We finished out necessary jobs this afternoon when we got the bottom cleaned. Earlier in the day, we had one last shot at being "tourists" by going out snorkeling again with Warren and Maria from Night Fly. We've been hanging out together off and on since having I first met them back at Suwarrow in the Cook Islands back in 2011 and we ran into each other while in the Seychelles. We went back to where we snorkeled yesterday for one last shot. As we move farther south in Madagascar, the water will be just too darn cold for any kind of activity in it. Even right now, when you jump in, it does make you inhale a breath. While we wear a thin nylon suit, it gives us just a bit of protection from the cold water. By the time we get to South Africa, none of us are going to go near the water.

Once we had had our fill of the snorkeling, we returned and dropped off Warren and Maria and then returned to Zephyr for a great Zebu filet. We bought a couple of tenderloins while in Hellville and froze them. Tracy cut them up into "filet" size chunks and yesterday, I cooked them on the grill and today, on the stove with cooked onions on top. If you ever get the chance to have Zebu(especially a filet) grab it. It's wonderful. Out here, Zebu tenderloin is cheaper(about $7.00US for a kilo of tenderloin) than chicken!!! Oh, it is so good!

Early in the afternoon, I strapped on my scuba gear and took off over the side. It was time to clean the bottom again. The last time was in Anse A La Mouche in the Seychelles two months ago. As we are about to head out on the next leg of our journey, it's better to have a nice clean bottom so we get the most out of Zephyr as far a speed goes. Growth on the bottom can really slow you down. Tracy stayed on deck to watch my progress and make sure I didn't get in trouble. The tide was going out so there was just a bit of current trying to pry me off the side while I was doing my job. I started at the stern with the rudder and slowly scrapped off the barnacles and slime that has grown over the last two months. Hellville and Crater Bay are two bays rich in nutrients that make the bottoms of boats get fouled quickly. The water is anything but clean and clear in either bay. After about 30 minutes, I looked down the starboard side forward and saw a set of legs dangling down in the water just forward of the keel with fins on the ends of the feet. Did Tracy jump in to help out? I slowly swam forward and saw to my surprise that what I saw were not human legs but two Remoras or actually Sharksuckers, a variation of Remoras. They had attached themselves to the hull in a vertical position so they looked like long legs with swim fins on. Each was about three feet long and didn't really show any fear as I swam forward and came back to the hull once I got it cleaned. That was something new for us. I've seen small fish hanging around our hull but no any thing like these fish. Night Fly also had some hanging around his boat when he was cleaning his bottom.

The job took me about 75 minutes to get it cleaned and I was beat when I came back up. Swimming against the current, little that it was, takes it out of you. Add in the scrapping I had to do to get the slime and barnacles off and it was time to relax. Tracy took my fins and mask and tossed down a rope to tie to the scuba tanks so it could be hauled up on the crane we use to bring up the out board. Up it went and over the railing and onto the deck. The job was done and now we got to clean the salt water off everything before it gets stowed. So now everything had to come down to the shower stall in the stern head for washing. Then heaved back on deck to dry. By the time we were done, it was close to 1600.

Now, we needed to talk to Night Fly about taking off in the morning to head down the west coast of Madagascar. We've put over 1,000 miles on Zephyr since we left the Seychelles with close to 150 of it just traveling around Nosy Be and the large bay it sits in. We've seen all we want to see of this area and it's time to move on. Tracy took Puff over to Night Fly to discuss scheduling while I recovered and so, we will be heading out tomorrow at 0900. Winds should be light early in the day and out of the east or southeast if what we have experienced in the last month continues and out of the west to northwest in the afternoon with the heavier winds in the afternoon. I guess we will see tomorrow. We are out of here!!!

The picture today is of the cars and tuktuks driving down the road. For the first time in a LONG time, they are driving like we do back in the US!!