Free Range Baobab Trees and Lemurs

 

We were really disappointed that we couldn't cruise in Madagascar. It is hard closed for covid season. Of course the only reason we wanted to go to Madagascar was to see the Baobab trees and the Lemurs. It turns out that Mayotte has Baobabs and is one of the few places besides (maybe only) Madagascar that has Lemurs. Mayotte sits about 160 miles west of the Madagascar coast. Above is the first Baobab we spotted, sitting in the center of a traffic circle.

To go on our Lemur hunt we put a bunch of bananas in the backpack and Chris, Bill and I took the ferry to the main island.

We walked from the ferry to Pointe Mahabou Park. We circumnavigated the park trails twice with sign of the illusive little lemurs. After we had given up and decided we got skunked we started walking out. One of the park employees who we had asked earlier if there were any lemurs about came over to Chris excitedly saying Madame, Madame. He pointed us to a tree nearby and said "Maki!", which means lemur here. Off we went to visit a small, shy group in a nearby mango tree. If you look closely the lemur on the right, grabbing the banana we placed on the tree, you'll see a tiny baby on her back.

Here's a closer picture of the baby, hanging on to mama.

The very friendly and helpful yacht club.

We had an interesting interaction with the local police today. To clear out of the country we needed to go to the airport to get our Immigration and Customs' stamps. As we walked in through the main doors of the terminal a guy in plain clothes walked up to Bill and asked if he spoke French, which he does. A long, fairly friendly conversation ensued. We walked over to the table in front of immigration to get our papers ready. We could see Bill showing the guy his phone and talking on. Eventually Chris went over to Bill to grab his passport so we could start the clear out process. A few days ago Bill went for a long walk and ended up near the military base on the island. No one was around. There is a wall and with a number of radio dishes behind it. There is also a sign that says Interdit photos. This was Bill's clue to take out his phone and take a photo. The person who stopped Bill as he walked into the airport was a plain clothes policeman. He asked Bill if he had taken a photo at the military base, then told him to take his phone out and delete the picture. So ---- how did they ID Bill right at the entrance?

Tomorrow we are heading off to continue down the Mozambique Channel toward Richards Bay, South Africa. Weather forecasting on this run is notoriously unreliable past about three days, so we will probably have to make a few weather stops on the way down. 

Paul 

Enroute Mayotte - Arrived

 We arrived in Mayotte last night and had the anchor down at 1:00am local time last night. Its a 3 hour run into the anchorage from outside the entrance with a number of twists and turns that are all well marked and lit.

After we passed the tip of Madagascar and entered the Mozambique Channel the wind laid down. The Compression Zone was fairly benign.  We did a 128 mile noon-to-noon run with the lighter wind. Of the last 30 hours we probably motored 80% of the run.

Todays job, get cleared into Mayotte with the French officials.

Paul

Next Stop Mayotte

 

 

We did all of our clearing out of the Seychelles yesterday. Including paying usd$850 of daily anchoring fees for the 4 months the boat has been here.

 We are now anchored in a nice bay on the north end of Mahe (the main island in the Seychelles) for the evening. In the morning we will take off for a 5 or 6 day passage to Mayotte. Mayotte is a French island at the north end of the Mozambique Channel. This will be our first stop on the 2,800 mile trip to Cape Town, South Africa.

The 800 mile trip to Mayotte is a bit challenging.  To begin with you are sailing with wind from the beam forward. The seas are what has been generated by the few thousand mile open run that the SE tradewinds create. If you look at the wind image above, at the label Victoria in the upper right is where we are leaving from. The small islands that are in the middle left are Comoros and Mayotte. To left of them is continental Africa, to the right is the large island of Madagascar, of movie fame. We would have loved to stop in Madagascar and say Hi to the lemurs and check out a Baobab tree, but it is shut due to Covid season.

Looking at the wind in the image you can see where the SE tradewinds get compressed as they go above the north tip of Madagascar. This can make for some rough and unpleasent sailing. The trick to planning the passage is to try and do the 12-24hours as you pass northern Madagascar while the Compression Zone is light. It tends to have lighter days in October than in August or September. 

To add to the fun, the South Indian currents are also compressed as they hit Madagascar, making a strong, up to 3 knot current, over the top (bluish in the image). The current tends to make the seas very disorganised. 

I'll post a brief daily or every other day text-only update as we make the passage. You can track our daily position by looking at the map at the bottom of the blog page. (Don't see a map at the bottom? Then you are on the Mobile version of the blog. At the bottom you should see a blue link that says View Web Version)

One thing that should make this trip a little easier is that we will be sharing the watches with our friend Bill who flew in from San Francisco.

Paul