Day 18 Baie De St Augustin Madagascar

Misterx
Thu 28 Nov 2024 05:26
23 35.3S : 043 43.0E

28/11/24
9:00 am
Day 18
Baie de St Augustine - Madagascar
DTD to Richard's Bay SA tbc


The level of activity both on the sea and on shore this morning is the lowest we have seen so far.
Yesterday was still very busy with the trucks being loaded up an plenty sailing crafts crossing the bay to to bring more stuff to put on them. By the end of the afternoon all the 3 trucks where laden well above their freeboard capacity and had disappeared in a cloud of dust along the road at the back to the village. We could see them for a while, well we could see the dust trail going in the direction of the bottom of the cliff. We can only assume that there is a road of sorts that will get you on the plateau and beyond. this little village seems to be the end the road, at the edge of the known world on the part of the coast. The music was also blearing out all day, a weird mixture of sega, island style stuff to what sounded like carnival tune, and even country and western and other things. Nothing that we could easily identify or even understand the language of. It is quite refreshing to know that American pop has not reached these shore and Taylor Swift is unheard of or at least not listen to! There is telephone signal so there must be internet access somewhere... very rare are the places where you can't access it, obviously we have not the right sim card so no access for us.

Drama has unfolded for one of our neighbours, the boys have been helping him trying to resolve the issue, so they were both exhausted when they came home last night. They were both asleep on deck by 9.30pm, Fortunately, the sea was fairly flat, it did kick up in the middle of the night, enough to wake me up, but not for long.
Not sure what today is going to bring, the big blow should be upon us at some point, not sure when nor how strong, not quite for how long. Talking to our weather gurus onshore trying to figure out when would be the best time to escape Madagascar... not an easy call, we need at least 5 days of suitable weather to reach Richard's Bay, or at least favourable winds...

In the mean time we'll carry on with cleaning, yesterday was washing my smalls, today i'll tackle the cooker... it does need a good going over after these rolly days at sea!
M