Day 301, Year 5 Forgot to Mention the Barracuda
Date: Monday, August 23, 2010
Weather: Clear Day; Land-Sea Breeze 10-15 Knots
Latitude: 14 21.101 S
Longitude: 047 42.468 E
Location: Mahavanga Coastal Village, NW Madagascar
In yesterday’s log I totally forgot to mention the ‘humongo’ barracuda Mark caught yesterday. It wasn’t the fish of choice, but actually it tasted very good. This one was three feet long (92 centimeters). This kind of barracuda can grow to be 140 centimeters, so our guy still had some growing to do, but I don’t want to see a bigger one. These guys have fangs. Yikes! Barracuda in the Atlantic is rarely eaten because they can carry the dreaded ciguatera toxins, but this is not the case in the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. We marinated part of the barracuda in a tablespoon of chili powder, a tablespoon of kosher salt, and a third of a cup of lime juice. After two hours, we removed it and put it on the grill. We flaked the fish and used it to make barracuda tacos. We added finely chopped cabbage and salsa and had a delicious meal.
Today was a delightful day. We waited until 8:30 am to leave Nosy Lava and headed to Nosy Saba with 15 knots of wind from the SE. This gave us a nice downwind ten mile sail. Just before we arrived at Nosy Saba the land breeze gave way to the sea breeze from the NNW. This was perfect for the anchorage at Nosy Saba. Our first order of business was to go snorkeling. We got in the water and drifted with the current for a bit. We saw some nice fish and some coral, but the visibility was not great. We then went back to the shallow waters closer to the beach and to the north of the anchorage and the snorkeling there was much better. We snorkeled over white sand and green grass patches between the scattered coral. There was an unbelievable variety of small fish here, many of which we had never seen before. We saw some beautiful angel fish, lots of raccoon butterflyfish, and a yellow, white, and black fish that is new to us. So as always, we enjoyed being in the water. We then went back to Windbird and got dressed for a hike on the island.
We hiked uphill through golden grasses and when we got to the top we were surprised to find a ‘rest area’ with artwork. There were four tall concrete columns with fancy white stone rectangular bases built around three of them. The fourth stood apart with nothing around it. On one side of each of the columns there was a sculpted outline of horned zebu. There was also a small rectangular stone base with carved drawings on top. And around the area there were stone benches. It felt strange to find something like this on an island where there is nothing but one resort. As we were contemplating this, a young couple walked from the resort side of the island and arrived at this little Nosy Saba Stonehenge. Elisa and Fabio are from Italy and have spent the last month enjoying their honeymoon in Madagascar. We learned that they had arrived at the resort by plane in the morning. Staying at the Nosy Saba Island Resort for a few days is the end of their Madagascar experience. We wanted to know all about them and they wanted to know all about us, so we jabbered away. Elisa told us that if we had the time we should stay and eat dinner at the resort as it is the best good she has had in Madagascar. Then Elisa and Fabio headed to the beach where we had left our dinghy and we headed across the island to the resort. From the water, Nosy Saba is beautiful with white sand beaches interspersed with rock formations and surrounded by surreal blue water of many shades. Inland, however, it is dry with few trees and golden grasses. We walked down the wide road cut by large machinery that led to the resort. It is different from any place we have seen in Madagascar. Instead of bungalows built to look like the native huts, these bungalows are made of concrete, painted orange, with pointed thatched roofs and glass windows with one-way glass. The resort looked much more African than others I have seen in Madagascar. We were met by a young man who spoke some English and he explained that the resort opened two years ago. There are sixty-five locals who live on the island and work in the resort and there is nothing else on the island. The resort has built a huge number of buildings that house a machine shop, a wood working shop, and storage sheds for machinery.
We walked back across the island and found Elisa and Fabio on the beach where Fabio had re-anchored our dinghy for us. We had not expected to be so long and had not brought it far enough up on the beach for the incoming tide. But all was well. We exchanged email addresses and then we took off for Windbird so we could cross to the mainland before dark. We are anchored just off a village on the shore which appears to be the only thing for miles. There is a hillside above the village that is the light, light green of new grass. I’ll have to look at the photos to try and figure out what is growing here because we will not be going ashore. Tomorrow we head for Honey River at an early hour as it is a long sailing day.
