06-03-01 We've crossed the Indian Ocean!!! Another major milestone requiring a champagne cork to fly! Arrived in Madagascar last night at 9pm, our position is Lat 11°58'S/Lon 49°13'E, just 3 miles south of Cap D'Ambre. Our cape rounding was a bit tense for an hour or so last night, but thanks to GPS, radar, and a bit of sailing skill we were fine. The sun set before we rounded, and we were just able to make out the shoreline in the moonlight. You have to sail right in very close to shore to avoid the strongest winds and seas. Our cruising guide recommends just meters off the shoreline. But at night we stayed 1 mile off. We sailed under reduced sail ( two reefs in the mainsail and only the staysail) and in the 35-40 kt wind our boat speed was steady 9-10 knots. Quite fast. We had up to 3 kts of current pushing us along. Once we rounded the cape, and got in the lee of the island, the winds abated ..... thankfully. We dropped sail and motored 3 miles and dropped the anchor for a well deserved sleep. We ate a quick dinner and cracked open our second batch of home-brewed stout. We named this one "SIMMER's Cap D'Ambre Stout". A couple glasses of stout and we were both happily sound asleep. Today we are moving a bit further south to explore some of the islands off the NW coast of Madagascar. Here's some info on Madagascar. The island Republic of Madagascar lies in the Indian Ocean east of Mozambique in Africa. It is the world's fourth largest island and one of the poorest countries in the world. Population around 14 million, language is Malagasy (pronounced mal-GASH) and French, official religions are Indigenous, Christianity and Islam. The Malagasy people are divided into 18 tribes regionally. They are descended from Malay-Polynesians and despite their geographic proximity to Africa and their mixed ancestry, the Malagasy do not like to be referred to as African. We'll let you know more about the country and it's people as we explore over the next couple months.
06-05-01 Just figured our Chagos to Madagascar passage totals: we sailed 1,468.4 nm in 10 days and 11 hours, that's an average of 140 nm/day at a boat speed of 5.83 knots. Our Visual Passage Planner (VPP) software, which simulates passages on the computer using digital pilot chart data and various boat designs, was spot-on. VPP estimated our passage would take 10 days and 8 hours, just 3 hours short of our actual time. We're impressed. One of the other boats we left Chagos with also used VPP to simulate the passage for their boat design and they were even closer to the VPP time - they were only 2 hours off. They did the trip in 9 days and 8 hours. We met up with our friends that crossed from Chagos just ahead of us and celebrated our Indian Ocean crossing with a lovely grilled wahoo, champagne and lots of other liquid refreshments! Major headache the next morning.....
06-14-01 Salàma (Good Day in Malagasy). We've been in Madagascar for 11 days now, and have been relaxing in various anchorages around the small islands off the coast. We are currently in Nosy Mitsio (Lat 12°54.6'S/Lon 48°34.7'E) - "nosy" means island in Malagasy. We've met lots of the islanders so far and enjoy trading with them. Our language barrier is a bit of a hindrance, but as usual, sign language helps allot. They do speak some French, so we try our hand at that - easier than Malagasy. They are very poor people living off the land and sea as fishermen, farmers and cattlemen. They paddle out to our boat in crude, dug-out pirogues and bring things to trade. We've given them fishing hooks, line, tee shirts, soap and rice and have received fresh eggs, limes, pumpkins, papayas, plantains and seashells. The locals do look at us as a sort of floating shopping center. They don't have much on the island and depend on the few small power boats to bring supplies they need from the "city" about 30 miles away. So when we yachties sail in and anchor by their village, they are very eager to see what we have to offer. We hiked ashore yesterday and saw our first chameleon. Chameleons have come to represent Madagascar nearly as well as the lemur (haven't seen one of those yet). Over half the world's species of Chameleons are found in Madagascar. The one we saw was comical looking - bright green, clamp-like feet, and conical eyes that swivel independently. It was about 1 foot long and trying to hide in the ground cover. We nearly stepped on it, they don't move too quickly. No lemurs on this island, but hope to see some, when we move to other islands.
6-23-01 Bonjour, we are in Île Mayotte (pronounced my-YAHT). Two day sail over to this French island in the Mozambique Channel, 200 nm west of Madagascar. Our position is Lat 12°46'S/Lon 45°16'E. Decided we could use a wee bit of civilization (supermarket, bakery, internet cafe, mail, etc) after spending almost 3 months in remote Chagos, then a couple weeks in remote Madagascar. We'll stay in Mayotte for a few weeks getting our fill of French wine, cheese, baguettes, then reprovision SIMMER and sail back to Madagascar. Mayotte is geographically part of the Comoros (pronounced KO-morz) island group, but separate politically as it is a Collectivité Territorial of France and its people are citizens of the European Community. The other Comoran islands are independent. Mayotte was originally a sultanate and in 1843 transferred to French rule. It's mountainous with a surrounding coral reef, and a population of 90,000. The official language is French and religions are Islam/Christianity. We arrived late yesterday afternoon and today (Saturday) was our first day ashore and alas, the bank is closed on Saturday and one broken ATM machine. Very frustrating when you haven't been to a supermarket in over 4 months and now you don't have any French Francs (FF) to spend!!!! One of the locals on a yacht in the harbor gave us $600 FF (about $80 US) till Monday when the bank opens. We had only just met her 5 minutes before - what a kind, trusting, generous soul. So of course, we headed straight for the bakery. Great French pastries and baguettes. Then onto the supermarket for fresh food (chicken and veggies) and cold beer. We're happy again. Mayotte is somewhat expensive, but after months without, we'll gladly pay. Actually with the exchange rate from US dollars to French francs, it's not too bad and certain things are subsidized by the French government. We'll do more extensive shopping next week when we take a ferry over to the main city with the big supermarkets. Can't wait.
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