We are four days into our road trip in Africa.   We took off from Richards Bay with the aim of driving to see Victoria Falls.

A jacaranda tree in full bloom, the huts are modern African living quarters on Zulu land.

We are travelling with Brian and Dorothy from Tagish another Canadian cruising couple. The first day we headed north west up through South Africa, it was a gorgeous drive. At times there was mountainous vistas and we wound through a picturesque pass on a very good road. The only draw back was that we were told not to stop unless it was in a populated area because of the risk of car jacking, it was a bit off putting but it didn't deter us.  The second day we entered Botswana and drove north to Kasane which is at the apex of four countries, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The drive through Botswana was totally different.

Driving through Botswana

The land was flatter than a pancake, mostly along the road is scrub bush with acacia trees and the iconic flat top trees that you see on all the posters about Africa. It got progressively drier as we went north and the temp climbed up to 35 degrees, the heat was so dry I had to buy lotion to stave off the onset of alligator skin, the Kalahari dessert is just to the west of us. There was about  15 km of cleared land, we thought we were back in Sask; it was so flat, no trees and it had been plowed ready for this year's crop when the rainy season sets in.  We finished the drive in the dark which is pretty dangerous because there are no fences and wild game including elephants wander across the road. We adopted the strategy of letting a car pass and then sticking to him like glue, thank heavens were arrived safe and sound.

This is called Devil's Cataract at the far east end of the falls.

The next day we took a tour to see Victoria Falls in Zimbawe( We could not take our car in because the rental agency would not let us and it would have been way too expensive, they charges taxes for everything.) WOW, what can I say, the beauty and history of the area was stunning.  

The main falls being obscured by the mist that rises from the gorge

It is at the end of the dry season so we saw the falls at the lowest levels of water, but there was tons flowing over and I am sure the mist when it is high water must obscure your view. We imagined canoeing along the river and hearing the thunder of the falls and catching glimpses of the mist, then pulling the boat ashore to go and check out the sound and seeing the falls for the first time. I could have stared for hours at the changing panorama that was taking place as the water spilled over the edge and thundering about 100 meters to the gorge below.

Looking down  the gorge towards Rainbow Falls

 There were 12 viewpoints on a lovely  2 km walk along the escarpment. It was really hot but the mist would cool us off as it rose from the Zambezi River.Afterwards we went to the Victoria Falls Hotel which was built in colonial times and oozes elegance and sophistication. 

We visited the Stanley room and had lunch of the famous terrace which has a superb view of the bridge that crosses the Zambezi River from Zimbabwe to Zambia.

Barry in the Victoria Falls Hotel, the Stanley room in the background

There were linen napkins and the ladies wash room was the most elegant I have ever seen. Next we were taken to the curio market where Barry proceeded to make almost all the vendors happy, our Christmas shopping is now complete!!!

This morning we went on a 3 hour safari to the Chobe National Park.  There are no fences there and animals are allowed to roam free.  There is a wet land area within the park and at one point we spotted a hippo and then noticed there were a lot of safari vehicles on the other side of the water.  As we got closer we spotted the lions, they were feeding on either a water buffalo or a wildebeest. There was a pride of 8 with a matriarch and youngsters.Our guide told us that the males start developing their mane at about 2 and ½ years and then they leave the pride.  They were ripping their kill to bits, there legs muddy to up beyond the first joint because they were right beside the river.  Rambo (our guide) speculated the animal (otherwise known as lunch) was trying to escape the attacking lions by fleeing into the water.

Notice the crocodile swimming by in the foreground

Right beside the lions were a pod of hippos.  There were enormous, standing in water up to their eyebrows they would submerge at will. I was fascinated to see their gigantic mouths when they opened them.  We could hear them vocalizing and saw some play fights.  .They stayed in a close group while crocodiles cruised around the outside, apparently crocs are only dangerous to baby hippos and will not attack an adult.  In Africa they talk about the big five, being the rhino, the elephant, the water buffalo, the lion and the leopard, we have seen four  of the five and it is quite unlikely we will see a leopard.  At the moment we are heading south in the car, once we reach South Africa we will jog east to see some of Kruger National park and then head back to Richards Bay through Swaziland. I am so glad we took the plunge and headed to the falls, they were a once in a  lifetime experience.

AFRICA, UNBELIEVABLE

white rhino, notice the bird on top

Well, we had a fabulous trip yesterday, we went and visited a local game farm, about 1 and 1/2 from here. A local cruiser named Anne and her daughter Lauriken drove us out in their personal vehicle. What a treat, Anne grew up traipsing around Africa and has a real love and a great deal of knowledge about the animals and Lauriken was a walking encyclopedia of facts about the variety of wildlife, birds and the plants. We learned so much about what we were seeing and we saw way more than we would have if we had gone by ourselves. We just love our South African friends!!!

There are 3 giraffes and a water buffalo

Barry and I were just thrilled with the giraffes, they are such improbably animals, we would gaze at them trying to figure out how they could walk, apparently they are distant relatives of the zebra, watching them eat reminded me of a camel!

We saw some elephants, you have to be very careful of them, they have been known to put a tusk through a rental car, only in Africa, you say!  Our guy just flapped his ears at us and waved his trunk about, we thought he was going to go and push over a tree but no luck.  We saw lots of white rhinos, and Barry took a beautiful picture of one, the bird on him is called an oxpecker. They are massive animals and eat  up to 40 kg of grass a day, Brian from Tagish who came with us, suggested perhaps he could get one to trim his lawn once they get back to Canada but figured the neighbours might object. They are endangered due to poaching for their horns and at the moment they are being killed by poachers that arrive in helicopters, after paying off the park rangers, and cut off their horns and leave.  This is being done in game parks where they are protected, it is a sad state of affairs.

There are 3 baboons in this picture, 2 on the ground and  1 in the mirror.

A troop of baboons scampered across the road in front of us, they were moving pretty fast so we didn't  get a great picture.  

We got excited in the late morning when we saw vultures circling, perhaps there was a lion kill and we might get to see a BIG cat.  It is rare to see a lion or a leopard in this park. Our trusty guide, Anne, saw where the vultures went to land and headed that way.  There was no lion but there were 38 vultures on a sand spit, facing into the wind just sunning themselves and occasionally airing out their wings, watching them coming in for a landing, correcting as their long legs extended for landing was a real treat.  On a branch we spotted a tawny eagle making a meal of a mouse, he swallowed the tail whole and the proceeded to rip out the guts and consume them.  So we got to see our animal kill after all.  Downstream and around a corner from the vultures the croc was sunbathing, just waiting for some poor unwary creatures to come down for a sip. 

If you look closely you can see the mouses tail between the eagle's tail feathers. 

There were zebras as well as impalas, wildebeest, kudus and nyala, all four legged deer like creatures. The impalas apparently are very nervous creatures, they have been known to die of fright from hearing a gun shot.

Another sighting was the water buffalo, one of the meanest creatures in Africa, according to Anne. 

 There was one calmly chewing it's cud while lying in the sand and three of them went charging across the road right in front of us, they were dripping wet and were spooked, Anne figured that maybe a croc had tried to drag one down. 

I could go on and on, the experiences were so varied, the experience of a lifetime, we are in Africa, pinch me. 

It was very hilly in this park with a rive running through it. 

An Egyptian goose, notice the Egyptian type eyes

Warthogs, how could I forget those.

Tomorrow we head off to Victoria Falls for a week with Brian and Dorothy from Tagish, stay tuned.

This is a video of a dung beetle pushing a ball of elephant dung.  They burrow into the dung and make a perfect ball, then they roll it somewhere a bury it and later lay their eggs in it.  The guy doing the rolling is the male, as it should be, and the female plays the princess and goes along for the ride.  I am not sure about the wisdom of getting a ball of dung rolled on top of you instead of helping but I am just a human. I bet my grandchildren will love this. 

                                   

The quality of the video is not great, but the we just loved the giraffes so much we had to share. 

As we were crossing the Mozambique Channel, I decided to have a little fun on our radio scheds. Instead of just exchanging the boring old weather and position information twice a day, I began the 

THE GREAT MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL LIMERICK CONTEST

 Mojombo, with the family from Australia, were our opponents and supposedly the only people on our sched. At the end of our run, near the Mozambique coast, another boat joined in to get the weather from us, and we found out after we arrived he was thoroughly sick of our limericks :) too bad he didn't want to join in the fun and participate.

ANYWAY.... the challenge was that one boat would suggest the first line, the other boat would have to come up with the second line, the first boat, line 3 and 4 and the second boat, line 5.  It led to some very peculiar but (we think) hilarious limericks. Gary has posted all the ones about Mojombo on his site, just click on the link on the side, and here are the ones about us, in the order that we came up with them. Mojombo started all the first lines for the Lange Limericks. 

Yellowknife Barry is fond of his beer

After consuming 2 big ones it's perfectly clear

Why he's chosen this life

And such a beautiful wife

So he shouts, bring another, my dear

Didn't realize my hands looked so old!

Bubbly Ann has a passion for bling

Blue topaz, necklace, earrings and a ginormous ring
With an array of new frocks
And her dazzling rocks
She'll sparkle while bottom painting

 

Barry dressed for a run in the wilds of Canada

                    From the wilds of Canada they've come

To the lure of the Pacific, they did succumb

Swapping a tundra freeze

For a tropical breeze

Cat's-Paw IV sailed west filled with rum

                                         

Charging down the coast of Madagascar, photo by Mojombo

Their boat is a beauty, a Fast Passage dame

Any boat but a Wasquiez she'll put to shame

With that fancy watermaking gear

And a windvane to steer

But with Barry on the tiller, she's really quite tame

When we came back from the Honey River mud trip we ended up going past a Malagasy couple madly paddling up the river against the tide and the current.  We asked if they would like a tow and they happily agreed.  Their outrigger was very easy to tow and we had no problems going our normal speed crossing the  5 km to the village. The couple was very thankful for the tow. The picture was taken by Tom on Emily Grace, a 14m motor yacht.

Check out the post from Mojombo, it is an extended version of our trip through the mud in Honey River, Madagascar. It was done by Zeke, the 12 year old boy, I think he did a great job.  Although he doesn't mention us, we are in several pictures and Barry took the video of him clamouring through the mud. You can find  their blog by clicking on a link to Mojombo that is on the side of our blog.

Believe it or not we have taken very few pictures so far.  We are at a marina and it is a first world country so figured you didn't need to see shots of all the shops and restaurants on the quay.  We are busy trying to get boat repairs done, it is not easy here as there are not many marine shops around and everything has to come from Durban. We don't want to go to Durban as we have heard it is dangerous and dirty in the port.
We have arranged to visit one of the game parks next week, depending on the weather.  It has been unseasonably wet here since we arrived, yesterday was the first nice hot day and then today we woke to driving rain and cool temp. again.
We are thoroughly enjoying the South African people though, they have been so friendly and helpful it is unbelievable.  There are no grocery stores around so we have to go about 40 min. walk to the closest one. The first day we headed out someone picked us up and gave us a ride to the store and then they insisted on waiting and driving us back to the port, awesome.
Barry uploaded the video below of us sailing, I would have edited it but he insisted that the whole thing should be on, I hope you guys enjoy it. It is one the side as well, I forgot how to put them on the side first so just uploaded it from UTUBE, aren't computers wonderful.

Sailing in the Indian Ocean

Walking in the mud at very low tide by Honey River

A typical Malagasy

Showing him how to get the paper off his bon bon!

They have just stripped this hill of wood in order to grow rice. 

I am trying to grind rice, check out the smiles on the women's faces, they thought it was hilarious

An anchorage at low tide, we walked up this hill and saw a hole in the ground where they were looking for sapphires. 

A typical house in this village.

The monster baobab tree. 

A Malagasy graveyard, the things standing up are pieces of coral. 

I hope they enjoyed the turtle.

These vessels routinely sail around Madagascar, aren't they amazing. 

We gave as many clothes as we had away to this group. 

                                 

This was the cloud that came up before the dreaded south westerlies hit. 

Notice the harness and the wet, bedraggled hair, not a fun day!

Just to let you all know we are in South Africa safe and sound. More later when we get internet access, at the moment we are in a hotel using their free computers in the conference center.  All they can do is ask us to leave if they catch us, but we did have breakfast here so we are kind of guest, right?

Last Blog from Mozambique Channel

We should arrive in Richard's Bay tomorrow. The trip across the channel has gone really well until the last two nights. They have been just awful, about sunset the clouds start to gather and then they get black . The lightning and thunder start next, I just hate lightning when we are on the boat. Last night, we had pulled the genoa in and only had out the triple reefed main. We had been in the storm for over an hour when all of a sudden it started to howl. The wind was gusting up to 45 knots and the main back winded and I couldn't get the boat around to get back on course. Barry got up out of bed and we managed to gybe the main and sail in the right direction. We eventually got the main down and Barry told me to secure the halyard, as I crab walked up the deck with my harness and life jacket on the wind was gusting again to over 40 knots. I figure
Barry was trying to get rid of me for good that time, it wouldn't even have needed a knife in the back, he could just have reported me washed overboard, lost at sea, my body washed up on some deserted beach….oh well you get the picture! We laid ahull for awhile, for you landlubbers , the tiller was hard over and we just drifted with the current and the wind.
We knew that South Africa was no picnic, sailing wise,. There is a huge current that runs south along the coast and if there are SW winds it can get really ugly. We weren't prepared for the thunder storms, it is getting on to late spring here and we thought the weather would be moderating. Apparently summer here is the rainy season and the weather can be rainy and foggy all summer. There are still over a 1000 miles to Cape Town so we will have a chance to experience more of South Africa's notorious sailing conditions.
I wanted to tell you about some of the meals we had onboard as we were crossing. In our last port in Madagascar, some fisherman came to the boat and we bought 3 meals of prawns. There we were shucking the prawns, throwing the shells overboard and having a lovely tomato based dish with onions, garlic and Chinese cabbage over rice, a cabbage and carrot salad for our greens and for dessert we had ripe mangoes that we slurped with enjoyment. The next day we had a tuna sandwich on fresh bread I had baked that morning with yogurt (I had made) for dessert. We definitely weren't suffering. I am looking forward to eating our first South African meal ashore. I am salivating just thinking about it. At the moment we have no juice on board, no vegetables other than a few small potatoes and no fresh fruit. We had to eat all our meat at once because the fridge gave out on us and it all defrosted. We are definitely making landfall today during daylight hours. I AM NOT SPENDING ANOTHER NIGHT AT SEA WITH ALL THIS LIGHTNING AROUND!!
There are now 18 boats that we know of converging on Richard's Bay so the stories will be flying and the hugs will be heartfelt after crossing this difficult piece of water

I am looking forward to the end of this passage.  We set out from Thailand at the end of Feb to cross the Indian Ocean and it is 8 long adventurous months later and we have only 480 miles to go. Hopefully we should be in Richard's Bay, South Africa on Sunday.  It looks like the weather will hold to allow us to get there without stopping to hole up.  We have excellent weather coverage, there are 2 radio nets we are listening to and they each are on twice a day so we get very good weather information 4 times a day.  They are all volunteers and will give the cruisers detailed information for just their boat.  At the moment we are aware of 14 boats that are checking  in to the nets so these guys are busy.
It feels like we will have accomplished a lot once we arrive in South Africa. So many cruisers are getting stuck in their round the world trips in Langkawi, Malaysia and Thailand.  They were planning on heading through the Red Sea and now that it is to dangerous to do that they are unwilling to tackle a crossing of the Indian Ocean because of the very bad reputation for horrible weather that surround the Cape of Good Hope.  We are over half way around the world, having past that milestone to the west of Mauritius.  It doesn't seem so far to hop over to Brazil and then through the Panama Canal to cross our path for when we left from Costa Rica,to complete our circumnavigation, way less than half way.
I made a list of all the repairs we have to do once we get to port. It was quite impressive, the most pressing is repainting the bottom.  Most people had it done in Thailand but we felt as we had just had it done in Australia it was not necessary.  In some places along the waterline there is not much paint left from the cleaning I have been doing to keep the green grass from growing there.  Our dodger is wearing out, we have been hand stitching it and now the zippers are going and the clear plastic windows are getting harder and harder to see out of.  It is a very well made piece of equipment and it will be costly and difficult to replace it with the same quality.  The bimini which is the cockpit cover as well as the weather cloths, that hang from the lifelines to cover the sides of the cockpit are all the same age and the material is wearing out, oh for a sewing machine. It will keep us really busy for a number of weeks once we arrive.
I have been posting quite regular position reports so if you are interesting in our path across the Mozambique Channel just click on the link to our position on the right. Drop us a line and tell us what is happening in your lives, I feel like I have lost touch with a lot of you.

We are making good distance across the Mozambique Channel.  We are heading SW rather than straight across.  At the moment we are battling a very strong current, pushing us northwards about 30 degrees off course. The winds have been quite light, under 15 knots for the most part and we are hard on the wind, at times making our heading and times 40 degrees off.  Currently at this speed we should be in Richard's Bay in seven days but it will depend on the weather once we reach the African side.  The Cape of Good Hope generates a lot of difficult weather so if something comes storming out of the Antarctic we will duck into an anchorage and wait until the weather clears.  I told Barry if the wind gets really light and we are making less than 2 knots over the ground I am going to start the motor.  He asked "Why?"  I couldn't really say at the time but I think because this can be a unsettled stretch of water, I want to just get there and get it over with as soon as possible.

We will be at our last stop today in Madagascar. We will probably stay a day or two and then leave when the weather looks good.  We have been having some fun adventures on our way along the coast.  At a spot called Honey Bay we went for a hike.  We started off at low tide and had to wade in mud up to our knees through the mangroves to get to the beginning of the trail.  The hills we hiked through were very dry and it was hot. Thank goodness the tide had come up so that on the way back we could ride the dinghies all the way out of the river. One of the other stops had some wonderful baobab trees on some very small islands.  We heard about a particular baobab we should go and see so off we went in the dinghy. We eventually found it and it was huge.  It was at least 7 of Barry's arm width around which we figured was about 14 meters or 42 feet or so, really massive.  I will have to post pictures when we get to South Africa.  The body of water between Madagascar and Africa is called the Mozambique Channel.  Who would have ever thought that Barry and I would be sailing across the Mozambique Channel, bizarre!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had our boat buddies, the crew of Mojombo over for a meal.  There wasn't any turkey available but I did put some cranberries in the cous cous salad I made so there was the flavour of Canadian Thanksgiving as we ate our meal in Madagascar.

We are slowly making our way down the west coast of Madagascar, we are 75 miles south of Hell-Ville.  We are in no hurry, at the moment we are traveling with 4 other boats.  It is nice to have the company, we will travel to South Africa with the same boat that we crossed from Reunion with, Mojombo.  Their crew is Australian and consist of a family with a boy who is 12 and a girl who is 10, we first met them in Fiji and went on a day trip over the mountain from Suva Suva with them. We also went on an overland trip in Sri Lanka with them.
The villages we have come across on our way down are very basic.  The one that we have stopped at now do not have running water, there is no electricity, we have seen nothing that resembles an outhouse.  They fish, they gather clams, they grow rice, they have cattle, chickens and geese and they grow very basic gardens. There are mango and coconut trees but I don't think bananas grow well here.  When we went ashore today we gave out some sugar, some milk powder and some salt, they asked for t-shirts and one fellow wanted tooth paste of all things.  Our guide the other day said most women my age had lost all their teeth!!! Barry and I were talking about what you would do as a young person raised here and we figured you would become a fisherman. Not many of the people in this village spoke French which to me would indicate they had not gone to school, because all their schooling is done in French(I think). All the kids we met on shore had a bad cough and Barry is hoping he didn't catch anything.  We went walking up the hill and saw a deep meter wide hole, we understand it was when they were looking for sapphires.
I hope to be able to give some position reports soon but we have not been able to connect very well, so if I can I will.

Stepping ashore in Madagascar

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries we have been in for awhile.  The people have very little, living in shacks with sticks for sides and thatched roofs.  They still use bullocks to pull carts to haul stuff around.  Today we were on a street that was lined with stalls for selling goods and Zebu cattle were driven down the street.  The fisherman go out in small wooden outrigger boats with sails, very few have motors. There are very few personal vehicles and all the taxis are old Renaults, it seems 80’s and 90’s vintage cars.  There are very few stores with fancy goods in them, although most people seem to own cell phones. 

Our first baobab tree, we must be somewhere close to Africa!

The government here is very bad, the last dictator was overthrown in a coup and fled the country taking whatever riches he could get his hands on.  There once was a viable sugar cane industry on the island where we are staying but mismanagement and corruption took it toll and it went bankrupt.  After three years without pay the workers started stealing pieces of the factory to sell and taking the tin off the roof for their own homes.  The land which formerly belonged to the factory owners has been given or taken by the workers and they are planting crops to feel themselves, casava, rice, bananas, potatoes and market gardening. 

Watching the cars stop for the bullocks is interesting

We did not take a trip to the mainland but had a small tour around the island of Nosey B today.  It was supposed to be a day tour but both Barry and I have been ill, I had a sore throat, fever and now a cough and Barry’s has had the runs for 3 or 4 days, so we only went for a couple of hours.  Our string of (I didn’t want to say it before, but will now) bad luck has continued.  We got our anchor stuck on a rock the other day and after half and hour trying to get it loose we called a fisherman over who was able to direct us on how to maneuver to get the anchor free.  We gave him the equivalent of $25 CND and I am sure it made his day.  The anchor windlass continues to give us problems, not having enough juice to pull the chain aboard by itself. We are checking out of the country tomorrow so hopefully we will leave all our misadventures here.   

A very old taxi cab

Okay, sorry about the sideline, but I was looking forward to the tour but we both needed to be close to a toilet (I got the runs this morning) and we have not had to use a public toilet yet so we are not sure what to expect!!!!  Most everyone here speaks French as well as the local language, Malagasy. We found a guide who spoke English so we happy to have him in the car today. His name is Barthelemy and if you want a guide to Nosey Be or the mainland you can get hold of him by e-mail at tantarabarthelemy@yahoo.fr   He was very knowledgeable about the history of Madagascar and gave us a good political overview. Barthelemy talked about the people being 80 % Christian and 20% Muslim although he says a lot of the people still believe in witchcraft and will go to see the witch doctor.  School is free here but it is not compulsory so there is a huge illiteracy problem. Last year the school teachers went on strike for 4 months to gain better wages and because of it many students were unable to pass their exams at the end of the year.  There is very little industry in the country due to the poverty and gov’t mismanagement, Barry says the work force is poorly educated as well.  

The fishing boats sailing home at the end of the day, notice the interesting rig!

In the smaller ports we have been in we have had fishermen coming up wanting us to give them whatever we can.  We also were able to trade for some delicious lobster and the ever popular bananas.  I went to the second hand market the other day and bought 5 shirts to trade and we have extra sugar, milk powder and salt as well as some fish hooks to barter with as we head further south, that lobster was very good, on of the best ever!

We will probably take a week to 10 days before we cross the Mozambique Channel.  We will drop our anchor in Mozambique waters but will not check into the country, just hopping down the coast and make our landfall in South Africa at Richards Bay, sometime in the middle of October we think.  We have been unable to connect to send mail using our ham radio very often so hopefully things will get better as we head further south. 

Fish stretched and drying in the sun. 

MADAGASCAR

Notice how dry it is, there was a lot of evidence or erosion too, the natural vegetation has been stripped from the hills. 

When we arrived after a good fast trip over from Renunion, the boat seemed to be in good shape.  I commented on it and immediately things began falling apart.  The most serious was the winch refused to work announcing its departure from a functioning machine with a big bang.  For 2 days Barry had to haul in the chain using a variety of methods, all which involved much manpower.  The most effective was the manual lever we got with the winch, after we had shortened it so  it wouldn’t hit the deck, it would bring up 4 links at a time, a very tedious manner in which to raise 40 or 50 meters of chain.  We arrived in Helle-Ville where we had to check in and Barry took the whole thing apart and discovered that the mechanism inside had just come unbolted so he searched around in the anchor locker for the bolts and managed to find them all.  After he put the winch back together, it worked, hurrah for the ingenuity of the cruiser.  

While we were still reeling from the loss of the anchor winch Barry lifted down the dinghy motor and it managed to turn upside down in the dinghy.  He tried for half an hour to get the damn thing started but no go.  Then we were rowing away from shore the next day and the plastic seat on the dinghy cracked and broke.  The blue UV cover on the genoa was coming unstitched and flapping about alarmingly and our top life line on the port side had broken and no replacement was in sight until South Africa.  Fortunately the dinghy just needed to stay upright for a night and it decided to work again, Barry figured the carburettor float got stuck when it was upside down.  The dinghy seat was repaired with some lovely teak boards we salvaged from wrecked catamaran in Chagos .  We spent 3 days hand stitching the UV cover on the sail in Helle-Ville and Barry put a thin rope in to act as a temporary but not very supportive life line (the life lines are normally stainless steel wire). To top it all off, after three days at anchor in Helle-Ville the wind came up at night while we were in bed.  I was still reading and felt that we should have the anchor alarm on.  Waking Barry to put it on he went up the check and we had already dragged our anchor ending up very near to shore.  Thankfully the windlass was fixed by then and we raised the anchor and motored over to a safer spot after scrapping the bottom a few times as we pulled forward toward the anchor.  I hope this is the end of the string of mishaps for a few months.  

The lemurs, the black one is a male and the brown a female. 

We have been taking in the sites around the island called Nosey Be on the west side of Madagascar.  We really enjoyed visiting the lemurs which are rare and found in Madagascar.  We were given bananas to feed them and if you turned your back they would  hop on your shoulders and devour the bananas.

Last weekend we entered in a local regatta. There were sixteen boats involved the and race was 14 nautical miles. It was beautiful sailing, hard on the wind on the way there and just off the wind on the way back.  We ended up finished 7th out of 16 boats on uncorrected time and we figured that was great because there were only 6 monohulls in the race and rest were cats. We were the second monohull across the line and were pleased with the boats performance. There was a dinner served onshore at the bay we raced to and it was delicious with crab and wonderful fish on the menu.  The party onshore was enjoyed with a couple of guitars making music and people singing and dancing. The next morning they had some tasks all boat had to complete that generated prices.  Barry was behind in bucket on the head race but managed to hit a target (a beer can on a stick) with the air pistol.  We didn't do so well in the egg toss, I figure I should have got a prize for the person with the most egg on her!!!!!

Gotta go the computer is out of power!