Another day moving south along the coast of Madagascar.
27 September 2015
Bill/sunny and hot
It was an interesting night last night. We started with drinks aboard Night Fly about 1730 and then returned to Zephyr about 1930 after a delightful bit of conversation and story telling on Night Fly. Once back on board Zephyr, we settled in for the night watching a few shows on the computer. About 2130, winds suddenly kicked up from the southeast and some swell came along just to make it fun for both boats. Winds progressed into the high teens and eventualy in the the 20+ knot range through the night with swell hitting into the 1+ meter range making both our boats bounce in the serf. It was in the weather forecast but hey, who the heck actually believes weather forecasts? In the end, we had winds all night long in the mid 20 knot area and swell continually pounding into the anchorage at over a meter makeing sleep a bit tough. Tracy ended up on the floor of the main salon on a cushion from one of the setees and I was in the stern cabin bouncing up and down. This we nt on throughout the night and into today with winds coming at us at a good 15-20 knots, all from the southeast. To Both boats were up before sunrise and on deck getting readly to go by 0600. Warren was at his bow getting the anchor ready for coming up when his boat pitched and the bow dug in and he was covered in salt water. Not once by twice. His language(while in Dutch) was quite colorful at the time. I put on swim trunks before I went forward. I got lucky and didn't get dunked. Off we went with Night Fly leading the way south along the coast for Marumba Bay, about 24 miles south. WInds continued out ofut of the south east and we both zoomed along, us doing over 6 knots. We had a problem with getting the forestaysail up and I'll be going up the mast to find out what the problem is with the halyard but that is a job for tomorrow.
We both zoomed down the coast doing well over 6 knots till we got to Marumba Bay where we turned in for some protection. We've heard lots of thing about how great the bay was and it looks wonderful with almost the look of Thailand and Malaysia thrown together. Lots of sandy beaches and big rock pinnacles along with Baobab trees along the islands. Night Fly got in about 30 minutes before us and we moved in about 100 yards off their starboard side and dropped our anchor. They had caught a King FIsh along the way south this morning and invited us over for lunch. A great meal once we both got settled into the new anchorage. Plans at this time are to stay a week or so and explore all the beaches and pathways around the island. Winds are still forecast for the lower 20 knot range for laster this evening coming out of the southeast but we are relatively protected where we dropped our anchor. Guess we will see and the night comes along. We have heard there is a total lunar e clipse early tomorrow morning so I'll be up to watch it--if I remember. I'll let you know.