Quest III
Date: Sunday, August 8, 2010
Weather: More Perfect Weather; Winds 10 Knots
Location: Nosy Iranja, NW Madagascar
We’re back. We arrived here at Nosy Iranja the “turtle island” in mid-afternoon. We had a beautiful sailing day. In the early morning when we were headed WSW the winds were just right for a gentle beam reach. Around noon we had to motor for about an hour while the winds switched to come from the sea and at the same time we turned and headed SSW and the winds once again cooperated and went to the NW giving us another gentle broad reach all the way to Iranja. All we could think was, “Wouldn’t it be great to have winds like this all the way to Richard’s Bay?” That just won’t be the case, so we’ll enjoy the coastal sailing for now. Ed and Lynne of Constance are sailing with us and at 4:30 pm we went to shore to the Iranja Lodge to ask for Ignance the Turtle Man. A manager from the lodge named Christian met us and spoke very good English. He explained that Ignance has gone to Nosy Be but that his colleague Artur might be able to help us. We told him that we wanted to see the baby turtles hatch and he said he would go to talk to Artur and come back and let us know if there was going to be a hatching today. In the meantime, we enjoyed the lovely surroundings and had a beer. When Christian returned he said there would not be hatching today but that we should be on shore at 4:30 pm tomorrow and that we might get to witness one. He said he would alert security so we could bring our dinghy to shore on the end of the island where the turtle nests are located. So we are hopeful. Tomorrow might be our day.
Last night we were actually able to send the log, and after that I called my sister Patsy and our son Justin. Justin is back in New Mexico missing Jo and Ziggy, but doing fine for now. They have hired a lawyer who is certain he can get Jo back in the US no later than mid-September. She just simply forgot to renew her Green Card and certainly no reminders are sent out. What a price they are having to pay, living apart. Justin is still considering flying back to England and staying with Jo and Ziggy until they can return. They will make that decision in the next couple of weeks. It was wonderful to talk to Justin and know that he is doing fine. My sister Patsy’s daughter Jennifer has breast cancer and will have surgery this Thursday, so I wanted to talk to her and send our best wishes to Jennifer. When everything is fine, it is not so hard to be away from home. But when there are problems and health issues, it is really hard not to be able to be with family. But we are here and at least we have email. I really don’t think I could have done this prior to time of email. Not hearing from family for weeks or months would make me crazy.
