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Published: October 23rd 2006
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Boarding the boutre at midnight
Luxury transfer across the mudflats of Tulear Well actually, I exaggerate slightly it was only 23 hours….but on a boat that looked like something straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean, that was more than enough for most people as we travelled the 200km north from Tulear to the dive project.
Personally and in spite of the rats running around as we slept on the deck, the cockroach that crawled over my face in the middle of the night and the lack of toilet facilities - we loved it!
Whilst still in Tulear there was a slight crisis caused by 3 people’s bags going missing - spread across the globe between Paris and Washington by Air Madagascar and American Airlines. This meant a few people had fun buying whole new wardrobes for themselves and left us debating whether to wait around for their luggage to arrive or to head north while the winds were favourable.
In the end we opted to get going, leaving the baggage reclaim process in the capable hands of some other Blue Ventures staff who were to follow on later. Luckily the few days we had in Tulear together had given us the chance for a bit of team bonding, but this
The boys on board
Andy and Steve put a brave face on things process was about to be fast-tracked in the close confines of our chosen transport!.
And so, at midnight on 10th August the adventure started, as 2 staff and 16 volunteers, a few sporting some rather snazzy if a little weird local rags from the market walked/waded out to the ‘Boutre’ a local cargo ship chartered as an environmentally friendly (and cheap) way to get to Andavadoake.
With a 3 hour wait until we had enough water to float we all attempted to get some sleep on the rather cramped deck, trying not to worry about the fact that the Captain was still in town drinking hard… Thankfully when Cpt. Pugwash did turn up, he crashed out instantly and left all that tricky sailing stuff to his crew who at 3AM started to hoist the sails as the boat started to rock on the incoming tide. Some people chose better locations for sleeping than others, as I discovered when it turned out the crew needed to stand on my bed to get the sails up. In fact watching them running up the rigging by moonlight without a safety harness in sight was one not to be missed. Soon we
Wakey wakey..
Most sensible people were still asleep... were slipping away northwards with most of the team still oblivious.
A few hours later a beautiful sunrise lit up the weather-beaten canvas sails with a warm orange glow. A few of the volunteers managed to rouse themselves for the occasion, as did the crew who were beginning to unwrap themselves from their blankets and take their feet out from under my sleeping bag where they had been all night to warm!
And so began a very long and hot day at sea. With precious little shelter the sun was relentless and again we found ourselves glad that we weren’t visiting Madagascar during the summer. We passed the day playing eye-spy (you can probably imagine how entertaining that was…. sea, water, sky, waves etc. etc.) whale watching and laughing at people trying to go to the loo over the side. To be fair even those used to boats had good reason to get stage fright with half the crew staring at them and for those who were sea-sick or just a bit more self-conscious it was all a bit of a nightmare. At this point I must mention Tom, a lovely guy who had a particularly traumatic time
Sunrise over the Mozambique Channel
The guy in the shot is keeping warm by the 'kitchen' - an openfire in a small hut on the deck. on the boutre and would have gladly given his life savings to be air-lifted off at any point…
Unfortunately the winds weren’t great and there was no chance of us beating the record time of around 17hrs and as the sun set at 6P.M. we made ourselves ‘comfortable’ for at least another 6 hours on board with the repetitive, but strangely hypnotic kely-kely (little) guitar playing us to sleep. I enjoyed watching the coast and the back of the surf rolling in over the barrier reef as we plugged north by the moonlight.
We were rudely awoken by the crushing weight of about 50kg of canvas, as some of the sails were dropped as we approached Andavadoake somewhen around 1AM in the morning. We dropped anchor and were ferried ashore, climbing up Half Moon beach in the moonlight to the huts where we would spend the next six weeks.
It was a magical way to arrive.
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Roger A
non-member comment
So far so good
What a life, it must be absolute hell! Actually your boat trip looked a bit like that, but as you say what a magical way to arrive. Keep the blogs and pics coming, this is keeping me sane in this mad world. Cheers