Cruising Madagascar- Month One

 

 Madadagscar wildlife at last!

Our first stop after checking in and stocking up in Hellville was the island of Nosy Komba.  There were several guesthouses, restaurants and souvenir shops with tourist customers ferried from Hellville in small boats. One specialty of this island was "reclet," a technique for decorating cloth by embroidering and cutting holes to make table cloths, curtains and wall hangings. We bought a couple that Kim thought would make nice tablecloths.  

 There were also plenty of other souvenirs for sale, including carvings, paintings and T-shirts. Vanilla beans grew on the island and were offered for sale along with other produce such as bananas and vegetables.

A primary reason tourists came here was to see the endemic Black Lemurs. We paid 2,000 Ar each (about $1) at a ticket office to be guided to a place where Black Lemurs were trained to jump onto tourists in exchange for bananas. Most tourists enjoyed being photographed with lemurs on their shoulders and we were no exception.  

 

 Emily was in heaven and at one point had 3 lemurs climbing on her.  

 

 A little further up the hill was a village nature park where they kept a boa constrictor (fed a live chicken once a week), a male and a female chameleon, some small Madagascar tortoises and one Seychelles tortoise about 20 years old (much bigger than the others).

 

One day we took a long walk to the top of the island with Peter and Ulla aboard Lovina. The trail from the village was evidently an old road but no vehicles had climbed it for many years. The road was bordered by huge mango trees and the slopes were thickly wooded except where people had cleared and planted gardens. 

 

Some areas had vanilla vines, cassava and banana plants, and near small clusters of houses were patches of other vegetables. We saw several lizards and a meter long snake along the way.

It was very beautiful high on the hillside with views of sailing boats far below and Nosy Be not far away. 

 

The crews of Emily Grace and Lovina then headed southwest deep into D'ampasindava Bay and anchored behind Nosy Momoko. The village was on the western side of the island and the anchorage was protected from easterly winds. We all went ashore to locate the village chief (who was a woman here).  We presented her with an “I Love the USA” ball cap and a brand new soccer ball we had brought from Malaysia.  The chief immediately donned the hat and the soccer ball was a big hit.  

 

The villagers had trained Black Lemurs to come when they called "Maki! Maki!" and after seeing our gifts they were quickly summoned.   The villagers gave us some of their food to feed them and we shared some bananas we had in our packs. One big old Seychelles tortoise also seemed to be a village pet. 

 

We wandered around the village a little and then returned to our boats.  As always, Emily entertained the little ones by folding and giving away origami flapping birds and dragons.

 

After getting our fill of lemurs for a while, we headed for Russian Bay to relax for a few days.  This bay was 15 miles southwest of Nosy Be on the Madagascar mainland. The entrance was wide and deep. The deep, clover-leaf-shaped bay was well-protected from winds.  It was apparently nicknamed after a Russian fleet of warships which deserted, took shelter and hid in this place in 1905.  All three sections of the bay had good anchorages. Our first anchorage was just inside to the west off a small village where the reef extending south from the west side of the entrance had to be rounded well to the south.  Pollin lived in one of the villages with his family and came out to greet us.  He was well-organized and the next day we went ashore and he showed us his village, a small waterfall, and his family.  Ulla sat for quite a while working with Pollin to come up with a list of common words in Malagasy, French and English.  Later, she typed it all up and we laminated several copies in plastic to give to him (and for us to use).  Peter also wrote a recommendation letter for Pollin since he hoped to get a job in Hellville as a guide.  I laminated a color picture for him that looked like an official ID card.  He was very happy and we relaxed there for several days.  

One day an abandoned dugout canoe drifted by and we grabbed it and tied it to the back of Emily Grace overnight.  Dad and Emily tried a short paddle before giving it back to the village.

Peter and I trolled one day with his dingy, but had no luck.  We were catching and sharing Spanish mackerel during the short trips between anchorages so the freezer was still pretty full.  It was nice cruising with friends again.  Ulla even tried her hand at Origami and we shared meals and dingy trips to shore for most of July.    

We returned to Hellville to re-provision and get another 1200 liters of fuel and then we headed north with Lovina.  Peter wanted to SCUBA dive and we took him back to Nosy Mitsio and the four brothers.  We had a nice time but we dove on the wrong side of the island and missed the great dive conditions we had enjoyed before.  Everywhere we have traveled in Madagascar, the people have been smiling and gracious to us.

We had decided to make the 150 mile trip west to Mayotte for a few weeks to explore there and to pick up some parts being shipped in, so we headed south back to Hellville to check out.  We plan to spend up to a month in Mayotte and will return to Madagascar for at least one more month before pushing off for South Africa.

Tom

Cruising South to Nosy Be

We stayed in the first western bay after rounding the northern tip of Madagascar.  There were no villagers here but the calm waters allowed us some much-needed rest.  The winds were still a brisk 20 knots, but the protection of the bay kept the chop small and we did not roll at all.  We had a few days rest and some rain cleaned away the salt spray.  The weather was a pleasant change with nights down to around 70 degrees at night and we slept with a light sheet for the first time in at least 6 months.  Emily and I ventured in to the barren volcanic shore and burned some plastic and trash below the high tide line.  We saw a few spiders and saw some zebu at a distance.  The zebus are the Madagascar cows and are distinctive with their large shoulder hump.   

Kim cooked the monster octopus that we were given in Chagos and it was really good!

After 3 days, we made the long day hop down to Andranoaombi Bay which was the first stop with good protection.  We had read previous cruisers logs indicating that there were villages here with which we could trade.  We were in dire need for some fresh fruit and vegetables. Sure enough, we barely had the anchor set when a couple of women came paddling out with some limes.  We did the best we could and traded way too many clothes for 4 eggs and some fruit.  Another fellow came out with Papaya and more eggs and was rewarded with some spare rope.  No money needed here as we were still a long way from an ATM.

 

The villages are very primitive and no lights other than cooking fires are seen after sundown.  Huts are constructed of poles (small branches from trees) and then the sides and roof are covered with palm fronds. The fronds from the palms here are small and rounded, not long like coconut palms, so they are arranged in fan shapes in the walls. Everywhere we went women were winnowing a grain that looked something like barley.

Next stop was Nosy Mitsio (nosy is Malagassy for island).  

 

There were more villages here but with the addition of a portable generator loud music disturbed the tranquil setting.   We were really enjoying seeing the sailing dhows peacefully sailing up and down the coast.

 

 

Dhows are a design which have been proven over many centuries.  The lateen rigs they sport have powered untold numbers of working and war vessels continuously since at least the second century BC, and possibly for many thousands of years before that.  The triangular sail lends itself to pointing - far more so than square rigs - and is used to this day for fishing, and to move people and goods around many parts of the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans.  It's a design that works, in every sense of the word.

We only stayed one night before dropping the hook just off the white sand beach of 5 star Tsara Bajina Constance resort.  We enjoyed free internet on the boat and went ashore for several nice meals and cool drinks.  The staff was very nice and even brought us a sim card from Hellville to get our cell phone working.   

 

We stayed a few days and even splurged on a guided SCUBA dive off one of the Brothers islands which really was special since we were the only divers.  The guide picked us up from Emily Grace on their dive boat and another guide drove the boat above us as we dove.  The schools of fish were massive and large tasty fish like grouper and snapper came right up to us with no fear.  It was tough to move on, but my credit card was still smoldering for several days after.

 

 

We stopped in Befotaka Bay for one night and then Sakatia where we talked to some South Africans and tried to get some local information.  It seemed that getting gas was going to be more complicated than pulling up to a gas dock here!  We got a rugged description of the main town and hesitantly we headed to Hellville to check into Madagascar.

Some might say this small, run-down town with its crumbling-colonial architecture is aptly named.  In fact, it is named for a French governor of Reunion, Admiral de Hell.  We found the town eccentrically appealing and small enough to explore on foot, from the port through the old part of town with its vine-covered ruins and colonial buildings to the tiny "supermarket", banks, and market.  The anchorage is a colorful, bustling place with dhows sailing to and fro laden with goods or families or both.  Shortly after your arrival we were greeted by a series of young men (most of whom speak passable English) who are the self-proclaimed boat boys of Hellville. They will come to your boat in whatever they can get that floats: a dugout, a borrowed kayak, or some other yacht's nice dinghy and outboard.  They want to do everything for you: ferry you to shore, watch your dinghy (read: borrow your dinghy while you're ashore), watch your boat while you travel inland, get diesel, food, taxi service, whatever, for you.  We asked for, and used, Romeo who was recommended by the South Africans.

Check in was relatively quick and inexpensive.  We stayed for 3 days and hit the ATM hard for the cash-only needed for diesel.  We got five 200 liter drums filled and delivered to the stone jetty and syphoned it into the boat with a 9 meter hose and filtered it with our special funnel.  It worked surprisingly well and took about 10 minutes per drum and the fuel was pretty clean.   

 

We found the market lively and full of fresh fruit and vegetables.  The meat was hard to see through the flies though and we opted to get that at the supermarket.  Fresh shrimp, lobster and mud crab all looked good and we did buy some shrimp one day that was very good.  We raised our dingy each night and enjoyed the locals fishing all around us with lines and nets and did not feel threatened.

All around we found Hellville to be quite enjoyable and will enjoy returning from time to time to re-provision. With full food and some fuel, we were ready to find some lemurs!  Come along to our first stop to see how that goes…

Tom