Day 319, Year 5 Another Day in Hell-ville
Date: Friday, September 10, 2010
Weather: Most Cloudy, Morning Rain
Location: Hell-ville, Nosy Be, NW Madagascar
We’re still in Hell-ville but will leave early in the morning and head for Tana Keli to get in another snorkel in Madagascar’s clearest water. From there we will probably go to Russian Bay for the night and then out to a small island that both Pioneer and Constance have told us has spectacular snorkeling. By Monday we should be back at Nosy Sakatia and just hang out for a few days while getting ready for our trip to South Africa. At least that’s the plan for now.
Our second day in Hell-ville was productive. We started our morning by getting six more jerry jugs of diesel. That’s 120 liters of diesel and we pay 294,000 Ariary ($150 US). That means we are paying $5 US per gallon which is outrageous, but it doesn’t get any cheaper in South Africa. We just need to sail more and motor less. Yesterday we took the dinghy to a little landing area to the right of the main wharf. It was high tide and plenty deep and we were greeted by the infamous Tu-pac, AKA Johnny I. He was good to us and we were good to him. He actually got us a better deal on a taxi into town to get fuel than we were expecting. This morning we went back to the same area and this time we were greeted by the younger Johnny. We’ll call him Johnny II. We have met him before and he comes highly recommended, but actually the cost of the taxi this morning was higher than yesterday, and that was after strong negotiations. Johnny II did tell us to make sure we came to the main wharf when we returned, but we were not sure why. That became evident later in the day. When I took Mark back to town we went to the main wharf as Johnny II had told us to do. He met us and Mark took off with his computer to get the English versions of Microsoft Office and of Avast, the anti-virus protection we are now using, installed. He also went to the market to get fresh veggies. When I went back to pick him up the tide was very low and we now understood why Johnny II told us to come to the main wharf. The area where we had entered earlier was totally dry. Later in the afternoon I took Mark in one more time to get two more jerry jugs of diesel and the bananas that I had forgotten to put on the list earlier. By this time, it was obvious that we were not leaving the harbor today, so we settled in for another night here. We have been surrounded by boats we know from India and Chagos-Koukouri that we first met in India left today headed back to Southeast Asia, Armelle T from Brussels that we met in Chagos is still anchored beside us, and Single Malt, a Swiss boat that we have known since Sail Indonesia is still anchored behind us. We are surrounded by friends and all seems safe. Hell-ville has a terrible reputation, but cruisers this year have not found that to be the case. Hope that lasts until we are out of here!
