Author: kerrizane

Dear F&F,

We were 20 miles from Cape St. Andre and the wind abrupty shifted to SSW and blew 35 knots with lightening and a serious long term squall. We decided that descretion being the best part of valor to turn back to Baly Bay… The big concern is that once we past Cape St. Andre, the water is VERY shallow for 20 miles out to sea. 20 feet for many miles. As such, I was concerned about the sea build up and the waves from the port beam. The land protected us from the big winds as we were just 3 miles north of the coast when the squalls hit.

We\’ll re-group after a nights rest. Most likely we\’ll start tomorrow, but will let you know after a weather check. It\’s now blowing 7 knots and the skies are clearing.

Tomorrow is another day. We\’ll be anchored by 11:15 p.m. Don\’t like going in to an anchorage in the dark, but it\’s a wide open, well charted bay with no obstructions. We\’ll anchor well offshore as it\’s shallow. Cheers, SWU all very soon… Blog to be updated shortly.

Kit, Scott and now sleeping Nikki

Majunga to Baly Bay!……

12 November 2012

Dear F&F,

We departed for Baly Bay early as it was a long trip. The weather was perfect for a crossing to South Africa even. In fact, it was so good, we decided to go!

We set the reacher, the full main and set a waypoint for 5 miles north of Cape St. Andre, the western most cape in central Madagascar. It was still 40 miles from Baly Bay and we expected to pass the Cape just after dark. It\’s got lots of shallow areas, a few wrecks and other hazards, so we didn\’t want to be too close.

Well first, we started getting headed in toward the point. It became clear about 20 miles away, we\’d have to motor to get around so we did.

I went down off watch and came up to Nikki watching the sky to our south. A HUGE squall hit us and fortunately I\’d already taken two reefs in the main as I often do when motor slogging. The wind came up 35 knots and stayed for about a half an hour. The absolutely clear sky turned jet black in 15 minutes and rained hard.

This was most likely a short lived squall, but after an hour, I threw in the towel and we motor sailed back to Baly Bay. It turns out, it was short lived, but who knew! There was nothing in the forecast and this phenomenon is completely normal, though unpredictable for this area.

The trade winds on the west side of the island, (remember, it\’s the 4th largest island in the world), get compressed as they go up the eastern slopes. The air is cool and dry. It then gets really cold up in the mountains and falls on to the west side of the island like a rock. The warm, wet air on the eastern side collides with it and BOOM! A mini weather system with LOTS of punch.

As my Mother used to say, \”Discretion is the better part of valor\”. We turned tail! If we\’d gotten past the point, the seas in the VERY shallow water (much of it around 20 feet deep), could have been big breaking waves. As it was, our proximity to the shore protected us from big seas, but once that protection to our south would have disappeared?…NO FUN.

We got to Baly Bay at 11:00 pm. We were tired. A comfy night\’s sleep and we\’ll try again tomorrow…. Stay tuned. Scott and Nikki

Majunga…..

09 Novemeber 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F, Well, the guide book and Des and Nell of \”Gambit\” said, \”don\’t go there!\”… The guide book further says, when the prison closed…all the thieves and murderers came here….. Food for thought.

However, I wanted to top off fuel and go to a last market before we headed to Baly Bay for our jump off to South Africa. If it was that bad, we\’d just leave.

We arrived in the late afternoon and with the tide falling against the 20 knot westerly we\’d MOTORED into all day, the standing waves were impressive.

The one anchorage the guide book recommended was \”full\”. Read that as ONE boat. It was 5 feet deep in most of that bay, too shallow for my tastes with a strong tidal flow. We went to the far East end of the wharf and found a big boat ramp and a literal \”Ship\’s Graveyard\”. There were dozens, perhaps a few hundred people mulling about the boat ramp with all the coming\’s and goings and right next to it, 25 rusted out hulks. These were mostly small coastal freighter which were clearly one day going to be reclaimed as scrap. To our surprise, at high tide around 11 pm, one of the \”junks\” backed off the beach and pulled up the wharf. Apparently, it\’s used as a cheap repair yard too.

We anchored in 10 feet of water which at low tide became 6 feet of water. That\’s UNDER the hulls of course, so we\’ve about 3 feet (1 meter) of clearance. The bottom was soft mud, so no worries. We\’ve been told about theft stories here, the town is very very poor. The north side beaches looked fairly up market, but the south side wharf area was about as poor as we\’ve seen.

We had an uneventful night and the next morning I went toward the boat ramp with my 13 jerry cans for diesel and was hailed by Andre the boat boy! Andre wanted 10,000 Airy Airy for himself and a friend. That\’s $5.00 USD. He got me a taxi. The taxi driver, \”Mr. Tafita\”, wanted 5,000 Airy Airy. That\’s $2.50 USD. So, you get the concept. They\’re poor. Tafita and I went to the ATM, the diesel station and the quite nice \”Score\” Market. It all took 2 hours. I gave the boys tips amounting to twice what they asked for. For Mr. Tafita, it was three times what he\’d asked for. I thought I was going to be made Mayor of Majunga.

Nikki was embolden and I took her ashore and went back to watch the boat. She walked the 300 meter to the market and had no problems whatsoever. The market was nicer than Hellville\’s (new nice market).

As the wind was back up and the internet was as good as we\’d seen on the boat, we stayed the second night in preparation to go to Baly Bay where we\’d jump off for Richard\’s Bay, SA. We sent \”Sunflower\” and email with peoples names and phone numbers for the taxi, etc. People like it when \”Beach House\” goes ahead of them. They get lots of current information.

More soon, Scott and Navigator Nik

Getting Ready to head South, Happy Birthday Nikki!…..

01-04 November 2012 (Eastern Hemisphere)

Dear F&F,

We departed Hellville for a 1 1/2 hour trip to the next door island, Nosy Komba. This had a lovely anchorage, lots of local shops and a reasonable restaurant which the four of us, Dave, Kathy, Nikki and Scott. After a nice lunch we went for a long beach walk amongst the shops. We found out that there is a nice lemur viewing spot here and would perhaps come back the next morning to see them. After a calm night, Nikki and I decided to skip the lemur viewing and head back to Sakitia. Dave and Kathy did do the viewing and saw a nice bunch being fed by hand. We\’re anxious to head south and get going to South Africa, we\’ll start our trip tomorrow to Russian Bay.

Russian Bay, we left casually as the trip to Russian Bay was only 18 miles. Motoring as there was little wind. We arrived at the nice anchorage just inside the entrance and had a lovely calm evening. Just us, \”Sunflower\” and the mozzy\’s…:-)

The best thing about today is!…Happy Birthday Nikki!…. She\’s a pearl of a girl.

More to follow,
Scott and Birthday Girl Nik