Dear Friends, 2 September 2011
After visiting Asia, the Chagos Archipelago and Mauritius, we have finally made it to Madagascar. I had planned to celebrate my 50th birthday here, but now we were about one year and three months late. So it goes...
Chagos was unique and we would have liked to stay a bit longer. Unfortunately we only had an anchor permit for one month and towards the end the food got a bit boring as well. Fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner is not really my trip, especially since I don't much like seafood in the first place. The yellowfin tuna we caught just after we left, was unreservedly delicious though. Especially raw with Wasabi and soy sauce.
Even the sailing itself was perfect. Some other boats complained that 20 to 25 knots of wind were a bit too much for comfort, but our boat just starts to get going in conditions like this. So it took only one week to get to Mauritius, which is extraordinarily fast for the "slowest boat in the fleet".
Clearing in was a bit more difficult, as one of my gearboxes developed a problem and I couldn't take it out of gear. I was lucky and did not damage my boat on the concrete pier. Some other boats, which stayed in the marina there, were not so lucky and suffered various scrapes and scratches on their hulls.
The three months we spent in Grand Baie were quiet and peaceful. Liping jokingly complained that she had nothing to write for her blog as there weren't any disasters happening at the moment. For once we spent quite a bit of time in the company of other yachties, some of which we had known for a long time. We first met IEMANJA in Fiji, TANOA in Panama & DO IT and us were in Trinidad at the same time. We met also quite a few new boats and spent a lot of time with OBERON from New Caledonia. We had only briefly met Elie, Marie-Laure and Jules in Chagos, but now we became fast friends. More than 20 years ago, Elie and I had both worked in French Guyana at the same time. We never met though, because he was in Cayenne and I was in Kourou.
As usual, we met and became friends with some Chinese and Mauritian people. I celebrated my birthday party with about 20 people in a little Chinese restaurant called Hai Hua Ocean Restaurant (which belongs to our friends Shi Fangfang and Ah Tao). Mostly yachties and one Mauritian. We were invited to one Chinese and one Mauritian birthday party. One day the German honorary consul and his family visited us on our boat. Everybody was extremely nice and generous to us. And Nick, an old friend who had moved to Taiwan in 1982 just like me, flew in to visit us. He had done the same in Langkawi and in Phuket and he is so far the only one who has visited us. While it had been pleasantly warm on our arrival, it soon became evident that winter was approaching. Dinners were moved from the cockpit to the inside, cold drinks were replaced by rum with hot water and sugar (grog) and trips with the just acquired beach kayak were canceled altogether.
We also got a new crew member. Hamsti, the golden hamster, proceeded to eat enormous amounts of cucumbers, carrots, apples, grapes, spring onions, oats and so on. Being mega-spoiled, he eschews water. Aurora is absolutely in love with him. He lives in a big plastic box, has a light-blue running wheel and a luxury villa made of plywood, which Michael of TANOA built for him.
Michael helped us a lot, went up the mast, soldered here and there, installed a new lamp and so on. We tried to repay him by inviting him to dinners, beers and grog, but we remain deeply indebted to him. Thank you so much, Michael!
Clearing out turned out to be even worse than clearing in, as I had thought the gearbox was fixed. Of course I found out that this wasn't the case exactly when I approached the concrete customs pier. Still, we were lucky once more and Liping didn't get any material for her blog again.
I completely forgot to mention that my novel "Double Trouble at Sea" came out during this time at Amazon in the USA. The electronic Kindle-edition is live right now, while I am correcting the proof of the print edition right now. It is simply unbelievable how many typos and other errors have crept in after all the effort I have spent. And when Liping went through it after me, she found another bucketful of mistakes. I was slowly getting depressed as I did not see any silver lining on the horizon. Also, with almost US$ 20 the book seems to me quite expensive. I had not imagined how high production costs of a book are.
Liping cheered my up quite a bit when she said that these were all small details and that she at least thought that my writing was excellent. I treasure this praise especially from someone who casually read up to 25 novels a week while still working full time. And I know that she wouldn't say things like this if she didn't mean it. Anyway, I'll try to get the book ready for sale before Christmas.
The trip to Ile Sainte-Marie in Madagascar started pleasantly enough. For the first three days we had light winds from behind, so that we slowly progressed under furling genoa alone. There was a strong swell from the south though, so that both of my girls got seasick. That was their own fault, as they were too stubborn to take the seasickness medicine.
On the 4th day the weather became unpleasant. Squalls, rain, no sun, the works. By that time we had covered about half the distance to our destination. Unfortunately it stayed that way until the wind died completely. We didn't have enough electricity and so I had no other option but to start the diesel (out of gear) in order to recharge my batteries - and to make hot water for showers, as it was by no means warm yet. Also, it looked very much as if we had to clear in during the weekend, which often results in hefty fees for "overtime".
When we came towards Ambodifototra, I noticed a whale blowing and soon we were near a family of humpback whales. The played around for quite a while and when sounding we could see the characteristic fluke right out of the water, a sight familiar from TV and magazines. This I hadn't ever seen with my own eyes until this point. We were all excited. Very nice experience, that.
Clearing-in turned into an expensive experience. First, the tax-office (?) got US$ 75 per person for a 90-day visa. Then the police (who did all the work, but didn't get any money) demanded a present and got a small bottle of Scotch whisky. The Coast Guard wanted US$ 32 - but at least they gave us a receipt. We had been warned of the fat oily man in charge of Customs, who sat in his ramshackle office in a tattered red t-shirt. He pocketed another US$ 32 which he put in his own pocket right before my eyes. Then he wanted a bottle of Scotch as well, which I refused.
All this was unpleasant enough. The fact that we couldn't get at our money was a bit more worrying, though. There are no CIRRUS or MAESTRO ATM machines around here, only VISA. Cool, I thought. I had a brand-new VISA ATM card from the Postal Bank in Germany. Unfortunately that didn't work either, as the machine only accepted only VISA credit cards and not VISA ATM cards. We didn't have enough US$ cash to pay the officials and in the end we had no other option but to use the credit card for a cash advance. That is usually one of the most expensive ways of getting at your money.
Apart from that, it was evident that we had arrived in one of the poorest countries on our planet. The huts were covered with corrugated iron, situated in mud and falling seriously apart. In the shops you could buy things that would have ended on the dump in a western country. Liping and I were experiencing culture shock, which surprised us a bit after all these years of constant traveling.
Kiribati had been very poor too, but somehow it didn't feel as depressing as here. Although Kiribati is much more remote than Ile Sainte Marie, the water-level of the oceans is rising inexorably and it is horribly overpopulated, the people there smile the most beautiful smile you have ever seen. When later, in another country, I saw such a smile and inquired where the man came from, he told me that he was, indeed, from Kiribati.
Another factor here seems to be, that Ile Sainte Marie is primarily a tourist destination and therefore not typical for Madagascar. Anyway, I guess we'll find out as we intend to stay for three months in this country. The plan is to sail slowly north, round Cape Amber and then sail slowly south again before crossing the Mozambique Channel to Richards Bay in South Africa. Before we can do that, Liping will need a visa for South Africa and it is our most fervent wish that she won't have to travel to the capital Antananarivo for that, as that lies far inland. In any case, we will manage somehow and we certainly want to experience the awesome flora and fauna which only exists here on the fourth largest island of the world. It is one of the main reasons why we are here.
More than 20 years ago I met Roy Starkey on his ferrocement boat SEA LOONE in Kourou. He build his boat in the early 70s and has been living onboard ever since, while sailing 2 1/2 times around the globe. Roy and I are on the same wavelength as far as animals and nature is concerned and when he told me long ago that Madagascar compared favorably to the Amazon jungle and the he considered it the most interesting part of the planet, I made up my mind that I would have to see it one day.
Anyway, here we are and I am sure the next few months should prove interesting!
Cheers!
Holger, Liping & Aurora Ulani
Catamaran DHARMA BUM III
Ile Sainte Marie, Madagascar
16°59.96'S 049°50.81'E
