On Tuesday April 14^th we set out on aboard a 50ft catamaran for some far out places. Our group was made up of 14 people including the Captain, chef, and a first mate named Abdu. We got to the boat and figured out our sleeping arrangements. There were two aft cabins with double bed and closet storage. Us and the other couple on board, Johan & Ilona got these rooms. Each of the forward berths had two perpendicular double beds. The remaining 5 MRCI volunteers and 1 staff stayed in the forward berths. There was also lots of space on the forward trampolines and in the main lounge area for everyone to spread out. The Captain and crew slept up on deck.

Our Vessel the Admiral Explorer

Our group was made up of five gap year students and one university graduate travelling with them before starting a career. They were part of an organized gap year program and had spent the previous week together at the MRCI base camp. There was another couple named Johan and Ilona. They were similar age to Kara and I, and surprisingly professionals as well. Johan is a Mechanical Engineer from Sweden and Ilona does GIS, originally from the Czech Republic. This made for easy conversations and a great compliment to the much younger gap year students. We were also joined by the MRCI marine program intern named Amanda, who had been one of the first people we met from MRCI in Hellville. There was a wide range of demographics on the boat. There were 5 from England, 1 from Holland, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Czech, 1 from Canada, Kara and I from USA, South African boat captain Dave, and two Malagasy crew members.

The weather in this part of Madagascar is blazing hot with very little wind, due to it being a convergence zone for the east to west blowing Indian trade winds and the South to North blowing wind that funnels up the Mozambique Channel. It is somewhat like Annapolis during the summer Bermuda highs that cause havoc on the sailing. There is a light morning breeze, which dies and the thermal builds in from the NW. The thermal then dies shortly after dark causing quite the ‘OMFG it is getting hotter now’ effect before bed. We had to spend several nights up on the forward trampolines because it was far too hot down below the decks.

View From the Beach Village on Mamuka Island

The area is beautiful with very calm and clear waters, jungle mountain shorelines with white coral sand beaches. The coolest part was that there were no waterfront homes or high rise condos in sight. We were really off the grid. For two weeks we didn’t find a single place with wired electricity. We had to notify the village bar, so they could use the generator to chill the beer before our arrival. Wow, but the snorkeling was amazing and we got to see some really far out places.

We visited two islands which were home to some quite friendly lemurs, Kara even had to provide some medical assistance to a village chief, our hands got so pruney from 14 days of straight snorkeling, and we even did some fishing! (and catching). Unfortunately there was no real sailing over the two weeks, but we did see some mythical creatures.