Well we had done it – sailed across the Indian Ocean from Thailand to Tanzania – a journey of nearly 4,000 nautical miles with the route we took. It was not as bad as it could have been with no major breakages or storms to deal with. On our way to Tanzania we stopped at the island of Mayotte for a couple of days to have a break and also to visit this small outpost of France. Mayotte is as different from Madagascar as chalk is from cheese. Mayotte voted to stay part of France back in 1974 unlike the neighbouring island chain of Cormoros who chose independence. – continue reading …>

 

We decided to head down to a bay called Munoko Bay as we had heard really good things about it, so on the way we stopped at Tanikely.  The guys had a dive and we walked up to the top of the island to look at the view. Tanikely is a marine reserve which is good as it protects the island but it is so small we only stayed for the morning and the headed off to Munoko. We arrived just on dusk and so decided to explore the next morning. It is a lovely island with a small community of about 60 people and the head ‘chief’ is actually a woman so we gave her our gifts for the – continue reading …>

After a couple of days in Hellville enjoying the delights of being back in a bustling town complete with coffe shops, markets and restaurants we headed round to Crater Bay – a small fishing boat harbour about 5nm away.  This is where the Nozy Be yacht club is situated and we found a washing machine, book exchange, small chandlers, bar and restaurant here.  We were offered a mooring at $30 a week which we thought good value, so we settled in and spent the week exploring.  About 1km away was the small town which caters for the mainly ex-pat community and tourists.   Continue reading →

We ended up making the decision to come to Madagascar on a whim after not being able to anchor in Peros Banos, so the usual build up to a long crossing was absent.  I usually do some cooking for the night runs, have all the washing done, have a nap in the afternoon in preparation for the night watches, have all the charts checked and the route inputted to the computers, but this time we just made the decision on the spur of the moment and left.  This was to be our longest unbroken sail to date at over 1500 NM and we had expected it to take about 10 days.  There is an island called Agelaga which would be a great little stopover if we needed a break. Continue reading →