Madagascar Canoes

Marcy moved slowly down the west coast of Madagascar. Sometimes we anchored near villages of nomadic fishermen. Similar to what we saw in Mexico on the Pacific coast, these fish camps are occupied part of the year. The fishermen move out when an area is fished out, or follow seasonal fisheries. Unlike the camps in Mexico, these Madagascar villages are completely populated including women and children, not just working men. We were amazed at the number of people living on some of the small islands. From a mile out, we thought we were approaching an uninhabited island. By the time we dropped the hook we could spot many canoes on the beach and huts in the dunes behind.



Curious villagers paddled out in dugout canoes carved from a single tree, the most simple of Madagascar canoes. These boats are nicely made. Later, on the beach, we hefted one and found that is was not as heavy as you would guess.





Sometimes an outrigger is added, making the canoe more stable. This young couple paddled out to show us their baby.



These people also use a bigger type of canoe, shown here as a couple of friendly guys offer fish to trade. The man in the bow spoke a bit of English, a rare skill in this part of the world. He told us he thought we should stay for a week at least.



It seems that historical visitors to Madagascar have left certain boat types: the French left the schooner and the Arabs left the dhow. Who left this distinctive shape? It looks to me like ancient Phoenician ships as drawn on pottery.



These canoes are log built, pieced together like the log canoes of the Chesapeake. Nicely joined and shaped, they are obviously well taken care of. Note the props to hold the outrigger float off the sand – it's important to keep it dry and light. The nets are also drying, and the carved piece in the foreground is a mast step also set out to dry.





A fisherman demonstrated how the step fits precisely onto a ridge in the bottom of the canoe. There is no chance of the mast shifting.



There are clever wedges holding the float to the outriggers.



Another fisherman shows his tools for net repair.



Back on board Marcy, we were visited by a happy group of young men who offered to scrape Marcy's bottom. Of course we agreed, and had an enjoyable afternoon watching them laugh, work, and clown around. At one point the canoes they arrived in came unhitched and drifted downwind. A couple of the boys chased them down with our inflatable canoe, Red Dogfish. We wondered if it was a setup as the Dogfish was an endless source of entertainment to them.





Our crew left happy, a few gifts of extra clothes and an old diving mask was payment enough for them.



We dove and inspected the work – they had done a very good job. As a result, we enjoyed a quicker passage to Africa. The next morning, Peter went ashore to drop off a few more clothes, take a few pictures, and say goodbye. The bottom crew posed with abandon.



Since Ginger didn't come ashore, some of the girls were extra friendly. Madagascar
is the westernmost Polynesian island, after all, and some girls showed an enthusiastic welcoming attitude.



Further down the coast, we encountered some of these fast and well handled canoes under sail. They carry a huge sail which is wrapped around the mast when heading upwind. It looks like a sprit rig on this point of sail. (HR)



Offwind, the sail is pulled free of the mast and the spars are adjusted. The result looks like a big square sail.



The fastest Madagascar canoes of all, at least when they are lightly loaded, are the big lateen rigged cargo canoes. They are built of planks on frames, just like the dhows. They can't carry the load of a dhow, but certainly can fly! We were passed by them reaching along at an easy 10 knots or more on some windy afternoons. This one shows graceful underwater lines as it sits on the hard.



A few of the mid sized outrigger canoes near Nosy Be had a plank added to mount an outboard motor. Peter checked out this example that was disassembled on the beach. It is sad to see the first step down the path to motorizing Madagascar's sailing craft and reminds us how lucky we are to see so much pure sail.



Even worse, we saw a couple of horrible Chinese made outboards mounted on boxy slow sloops. Ugly, loud, slow, and pathetic – this sloop made a daily trip of only 8 or 10 miles to pick up building stones. Of course, it was the only thing moving on calm days.



We moved on south in Marcy. Our destination, our final one in Madagascar, was Belo sur Mer, the center of schooner building for the whole country.