Beez Neez now Chy Whella - To Mitsio Island

To Mitsio Island

Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Sat 27 Jul 2019 23:57

To Mitsio Island

Nine o’clock this morning, we were ready to leave Ambaru Bay. Job list attacked, not complete as yet but the girl is ship-shape enough to move on toward Hellville.

We said farewell to our chaps.

This has been a pretty stop but we have had a couple of nights of rolling when the current was greater than the wind. The crowded fishing boat came back last evening and partied most of the night as did the locals on the beach. I got up at four for a juice to find the red light above the sink not working.........a small step backward.

The anchor was up by ten past nine, Bear had to wash off lots of gloopy mud. As we passed the second village I tried to engage the autopilot. Big, sweeping circle – mmm – back to its old habits. A bigger step backwards.

Bear took over to play but we still went around in circles, nothing for it but to hand steer – again and out of the bay.

Out of the bay we passed a little island.

Heading toward Mitsio Island. On the left, Mount Ankarana. On the far right, Ankarea Island – manta ray breeding ground, tame enough to swim with. We will slow to see if there are any of these strange creatures about.

I began cleaning the conservatory windows but broke off to make Bear two tuna and mayo wraps, oooo, just one day of cabbage left. Finely chopped this has served as poor mans coleslaw........a half an hour of Zzzz’s and he was raring for more.

Time to have a go at scrubbing off the bird poo from the roof and settle to the back windows. Quite a mess with poop and salt. Once they were done with an hour to go, polish the kettle and dig out the stuff for Bear to soak his feet over a nice backgammon loss. Steady. The a loss at Mex Train ??? that’s going too far, I’ll growl. You beat me hollow the last two so I feel the need for a win.

We could see a catamaran at anchor as we neared Ankarea Island.

Ankarea Island..............

.......the anchorage marked with a X.

To the south of the island a sandy beach, but as we neared we knew the wind would have us backing hard on the island. No. On we went to the Mitsio anchorage marked with a square (above).

Heading in. Depth dropped very gently from fifteen to five metres.

Anchored in the bay off Maribe Beach at a quarter past four.

Our journey of 32 nmiles. The lack of detail on the chartplotter and Bear’s IPad.

I went below to put all the bug screens across the windows, not wanting a repeat of the last few nights. The one in our bedroom had loads of casualties on the outside. I went on deck – pretty messy, neater once in the dustpan.

A local came out to see us. In French he asked for elastic for his spear gun, tee shirts, cloves (for his clothes ???) he had a few bananas or tomatoes to trade. I raced downstairs and wound a load of thick fishing line and sealed it in a plastic bag. He tried harder for his list but eventually gave up and paddled off.