Location: 21° 33.6 S, 39° 47.7 E
Tuesday 12:00, 10.31.2006

Happy Halloween! It seems impossible that exactly a year ago I was wandering the streets of Halifax dressed as a dead Napoleonic Wars Naval Lieutenant. Probably no costumes tonight.

The Schooner Maggie B was at 21° 33.6 S, 39° 47.7 E at noon today. We are undersail, underway from Bassas d’India to Nose Be in Madagascar. It is about 690 NM to Nose Be. We are about 100 NM off the coast of Madagascar, angling in towards the westerly hump of the island. The wind is about 12 knots on the nose and dying out so we will be motoring soon. We have gone 1623 NM since Cape Town.

Last night we had a lovely party on board the Maggie B together with the crew of the Aerandir (from the Lord of the Rings?). They are doing shark research. Chris and Monique, who own the boat, work out of Simons Town in False Bay, the White Shark Capital of the World, taking tourists out to see the Great Whites eat baby seals, while they do serious research on the side. Their web site is Apex Predators. Chris and Monique stayed on Aerandir, but sent over their crew of five, together with a present of five kilos of just caught sushi grade tuna.

Their crew included: Reiner (”I am not a German, I am Namibian”), who is an ecologist researching Hawksbill turtles; Kim, his girlfriend and another researcher; Guy, a big South African Dutchman, who is Captain of the ship; Greg, a rocket scientist from San Diego (his company is building a plasma engine for the manned trip to Mars) who is the acting ship’s engineer; and Shamus, an Irish cameraman documenting their work.

We had such a fine evening, perfect weather for sitting outside in the cockpit. It was by far the best party for miles around. In fact, we were the only people for a hundred miles, except for Chris and Monique, who turned in early. The crew of the Aerandir was thrilled to be on the Maggie B because their boat is dry and they had been out for three weeks. We were well supplied, which was good because the crowd was thirsty.

Some glimpses of the fine evening: Hannah starting the singing off by leading us in Barrett’s Privateers (”I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier”). Shamus, an uncharacteristically shy non-singing Irishman, though not so shy that he didn’t (unsuccessfully) proposition Bori and Hannah — and they argued over the question of who he asked first. Guy singing a sad Dutch song, repeatedly, but with a different translation each time. Reiner telling me how we can get into Aldabra, the UNESCO World Heritage site with 100,000 Giant Indian Ocean Tortoises, where he used to work. Guy telling the tale of the Santiago, one of the many ships to run aground on Bassas d’India, and how it has been documented that over 2000 people have died on the reefs that were producing huge breakers only 600 feet away. Me forgetting the last verse of Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” (I got it now — “Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town, I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down. Prove that you love me and buy the first round, etc.).

We should be in Hellville, the capital of Nose Be, November 4th or 5th. Hellville is named after a French Admiral, not the after effects of the local rum. The main street was named Cours de Hell (Highway to Hell), and a street sign is still up, painted on the side of the Catholic Church.

All is well.