8-01-01 Happy Swiss National Day! There are quite a few Swiss boats in the harbor and we are going to the yacht club tonight to celebrate their special day. Switzerland is 700+ years old, good reason to celebrate. Everyone is bringing some food to grill and a side dish to share. And the Swiss yachties are promising song and dance. Should be a good time - lots of good food, good company and maybe even some Swiss chocolates!
8-10-01 Yesterday was Pat's birthday and we celebrated with a volcanic crater walk in the morning and a party onboard SIMMER in the evening. The crater walk was a bit of a challenge, but we were rewarded with spectacular views from the crater rim and a dark green crater lake. Then after a short nap to recover from the walk, Colleen baked a chocolate mocha cake for Pat and we invited several friends over for munchies, SIMMER's home-brewed beer and birthday cake. Two of our friends are from Holland so they sang the "Happy Birthday" song to Pat in Dutch. It was a special treat, especially since Pat's ancestors are Dutch. We then all sang it again in English and devoured the cake. The evening lasted until 2:00 in the morning! Poor Pat, he is getting too old for those late nights. But we certainly enjoyed ourselves and are thankful for the beautiful surroundings in Mayotte and our good sailing friends to share the day with. We'll be celebrating another birthday in a few days. Our little buddy, Nicholas, from WINGS OF TIME will be 1 year old on August 13th. His parents are planning his first birthday party at the local yacht club on Sunday.
8-15-01 Well, it is getting to be time to move on. We are planning to leave Mayotte in the next few days and sail back over to Madagascar. Not sure if we'll update our WebPages again in Madagascar or if next time will be South Africa in mid October. Many of us are leaving Mayotte with a heavy heart. A fellow yacht has been lost at sea now for over 2 months and we fear the worst. The US yacht LEVIATHAN left Chagos only 1 week after we did and have not been seen or heard from since June 9th. They were traveling in the company of 3 other yachts and sailed into high winds and rough seas. The 3 other yachts decided to stop over at a small island in the Seychelles group until the weather passed, but LEVIATHAN kept going. Shortly afterwards, the other yachts lost radio contact with LEVIATHAN. We've been told LEVIATHAN activated their Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) at some point after that. The French picked up 4 EPIRB signals (positions) and a US Navy P-3 aircraft out of Chagos searched the area for 3 days without any sign. We are very sad, but also frustrated because not one of the local nations (Seychelles, Mayotte, Madagascar) performed a search. By the time the US Navy was informed and the aircraft on-site, critical time was lost. We can only hope that this tragic incident will lead to a review of the search and rescue responsibilities for this part of the Indian Ocean. We will say "au revoir and bon voyage" to LEVIATHAN as we leave Mayotte and keep them in our prayers.
8-19-01 We're enroute to Madagascar, position Lat 13°21'S/Lon 47°04'E. Left Mayotte early yesterday morning and hope to make it in before dark tonight, 65 miles to go. The tiny island of Mayotte is the kind of place you go for 2 weeks and easily stay 2 months. Protected harbor, pretty scenery, good food, and a small yacht club for socializing. And the shops are full of lovely things that are usually expensive anywhere in the world, but irresistible to us luxury-starved sailors - brie, wine, steak, ice cream, pastries, etc. All in all, it is a good place to reprovision staples such as canned goods, pasta, flour, sugar, beer, soft drinks. We've updated our cost spreadsheet to include Mayotte expenditures. Fairly uneventful trip so far: no fish, no wind, no ships, just a bit of northerly swell and sloppy seas, but strong current pushing us east. It's strange to be traveling eastward, for the past 3 years our passages have always been westward (NW/W/SW). It seems like the sun is rising and setting in the wrong place! We're used to the sun rising on our stern and setting on our bow - now it's the opposite. We're looking forward to cruising Madagascar, it's a huge island with a varied, unspoiled coastline. We're practicing a few Malagasy greetings and words to supplement our limited French vocabulary.
8-28-01 Cleared into Madagascar at Hellville (Lat 13°24'S/Lon 48°17'E) a week ago. Great name for a town, huh? It is named after the French Admiral Hell rather than the hot, fiery inferno. The town is pleasant and relaxed, although a bit dilapidated. We found it humorous that the main street that leads from the harbor to the Catholic church is named Cours de Hell (highway to Hell). Wonder if the Pope knows about that one? After paying the requested fees: immigration, visas, quarantine and port dues, we are now cleared to cruise Madagascar. Beautiful mountainous scenery, but a high risk malarial area. Malaria in this part of Madagascar is a big concern. We're taking the necessary precautions to protect ourselves against malaria: protective clothing, not going ashore after dark, anchoring away from land, screening off the boat, nightly inspections for mosquitoes, insecticide spraying and burning mosquito coils, etc. Since this is the dry season, the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito population is much lower now, but still a concern. We chose not to take any prophylactic, preventive drugs, due to the length of time we'll be cruising here and the side effects associated with those drugs. Also the Anopheles mosquito is resistant to most of the preventive drugs, so they only act to suppress the symptoms, but don't prevent the infection. Instead we'll be extra cautious with our mechanical protection and disciplined in our sunset habits. We are used to dealing with mosquitoes, since we lived in New Jersey! We do have an antimalarial treatment, Fansidar®, onboard that hopefully we won't have to use.
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