Location: 17° 35.4 S, 42° 30.0 E
Thursday 12:00, 11.02.2006

Today at noon, Schooner Maggie B was at 17° 35.4 S, 42° 30.3 E about 30 NM south of Juan de Nova, a French island off the coast of Madagascar. We are sailing along nicely now on a close reach in 10-12 knot NNW’erly, making 6.25 knots through the water and 7.4 speed over the ground with the current.

Hellville, Nose Be is 419 miles away and we have come 1916 NM since Cape Town.

The barometer has fallen a bit to 1009, enough to remind us that the weather can change here quickly, though not enough to yet be of a concern.

Back in May, when we were in Cul de Sac des Marins, Martinique, Yvon, Captain of the beautiful yawl Darwin Sound, gave us the name of a former shipmate, Anderson Jaomanina, from Madagascar, and encouraged us to track him down when we got to this part of the world. Happily we were finally able to make contact and he will be meeting us at the pier in Nosy Be, to introduce us to the delights of Madagascar and perhaps to sail with us for a bit. Anderson should be of significant use because the East Africa Pilot says, “Nosy Be is famous for the determination and cunning shown by port officials in pursuit of bribes and fictitious port charges.”

One navigational difficulty in this part of the world is the names of places. It seems very usual to have a particular town with at least three different names, the official Malagasy, the French name from the period of occupation, and the Portuguese “discovery” name. So Diego Suarez is also Antsiranana; Fort Dauphin is Taolagnano. Most towns start with An- or Am- which means “the place where” and Island is Nosy, which comes first. Imagine looking up in an alphabetical list of towns where 2/3’s are An-something, or finding an island where the format is “Island Long” rather than “Long Island” so it is Nosy This and Nosy That. Sigh. Relax.

Bori made a lovely Tortilla de Patates for lunch. It is a very traditional Spanish dish, made with potatoes cooked slowly in olive oil with garlic, eggs and onions. Total yum!

All is well.

Getting close to the shores of Madagascar

It is the 2nd of November today but I don’t know what day of the week it is. I can find out from my agenda but it is funny how we loose track of the days out here. Time somehow seems suspended on the water. Still, it goes on, I hear. Hannah’s family told us that all the leaves have now fallen in Nova Scotia. I still remember them being so light green in March when we sailed out from Lunenburg and now they are gone. Already? And my mother said they have predicted snow for the weekend in Hungary.

It is a little confusing to be a sailor.

My life has been different this last year. The natural cycle of the year that I have gotten used to for 27 years has gotten messed up in my 28th year. A year ago, I haven’t even arrived to Nova Scotia but I was on my way, this adventure with the Maggie B, not always on the water, will celebrate its first anniversary soon as far as my part goes. March 28th was around the first nice spring week in Lunenburg after a Canadian winter (not too harsh judged by the locals, still lots of snow onboard)… and spring hasn’t even really started when we arrived into summer in Bermuda and ever since, it seems as though it has been summer!!! It is November now and I’ve been wearing sunscreen since April and now, it is getting even hotter. This is what life is like close to the equator. It takes less time to get dressed and undressed but I miss the changing seasons. Really, to understand time, I need other references, like distance traveled from Barbados to Brazil or from Durban to Juan de Nova where we are now, or looking in the mirror and seeing myself wearing a pony tail and I remembering leaving Canada with short hair. Those things make sense because they remain changing no matter where we are on the planet. The wind blows, the boat moves, time goes, hair grows. They don’t care about where the equator is.

So, needless to say, it’s been hot and humid lately but the nights are beautiful and full of stars. Today, against the heat, I did prepare “una tortilla de patatas”, a Spanish potato and egg tortilla, baked in lots of olive oil for a long time on slow heat… and it didn’t break too badly when I flipped it. I was inspired by passionate Spanish guitar music I listened to on my watch last night. It is fun to cook and try to have things as perfect as possible on a boat. We have time to concentrate so I am perfecting my cooking skills.

But it is great to be a sailor…

Frank and I had a great conversation this morning about why it is great to be a sailor. I’ve been learning Malagasy this morning as well as studying how cyclones and typhoons are created. Then, I read about Swahili time, how their days start at 6h and end at 18h and their nights start at 18h and end at 6h… there are so many differences, so many codes to understand when one travels. We need to understand the weather, navigation, sail setting, geography, physics, speak the language of the country we are visiting, attempt to understand the culture… there is no end to our learning. Sailing is like human ecology, everything seems to be related somehow. It is hard to hang on sometimes. I need to surround myself by stable, non-changing things and emotional bonds in order to be able to embrace all that is new.

In about three days we will be in Hellville, Nosy Be, it seems like a relaxed but exciting place with much to discover. I project myself onto a cafe terrace and I will look at the sea while I write postcards by the mango trees.