Most common mode of transport around Majunga.
After a morning on shore, it was time to head south again. We stopped overnight at Ambozomena, a very pleasant stop. Then on to Majunga. We decided a while ago that we would not anchor overnight at Majunga due to the reported crime on boats so we headed for Katespy about 4 miles across the bay. This is a village with mainly muslims from Comoros so the call to prayer was once again heard. We went to shore and it was once again a poor village. Quite a contrast from the city across the bay. They did have a ferry service from here to Majunga but the size of the boats and the size of the fetch in the bay ensured a wet ride. We walked around and the promised restaurant was nothing more than a wreck of a building so no more dining out till we get to South Africa. We went to Majunga the next day and coordinated trips with Tahina. We worked it so that the dinghy was never left ashore and the boats always had someone on them for security. We shopped at the local store, they had everything we could want. The fresh food market wasn’t that good and it was sometimes hard to fight our way through the flies to get to the food. We took tuk tuks everywhere at about $1 per trip so not too bad. We filled up jerry cans of diesel (how many jerry cans can you fit in a tuk tuk?) and had a last lunch at one of the “pubs”. Paul helped Frank rethread his main halyard and all was set. We sailed back across the bay to Katespy for the night. It was our last night with Frank and Karen on Tahina as they decided to leave the next day. There was suitable weather for a boat that can go twice as fast as us, like Tahina can. We didn’t think we had enough time in the weather window for us so we will wait here till the weather looks good.