Location: 13° 24.4 S, 48° 17.1 E
Monday 12:00, 11.06.2006

We are safely at anchor in Hellville, the main harbor of Nosy Be, at 13° 24.4 S, 48° 17.1 E. It is a small but active commercial port and there are about a dozen other cruisers at anchor here. We saw some harbors nearby with a greater concentration of sailboats, so this is clearly where you shop, clear customs and get diesel, then go somewhere else for fun.

Speaking of clearing customs, it was a breeze.

The East Indian Pilot and Nigel Calder have it wrong. Everyone was friendly and quick. There wasn’t even a hint of extra fees or bribes, we got receipts for everything and it was fairly inexpensive. The local currency is the Ariary, which is 2000 to the dollar. Health clearance was $12, each visa was $15, Police clearance of the boat $7, and a month long cruising permit was $24. I will write the authors and update them, though there is a Presidential election coming up and perhaps all will change.

I kept saying “We sure aren’t in Kansas any more!”

Nose Be is very exotic. The faces are very variable — one quite Arab, the next Somali, the next Congolese, the next Polynesian. The taxis are tiny dead Renaults with Mercedes trucks and zebu (humped cattle) carts thrown in.
We rendezvoused with Anderson, who was a great help checking in. I’m sure he earned a week’s salary just this morning. It is so strange to connect with him just from a chance conversation in Martinique with another sailor.

As with most ex-French colonies, the food is very good. Hannah had her first octopus for lunch today and enjoyed it. Willis and I tested out the local beer, Three Horses. Strange name, why not three lemur? We are going to try our best to balance high speed city life (think Rendezvous des Marins Disco) with the outdoors (think Hannah with a baby lemur).

I have some great photos which I will post to the site as soon as Bori (our Internet junkie) hunts down the best site.

All is well.