I suppose that most people will be thinking “just how long can a report on sitting on your arse on a catamaran on the sea be?”. I don’t know either, time will tell. Read on McDuff!!
Apart from the fact that there was a little confusion on departure time which caused us to arrive 2 hours early at the airport, our departure and arrival in Nosy Be were uneventful, despite a moment’s concern when my luggage was the last off. Morgz’ experience was still fresh in my mind. Quickly changing some Dollars to Ariary from a lady on the side of the road at the less than advertised rate, we were swept off to our destination by Romeo (not a romeo) – with Nes and Di getting giggly at the thought of us being hi-jacked by a Johnny Depp type pirate (secretly Derek and I were quite excited by the thought of a scantily clad Kiera Knightly). It was already dark and the road taken made us think that the hi-jacking might occur sooner rather than later – only for us to end up at the grandly named “Nosy Be Marina” and jumped (okay, climbed gingerly) into a very small rubber duck that took us to our home for the next 5 days – Gecko.
The craft. Gecko is 35ft Catamaran, registered in Cape Town. It has 4 berths – 2 en-suite and two smaller ones. The en-suite consists of a double bed, fairly small; a few cupboards, enough for our limited luggage; and the bathroom in a separate enclosure – with pump toilet (that took some getting used to) a hand shower and a basin. To shower, you simply held it and showered (with warm water) and stood in the bathroom. A pump would get rid of the water when you were finished.
There was a stateroom that had a kitchen with fridges and freezers, table and a seating area. The crew spent their idle time there – we spent none, other than to step in and get drinks from the fridge.
Outside, aft, was another covered seating area where we spent all of our meals and used quite often to escape the sun. There were steps from there to anywhere else – including the water. You could walk down the sides of the stateroom to the fore where you could sit or lie on the deck, or in chairs on the point of each hull. There was more than enough room for each of us to be comfortable and spend quiet time if you so desired.
The craft had a depth gauge, speedo, wind meter and an awesome GPS. It also had an autopilot, which was mostly engaged. It had sufficient batteries to power the fridges, provide light and power the pumps.
We spent most of the moving time under power by two 20hp diesel motors which also charged the batteries. They were very quiet and not intrusive at all. The sails were used on occasion, when the wind was sufficient. They were managed by a sophisticated set of pulleys and ropes that made it all seem quite simple.
We were always comfortable and at ease. Sea sickness or queasiness was never a factor.
The food. Were I more gastronomically driven, I could devote an entire blog to this. Jean Yves was a wizard – a properly trained and committed chef. He loved what he did, and you could taste it in his food. Crab, prawns, calamari, veggies, rice, meat, eggs, pasta, spices, salads, bread where continually combined into a delightful, aromatic and tasty combinations and arrays of food. Beautifully presented and prepared. Our own catches (yes we did) were turned into the finest kebabs, sashimi (Coota and Bonita) and fish – baked, braaied, grilled, steamed – in sauce, no sauce. It was amazing – and no two meals even looked similar. Scrambled eggs, French bread, pancakes. Chocolate Mousse – made from scratch. It just went on and. He seemed to spend the whole day just preparing food and, for us, it was worth every minute spent. Other than breakfast, I don’t think we ever finished a meal, although we really tried.
We emerged from the Marina at Mossie Poep on day one and took a fairly long journey south. This was to be our regular waking time with the artistic side of Derek taking a porthole shot (that probably doesn’t sound right and could leave the mind boggling) every morning. We moved over the impossibly blue waters surrounding Madagascar. I dwelt, at length, on this in the last trip and won’t do so again, but there were times when you felt that you could see 15 meters down. We stopped to snorkel at (what we called) South Africa island and got our first taste of how inviting this water was to be in – all of us taking in some rays at the same time. After some relaxation (okay, it was all relaxation) and a small siesta we hoisted the mains’l (arrgghh) and made our way to our overnight destination – a wide estuary – further south, where we did what we learned to do best – drinks, dinner and just chill.
Another early rise and out of the estuary. I retired to the throne, and suddenly the CAT was all over the place. I dashed out to see what was going on. Nothing to do with my ministrations - there were seabirds diving and fish jumping. The CAT’s manoeuvres were our skipper chasing the fish and two of the rods had fish on the end. Two decent sized king fish were landed.
It wasn’t long afterwards and we had a Barracuda and a Spanish mackerel on board as well. Derek and I had broken the duck of a number of years and had actually caught some fish. We definitely weren’t going to starve. After that excitement (and fun) we moved on to Nosy Iranja.
Those that remember our last trip will remember that this is the leg that we missed - apparently the natives were restless. As we neared these two small islands, joined by a sandbar, we realised that that was a load of codswollop!! There weren’t enough natives on these two islands to raise a decent bar brawl. It would appear that the Dhow skipper was just too lazy to take us all that way. This stop was to be one of the highlights of the trip. The water and surrounds were breathtaking.
It was still, windless and hot. We wasted no time in strapping on the snorkelling kit and dived straight into a school of 1000’s of small fish. It was amazing how the whole shoal moved in unison, as though connected. We’d never seen anything like this – and the clarity of the water gave us amazing sight of these fish – with the occasional Barracuda feeding on them. Incredible – we felt honoured to have been given this opportunity. So honoured, in fact, that when we reached the sandbar I was nominated to swim back to the CAT to load up a cooler box. This was obviously because of my “Thorpe like” physique and swimming prowess. It could not possibly have been that I might just have been too stupid to find a decent argument.
So there we were (most of us anyway), cracking a beer after about 4 ½ hours of being awake, on the sandbank connecting the two islands. Did I mention that this was about 9:30 in the morning?
We spent a bit of time on the bar and then whiled away the rest on the CAT – through another incredible feast and siesta (we needed these you see) and then made our way to Russia Bay where we were to shelter for the night. More stunning sunsets, more stunning beer, more stunning food and more stunning sleep. We were seldom to make it later than 20:30 before retiring to bed.
Bright and early (again) in Russia Bay, and we made our way to an island close by after an early morning swim. The water today was amazingly clear (again) and we watched apparently harmless jelly fish pass under the CAT on the way to this island. The name, as are many Madagascar names, was long and it escapes me. Nes and I dived in and made our way to the rocks to snorkel. We dived out just as quickly – there were little floating tentacles, a bit like a bluebottle tail, that stung and make snorkelling a little uncomfortable. This was apparently because of the neap tides that we were having, and these creatures didn’t get washed away. Oh well, no harm done, and we just watched the fish from the CAT – the clear water allowed us a bird’s eye view. These things weren’t going away so we went back to South Africa is land to snorkel a bit more and then spend some time on the beach. Very cool!!
Today is the day before New Year. We’d decided to go to Sakatia Resort for some R&R and time on land, so we made our way towards that on the roughest seas to date. Still no sign of sea sickness though (and no hangovers either). Wonder if they’re related? Some people remained on deck and some went for their regular siestas. It was at this time that we became aware of a stealthy thief in our midst – though one would never normally apply the word “stealth” to this individual. Two rods suddenly got hammered – I picked up one and Di the other – accompanied by an excited shout. This shout disturbed the thief. He appeared from below decks, grabbed the rod out of Di’s hands and despite my admonitions that his line was over mine he landed a decent sized Bonita. Because of this dastardly approach, I had to keep my fish under control until he finished.
While I was doing this a fair sized grey/brown creature came up and bit the back end off my Bonita – which was close to the CAT. Blood filled the water, I let the line out and the shark returned to take the rest, just cutting the line with its teeth. It was amazing and left the pulse racing. After the obligatory picture, the thief then disappeared below decks again, without having said a word. What a fiend!! After this, we watched our rods with care!! I managed to hook a Spanish mackerel (couta) just before getting to Sakatia. I was so busy trying not to make a noise (in case the thief returned) that I managed to let the drag go and achieved a massive overwind. Despite this embarrassment, I still managed to land it.
We moored someway out and took the little duck to the resort, where we had a few beers and managed to see some Lemurs which came down very near the chalets. This was quite something, seeing them wild!! We also experienced our first tast of ground swell. Sitting in the lounge chairs we still felt as though we were on the CAT. While having these beers, we saw the little duck tracing erratic patterns in the water near the CAT. This was confusing as it was supposed to be fetching us and not going the other way!! Anyway, Maurice eventually arrived to pick us up. When we got back to the CAT, there was the biggest Kingfish that I’d ever seen, lying on the deck. When we saw it Maurice’s face lit up like a beacon. He had managed to hook this monster with a handline, and then jumped into the duck for this fish to drag him all over the place until her could land it. This explained the erratic movement of the duck. That Kingfish must have been all of 70Kgs – and Maurice had brought it in on a handline – and amazing feat (in our minds at least).
Happy New Year everybody!! Off to Nosy Komba (Lemur Island) today. We hadn’t spent a single Ariary to date and those of you that know her would know that Nes was getting itchy. After a short dive we went to the Island for the obligatory Lemur (Maki) tour – same as last time. Very canned, and just a little sad, but they sure are cute with wonderfully soft and inquisitive hands as they sit on you and eat the proffered bananas.
Then some shopping. Unfortunately (fortunately?), being New Years Day, many of the shops were closed, but Nes and Di still managed some acquisitions and then back to the CAT. We were going to moor near the little settlement on the island, but the sounds of the New Year celebrations were very loud and were expected to continue well into the night. Having got used to the quiet, we decided to move on and shelter from the Westerly and dreaded Southerly wind (remember this!). It was the most magnificent evening, with our first real experience of a clear Madagascar night sky since we’d arrived. We made the most of that and then settled in for the usual early evening. A very strong wind came up that night – a bloody Easterly. This was the only night that we felt that we might be thrown out of our bunks by the movement of the CAT, and had a somewhat disturbed sleep. Up early for a swim and coffee and an early departure. This was to be our last day and we were determined to make the most of it – today was Nosy Tanikily – the traditional last day destination – if twice can be tradition.
After breakfast we bid really fond farewells to the crew. They had been amazing and were far more than partly responsible for the success and enjoyment of this trip. Friendly, courteous, professional and efficient – it appeared that they found pleasure in helping you to enjoy a CAT trip of a lifetime.
When we arrived in Tana, we quickly checked into a very pleasant hotel and took a trip into the town to try and get hold of some of the Madagascar cotton T-shirts and a few other things. We managed find a really good taxi driver who helped make our quest pretty successful. A point to note here is the pleasant surprise we had when we saw how Anatananarivo had changed last we were here. Whilst there was quite a degree of apparent poverty, the streets and town were really clean and many of the vehicles are new – on not just French. There are very real signs of an improving economy since the departure of the last president who, by all accounts, caused lasting damage to Madagascar due to his greed. This was particularly evident in Nosy Be which had seen no improvement and appeared to be treated as a poor second cousin.
When we had started out, we were quite dismayed and felt that a week wasn’t long enough. It turned out that it was, and we were ready to be off the CAT. This despite the fact that we had loved every minute of our time on board – for all sorts of reasons. In what appears to be a complete contradiction, it was a week packed full of rest and relaxation.
Four people was a perfect number and we again found that the Britz’s are the ideal travelling companions – each person giving the other the space they desired and the time we spent together was quality time. I’ve said it before in other accounts of trips – Derek and Di, you’re welcome on our CAT at any time. 
Oh yes – I forgot. I love my car!!
