Just Cruizin On Bluemoon

 

Club Naval is a tiny marina with high walls! And muddy! Very muddy!
We used the facilities there at a price and had the longest hottest shower ever!!!! Fantastic! The people were very friendly and most helpful at the club!
Maputo is the capital of Mozambique. It is a colonial and Portugese town. There are wide avenues which are so pretty lined with trees. A lot of historical buildings and attractions lie in the heart of Maputo.
There are a few cultures with a strong South African influence.
The African (Bantu) and Portugese cultures dominate, yet the Arab, East Indian, and Chinese cultures are also felt. The food is really fantastic due to the Portugese and Muslim heritage. Maputo is also the name of song by Bob James and David Sanborn.
Surprisingly Maputo has many fast food joints like KFC - Steers etc!! Anyhow, we went to eat at the restaurant and had their great Portugese peri-peri chicken! Whew! Was it hot! Everyone was sweating! Ian looked like he had been in the sun all day as his face was as red as a tomato! Even his stomach was warm - and all night at that!! LOL
I think this peri-peri will challenge even the ones who always like it hot!!
Then it was off to bed for all of us! No crime watch or anchor watch!
We all got up ready to move to the small craft harbour in Maputo as the immigration and customs offices were closer so we could walk instead of taking a taxi.
So we motored on in and were quite shocked at the setting!
There were boats everywhere - dhows filling up, fishing boats and they were everywhere.
So we had to moor up to a wall with people everywhere! We did great mooring up.
Then it was off to immigration which went quite well - only they never gave us our visas or our receipt.
They told us to come back at 4pm to fetch our receipt as we had paid in dollars and they wanted to check the exchange.
Then off to the administration of maritime, which is where you put your flight plan in and clear your boat. Almost a hick up or two, yet there was a guy who spoke english and he helped for things to go rather smoothly.
They can be very sticky if they want to be! And back to immigration to get the receipt which went well. We went through town and off to the banks to draw money. If you are not careful they will take you for a ride!
The people were standing right over the boat, discussing our names on our logo and trying to figure out who was who. Trying to irritate us to get a reaction. Crazy!
Then I was going to take some pictures of the harbour and all these people who somehow never got taught any manners!! Then Ian took the pictures as they were staring at us.... when the guy right next to us says NO..NO!! Then rubs his fingers together showing money, and says something else about his boat while glaring at us... and his crowd around him all of a sudden turns negative about us taking pictures in his direction, so I asked him about his friends who came and took pictures of the boat and us without our permission or without paying us???
All of a sudden he bursts into laughter and says sorry sister...really sorry sister - hands in the air to make peace so we all smile and say sharp and carry on snapping pictures!!!
Got some really great ones! Filled with water on the other side of the harbour, and met a boat coming in called Ocean spray.
They were caught in that strong winds coming up from Richards bay! Got a rope around their prop!! So they were staying to get a few bits and pieces..
So as we are motoring out the harbour, we hear them radio in... The port control come on and say in a loooooooong shocked voice.. �Ocean spray, ocean spray, never mind, never mind never mind, like 10 times!! It was so funny!
He spoke so fast in broken english and only when we made out what he was actually saying, it was just plain funny!!!Maybe we meet up with them along the way.
We motored back to club Naval and anchored outside.... and boy is it a rolly anchorage! The currents are so strong here! Hopefully we can head off out of here to a more quieter destination... Not gonna happen in a hurry!
Have been to check on the weather and it seems we may be here for longer than expected! We are in this little marina and are we rocking!!
Big waves are coming in through the entrance and smashing against the wall, then doubling back and we are taking a double blow here!
We spliced our drogue ropes today and it took almost the whole day!
Watched a movie with surround sound which sounds like the real deal!
Hopefully the weather changes soon!!
We are on the high seas again! Leaving Maputo and on our way to Inhambane... I smell coffee!!
Well today is Friday the 13th and it is supposed to be a NO, NO travelling on a Friday. There are many tall tales about this in the yachting world.... so we will test this theory, keeping in mind that we are Christians, and are covered by the blood of Jesus!
Our faith is in Him and not in superstition as we believe he created the very ocean we sail on.....
Taken us around 3 hours to zigzag out of the channels!! Nothing better than a GPS hey!!
Up to 9 knots! Winds are up and it is just an awesome feeling!! Waves are choppy and getting really high! Getting our sea legs back in motion! It is the greatest thing watching such an awesome galaxy!
I still sit in such awe at how we have missed out on such beauty!! Guess we all have our moments soaking up such greatness.. Then again it is back to reality!!
There are very black clouds crossing over these beautiful skies! We have a blackout! Chart plotter stopped!! What a disappointment! Then again, Garmin rocks and the hand held GPS keeps us on track! We have been having a lot of slamming waves against the boat so we are rocking!! Then a BIG CURLING BREAKING WAVE! What a blur.... the boat rocked right over! I am sure she was leaning over on one hull at one time!
Everything just fell off the shelves in every cabin and galley!! Then the boat rocked right over the other side!! And I mean right over!
Cockpit totally soaked! Good thing for such great drainage!! Yet we are all well and glad to be back on our feet!! LOL
Throws you around when you don�t expect it as it is pitch black! No moon!! Strong winds and very high swells keep smacking over the starboard bow onto the screen and we all get soaked all over again!
Just shows us how quick things can happen and you are so busy with the moment there is no time for fear or being scared... kinda weird actually .... kinda detached going with the flow... Not so great this thumping and smacking though, yet Ian was making pancakes and at midnight we all indulged in filling our grumbling tummies!! Yummy!!!
What a great dawn breaking into morning!! There are just not enough words to express the gloriousness of it all!
And each dawn is so different to the next, with such awesome colours! Then to our hearts delight we spotted whales!! 15 to 20 metres away!! Stunning!!
Then the one whale breeched high into the air and came down with such force! The kids were totally speechless and in awe!! Have had the same whales following us!!
Maybe escorting us as John puts it! Such excitement!
Jonathan caught a kawa-kawa which was delicious in our chilli bites! Ian made bread!
Man, we have not had home made bread so good in such a looooooooooooong time!!
Big pressure drop.... really big! Seas calming down a touch, yet still high swells!
Good sailing again especially when you have popcorn to fill up on!
Have been surprised at how strong the current has been! Yet we face such calm seas and the wind has died... Time to motor sail again. Great sunrise again! And for some strange reason, I just love fishing at first light! So here I am fishing, while checking around with the binoculars, trying to spot any life besides us... checking on the depth, and, and, and, while everybody is still sleeping and it is so still and calm.... when I spot a fin...
John wakes up and also sees the fin... so I start to reel in and all of a sudden something takes it and runs with the line at such a speed that I nearly went with it!! It had to be something really big! Next thing I see all these dolphins!!!! OH NO!!!!!!!!!!
I thought maybe it was one of them... that fin was a dolphin... then all these dolphins group together and make this unusual and unbelievable sound, almost like wailing!!!
So I am trying to pull in this fish, when all of a sudden it just lets go... and off go all the dolphins!!! Now I am not sure if maybe a dolphin caught my fish I had caught, or if I had caught a dolphin which was the worst feeling ever!!
And talk about being sensitive.... every time dolphins came to swim by the boat and I would walk out they just disappeared!! The whole day!! I really felt so bad because dolphins are the greatest thing and should never be caught!!!
So after the dolphins went, I cast in again then reeled in and something else took the line... I caught a good sized, plus minus 8kg King mackerel!! What a thrill!
Then to really make our day, Ian caught a sail fish! Around 2 metres long! This sail baby broke the rod and the reel!! So it had Ian trying to reel in on a moving reel holder!!
The guys put a pin through it to help and that did it!! This beauty was flying out the water in picture perfect moments and we were to slow to get them!!
The ones we did were great! Then to Ian�s shock this baby hooked onto the rudder and cut the line!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH NO!!
Rapala and all!! That front bill of that sail fish was deadly!!
This one was a mover and a shaker - Yet the memory and photos of it all helps to soften that blow of disappointment!

2007/7/15   2007/7/22
We had just arrived at Inhambane, Flamingo bay and it was lovely to have reached our destination as Alistair and Sue were coming up from Durban to visit Ian and of course us!! Now back to that theory of travelling on a Friday... What can I say.... for the most of it we had a great sail! all are fine and well and excited to go ashore and do some exploring! So we zigzagged through the channels down to Flamingo bay which actually had flamingo�s!! We had big breaking waves all around us! It was actually quite a scary experience when doing it for the first time! And our �East Coast Pilot� was really very helpful! Again we had Ian and Jono on the spreaders looking out, John skippering and me on the chart marking our course... This time it was extremely nerve wrecking as according to the chart, we were going over every sand bank we were warned against!! Yet the guys could clearly see the channel... We even hit 0 on the depth finder at one stage!! So with the outgoing tide, the current was so strong that when we used the anchor chain to anchor we were sailing with the ball and chain! Jess had thrown in a line before we knew it and it got stuck... So Ian jumped into the water to check and loosen it off the rudder!! When he noticed we were dragging this bock behind the boat, and so it was quite a surprise sailing smoothly with a massive cement block attached to the boat!! Ian managed to unhook us with the anchor chain and fishing line which got quite scary when the current is pushing the boat almost on top of him!! We circled back then back again, then were taken out a bit, and so we circled again and again, trying to find a high spot to sit in instead of grounding!! Finely anchored with the CQR which held. Only when we had anchored and all went calm, we realized how many jelly fish were in the water... Ones with long tentacles!! Ian was extremely lucky to not have stood on any of the sea creatures or be stung by these amazing looking jelly babies! This was palm paradise! Never seen so many palm trees in my life! Kids went to Barra lodge and Campbells bay to see if Alistair and Sue had arrived.... we watched a video and had that great tasting fish I caught. We quite happy to know we did not have to sit crime watch or anchor watch. So we could all catch up on lost sleep! And so we did. Great nights sleep! Guys fetched Alistair and Sue with the tender and we had a great time. Kids snorkelled and brought up all those dangerous marine life we have read about. What a sight seeing how well camouflaged sea urchins actually are! There were many that looked like rocks which were alive!! They had sharp spikes all over them and if you happen to stand on one of them it would be a deadly affair!! Then there was the porcupine surprise! It was like a ball with quills coming out of every section and each one had a dab of poison ink on the ends of each one!! This thing moved like a rolling ball on all it�s quills and was really quite beautiful yet extremely deadly! So after an exciting morning with looking and learning about these creatures, we got some really stunning shells - right under the boat! The kids then used the knee board. It was such great fun! Ian got the hang of it quite quickly and enjoyed flying over the water at top speed. John, Alastair and all the kids went ashore while Sue and I enjoyed a moment of peace and quite, going through all the photos of our trip. Snapping yet another spectacular sunset, we noticed the tide had come in quite rapidly, and it looked as though we were sailing away! We weren�t, yet it looked as though we were as this current is amazingly strong! Earlier we were sailing with a cement block, so it looked kinda the same... So while we were checking that we actually were not dragging, we spot the tender (named half moon) with the binocs, the guys had pulled far up on the beach earlier when they went ashore and now we were convinced the tide and current would take her out... as she was about 400 to 500 metres in the sea! We were contemplating if we should take the canoe to fetch half moon, and thought we would be carried out with the strength of the current and so decided we would have a good laugh when the guys got back because the tide had come in hard and fast and to get to the tender now, someone would have to walk waist high about 400 to 500 metres and so when the guys arrived, Sue and I had a good laugh watching Alastair and John lazing on a grounded cat while the girls walked on the beach and Ian and Jonathan were the lucky chosen ones to get the tender and so had to walk the distance to get the tender! With stone fish and some dangerous sea urchins the guys were wading and going extremely slowly to get to the boat... We went back to Campbells Bay where Alastair and Sue were staying and had a fantastic braai! It was a wonderful evening till we realized we could not get back to the boat till around 3am!! The tide was out and so sand banks everywhere!! Including our tender... sitting on sand! LOL So John and Jess went to sleep along with Alastair while Sue, Justine, Ian, Jonathan and I stayed awake chatting and laughing and just enjoying the moment... We got back to the boat by 3:30 am, had a cuppa good coffee, chatted awhile and finely saw the sun rise then went off to bed. The following day Alastair and Sue came over with the good news they had got some prawns!! The delight and excitement of it all!! We went back with them to their place and we all had a hand in preparing the prawn supper! We made a deal everyone would eat the garlic so we could face each other the next day LOL! Then the peri-peri was just as delicious! Yet again we had a fantastic evening, one to remember for a good many years! Got back to the boat by 9pm just in time not to miss the tide! Just chilled reflecting on such a perfect day! The kids were up by 5am ready to go for an early surf which they thoroughly enjoyed then off we all went with Sue and Alastair to the town Inhambane to the market. What a stunning little town! Such character! The buildings are so Portuguese, and one can see the so Just so sad to see the damage that the war did.... Nothing has really been re-built... all just seems as it was then... The market seemed to be a lot more different than the Maputo Market. This one had far more crafts than fresh food. Maputo had far more fresh food which was fantastic looking! So fresh and so colourful! Just got to get used to the bargaining! We are used to a fixed price that you pay. In Mozambique, all the places love to bargain. And they take it quite seriously! Then when you reach an agreement and it is a win-win, everybody then smiles and is happy! What a delightful time we had. Then off to Togo. What a quaint little place! Clearly with some roads just gone, trees all around, you can�t miss the damage that the cyclone caused! People are still trying to reconstruct the housing that was damaged in it. And what cute housing they have! All made from grass! With neat little designs and patterns! So creative! And just so pretty! Such a simple way of life, it makes you appreciate how life used to be... slower... with all our fast cars, microwaves, dishwashers etc, which is supposed to make life easier, we some how seem to always be in the fast lane of life... with out much time for quality in our lives... funny the irony of it all. It was so scenic and so holiday-fied - we felt like we were truly on paradise island! Alastair and Sue took us to Cassa-Barry, a lovely restaurant which they had gone to a few years back. The menu was in english and in South African rands! A nice change from a language you cannot read! The pilot book for Portugese - English has really been coming into good use, especially when I had to retrieve my card that their ATM ate! Then the interrogation! That book did good for helping me explain myself! They are probably still laughing!! After a great meal we came back, said our goodbyes and went back to the boat. The guys went with Alastair in his car for us to fill our diesel cans. What a help! It was fantastic having it a touch easy. The following day we fixed the water-maker!! Changed a few things to make it work easier and so we can now finely make water! Also fixed the windlass - we hope! Watched Grey�s thanks to Sue and Alistair!!! My favourite movie!! They got the next seasons cd�s for us - EXCITED is not the word!! Thanks so much!!! Set sail across the bay to Linga- Linga, which started off well until a misjudgement and we grounded good and solid!! Had Ian and Jono pulling the boat with the dingy trying to get out the sand, yet to no avail!! She was sitting out the water on the one side where there was no trying to hide the fact that we had grounded!! And so John and I went for a dingy ride where we were plaining and having such a cool time! Have got some of the most amazing shells!! You cannot believe the big and beautiful shells laying in the water and on the shores!! I am still so shocked at the size of some of these cowries!! It is just beautiful! My collection is growing! We finely anchored just before dark! Justine has come down with something as she is not well! Her temperature is 39.3! Runny tummy, headache, no energy and very tired! We did a malaria test which thankfully came up negative. Yet it takes about two weeks, so if the symptoms continue, we will test again. Picked up anchor and on route to Bazaruto. What a great trip! Need a bigger log book to fill in all our notes! Fished all day and no fish! Jono was untangling all his line which got caught up previously by a big fish! Justine�s temp down, yet still monitoring her. She is also vomiting too now! Saw so many dolphins! WoW! And whales!! What a brilliant feeling seeing such an enormous creature right next to you!!! Then coming out the water with such amazing force and the water! The splash! No words.... and every time you see it, it is just as exhilarating and just as awesome! Makes you feel so small in comparison!! Had a great night! Good sailing, yet a touch of rain. We all got into our foul gear ready for the massive black cloud catching our stern.... then a touch of rain and it was over... funny how fast the night goes! Justine is back to normal! going extremely slowly to get to the boat... We went back to Campbells Bay where Alastair and Sue were staying and had a fantastic braai! It was a wonderful evening till we realized we could not get back to the boat till around 3am!! The tide was out and so sand banks everywhere!! Including our tender... sitting on sand! LOL So John and Jess went to sleep along with Alastair while Sue, Justine, Ian, Jonathan and I stayed awake chatting and laughing and just enjoying the moment... We got back to the boat by 3:30 am, had a cuppa good coffee, chatted awhile and finely saw the sun rise then went off to bed. The following day Alastair and Sue came over with the good news they had got some prawns!! The delight and excitement of it all!! We went back with them to their place and we all had a hand in preparing the prawn supper! We made a deal everyone would eat the garlic so we could face each other the next day LOL! Then the peri-peri was just as delicious! Yet again we had a fantastic evening, one to remember for a good many years! Got back to the boat by 9pm just in time not to miss the tide! Just chilled reflecting on such a perfect day! The kids were up by 5am ready to go for an early surf which they thoroughly enjoyed then off we all went with Sue and Alastair to the town Inhambane to the market. What a stunning little town! Such character! The buildings are so Portuguese, and one can see the so Just so sad to see the damage that the war did.... Nothing has really been re-built... all just seems as it was then... The market seemed to be a lot more different than the Maputo Market. This one had far more crafts than fresh food. Maputo had far more fresh food which was fantastic looking! So fresh and so colourful! Just got to get used to the bargaining! We are used to a fixed price that you pay. In Mozambique, all the places love to bargain. And they take it quite seriously! Then when you reach an agreement and it is a win-win, everybody then smiles and is happy! What a delightful time we had. Then off to Togo. What a quaint little place! Clearly with some roads just gone, trees all around, you can�t miss the damage that the cyclone caused! People are still trying to reconstruct the housing that was damaged in it. And what cute housing they have! All made from grass! With neat little designs and patterns! So creative! And just so pretty! Such a simple way of life, it makes you appreciate how life used to be... slower... with all our fast cars, microwaves, dishwashers etc, which is supposed to make life easier, we some how seem to always be in the fast lane of life... with out much time for quality in our lives... funny the irony of it all. It was so scenic and so holiday-fied - we felt like we were truly on paradise island! Alastair and Sue took us to Cassa-Barry, a lovely restaurant which they had gone to a few years back. The menu was in english and in South African rands! A nice change from a language you cannot read! The pilot book for Portugese - English has really been coming into good use, especially when I had to retrieve my card that their ATM ate! Then the interrogation! That book did good for helping me explain myself! They are probably still laughing!! After a great meal we came back, said our goodbyes and went back to the boat. The guys went with Alastair in his car for us to fill our diesel cans. What a help! It was fantastic having it a touch easy. The following day we fixed the water-maker!! Changed a few things to make it work easier and so we can now finely make water! Also fixed the windlass - we hope! Watched Grey�s thanks to Sue and Alistair!!! My favourite movie!! They got the next seasons cd�s for us - EXCITED is not the word!! Thanks so much!!! Set sail across the bay to Linga- Linga, which started off well until a misjudgement and we grounded good and solid!! Had Ian and Jono pulling the boat with the dingy trying to get out the sand, yet to no avail!! She was sitting out the water on the one side where there was no trying to hide the fact that we had grounded!! And so John and I went for a dingy ride where we were plaining and having such a cool time! Have got some of the most amazing shells!! You cannot believe the big and beautiful shells laying in the water and on the shores!! I am still so shocked at the size of some of these cowries!! It is just beautiful! My collection is growing! We finely anchored just before dark! Justine has come down with something as she is not well! Her temperature is 39.3! Runny tummy, headache, no energy and very tired! We did a malaria test which thankfully came up negative. Yet it takes about two weeks, so if the symptoms continue, we will test again. Picked up anchor and on route to Bazaruto. What a great trip! Need a bigger log book to fill in all our notes! Fished all day and no fish! Jono was untangling all his line which got caught up previously by a big fish! Justine�s temp down, yet still monitoring her. She is also vomiting too now! Saw so many dolphins! WoW! And whales!! What a brilliant feeling seeing such an enormous creature right next to you!!! Then coming out the water with such amazing force and the water! The splash! No words.... and every time you see it, it is just as exhilarating and just as awesome! Makes you feel so small in comparison!! Had a great night! Good sailing, yet a touch of rain. We all got into our foul gear ready for the massive black cloud catching our stern.... then a touch of rain and it was over... funny how fast the night goes! Justine is back to normal! What a relief!! John caught a big king mackerel which made fantastic fish cakes!!! What a great fun filled fishing day! Ian and Jono almost exactly caught a skip-jack tuna! Simultaneously both reels went for a run! What excitement coursed through our veins!!! Justine and Jess caught a mackerel. What a delight to enjoy their delight!! And so we zigzagged into Bazaruto! My favourite place! One that holds many good memories.... and here we are.

2007/7/22   2007/8/3
Bazaruto... with crystal blue clear water with white sands... just too pretty to look at.
Happy to finely pick up Peri-Peri! Had such a problem not being able to pick up anything! And for the whole trip till now!! Now that we are on it somehow makes that link to home just better! Kids had a blast of a day, playing and riding on the sand dunes, swimming on the other side of the ocean while I was feeling sick... also vomiting, nauseous, headache, runny tummy, slight temperature yet feel great now! Maybe a one day bug... and thankfully because we had a day sail to Benguera Island. Saw dolphins and dugongs which are amazing creatures. Made water easily... Ian made bread and bread rolls which were fantastic! Tasted better than the ones you get from the shops and fresh!
Sitting in anchor, having a brilliant sunset, reflecting on a great day where it was just one of those perfect days!! Man did we have a great meal tonight! John made steak, chips and battered onion rings! Delicious!
Somehow I wish you all could see life through our eyes... it is just such a great way of life... so simple yet filled with such beauty, such inspiration, such delightful moments that seem to burn into your memory bank.... it is one of the most fulfilling, successful moments I could ever have dreamed possible... and I am just so sorry you are not with us experiencing this way of life. Spent a few days cleaning up, washing, mixed with snorkelling and some fun! Was waiting to see Barefoot come into anchor... and so met Norman and Samantha on Regal. They have been in this area for the last few years and so they know this place like the back of their hands!! They have been really great and made our way so much easier by their know-how! We were both really appreciative of the help. Later we both sailed and anchored off Marlin Lodge where we met Gary, who really made us feel so welcome! It was just so refreshing being among people you only just met yet felt like you knew for years! We all swopped stories, had good coffee then went back to our tenders and chugged back to the boat. The following morning the kids all went down to clear a blocked head. They snorkelled while I lay in my hammock, soaking up the realization of being on an island with white sand, palm trees.... mmmmmmmm I was in my element! Then Barefoot arrived! We were so excited as she sailed in and anchored. Unfortunately they had a really rough time getting up here with the winds. That night we all went to the club for a drink and a chat. There was Peter and Dave, with their other crew members Josh and Kelvin from Barefoot, Norman and Samantha from Regal, and of course our family, John, myself Jenny, Justine, Jessica, Jonathan and Ian on Bluemoon. It was just so nice seeing familiar faces. Yet again another winning evening! We spent the day spring-cleaning, bought calamari which John made extremely interesting for us by popping the sack and making the biggest mess with Ian you can think of! If you wanted anything dyed, you could have gone wild! It was the best tasting calamari chewing gum ever!! The spices were great but tough! The ones John battered were good! And so we hope to get more calamari so we can perfect our cooking skills on the easiest known dish! Gary organised a bring and braai at Marlin Lodge which turned out to be such a fantastic evening! We danced, chatted, drank and we all festive right up till sunrise!! Ian, Justine, Jessica, Jonathan, Josh, Kelvin and Tokkie all made a bonfire on the beach which was so cool! We got back to the boat and drank as much water as we could so not to be affected by the after effects!! The kids all came home at 8:30 am having had a ball!! The boys then went snorkelling and dingy exploring on the reefs. The girls finely crashed with exhaustion. Norman and Sam came over for a visit. With the weather changing, we were going to lift anchor and sail back to Benguera bay with Regal as Barefoot was ready to catch the weather out and have some decent sailing for a change! We all sailed out together... It was such an awesome feeling sailing alongside Barefoot down the channel. Our dingy snapped off one of the lines and so had to slow down to sort her out. We finely waved our goodbyes and watched them battle to get out of the low channel with gusting winds! Finely got through the fork past the sand bank to our anchorage which was quite a relief getting out the winds and very choppy seas ... Soon Barefoot was just a speck and so we radioed them to wish them a safe journey with God speed! Spent a day relaxing and just chilling. John and I went for a canoe ride to the shore which used muscles we never realized we actually had!! Walked along the beach and went in to visit Benguera. What a sight at what the cyclone did!!! The hotel is down and being renovated as is most of the resorts, and only in December do they see themselves being open again! What character these places have! The detail on all the finishes were really appreciated. Somehow they added such character to the place. The feel to the place was just amazing. Early in the morning you can hear all the fishermen singing while they sail their dhows out for fishing. What a brilliant sound! Then there are those that stay in the water and start pulling in the nets from shore.... and so at the end of the day we went to see what they had caught. And found a cow fish which was the cutest ever!!! It was like a square, hard all round with tiny fins going for it out the water...also it had soft lips! There was also a black fish that had feet!! Yes, we looked it up in our book of fish and found it was rare and no one had any samples of them, yet unfortunately it was dead and we had let it go. Today the 30 July, we went to Vilanculos to the mainland to re-stock on our supplies, get some diesel, petrol and a few extras. The sail there was great. Winds picked up and seas got extremely choppy! Norman gave us a number of a guy he knew that we could phone who would help us and so we phoned and surprisingly he met us as we came in on the dingy with all the jerry cans. Sopping wet!! The choppy seas on a dingy looked like mountains, and crashing through those mountains with a 5 hp motor, we were regretting not putting the 15hp on!! John the big sausage, did his very best to make sure that we crashed and nosedived every huge swell on our way in assuring our total wetness!!!!! John in his usual cowboy moments, with the know it all attitude when on the tender, has to always accelerate and make us have the ride of our life! With wet clothes and a cool breeze makes for us to be frozen!! John, Jonathan and myself arrived like drenched rats!! Climbing into Wayne�s bakkie with our jerry cans, we headed into the town of Vilanculos. Not a very interesting town with dusty roads, broken tarmac, and a spattering of cellular stores, bars and road hawkers. We were however taken to a South African owned store, Taurus, where we were delighted to see familiar products and so managed to stock up on most of our goods. Sadly simba chips were not on the shelves! With full diesel and petrol cans, over packed packets, we went back to the dingy to take the ride of our lives again back to the boat! John and I thanked Wayne and his guy looking after our tender, with great appreciation! He didn�t want anything in return for his kindness!! We were blessed! More than you will know. With four 20 litre diesel cans and one 25 litre petrol can waiting on the beach, we managed to get all our supplies into the tender with Jonathan beating his way back to bluemoon about a mile away! The winds were up and the swells increasing! Jonathan came back with Ian to pick up the diesel while John and I made our way through town to the airport to get stamped out. We managed to get a taxi to the airport which was not very far from town. Expecting a few hitches on stamping out, we were surprised to see that all went smoothly till I mentioned us sailing to Madagascar! We had to fill in some papers and have our passports re-stamped only this time with a yacht sign and an out arrow rather than the aeroplane and an in arrow!! Yet, we all had a good laugh and walked out surprised it could have been that easy! The official was very pleasant and friendly. Then we decided to spend all our metical�s and so went to the market to buy smokes. We were pleased at how cheap they were, till the taxi driver yelled and shouted harshly through the window at all the hawkers for trying to rip us off! Well, what can I say... we managed to get the smokes at a ridiculous price and so saved quite a bit, then bough some whiskey right on the side of the street and so tipped the taxi driver with the rest of our metical�s!! We managed to radio bluemoon to get the kids to fetch us, as the battery was really low. Watching how Ian and Justine were battling against the short choppy swells, we were concerned about getting back to the boat, and rightly so... we managed to motor out on a few largish swells watching Bengetti coming in from a trip to anchor. We were hardly past them when all of a sudden our motor cut out and we couldn�t start her again.... Ian checked and of course we were out of petrol.... LOL !!! Yet coming out so far and in a few times with the state of the sea, and with her working the motor really hard, she used a lot more petrol than she normally would. Hehehe So out came the paddles and here we were, taking turns to paddle in this roughish seas, trying our hardest to make headway to the boat... back to bluemoon just less than a mile away! At least we gave Bengetti�s guests some entertainment! We must have looked like total idiots! Paddling hard and fast, we were actually getting no where. We were being tossed around in the large waves! Getting splashed left right and centre!! All of us!! One could only laugh at the moment! Drifting towards the rocks!! We managed to radio to Jono to get the kayak out and bring it along with the petrol so we could get back to the boat in order to get back to Benguera island about 10 miles away and before dark!! And with it being past three we would only get back to the boat around midnight with our paddling!! Next thing a huge motor boat comes up to us, takes our rope and takes us for the ride of our lives!!! He takes us back to bluemoon. Luckily we could radio in and tell Jono not to come out as our radio battery died straight after. We were only to happy to be paying this guy his petrol money as we surely would have been out there till midnight! We managed to get aboard, lift the duck, secure and lash all the goods and head off for Benguera again which got us there, anchored just before dark!! So it was quite a day. Spent the rest of the evening packing things, lashing down things and going over our plan for the crossing to Bassas Da India. Hopefully there will be Internet so I can upload all my logs!!! Motored with the tender to the Lodge hoping to use Gary�s Internet. Thank goodness for such kind and wonderful people! Yet could not send my logs!! And they are getting longer and longer! Well, we pulled anchor and set sail across the bar by 4:40pm. The sun was starting to go down and we settled in for a great night of sailing. We saw a few whales just outside the bar tail slapping and waving us a fantastic farewell. What an awesome moment yet again. Guess every time I see a whale it IS an awesome moment, every time!! They waved us goodbye till the sun went down. Moon rose and was brilliant! Put up 2 reefs in the main as the swells were getting really rough! And they were growing! Later on we attempted to put a 3rd reef in the main to find it snapped off from all the chaffing! So we took down the main and altered course. Tacking as the wind was right on the nose! Made scones at midnight which were really great! Without having a scone tray I had to make a plan and so I did! Ian and myself tend to sit up all night, every night when on the ocean for a day or two and so have had many good chats and shared the beauty of the ocean one would never know exists! If we are tired, we will mosey into the saloon and have a quick nap. Yet we do pretty little sleeping during the trip. I somehow just cannot sleep, no matter how hard I try! So I do night-shift at this stage every time. I love it though! Knowing everyone is sleeping and here you are spotting things so wonderful .... like a new born learning things for the very first time... Ian has taught me many things and the one thing that stands out the most besides smelling land is the whales. You can smell them!! They smell of rotten fish, or maybe not that bad yet of stale fish. Then you spot the white puff of water in-between all the white crested waves... the whale blowing out his blowhole, and in the dark. You just have to sell up, and come and experience this!! I promise you, if you have ever thought about it and are still in-between on making a decision... DO IT!! You will never regret it! Never! We just wish we knew this so we didn�t have to waste so much time!! No amount of money can buy you what we have experienced FREE! The feeling of freedom cannot be described! True freedom!! Clouds breaking and morning waking up... what a stunning sunrise through the clouds.... Overcast, yet will change, I am sure! Ian fixed the reefing block which twisted and so... it makes for another interesting day. Had the music on really loud and was just so wonderful having no=-one to tell you to turn it down! LOL! All day too!! Ian and John caught a massive fish which we thought was a tuna as it made a run for it and was so strong it snapped our line and went off with the hook! Very big hook! Have just had a blessing for the last 10 minutes! Dolphins! Playing in the bow! Magnificent! Such a delightful treat! Nice break for the kids who were doing school.... What a trip! We had flying fish over the deck! One just missed my face and headed out the back of the boat! What a great moment witnessing fish flying! You think you are past the tired barrier and already dreaming or losing it!! Yet these fish have wings and fly over the surface of the water. Amazing experience! Still got my sanity thank you very much! Faced a wonderful sunrise with great fishing prospects. We were all awake and alert looking out for Bassas Da India, which is known as the disappearing Island.

2007/8/3   2007/8/9
Bassas is a small coral atoll, almost circular which encloses a shallow lagoon which is the most unbelievable colour ever! It is exactly like the glossy mags showing these beautiful islands with the deep crystal clear turquoise oceans with the most stunning, mind capturing experience ever! The island is a volcanic reef which was one step, or one eruption away from being an island. It rises steeply from the ocean depths and looks just like an inhabitable land. The reefs are famous for the number of ancient and modern shipwrecks around them, which attract divers and even treasure hunters. The reef is completely covered from 3 hours before and 3 hours after high water. The currents in the atoll are extremely strong and coming in at night is a death wish. There are no real anchorages in the atoll, yet vessels have anchored off the east point of the coral atoll in calm conditions. How awesome seeing the shipwrecks come out the ocean and from a good distance before reaching it. One has to be very careful it seems when reading the charts, as the island is not where it is supposed to be. And so the day began.. We had a fantastic day fishing today! Jonathan, Jessica and I caught yellow fin tuna, and quite big ones! We kept one. Then John caught a huge wahoo. Ian and Jonathan were standing on the sugar scoops with the gaff and a knife so they could unhook and release, or unhook and keep. Well, this wahoo was a fighter! And was bleeding just a touch from the hook, next thing we see all these sharks around the boat!! One came up and bit the tail of Johns wahoo right off which the guys were still holding!! Scary! It took the tail right off which made it bleed a lot, and next thing there are sharks everywhere!! And in a total frenzy!! There were Zambezi and white tip reef sharks. It was quite a hair raising moment! Then we tied some bait onto a rope and threw it out to see how quick the sharks took it. And so this went for a while, till we saw one overly huge shark, ugly at that, come up and bump the boat. Then again, and again! We realized it was bumping the boat hoping to get more food out of it. And a few times it came up to the sugar scoops eyeing it out... We decided to move fast otherwise it might have taken a chomp out of the sugar scoop! We moved around to the other side of the island where there was an anchor on the coral land which just made for a strange feeling trying to make out a scenario of how it actually got there and what happened .... We continued to fish and Justine caught a huge shark! Yes! It was massive and the kid was so exhausted, it seemed like she did a weeks aerobics in one day! We were so proud of her! John tried to gaff the shark to retrieve the rapala and boy what a shock! The shark fought off onto the side of the boat and broke the line taking the rapala with it!. Guess we are learning many lessons ... and one is not to put ourselves into dangerous positions! Had a fantastic sleep not having to crime watch though we did have to do anchor watch. At least be aware as the shelf of rock a little in front of us would be catastrophic if we hit it. The next morning we took a ride around the island looking for a place to stop so we could investigate the island, yet there was coral all around with pockets all around and no-where to anchor off.... so we fished all day, relaxed, and just had a fantastic time with fantastic fishing!! We had a warning from Peri-Peri about the weather changing, and so decided to go to Ille Da Europe instead of Jaen Da Nova, as it was much closer. So the time came to lift anchor so we could set sail... Yet the anchor was fouled over the coral! The chain had wrapped like three times around a coral head and with the vast amount of sharks, there was no way any one of us was diving to release that anchor!! No matter if we were there for months!! So after a long while of motoring forward, going astern, port and starboard, we managed to loosen the anchor. Eventually!! With excitement, we just started to bring in our rope attached to a coke bottle used as a buoy, when the boat drifted forward with the motors on.... the rope wrapped around the prop!!! Shocker!! What a moment of absolute shock! Yet again, the one thing we were all sure of was that NO-ONE was getting into the water to unwrap it! So we sailed off at 17:40 pm just before sunset with only the starboard motor running. All had a smile on their faces - relieved we had two motors!!! Sailing out of Bassas, it was truly amazing to see the island had disappeared!! It was so dark! Like switching off all your lights at home on a farm! You cannot even see your hand in-front of your face! So you can image our delight when the moon rose! WoW! What a moment seeing the flat seas we were on!! It was like sailing on a lake of glass! Awesome! And the galaxy... stunning! Justine made coconut ice which was fantastic! The winds were picking up so we had to race against time! By morning, the seas were bumpy, short and choppy and going in all directions like a washing machine. The clouds were building as was the seas! At about 2.86 miles off of Ille De Europe, Ian and Jonathan dived to release the rope from the prop. We tied them on with rope as the current and swells were strong! Then headed off to such a surprise! We were told by these french militants the it was � impossible� to anchor in french waters!! Hello?? We are in a howling gale by this stage and are tired and they are insistent we cannot stay! So I tell them we just came from Bassas Da India, and man did he go off about that also being french waters!! They denied us anchoring and refused us entry telling us we must leave now!! Again, we tried to speak to them with �bonjour� offered them fish even!! Yet the same ol� same ol� It is impossible! Impossible!� So we told them we had to sort out the one motor and had no choice but to stay, so, impossible or not, we anchored right in-front of their little building! They instructed us not to get off the boat, and definitely not to come ashore!! They did not care that we had kids who needed to stretch their legs on some land! We have been on the boat since the 31st July and it is now the 07th August! So we anchored and sat it out with very strong winds and really bad chop, rocking and rolling! For two days!!! And for that time they had brought their chairs onto the beach and watched us permanently!!!!!!!!!! We had binoculars as did they, so it was quite fun seeing these idiots panic every time we came on deck!! We went out to check the anchor chain and they jump up to check what we were doing! And so we kidded around knowing how they would react! What a pity we couldn�t go ashore! It is a pretty island with blue crystal clear water... awesome shades of turquoise! And white sandy beaches! Heave ho and away we go! We set sail at 08:14 am and next thing their were about 14 or 15 people walking the beaches watching us!! Right now we have changed course again �cause of the wind! We are not going to the barren islands anymore, we are on our way to Morombe!! Swells are big! About 4-6 metres! Ran out of gas! So we will be having a lot of tin food!! Guys are fixing our electrical kettle so at least we don�t run out of our fix!!! Coffee!! Now that would be a massive dilemma! Ian was really creative and made noodles without our gas!! He poured boiling water onto the noodles and covered it for a few minutes and it was just fantastic!! Everyone went to sleep so Ian and I played back-gammon! Being tired and on a rather bumpy ride, Ian thought the dice had eight sides!! LOL! Thought we saw lights all over the horizon!! Checked the radar and saw nothing!! Then it was wake up time! COFFEE BREAK!! Again!! John woke up to take over shift as did Justine and Jonathan. The Genoa was out, Port motor running and the race was on! Then the Genoa was furled in and only the Port motor running! The wind surely was messing us around! Only after eight am did we have all the sails out and were sailing for a change!! Great winds! Did washing which was quite fun... Then a strange thing... When I went to nap for an hour I had a dream. A lady with a baby on her hip was standing in a lake, along with John and myself, and she asked us if we knew about the child that had just died in the lake? John said yes and pointed to the one side and said 15 died this area, then pointed to the other side and gave another number... Anyway, later that day after the washing and cleaning, school, and, and, and... close on three o�clock, Ian and Jono were tying a rope around them onto the rail so they could jump into the big blue and go for a swim... When John looked at the sea, he was shocked! He told the guys not to swim yet, then asked me to tell them of my dream. When I looked up and saw the sea as calm as ever, smooth just like a lake, the same lake in my dream, I got goosees!! It was such an airy feeling among all of us and so the boys never went into the water!! There was no way they were willing to take the chance! Quite something if you were here to see it for yourself! Fishing carried on and everyone just enjoyed the rest of the afternoon. Lazee!! Lazee!! Made water and filled the tanks again which was great as we could have a bath again! These cool showers on a cool day can really become something you don�t really want to do. All were awake now and getting excited we were close to Madagascar!! What a great feeling! Though it was extremely the roughest sail we have had this whole trip! We were really slamming and rocking and rolling! Very rough!! Then the good news... we had to tack 5 miles off of Morombe, Madagascar for the whole night!!! We could smell land! And with a sliver of a moon, it was extremely dark! And so the jibing and tacking was on! It was so cold! Freezing!! Just one of those moments that make you wish you were on stable ground with a warm bed and no demands!! Yet, the night went on. John and Jonathan took over and carried on... Then Jonathan and myself had just put the starboard motor on, and were waiting to furl the Genoa, when all of a sudden we hear this noise! It was a massive whale blowing out his blow hole!! And he is right next to the boat!! Jonathan jumped into action and moved the boat towards Port while I pulled out the sail just to get us moving! What a moment!! Quite nerve wrecking actually after hearing some stories earlier from Regal, about what trauma they went through having whales try to capsize them... so we had a moment of absolute shock! At about 4:50 am we moved towards Morombe and were following the leading lines into Maromba by 6:00 am! The lesson we have learnt is to rather slow down and take longer to get to your destination when it is light rather than hang around waiting all night! One of the rules we have is that we will never enter an unknown port at night - ever.

2007/8/9   2007/8/21
t was such a nice feeling seeing land! There were lots of sailing dhows which had square sails!! It was really quite a treat! And noisy!! My goodness, we could not believe that at 7 in the morning it was just so loud!! The best part is the sound of children�s laughter! Delightful! So refreshing! There is such a nice feel about this town. Happy somehow... Guys went ashore to find gas, fill diesel tanks and to find cooking oil!!! Ran out!! Well, just before they went back to collect the diesel the second time, there was this canoe with about 5 people on it which capsized! The current was strong and wavelets hitting on them. So Ian and Jonathan jumped into the tender and managed to help them all back to shore, including there boat! Met the Port Captain. Found this little dusty town to be so friendly! My experience has been rather different! I have felt somewhat like a celebrity!! Having red hair, it made me stick out and no one seemed to have seen someone with red hair before, especially long and curly! And so everyone was staring at me, checking me out and laughing! What a day! We walked our buts off, to the bank, to fetch gas, to the market, back to fetch baguettes which were so delicious!! We managed to find and buy all the crisps the market had! Planning on leaving tomorrow now that we have filled up and stocked up for a while. Got the gas to cook again! Oil to fry our food. And crisps to eat along the way! What more can man want??? Hehehe You learn to live with so little and to use whatever resources you have. The amount of new creative recipes we have come up with has been brilliant!! And somehow it is great! You do not really lack for anything. Somehow you feel as though you are still on a great holiday!! Like nothing I have ever experienced ever! There is just so much to keep you busy! And it is like the greatest thing if you do see a ship or something on the horizon! Well a new dawn and we lifted anchor to go off to our next anchorage about 60 miles to - Nosy Andriamitaroka. We were not even two miles out and were beating so hard against the wind... we cancelled due to lack of beating and so re-anchored! Justine fried steaks with a lot of different tin foods! Ravishing!! Again we all had a great night! Watched videos!! Slept well! Got up at 4 am lifted anchor and set off into the sunrise! Two Japanese trawlers were coming to town! Put the Genoa up and had such a fantastic sail! All day!! 9 knots!! Man! I love this sailing!! Kids doing school - doing a little reading... spotting some fishing boats and manoeuvring past their flags and buoys! What fun! Jono caught a kawa-kawa - what a beauty!! Ian cooked a fantastic pasta for lunch. Came into our anchorage before sunset and had quite a time dodging all the buoys and flags floating in the ocean with the sun dead on our nose! Well, finely dropped anchor and the guys were in the water snorkelling then washing their hair and just having a blast!! The little island had fishing boats all over the shore and noisy! Grass houses, like shacks spotted all over the place. Gee-wizz, I cannot believe how loud they are!! Just like Morombe with children laughing! It is just such a sweet sound to our ears!! Also a nice feel to this place. Yet again, had a great night with Jono cutting and cooking his fish for supper and making dried fish biltong! Slept reasonably early, and kids straight after a video, so we could be up early again to leave at 4am, and so lifted anchor and left during sunrise are now on our way to our next anchorage at Morondava. We should get there by late this afternoon. Both motors on as the wind is almost 1.5 knots!! Beautiful day with calm seas! Looks like a massive lake which is really stunning! The amount of whales that we have been seeing has been more than I imagined! And some come so close to the boat it is quite amazing!! The scary thing we all experience is when the whales dive under the boat!! You keep your eye on the depth and sometimes your heart starts to race when it starts dropping rapidly!! Made bread earlier this morning for tea time. Tasted more like scones! Yet still great! Have been on watch most of the day. I just cannot put into words the rush of emotions one gets when you realize you are on an ocean with no land in sight yet birds all over the place! You realize how real and awesome God is!! There is no doubt in our minds that with all we see such as the dolphins, the whales, turtles, the galaxy... and just so much more, there is no way we will believe that earth was created by some explosion!! NEVER!! There is way too much evidence on these high seas to prove otherwise! Guess one has to be here to experience the closeness of nature and to see that only the hand of a Mighty, Awesome being could have spoken all this into life! And so the fun began! There were schools of jumping fish!! So I turned the boat around and went straight through the school and Jono almost had a catch, yet lost it then John got a catch! A big kawa-kawa! We continued on our course and everyone settled down, next thing another school jumping out the water, this time Ian took over while John, Jono and myself were trying to catch one and YES!! Oh baby yes!!! I caught a real big one!! Ian had to hold the rod up otherwise it would have taken me right into the ocean with it!! Heavy man!! And reeling in was sheer punishment!! But way worth it!! What a stunner!! And so we had two kawa- kawa�s which we knew we were gonna love!! And so every time we saw a school jumping out the water we turned our baby around and headed for the fun!! And fun it truly was!! We arrived just after three thirty into this little bay. What a welcoming sight!! This little port has an air of a french seaside retreat! Just like the piolet says! It was real pretty yet somehow there was a feeling we could not quite put into words... yet we filleted our fish and had a feast! Decided to stay the next day to check the town out.. Having slept in a bit which was well deserved, we sat in the cockpit having our first cup of coffee when we had all these dug out canoes circling the boat.. Visitors! We met Ammer who wanted us to teach him english. He could not talk french, though he understood it, only Malagasy. Next thing there were all these kids hanging off the boat, shy as ever listening to Ammer chat and try to understand the language better. In the meanwhile we got to learn a bit about the town. This German man gave the mayor money to build a real nice market for the town, and when he came back he found that the market never materialized and so the mayor was sent to prison and will be there for about five years. Now because of that the place is filthy, and the market even worse. He spoke about the crime, which was quite a shock for me as most of the guys are unemployed, even though they fish, they do not always make it and so there girlfriends prostitute themselves in the evenings for their men to give them money and keep them and that is one reason why crime can be low. Yet we never got a straight answer from him on that one. Also, we found out that the people are always very weary of foreigners coming to town as they used to take their young girls with them. And so they still have the same mind set and try to ignore us foreigners. Yet, I am not so sure as the write ups on this place was supposed to be quite good with an excellent market.... So went ashore only to find we were beaching the dingy on the rocks!! They were everywhere and we were so close, turning back would only have hurt the motor even worse!! We had quite an audience that had to come and see these six pathetic looking tourists, us, motor over mega rocks to the shore!! Hitting the rocks with the motor and the bottom of the boat... making quite a racket!! All laughing nervously and not sure quite what to do, so we all dived out the boat into almost waist high breaking waters and managed to lift the boat to the beach covered in even more rocks, with a lot of help from the breakers!! Thank you very much!! Drenched, and I am not kidding!! We all had a great laugh getting over the stress of almost breaking the dingy and ending the life of our motor!! And I think total fear of getting stuck on an island like this one!! And so it was decided that Ian and Jonathan would relaunch half moon, (the dingy�s name) and take her to another beach a mile off where it looked safer to beach. Or at least we hoped! So off they go while John, Justine, Jess and myself watched them off to safer waters while we were carrying our jerry cans for diesel. What a shock to our systems! It was instant! The people were totally unfriendly! So oppressed and somehow angry with life. And it seemed with us! We decided to get back on the dingy immediately, including leaving the filling of diesel and just leave!! We felt so unwelcome! What a nerve wrecking moment! The boys took the dingy back to the boat!!! Dhows were close by the boat next to a fishing trawler!! So we had no choice but to get to the beach and quick! Keeping in mind we had not yet stamped into the country yet!! There was so much history to this place and secrets!! Guess we decided not to dig as I don�t think we would have enjoyed the outcome. The town was really messed up! And stinky!! Gosh! I never nearly made it there!! They defecate on the beach!! It is horrific!! Dirty, Ammer was right! We never got diesel, we just walked through the town which we had to do to get to the other side of the beach. So when the boys started back to the beach we were thrilled!! We had to walk past the boat builders and all the towns people rushing to the dhows coming in for fish! So we were quite the centre of attention! Anyhow we managed to get into the boat! Got totally drenched as the swells were high and breaking at the crests!! Sopping wet we arrived back on bluemoon and were thrilled!! Decided to only leave tomorrow for the barren islands which will be about 24 hours so will leave only round tenish. And that gives us a great nights sleep! Plotted our course, planned the route, cleaned up, chilled out and all are sitting eating crisps deciding which DVD to watch. Well we are on the seas again! Hip - Hip Hooray!! To barren islands and into the wind as usual! We have not had many days of good sailing. Unfortunately we have had to motor a lot of the way on very calm seas, and I assure you I am not complaining!! We recalcitrated the wind vane. Started the water maker and got back into being on the water. What an exciting day we had!! Chasing after the jumping tuna!! It was wonderful! There were schools jumping out the water and we would turn the boat around and race over them hoping for a catch! John made break which we call the �Rock Bread� and that is no joke! Jono made a long line of all the dirty fish gloves and rags used on the fish and tied it on the sugar scoop handles, so it could get most of the dirt and odour out! Everyone had a great shower after swimming in the ocean!! Jessica, Jono and Ian tied on ropes and jumped into the deep blue ocean and the boat pulled them at two knots! It was really cool! Makes you realize how small, really small you are out there! You will be so impressed with the amount of whales we have seen! I am in my element every single day and a few times too!! What a great and wonderful blessing it is!! Some come so close to the boat!! So we had a great day and had Jono cook supper for us all!! So while on night shift, we observed a green flair going off while I was trying to make the horizon out! In the middle of no-where! And green? So we slowed down, listened out and waited to see if there was maybe a Mayday... then we came to the conclusion that a dhow maybe let it off to show his position because the sea mist was quite bad and visibility not good, so maybe he thought we were coming towards him?? Guess we will never know. One doesn�t appreciate the moon enough! It is so black with out the moon, it is honestly airy when you have darkness and sea mist clouding your vision!! Yet I love the night shift! Somehow Ian and I get to do the whole night most nights. Still having a problem trying to sleep during the evening, and I only sleep a few hours in the day to try and catch up and I am surprised how well that has worked out! Then we had to watch out for about 9 fishing trawlers! Spread out of course all over the horizon! Then while we, Ian and I, were chatting about the amount of shooting and falling stars, a bright red glow came up just at the back of the boat!! What a scary, weird moment!! Who knows?? John says maybe a meteor? Yea right! We�d be blown or flying all the way to barren islands in seconds if that was the case!! Well the ocean also holds many mysteries!! Made scones at about five thirty this morning and what a great morning it was! We arrived at the Barren Islands at dropped anchor off of Nosy Andrano at 14:00! S 18∘ 34`306 and E 043∘ 53`804.
We are now an hour ahead of you there in South Africa! My computer says 23:41pm and our clock says 12:45am!! So now I need to get used to that. There are six Barren Islands. Nosy Barren, Nosy Mavony, Nosy Maronalty, Nosy Androtara, Nosy Andrano, Nosy Lava. They are all covered with trees and bush with a white beaches. There seem to be no people living on the islands, yet there are fishermen who seem to camp on the islands apparently collecting and drying sea cucumbers and shark for the Chinese merchants. The islands are beautiful! While anchored, we had a whale come quite near the boat and tail slap, waved a massive dorsal fin then surprise us all by diving right out the water and crashing back in, over and over!! It was such an awesome moment!! I grabbed the binoculars to get as close up as possible yelling for someone to take the shots!! What a special privilege to be so close to such awesomeness! Had a good sleep and got our strength back.
Lifted anchor at 7am 17th August. It was the perfect day!! Though we had no wind, and had to motor sail, the day seemed perfect! Somehow maybe a little too perfect - The barometer went up by 5 millibars... maybe a high pressure? �The calm before the storm�!!!
So being such a great day - Ian and I made different kinds of bread. Kids were busy with school and during that school time, Jono caught a huge mackerel! Everyone was just having a great day. Winds picked up so we could sail and we eventually were up to 7.2 knots! Then the winds were up even more and we were starting to fly! The swells were growing and were quite erratic! Coming from all directions. By 5pm the swells had picked up drastically and were quite steep! The winds were up to 35 knots gusting to 40 and some of the swells were starting to peak around 7 foot! They were coming up behind us almost ready to break over the Bimini!! What a shock! It was quite hair raising seeing these swells coming up to the stern with such speed and raising themselves to higher than our bimini! They were breaking swells! Then we saw they had a pattern and would come up in threes with about a 4 second interval between them!! Then there were others coming at an angle from all directions!! It was like a roller coaster ride! It became quite nerving when the moon went down! Cause it was yet again, �Pitch black!� Only had the stars to vaguely make out the horizon. Then to add to the excitement, we had quite a few flying fish! They are always so cute! They look like little sparrows flying low over the water then come flying up and landing on the boat! Man! It is just something else! Really quite a treat! We all faced a really rough time. We were on a dead run!! And I mean a DEAD RUN!! The wind was directly behind us and we were making ground rather quickly! From around 1 pm, we managed to sail 165 Miles till we got in the lee of the cape point! What a night! We were surfing the waves for up to a minute at times. We were moving! Rocking and rolling! Then the surprise when dawn came! It was like we were on rolling dirty brown rapids!! Because of the size of the different waves and swells, it looked as though we were going downhill at such a fast pace, as if we were on a canoe going down on the duzi rapids!! It was an experience and a half! The most unbelievable sight ever! We were LOOKING UP at the rapids coming down!! And we had to cross directly over them!! We would turn the boat and ride the big breakers turning and following course again, and then back to riding the big breakers, then back on course and so it went! There were a few times we had things fly off the shelves because of a curler that we never saw that hit us... the sea breaks heavily on the shallower banks closer in to shore. Other wise it was far better seeing what you were sailing in than sailing in the dark. Guess one has a new appreciation for the moon! So after a rather exciting day, we managed to get into calmer waters once passing Cape St Andre. The guys caught some fantastic king mackerel, yet Ian still caught the massive one! He seems to always catch the biggest fish around! Which is always such great excitement! We were all thrilled to see land! We came in past Cap Amparafaka and sailed down to Baly where we spotted another yacht! What excitement! The first yacht we saw at any anchorage besides passing Ocean spray at Maputo small craft harbour. It was Irene! Remember we both left the same time from Durban on the 3rd July! Well, they radioed us and invited us around for a drink. Unfortunately, everyone was exhausted including all at Irene. Keeping in mind that I had been awake for two nights and three days!!!! Like I said I am having a problem sleeping!! So we all had a great nights sleep (especially me!!) awaking early with a slapping and rolling from the change in wind. What a beautiful sunrise!! John and I have so many pictures of every sunrise and every sunset that we have taken since we started our trip, bar one sunrise. (I was sleeping!!!!!Nooooooooooooooooooo) Later, we lifted anchor and moved to Pointe de Sada near Irene to shield us from the change in wind direction, where we went for drinks and had a really fun time. The following morning we went to the beach which was rather funny as the kids had the dingy ready to do some wake-boarding and so they left us to walk the short distance to the beach only to find that grass grows at the bottom on the sand and it is the strangest feeling on your feet... so as we come out the water with John close on my heels and with his shoes on, I find myself sinking knee high into the slush!! John laughs and next thing he has lost his shoes knee high in the slush!! Well, that had both of us laughing so much we could hardly take another step to get out, so John manages to get his shoes out which are covered in �clay� and he throws them to me to put on, and so it goes, I take a step, loose the shoes and then we laugh all over again!! Eventually we were yelling at the kids to wait so they could take us to a more normal beach!! Now that was fantastic! You have the sea sand then you get different layers of pebbles!! The ones you buy at the nursery to make your flower beds look pretty!! There are the small pebbles, then further up, bigger ones till you get the real big boulders! It was such a wonderful day!! The trees are painted with a red stripe showing with a sign that it was a no go zone. There is also a massive square boulder that looks like the loo!! Should put a sign on it �Ladies only!� LOL It is so amazing to pick up different shells which are so pretty! Just around the corner here we have a hurricane hole which is supposed to be the securest hurricane hole on the coast!! Hopefully we will not be needing it! Today the kids are doing school. I have been catching up on this log and hopefully when we arrive in Majunga there will be an Internet caf� that I can go on to finely put unload this log!! We will be leaving along with Irene this afternoon to sail to Majunga. It is about 12 to 14 hours sail so we should arrive around daybreak. It should be quite nice having company!! Even at a distance!.
We set off at about five thirty with the sun going down... always so amazing! Listened to Fred from Peri-Peri, and he said we would get an ESE sometime in the early morning up to 30 / 35 knots... So we got the water maker going by dark, kids were doing school and we were having a great sail! The swells started to pick up and get a little bumpy. Ian and Jono made poppadums with chicken breyani which has become our favourite meal (poppadums) I walk back outside after going to the head and all I see is this black shadow very close to the boat!! Following us! What a shock to my system!! It was a very big dhow with two sets of sails!! And NO lights!! There are so many of the smaller dhows fishing throughout the night without any lights. They stick little plastic balls to a flag, some black flags, where there fishing nets are. Now when you come along, and you think you spot something in the blackness of the night without a moon, and you have to sometimes tack here then there quick, quick to miss getting tangled up!! Man! This is exciting stuff!! Unless of course you do get tangled up!! The trip was one of hard beating!! Beating with Bruce and Bigit from S/V Irene.!! They too were having a pretty rough time. Then right next to us, almost 3 maybe 4 metres, a whale came out and blew spray from his blow hole. Just letting us know he was there... and was he big! The sight was so wonderful because the moon was shining right on him! Yet one has to be rather careful if they have a calf with them. Otherwise you can face some hair raising moments like a few other yachties have... We were really taken back! I guess because he was just so close!! Like the other night with Jono! Yet I will say that the amount of whales that we have seen on our trip up has been far more than we ever expected! It is amazing, stunning, fantastic... By about twelve thirty am, everyone was awake. We had the wind right on the nose and the seas were extremely very bumpy indeed!! John had quite a lot to say about the bumpy trip @#$#@# !!!! So did Bruce! Yet we managed to beat our way through the night to a brilliant sunrise! WoW man! You should see some of them! And the colours - nothing like I have seen living on land. And so I made pancakes for breakfast without eggs!! Quite a challenge I tell you! Yet delicious! It was only after eleven in the morning when we started heading into Majunga! Beating all the way!! We were all absolutely exhausted! Irene had gone out further to sea before attempting to enter Majunga, yet we furled in and pushed ahead with both motors on full!! Went around the Island to Katsepe side and stopped at one nice little spot without anchoring... we just switched the motors off, and were soaking up the beautiful land scape with the most amazing rock face, and so we started to drift... All the kids had passed out and were sleeping... There was a nice cool breeze blowing - even though it was unbelievably hot!! It was such a nice moment! Irene eventually came in and anchored on Majunga side, so we just put anchor about three o�clock.... we were just too exhausted to sail across the bay, so we then just chilled for the rest of the day sleeping in the cockpit. The place was really pretty! There is such peace and tranquillity associated to this place. One of the things that alert me to the character of a place is the sound of laughter!! Children�s laughter...You can hear the sounds of laughter all day!! Something that I am not used to back home. It is just such an amazing feeling. Well, till my next log... keep dreaming!

2007/8/22   2007/8/27
After a great nights sleep, besides the cows mooing, we woke up to an amazing site... Lots of cows on the beach!! We were in a small bay overlooking a real pretty village with everything made out of grass!! Finely we lifted anchor about nine am and sailed across the bay zigzagging past the dhows to Majunga side into Schneider Bay. What a picturesque scenery! Beautiful! Lots of beautiful building made of stone and grass, almost like kraals, on the hillside surrounded by greenery. We dropped anchor, had a few good cuppa�s when Birgit and Bruce popped over to discuss the formalities of signing in. They have been to Madagascar four times already!! We decided to go ashore and check things out before we went to sign in, so the boys took us ashore while we dodged the bommies, which are actually corel heads and landed up on the cutest beach ever with lots of palm trees! What a nice place! So primitive yet so beautiful! After walking around a bit, and going to �Jar din da moor� which is the �Garden of love�. It overlooks the bay from all sides and it is beautiful. The best part is that it is also the local loo!!! People climb down this rock face and do their thing on the beach!! Yep!! You read right!! They do their thing!!! It is normal here!! And we can confirm it as our binoculars do not lie!! Heheh Naughty?? No! Shocked by what we thought we saw then what we really saw looking down from this beautiful terrace!!!! Anyhow, now that we realize it is a normal part of life, we decided to stop off at Jerry�s and have a beer which seems to be the thing to drink in these towns, as it is cheaper than water!!! Not too strong, so after a few bottles, I needed the loo, and in private thank you very much, so I ask for the toilette and get led to this back room which honestly touched the only nerve I had!! It kinda got ripped right out of me!! There was this dingy, dirty, full of cobwebs room with a built up ridge for your feet with a HOLE in the floor!!! Now my first reaction is to walk, no run right out of there, but when you have had more than enough to drink, you kinda know you won�t make it back to the table... at least I wouldn�t!! So I did my thing with my eyes closed dreaming of a normal toilet back home, even our beautiful head on the boat!! Anything but this!! So after my humiliation, I went back to the table where I shared my horror so we all decided to go back to the boat and sign in the next day. Most of the shops and a lot of the life stops at 12pm till 2:30/3:00 pm �Siesta time� so we would not have made it even if we tried... and in our state!! So we went back to Irene and continued to quench our thirst... as it is extremely hot in these parts!! And one definitely needs to keep hydrated! So after a really good day, we got back to our boat by six ... By six o clock, you need to make sure you have the netting on as it is the funniest thing... at six pm the mosquitoes come out in full force!!!! Not before, only after 6!! When the sun goes down! I could not believe it!! So every night by six the whole family raced back to the boat to check the netting was on!! The following morning we were up bright and early, ready to sign in. Being now 8 of us, and with Irene having a starter motor to fix, we decided to separate and meet up later, so we caught two taxis to the police station. Irene in another taxi (the third one) That was the first step which was to get our visas. Then we had to drive to the top of the hill, climb 4 flights of stairs to pay for the visas, go back to the police station to hand in the receipts then get our passports stamped and handed back to us. Only problem was they had made a mistake, so we were sent back down for the police official to correct by hand the paper which sent us back up the hill, up the 4 flights of stairs to sit for almost an hour waiting for our receipts then rush back down to the police to issue our visas. It was really strange walking into a police station which is so old fashioned to what we are used to... well then again depends on which angle you are seeing it from! They still hand write everything. Have very old typewriters which they use for your very important documents. Yet, they are extremely friendly, helpful and just nice! We all were  so impressed! The town has such character! The kids waited outside the station greeting everyone, and talking to a guy named Amos who was living in Paris, studying law. He was back home on holiday. Then off to immigration we went where we were told to come back at 3pm because they had sent someone to get photostats of the forms we needed and were not back yet! To add to that, there was a street rally which was stationed on the road right outside their offices!! And the buzz that was going on in the town was so infectious!! The taxi drivers sped everywhere, as were the pous-pous runners!! We went to the health inspector as we were told we needed to get a certificate.. Bottom line on that one is the officials were off for the weekend so after going back the second time and only finding that out we were told it was okay... we now didn�t need certificates!! Did we need the certificates?? Guess we may never know...We caught a pous-pous which is a decorated rickshaw. These �runners� are truly amazing! I am convinced that if they tried the comrades they would all win!! They are so fit! And they pretty much run everywhere and sometimes for long distances!! Everyday! The kids squealed with delight and loved all the excitement! Enjoying the adrenaline rush, we rushed around trying to complete our signing in before their �Siesta!� And what a rush around! Not speaking the language can be a big disadvantage as we realized we had all climbed onto the local community bus which led us to another part of town we never knew was there! And was way past where we had to go, so before we could go to anyone else, we had to wait for the immigration to give us our forms we needed - so we asked Rico the taxi driver where we could find �pain� (bread) or chocolate croissants, or even baguettes which the french are famous for! So he drops us off at another part of town where there is a store called score. What a moment of total bliss for all of us!! We behaved like kids in a sweet shop! It was like walking into spar, bar a good few items! Who cared!! They  had ice-cream!! With lots of different flavours and simba chips! They even had cold meats, and whatever else we needed to stock up on! So we bought some baguettes, cheese, butter, cold meats, mustard come mayonnaise, including the plain croissants we thought had chocolate in them! Walked outside and had a feast right outside the shop which closed the moment we walked out!! We couldn�t understand why we were the only people in the store! LOL!! The place was suddenly quiet! Amazing!! We were now alone to eat in peace, sleep on the bench, ride down the hill with the trolleys!! Now that is fun!! So after a delicious lunch, we walked a little ways realizing we would not get finished if we continued to walk so it was back to the taxis rushing back to immigration who gave us the forms to fill out, off to customs, then port control, then back to immigration, and back to customs and so forth till just after 5:15pm!! Being exhausted, yet having a really great day, as we had finely finished signing in, the race was now on to get back to the boat before the mosquitos did!! We get off just outside Schneider and find Bruce and Birgit sitting having a cold beer... so off we go to have a coffee, coke and a beer!! The kids had cool-drinks which were desperately needed!! What a great sunset!! We just made it back to the boat before the mozzies did!!! Little muggers!! Sprayed every last one of them DEAD!! How do they get in?? Had a great supper, shared about the lessons learnt, the funnies, the tax-up�s and confusion with us speaking the language, and of course laughing at it all!! The next morning I had planned to be at the market by 7am!! Irene came past at 7:30!! And we were far from ready!! We left when they arrived back from the market!!! Anyhow we managed to get to the market, which was full of beautiful crafts and hand made stuff from things we call junk!! What talent these people have! With two hammocks on hand, and a lot of different keepsakes, we were off to Score to get our ice-cream and supplies!! What fun having the kids run through the aisles stocking up on snacks, more snacks and even more snacks!! It was so exciting!! Then off to the boat we rushed so we could try out the different flavours!! The coffee was fantastic...the chocolate... who ate my chocolate????????? Turns out Ian and Jonathan never put their ice-cream into the basket!!! So they never got any!! Yet they figured there was no way they were going without so where did my chocolate go????? Mmmmm we will need to go back to score!! LOL  Kids swam, checked the anchor and just chilled. Sunday morning, John and I did two runs to town to fill the diesel. Jono collected the diesel to take back to the boat to decant into the diesel tanks while John and I waited with the taxi guy. I notice when John went upstairs to the bar we went to the previous night, to get cokes for all of us, there was this Malagasy woman dripping in jewels with her hands on John!! Next thing the taxi man is up there... I find out later that she came to help interpret for John that they had no change and so the taxi man did... also, John was under the impression she was a working girl... know what I mean?? So Jono comes back with the empty cans and we fill up for the second time. Next thing we had a situation with the taxi driver!! He is now not happy with the payment which we agreed to before we went!! He gave us the price!!! So off he walks, upstairs, to the lady of the town!! She comes out, looks directly at me, smiles, shakes my hand and tells me why the taxi man is unhappy! So I tell her what he quoted and the amount we paid, so she talks to him then looks at John, then at me and invites us to have a coke with her.... now that the taxi man is happy.... well now, let me put it like this... I politely look towards Jono who has come to pick us and the diesel up, then back at her and kindly decline as I tell her the kids are waiting for us... she shoots her hands up in the air while she tells me how much she hates me and also tells me with hand signals that she would shoot me dead with a bazooka if she had one!! And not once!! A few times!! I find out she is from Somalia!! (Where a lot of the piracy happens!!) I asked her why she bothered to make peace with us and the taxi driver to end up being my enemy!! John jumped in to say we had four hungry kids waiting for us! Like she cared less...  I said goodbye, picked up two diesel jerry cans and went to the boat... what a moment!! DOWN GIRL!!!! John told me to be nice when I noticed her coming down with the taxi man... so out of respect for him.... I was nice! There is such a mix of cultures here... Still, I love this place! Later that afternoon we all went out for dinner. We decided to make it easy and so ordered the fish of the day and chips for the eight of us. We thought it would be quite quick because we wanted to get back to the boats before the tide had really gone out otherwise we would have a problem with the bommies, (corel heads just under the water) So Bruce ordered four fish of the day, and four crevettes (prawns). So after quite a while, stomachs grumbling, they bring out a massive, excellent looking fish for Bruce and delicious skewered crevettes, with a smell that made us all drool!! �Bon appetite� the waitress says and walks off... and so we wait for a while, then Bruce asks where our food is and ooooooops ... they had cooked the only fish of the day they had and put it in front of Bruce!! There was no more fish!! They thought we were all gonna share!! So off they went to make us crevettes, which were absolutely fantastic! Extremely delicious! Yet while they were making our food, Bruce really felt terrible! So he made us all share his fish! After declining and it causing him to really get offended we all tucked in and it was quite nice!!  The mosquitos were in full force! So we get our food a long time later, and longer than Bruce wanted to wait due to the bommies, and so we finely left and next thing you know they have landed right on top of one!! Stuck! We managed to zigzag and get out the maze without hitting one. They got off that one then got onto another one!! Here we manage to get back without incidence and they land up getting stuck on every bommie there was! Well, the guys went back after dropping us all off to go and help, yet they had managed to get clear of them and headed back to their boat! These bommies are quite amazing! They have flat tops and are surprisingly big! A day before I was steering and everyone laughed as I went with the tender right over every bommie with no problem!! Ignorance is bliss!! Next morning we went into town to find an Internet caf�, find another gas bottle, and complete our shopping on stocks. Wow!! Found a decent Internet caf�. Just sorry if some of the stuff has spelling mistakes. Also the way I have written some stuff may not make too much sense!! (After putting the logs on I read some of them and was shocked at the way I tried to explain some stuff!!) Was so excited to read all the comments!! Thanks so much for all the messages! Never had enough time to download and save them!! Will do so the next time I get to log on again!! Anyhow with much excitement at off loading the logs, we decided to go for a good cuppa and landed up at this cute little place to have a well deserved good cuppa coffee. Then we look at the menu and voila! There is crevettes, like we had a day ago - so we order one to share and what an unexpected surprise!! The owner tells this waiter to put the South African flag out for us!! And here he is trying to balance on the edge of this chair trying to hang up our flag!! Then our food arrives and an even bigger shock! Prawn soup with rice?? Well, it certainly never tasted like nothing we have eaten before!! Now that was something else! Yet we realized we needed to brush up on our french!! And I thought we were doing well!! LOL!! The owner tells us he was drinking South African wine and gives us a cheers!! It was quite a moment! Anyhow we managed to get all we needed after a lot of walking then headed back to the boat. Managed to get rid of all our rubbish which was shocking that we had collected so much! After awhile we decided to lift both anchors and sail on to Moramba Bay along with Irene. Being such a calm evening it seemed like a great plan. Managed to lift the stern anchor, yet could not lift the bow anchor! It was getting really dark now, so we were a little concerned as we had to now dive out the anchor as it was fouled... Ian and Jonathan eventually dived after the sun went down! Brave!! It was quite nerve wrecking because you could see nothing under the water, you had to go by feel only! This was a big thing for Jonathan! Yet they managed to unwind the anchor off of a bommie. We all shouted our excitement and sailed on out of Majunga. The Malagasies call Majunga -Mahajanga. Majunga is the french name which is still used and printed on most charts. Mahajanga is thought to have come from the Swahili, �Mji Angaia� or rather, �town of flowers�. Yet we never saw any flowers. The one spectacular and brilliant site was the baobab which still stands on the sea front side of a main road. It is believed to be around 710 years old and enormous!! Majunga will always remain a spectacular and delightful place for me! A wonderful memory!

2007/8/28  2007/9/1
28th August to 1st Sep Moramba bay
Had a perfect sail all the way to Moramba Bay, even started making water so we could take a nice shower and wash clothes, then decided as we were coming into Moramba bay, to wash the boat, so here we all were with mops and brooms washing our baby down! It was so nice giving her a good wash down as the salt is so abrasive and seems to pack up. So after sailing up and down the bay for more than two hours before anchoring, Irene came in and went to anchor. Unfortunately Irene had their Genoa halyard break!! So we were glad they were in safe waters! We eventually found a good anchorage right next to Irene after washing the boat, then put anchor down. What a breathtaking place! It was like out of a story book! Like nothing I could ever image! There were these striking sandstone islets which were covered in the most amazing baobabs filled with parrots and other bird life. What a sad moment remembering all our birds!! Those bird calls were just so amazing and like nothing we will ever experience again! What a dramatic and spectacular sight! So pretty! So mysterious! Malagasy people believe that spirits live in the baobab trees and it is easy to see why!! There are a lot of little beaches, caves, hollow island and coves to explore. Also there are a few burial sites which adds to the mysteriousness of this most astounding place! Raw beauty! All of us managed to do all our washing which had turned out to be most of what we had! Yet again we had ropes all over the boat with clothes everywhere! We all went to explore this amazing place and went into a few of the caves which was such a treat! Ian and Jono went on the canoe while John, the girls and I went together on the dinghy. Bruce and Birgit went on their tender. Even the fishing was fantastic! A place many will sadly never see! Later we went onto a beach closer to us for a braai. What a fun time we had! Then we had to hurry up as the tide was coming in! The boys decided to take the canoe with and so coming back Justine decided to go with. What a palava! She has this thing about being in water where she cannot see beneath her and so the guys were teasing her and next thing they toppled over!! She was yelling and begging for us to help, yet we could see she was safe as there were no sharks around or anything that would be a problem, so we left her to face her fear with a close eye on her... and again they toppled over... the guys trying so hard to help her overcome her fear, which I must say did help somewhat as she was quite pleased to have made it back to the boat alive!! And so with all the fun of a great day a great rest was needed!  The next morning the guys went over to Irene to climb the mast and sort out the halyard. They did a great job and helped fix the problem. Went for some drinks on Irene and had a blast as usual! Came back to the boat quite late, had supper and had a few games of chess. This place is stunning! Mist all around the islets makes for a picture perfect moment! Could be perfect for a scene in a movie! Next morning we went out fishing. Toured some of the islands then John and I canoed back to the boat to get stuff sorted for another braai on the beach. This time we went into the thickly covered bush to inspect some of the burial sites while getting dry wood for the braai. We put the fish we had caught onto the braai and what a tasty fish! Had another excellent day! Exhausted was an understatement of how we all felt! We were up before dawn, said our goodbyes to Irene and headed off yet again into the sunrise!

2007/9/1  2007/9/3
I was at the helm and enjoyed every minute. We had the music on, full ball, and we were running! It was just an excellent day! Saw a whale which is always a great treat for us! Also some dolphins, though we think they have been hunted as so seem to be scared of coming too close to the boat. We all were fishing which is also such a great, fun and fantastic time for each of us, especially when you hear that whizz of the line going out! That gets everyone running into the cockpit! Sometimes we let the line run just to get everyone running!! Really funny!! I got to do some reading and suntanning while the kids did school. Ian was also reading a book.  John and Jonathan caught kings! Jess lost a big fish then caught a king mackerel which got her so excited! Had some washing hanging up which Jess went to get... lost a towel which we turned around for though had sunk by the time we got there... we sailed passed the island of Nosy Lava (Malagasy name, �Long Island�) which we decided not to stop at, as it is also Madagascar�s maximum security prison which houses mostly murderers. It apparently became infamous in 1993 when two escapees boarded the cruising boat, �Magic Carpet� where they killed the crew and then sailed to the mainland.... Yet, we are anchored almost right opposite that island!! We are anchored at Nosy Saba (14∘ 21`8 South 47∘ 38`.9 East) which is a great anchorage for fishing!! Fishing was spectacular! Saw the most astounding display ever just before sunset... there were shoals of fish being chased by schools of huge fish... the shoals were jumping out the water and making such a splash!! It looked like boiling water on the surface. Then you would hear ... kishhhhhh! It was unbelievable! Then, while this was taking place we found the fishing was fantastic! So exciting!  Good thing for binoculars!! Actually, we got up this morning early and looked out at the island.... and there was about 7 Malagasies sitting looking at the boat. They were behaving rather oddly... shouting, making out like they were going to swim over to us... good thing there were sharks! John looked through the binocs and saw them dressed in half army gear. So of course we were imagining the worst... LOL!! (the prison on the island is just opposite us!) Spoke about a back up plan, what if?? Hehehe The guys decided to just go ashore and check things out. The did, and came back alive! Haha apparently these guys were excited to see a sailing vessel anchored off their island and so were acting the fool. No harm, just excited! So after a successful day of relaxing, having a fishing competition which I won!! Yea! The largest fish!! Yippee!!!!!!!! Although Jonathan caught the first fish and the smallest fish! And many at that!  Hehehe!!! I read to everyone from the �Clan of the cave bears�! While Ian was making a chocolate cake. We managed to watch the locals walk back up the hill, wave goodbye then disappear over the hill just before sunset. Next thing, we are facing the current and rolling around!! Yep! We had dragged 66 metres! The wind was up and now we were seriously looking at leaving instead of re-anchoring as we were closer to the rocks.... s0 just past midnight, we lifted anchor effortlessly and headed out for Honey Pot Bay. We had excellent sailing conditions and started to make water. Had a really great sail and the most beautiful sunrise over the mountains. Amazing scenery! Spectacular! Not enough words to describe such beauty! Everyone was napping, while John and I were on watch. Had our �Genoa� out which was giving us 6 knots, while John was playing guitar! Everyone now awake, we came into Honey Pot Bay and felt goosees all over!! This place is so beautiful! This place is �thick� with green hills rolling down to perfect white beaches. The villages are so cute! And so neat and tidy! Absolutely picture perfect, yet again! The one small village on the south side sells wild honey which is unpurified yet delicious!! Spent the rest of the day on the beach, watching the guys climb the dug out foot placements on palm trees, cutting down coconuts! You make a hole (we used a drill) then you drink the liquid out of it. Every one seemed to like it except me! Like a bitter coconut taste. The following morning the kids did school for a few hours, then it was off again, on a new sight seeing adventure! Our french is coming along! Just not quick enough! LOL!  Met some Americans who have been sailing for the last four years and are on the way to Durban!! John and I decided later in the afternoon to go for a dingy ride to see what was around the one corner and found to our surprise a crocodile, lying just under the water very still. You cannot miss those eyes!! Slowly we edged around to see it unmoving, yet checking us out!! Quite an amazing moment! So happy we have a hard bottomed tender!! Then we see these two Malagasies in an enclosure in the water! They then walk out the enclosure with a screen made from grass!!! Like a croc can�t chow through that!! We ask about the croc, then they say ��rub� - so we say yes! They walk out the enclosure with no screen! No protection and start to swim/walk through the water towards the croc!!! Fearless! Next thing I close my eyes expecting to witness the worst possible moment ever, they stand on the crocs head! Only then, to see as we come closer with the dingy that it is a rock!!!! We had a really good laugh! Too relieve our stress levels!! And so we landed up towing the Malagasies back to our boat to pay them for the 4 humungous mud crabs!! And ended up having a fantastic crab dinner!! Decided to go straight to Russian bay the following morning, hoping to get cell reception so we could sort out a few business things. And hopefully get to an Internet.

2007/9/4
We left very early to have a great sail, yet ended up motoring the whole way, though it was still a wonderful day! Got to Russian bay and found we did get reception and so were thrilled! Though we lost reception as we went into the bay! We were out of range. We spotted Irene and went to say hi!! Then went to anchor and speak to Andrew who has been living in these parts for many years! Andrew suggests we go to Hellville, so we spent the night along with another four boats. Left again early while it was not yet bright and sailed on to Crater-bay which is just before Hellville. Apparently it is better to stay in Crater bay and just catch a taxi to Hellville a few k�s away. Odd place. Really primitive and very dirty, yet the setting is so beautiful! Lots of winding roads, surrounded by brush and trees. Found the people not so friendly... if you cannot speak french, they don�t seem very nice to you! Yet we still tried to speak the language and find what we were looking for. Found they have some really decent malls, yet not the ones you imagine! Heheh! It is a culture shock for folks like us who are used to walking into a butchery and buying fresh meat or to the market for good fish. Here it is completely different!! They do not have SA products! There are no butcheries! Or aicon rooms for meat or fish!! In the main market everything is laid out on racked tables and that�s it! Zebu, which is our beef, just laying around for a buyer!  They wave the flies off as you pass by. So it is a good thing we still have some meat on the boat otherwise I would starve if that was all there was to eat! There is NO WAY!! Yet their tomatoes and veg are fantastic! Only thing is you must use them rather quick, a few days at the most or they spoil due to such humid and hot conditions. We have been having a bit of a rough time as we are coffee addicts! Also we are not filter coffee drinkers! We are instant coffee drinkers!! Yep, I know how shocking that is as everyone we have met are in shock that we drink instant!! Anyhow, there is no Riccoffy to buy!! The tiny tins sell for about 10 000 ariary - ariary!! Anyhow we make do and manage to eat well. Kids strolled around investigating and meeting other foreigners. Then on the way back, the taxi driver checks us out, quite shocked that the six of us managed to squeeze into one taxi!! So he lets us all squeeze into his taxi, which was a really tight squeeze being a smaller taxi! Then on the way back, he gets stopped by the police!!! The following day we all just chilled out, read, and relaxed! Also had rain for the first time since we left Durban! So happy to see the boat being rinsed off! Went back to town the following day and got stopped again going there and coming back!!! Then we had to organize an air ticket for Ian as it was his time to move on to more adventure! He is going cruising with his dad and mom! So we sadly saw him off. Managed to do a well needed spring clean! Dust seems to attach itself to everything! Especially the hatch net covers! Met some great yachties! Philip and Anne from Abracadabra, who are from Colorado, USA, have the cutest kids out! Annaliza and Jabez.  Justine was so excited to see kids! So they swopped DVD�S and spent a little time with them. Had the kids baby sit for Abracadabra which was a real treat for Justine as she went onto their boat. Also managed to swop two books with Kai Shara! Now every time John goes somewhere like the head, or to snorkel, I get stuck into the book! LOL!! Ralph (Kai Shara) has been really wonderful! Given us the low down on all the important info. He has travelled so much, so knows all the in�s and out�s! He even made a loaf of bread for us! As I had bad flue! John was convinced I had malaria! Though I am feeling much better now! He also gave me an easy bread recipe which I thought I would try when feeling a bit better and Voila!! Fantastic! I feel like an expert baker! Managed to make two loaves, of which we gave one to Ralph, and then some bread rolls. So we are all thrilled to have a recipe that will give us two loaves within an hour of mixing all the ingredients! And it is called Ralphs Bread Recipe, which tastes real good! Was great to see Ruling Angel, Jack and Barbara, also come and anchored at Crater bay. Went to Hell-ville on Kai Shara with Ralph. Really opposite to what I expected on a monohull! It was pretty cool sailing! Though Hell ville is a very fitting name for this town! There main road was changed from �kors da hell� which is �highway to hell� as it leads from the Catholic church to the harbour. Quite funny actually... Had a great time having  sundowners with Ralph. Yet the fish braai was the best! Hadn�t had fish in a few days so we felt spoiled!

2007/9/18
Sailed back to Russian bay for some fishing and snorkelling. That afternoon the kids organised a braai on the beach for us, and it was all secretive! They carried stuff to the beach - sorted out the food then came to fetch John and myself. I was led to my hammock hanging in the trees!! The chairs were laid out, the fire going, just stunning! Salads laid out, you name it, it was there! Felt like I was on holiday in some exotic island!! Heheh I WAS!!! We all enjoyed a glorious day chilling, eating and being spoiled rotten! Kids even made a fire for our rubbish which they brought with!! Then just before sundown here comes a mono.. then another. As they anchor and settle into the anchorage, here comes another, and another, and even another....  12 boats all in all come sailing into Russian bay swerving past each other like some race was on. What a thrill!! The excitement was felt by all! They anchored all around us! And we were so happy to see kids on every boat!! Just not our kids ages! Yet kids! The following morning here comes Papagena with Heinz and Patricia, and Irene with Bruce and Birgit. What a busy anchorage! Also to add to the excitement, Salama Djema, a chartering dhow, comes in with about 12 english speaking tourists who camp on the beach, fish, snorkel to get a feel of Russian bay. They go to about five different Islands enjoying the different feels of each Island then after a week they all fly home and another 12 tourists come doing the same route. So with all these people, there was a fantastic buzz going on! The kids canoe out to the different boats meeting everyone and introducing themselves and so we have a lot of different tenders buzzing from one boat to another with just kids! Some are closer in age so our kids were ecstatic! What a fun day! We had the parents all coming to our boat to introduce themselves and to pick their kids up! Some even cried their eyes out as they did not want to go back to their boat! So a few of the adults got roped into trying out our knee board which was brilliant! Then out came our surf board and Pierre�s surfboard and a few more tenders and here were some riding the surfboards and others on the knee board! And this went on for a few hours!! John was totally exhausted and just couldn�t get enough balance to stand up!! It was fantastic! Then in come these ferry boats with crates of beers, food, tables and even chairs!! There was a party on! And we were invited!! Ralph had his windlass break so he was back to Crater bay to sort it out, and so missed out on all the fun!! We were talking french, or at least trying to with some of the kids who were french and they were correcting us which was hysterical! French is quite a difficult language to learn because of all the tenses. Everything is either male or female like we would talk about �she� goes very well when talking about our cars or boats... so it was quite fun learning the basics. I got stuck in the galley making bread rolls and getting our food ready to take with. And so we met some wonderful people! Jonathan is a young Canadian who comes from Manitoba and has been travelling, or rather sailing around the world, catching rides with whom ever he meets up with. He is a bit older than Justine, so she was in her element having hung out with him. Long blond hair with dread-locks and striking blue eyes. Gave us the run down on Canada and each province and Wow! We were in awe with the way he explained this beautiful country! Then we met up with Abracadabra again which was great. Philip is from Pretoria originally and has been living in Colorado with his wife who is an American for a few years and so the accent is an amazing mix of Afrikaans and American! His wife Anne was a pastry chef and so I have been spoiled with a pastry working recipe! Who would have thought Id be in a galley baking bread and whipping out tarts and pies?? Certainly not even myself!! Yet, what can I say! And so we met so many different people, which was stunning! And they all have a story to tell! Most started off sailing for just a year or two and have not been able to stop! We were enthralled by their stories and the places they have been. Then out came the guitar and the drums and the singing with the locals! What a memorable evening! The following morning we lifted anchor early, at sunrise, and set off for the four hour sail to Hell-ville, this time anchoring in the harbour as our visas had expired and we had to have an extension to stay longer now that we were not going to Thailand.