Over the top

For many years, Madagascar was one of those intriguing places around the world that discouraged tourism due to its Marxist government who treated foreigners, and especially yachties, with a great degree of suspicion.  

Back in the late 1800's, France invaded Madagascar but they were granted their independence from France after a violent insurrection in the mid 1900s.  By 1975, a political crisis led to a radical socialist government coming into power.  This government held control until further uprisings in 1991 led to a new constitution and a new republic being declared which has allowed the country to open up to visitors a bit more readily.  Its population has primarily descended from Malay and Asian migrants, with Africans and Europeans mixed in with a strong French influence.  French is still spoken by most but Malagasy is the main language.

Tourism is definitely picking up and there are now hotels, resorts and restaurants to cater for these needs.  Sadly, however, corruption amongst officials is acutely prevalent but the average villager who has no access to this greed are prohibitably poor.  One can only hope that this new-found source of revenue filters down to those so desperately in need.

This is the season for whales but so far....nada.  We've heard from others that they are around so we'll just have to keep a lookout.

As we lifted our anchor at Lokintsy, we experienced a huge red tide caused by an algal bloom which had developed in the bay but once well away from that, we caught our first fish.  It was a smallish blue striped fish with a yellow tail which may have been a bonito but, as we'd never caught one before and I couldn't find it in my fish book, we're really not sure.  Regardless, it was delicious and sufficient for two days and obviously not affected by the red tide as we're still very much alive.  At this stage, the count is Fish - 1  Calypso - 1; we'd lost a really big guy the day before.  Up until this leg, it's been far too rough to land a fish so we just haven't put out any lines.  From everything we've gleaned from those who passed before us, these waters are brilliant fishing grounds which is probably due to the fact that we haven't seen any of those despicable cockroach-infested Chinese fishing boats near here.  We should not starve!

Although Ile St Marie looked interesting, the weather was miserable and we were anxious to get across the top to spend our time in the beautiful islands on the north west coast of this country where the weather is much more to our liking.

In order to get there, we had to transit Cap d'Ambre at the extreme northern tip of Madagascar which is notorious for adverse conditions somewhat comparable to a large industrial washing machine on the "heavily soiled" cycle and not to be taken lightly.  The South Equatorial Current, splits at the centre of the island and runs north and south along the east coast.  This makes for interesting conditions across the top and needs to be planned accordingly.

Early one morning, after having spent two nights en route northwards, we were passing a small bay, Pointe Berry,  so decided to drop anchor for a few hours rest.  This also gave us the time to plan the passage over the top for slack tide and good light.   Having done so, we then left again in the late afternoon.  It was our plan to reach the start of the 'rounding' trip as the sun began lighting up the sky and the tide was slack, both which were to be about 4:45 a.m.  Well, like any plans with sailing, this didn't quite work out; we got too close far too early.  Now to slow down.  We started by furling our already minuscule headsail which meant that we were now bare-poled.  It didn't seem possible but we were still hurtling along at almost 7 knots in rather horrific waves, 25 - 30 knots of wind and more than 2 knots of current.  Our next tactic was to deploy our drogues to drag us back.  This worked a charm but with no sails, we had virtually no steerage so we tried a little of our iron jenny which helped moderately.  We ended up zig-zagging back and forth to use up the hour and a half we needed to waste before we could make the move.  Under normal circumstances, we would have hove-to but with no main in those conditions that wasn't going to work so 90 minutes of bouncing around uncomfortably was the order of the day.

In the final analysis, it worked out perfectly.  We experienced momentary gusts of over 30 knots but generally about 25 and we were soon on the other side with slightly calmer winds and significantly flatter seas by which time we were able to let George (our auto-pilot) get back to the job of steering for us.  Phew!

We've arrived in Madagascar

We finally extricated ourselves from Mauritius late on Saturday afternoon and spent a fairly boisterous three and a half days to make it to Iles Saint Marie on the east coast of Madagascar.  The trip, however, wasn't without that bl**dy Sword of Damacles that's been hanging over our heads for the past three months.  We blew out our mainsail!  

To be fair to it though, it was getting rather long in the tooth.  We'd planned to take it in for a bit of an overhaul but with everything else, expenses sort of ran away with us and we simply couldn't manage it.  We had lived in hopes that it would last the few remaining months it will take us to get back to Cape Town but Murphy butt in and decided otherwise. 

At this stage, we haven't even had a good look at it as, naturally, it happened in the dead of night.  It's highly unlikely we can find anything remotely like a sail loft in this part of the world so we may just have to do without until we get to Richards Bay in South Africa.  When we get a chance, we'll take it down to see if there's any chance of a quick fix but......

Our first stop was at the southern point where we dropped anchor at about two in the morning with a little moon to help find our way in.  We're already well behind on our intended schedule so we've more or less decided we won't hang around the east side but rather work our way northwards as soon as possible.  All the anchorages on the northwest coast are exactly what we've been aiming towards so we want to spend as much time there as possible before the cyclone season is upon us.

This morning , we upped anchor to move over to (wait for it) Ambodifototra - try saying that one without stumbling!  That is the check in town but Madagascar is rife with corruption and we'd been told particularly so with the officials in customs, immigration etc here.  We needed to find an ATM and get a SIM card for Internet which we managed but only made a very half-hearted effort to find the customs official who seems infamous for extorting funds from unsuspecting cruisers.  We decided to give him a miss and will try to legitimise our arrival further up the line.  A little bit naughty but one boat a couple of weeks ago was virtually held to ransom as he couldn't get his passports back without paying a huge bribe.  They kept them for three days until he finally gave in.  There's a limit to everything.

At this stage, all is well aboard the good ship Calypso so we look forward to some more relaxing cruising once we pass over the northern cape to the other side.

At last - Progress!

Caudan Marina, Port Louis

Our new sail arrives

After what seems like a month of Sundays, we finally seem to be getting somewhere.  Our new sail, sheets and furler extrusions arrived and, a week after anticipated, we got our act together to have the lot installed.  What a wonderful feeling.  

Immediately upon completion, we sailed up to Grande Baie to get a change of scenery, fuel up, do our final provisioning as well as to hang the new sail at anchor rather than against the wall in tricky winds.

Hoisting the new forestay and furler

 

 

Grand Baie is a major tourist area but is a great stop for provisioning as it has two huge modern supermarkets with everything you could possibly need.  We haven't seen anything of this ilk since Australia. 

The yacht club is extraordinarily friendly to cruisers offering one month free membership with use of all its facilities which includes the most amazing hot showers I think we've ever experienced.  Such a treat!

We got up before sunrise this morning to take advantage of a "no wind" situation so that we could hang our sail.  A new sail always comes with a little concern that it's going to fit properly and we're thrilled to say, it did.  Calypso is finally dressed.

We had hoped to spend some time down at Black River as well but time is definitely not on our side so we will finish up here, return to Port Louis to check out then be on our way.

One thing that I hadn't mentioned in my previous blog was that after we left the sling lift, we went into the Caudan Basin to turn around so that we could tie up to the wall on the starboard side making it easier to extract ourselves when the time came to leave. The Basin has a depth of 4 metres so no problem, right?  Wrong!  Just as we started the turn, we hit something very hard and very sharp just about a metre under the water.  Even though we were in neutral at the time, we hit so hard that we bounced backwards and some of the headlining fell down.  It must have been something like a huge metal beam or a sunken boat but it was solid!

Once we'd tied up, Paul jumped in to check it out and found a sizeable chunk removed half way up the keel.  Damn, and just literally minutes after we'd been put back into the water.  He then got out his trusty underwater putty again but there's no two ways about it, to fix it properly we'll have to haul out again but, as it's not an emergency, we'll wait until the time comes for the marine inspection when we put her on the market in Cape Town.  Just another little episode to add to those already shattered nerves.  I think, in my next life, I might rather consider taking up knitting or crocheting as a hobby.

The following are more photos taken around Port Louis at the waterfront and the market.

PHOTO ALBUM:

Around the Caudan waterfront

Perfect displays

Just don't take from the bottom

Another step backwards

The next drama in the lives of the crew of Calypso was to haul out in an emergency to fix a broken cockpit drain through-hull fitting.   Paul had managed to plug it then wrap underwater putty around it so the emergency downgraded to a "must-do very soon" situation rather than immediate but it was still something to add to the already frazzled nerves and ever increasing financial costs.

The yard, Taylor Smith here at Port Louis, lifted us at noon on the Friday and allowed us to stay in the sling for the weekend which allowed Paul the time to replace the fitting and change the prop blades.  The through-hulls proved to be a very time-consuming task as the connections are right at the bottom of the hull underneath the engine which is so confined at the best of times.

The staff at the yard were all so helpful and accomodating which was wonderful.  What wasn't so great was that they obviously don't cater for liveaboards.  There are very few facilities for customers in the way of toilets, showers, water and electrical connections.  They did their best under the circumstances but if they are hoping to attract many boats from the ARC rally, they need to offer far better amenities.  At the end of each day, Paul had to shower in the dark using a hose from the yard as the water in the ablution block wasn't working.  It's cold here at night so a hot shower would have been nice but......

We were to splash again on Monday morning then proceed to the Caudan Basin to have our forestay etc installed but this is where the next problem arose.  There was obviously a major misunderstanding as to who was ordering what and, in the end, the forestay hadn't been ordered.  We were of the understanding that the rigger wanted to only deal with France for the manufacturing of the forestay so we left that to him while we ordered the sail and Profurl parts from SA.  He understood differently.  So now we continue to wait!  Is there ever going to be an end to all this?

Meanwhile, every other boat we know have moved on; tail-end Charlies again.

Solar eclipse

Wow, our second solar eclipse this year - stunning, and I hadn't even heard about it until I walked out of the supermarket thinking it was so overcast, an eerie darkness, it looked as though a huge storm was upon us.  Then I saw that everyone was looking up at the sky.  I ran back to the boat to dig our my trusty mammogram x-Ray's which gave us a spectacular viewing - another great sighting through the boobs!

It looks as though tomorrow is finally the day we'll be hauled out so that we can fix our 'emergency' leak.  Thank goodness Paul was able to stem the flow or else we would have been in serious trouble while the yard gave us one delay after the other.

We've also just received the news that our sail has arrived so hopefully we can get that out of customs this weekend.  The furler foils had been sitting at the airport in Cape Town for a week with no hope of getting anywhere.  The agent here was using another agent there and that one didn't really seem to know how to jump through the export hoops.  In the end, we asked the supplier to get the package back and take it to the sailmaker to have included in their shipment.  They were all very obliging which allowed it all to get under way immediately.  Our old cruising friend, Bronte, was also an absolute star  by getting us the necessary ropes (sheets and in-haul lines) in Cape Town and taking them over to the sailmaker for inclusion.  Thanks so much Bronts, we owe you.

With any luck (please, it's our time for a little luck), we will be back in the water on Monday, then tie up against a nearby wall so that the rigger can assemble the forestay and furler there before connecting it all back to the mast and deck.  If that all runs smoothly, we could actually hoist the new sail and leave Port Louis to scout around a couple of other anchorages before leaving for Madagascar.  Yeah.