Torries

january/february 2017

cruisingworld.com

62

driving percussion and heavy bass thrum of the sal-

egy rhythms from the bow of Momo. Nightclubs and

bars overfl owed with gyrating men and women, and

the fi eld we had visited on the fi rst day was fi lled

each night with partygoers, with the mood building

to the climax on the last night as Madagascar’s top

salegy performer, Wawa, took the stage. To one side

of the fi eld was another fi eld: the designated latrine.

I didn’t go there myself, but reports from my hus-

band and friends made me glad I never had to. We

could only assume that the fi eld is well fertilized by

the end of each of these community festivals.

S

hortly after the festival, we set sail to explore

other nearby islands and villages. We laughed each

time we pulled up our anchor and sailed in and out

of anchorages, thinking back to our early days on our

engineless Triton in the Chesapeake. Back then, we

had come to grips with sailing in and out of tight places

by necessity. Now we did it because it was fun. Unlike

in Southeast Asia, where we drifted many an afternoon

or night, we could almost always sail in Madagascar

from one island anchorage to the next. The breeze

was predictable and steady. The pattern was easy: In

the mornings, when there was little wind, we readied

the boat, gathered groceries or completed last-min-

ute chores. Then, by midday, when the westerly breeze

fi lled in, we pulled up the anchor and set sail for a new

anchorage on the next island over. The next destina-

tion was never very far. Within 40 miles of Nosy Be,

we found a dozen good anchorages with clear water for

snorkeling and diving, beaches for roaming and play-

ing, and villages for visiting and socializing.

Each island we stopped at was more memorable

than the last. At picturesque Nosy Sakatia, north-

west of Nosy Be, whales gently meandered through

the pass and cruiser kids splashed from one boat to

the next. In the well-protected and roomy Baie des

Russes (also known as Russian Bay or Ambavatory

Bay), sailors gathered for barbecues and even two

birthday parties. Lemurs were everywhere on the

small island of Nosy Iranja and came to greet us

almost as soon as we’d set foot onshore. We made a

day stop at Nosy Tanikely, where the crystal waters

and diversity of life around the coral reef beckon div-

ers from around the world.

We picked up some of our favorite local carvings

and crafts and soaked up the hospitality of the restau-

rants of Nosy Komba, and topped up from a water

source off ered by Yolanda’s, a cruiser-friendly local eat-

ery right on the beach. In Honey River, we were given

a small dried fi sh, which locals use as an exfoliator (we

think, based on the broken French and gesturing). We

hung this most peculiar keepsake on Momo to remind

ourselves of this generous villager who insisted he off er

a gift (perhaps as compensation for having to deny our

enthusiastic request for honey).

At Crater Bay, the cruising hub of northwest

Madagascar, we were welcomed at the yacht club for

a Sunday pig roast, a weeknight pizza and the Rugby

World Cup, which we enthusiastically watched with

sailors from Australia, South Africa and our beloved

New Zealand.

We stopped in the archipelago Nosy Mitsio, only

30 miles north of Nosy Be but far from the noise.

With beautiful bays both east and west (and a couple

of small villages), the largest island of Mitsio off ered

plenty to explore, and we found fantastic harbors for

swimming at the nearby surrounding islands.

B

ut even as we sailed from anchorage to anchor-

age, smiling and dancing our way through each

new encounter, and even as we snapped photos that

captured the vibrancy of Madagascar, I realized we

couldn’t photograph the underlying cultural rhythms

and tones. Poverty begets petty crime and sometimes

more dramatic instances of violence on the island,

and there is an inevitable clash of the thriving local

culture and a strong expat community (which seem to

exist, for the most part, in relative peace).

We couldn’t photograph the way we skirted the

edges of dirty streets lined with tenement housing

and pulled our daughters in close as we wandered

home late at night, holding hands and making sure

no one strayed from the group. We accepted local

help when it came to extending our visas (and quickly

came to understand the tipping system for the man

who knows a man who knows a man) but sensed we

should decline the off er to travel inland, overnight,

with cash in hand for an expensive payoff to help

expedite the visas. We understood the need to be

cautious about the two diff erent money systems still

in operation, and the pitfalls of being gullible for-

eigners. We traded fi rst-world clothing and tools for

bananas, mangoes and other local goods, and strived

to be curious visitors and good guests.

And even though we danced with late-night party-

goers and felt the vibe, I couldn’t lay it down precisely

on the page, or even capture it with a Nikon. We

found Madagascar to be playful, edgy, smart, witty,

friendly, maybe a little too friendly, welcoming, for-

ward, salacious and — sometimes — dangerous, too.

Our cameras couldn’t capture the pervasive sen-

suality of Nosy Be, but we had the unavoidable sense

that sex was neither a nasty three-letter word in the

traditional Victorian values sense nor merely a means

to procreate. We weren’t in Madagascar long enough

to understand the relationship between sex as plea-

sure and sex as business, but prostitution was clearly

a widespread issue. It was, at least at the offi cial level,

discouraged; we saw placards and T-shirts warning

against child solicitation. Even as sex took center

stage in our fi rst impressions, we had little way of

understanding exactly what was going on from our

peripheral vantage point.

But we could document fi shermen and sailing

dhows, wildlife and roadside activity, and the out-

wardly colorful culture. If we had stayed longer in that

mysterious and welcoming country, we might have

been able to say more about complex cultural under-

currents and countercurrents. In the meantime, we

decided to stick around the region to explore Tanzania,

Mozambique and Kenya. We’ll see how our fi rst

impressions deepen and change in the coming months.

There’s plenty to take in. And there’s plenty of

wind, too.

Michelle Elvy is a writer, editor and manuscript assessor,

originally fr om the Chesapeake and based in New Zealand’s

Bay of Islands. She has lived aboard her sailboat for more

than 12 years and is currently exploring Kenya, Tanzania

and Mozambique.

WITHIN 40

MILES OF

NOSY BE,

WE FOUND

A DOZEN

ANCHOR-

AGES WITH

CLEAR

WATER FOR

DIVING,

BEACHES

FOR ROAM-

ING AND

VILLAGES

FOR

VISITING.

Clockwise from

top left: One of

our last meals

before departure

was a Sunday

brunch laid out

by a Belgian chef.

Jana (in blue) and

Australian cruis-

ing friends from

Utopia paddled

between boats.

You wouldn’t

believe how soft

a lemur’s hands

are! Lola enjoyed

a close encounter

— one of many.

Bernie and the

girls did some

shopping near

Crater Bay.

CW0217_FEA2_madagascar.indd 62 11/23/16 10:42 AM