Madagasikara the movie

Here are the sights and sounds of Madagascar..

Madagascar Schooners

As Marcy moved down the west coast of Madagascar, we often encountered the distinctive double ended cargo schooners that move much of the country's goods. This one proudly advertises the local beer on her sails.



With their housing topmasts, big loose footed foresails, and bowsprits the Madagascar schooner would not have been out of place in America, circa 1800. In truth, the cut of the topsails show the real influence, France. In any case we felt lucky to observe them, it was as if a time machine had allowed us to watch sailing that had been lost in our country for many years.



The boats are rigged with a small main and a big overlapping loose footed foresail on masts of almost equal height. The masts usually have topmasts fitted, although on older boats, past their prime, the topmasts are taken off. This schooner has seen better days, but is still moving goods. The sheer shows the boat is hogged (the bow and stern are drooping) and the fastenings are bleeding rust. The sails have holes, and for her, flying topsails is nothing but a memory.



On this small schooner, the main topmast is gone while the fore topmast remains. It's still a schooner, though it could be forgiven if someone thought it was a ketch. Note the crew, sitting on deck in front of the main mast happily waving. They were enjoying the glory of a schooner at top speed, beam reaching on a nice windy afternoon.



Interestingly, the foresail and lug topsails have to be dropped to tack or jibe. The topsails can only be set to leeward, and there is a stay from masthead to masthead that would interfere with the fore gaff in a tack. Due to the steady breezes in Madagascar, this probably isn't much of a problem. Also, the boats are always maneuvered into and out of tight areas under jib and main alone. This keeps the speed down for entering crowded harbors, and tacking (with such long keels) is reliable with the leverage of the sails at the ends of the boat.



A village called Belo sur Mer builds most of the schooners for the country, so of course we had to visit. The schooners are built in a lagoon that is up a river and protected by shifting bars. We tried to follow a schooner in, and promptly ran aground. Sometimes Marcy's 7 ½ foot draft is a liability. After extricating ourselves, we anchored out front and went upriver by dinghy to explore the village waterfront. This brand new freshly launched schooner was waiting to be rigged.



We also saw several boats in various stages of construction. The frames are all natural crooks, hand sawed to shape.



The planking is roughly dressed with an adze.



There were about a dozen schooners under construction on the beach.



This schooner shows an attractive shape to her scuppers.



While Peter prowled around the schooners under construction, local kids kept Ginger company.



Some of the kids had handmade toys, usually (and appropriate for a boatbuilding village) toy boats. One boy was so happy with his toy boat that he tried to put it in every picture we took.



After learning about Madagascar's schooners and exploring Belo sur Mer, we needed to prepare for the crossing to mainland Africa. Madagascar had been an amazing country to visit, full of surprises and contrasts. For example, we learned that despite being one of the world's poorest countries, the literacy rate here is higher than in the USA. Many people seemed well informed, and the recent election of Obama as US president was regarded as a great thing. So we flew our biggest ensign as we hauled anchor and headed out to sea.

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.

Nosy Komba, Madagascar

After our time at the town of Hellville, we wanted to explore further. Our water supply was dwindling, city water was tainted, and good water was rumored to be available at Nosy Komba, a short daysail away. We anchored, brought our jugs ashore, and were met by some young boys who were willing and eager to show us the source of water – for a price, of course.



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The water tasted good, and the girls doing laundry sang a song for us. If we thought at the time that conditions here were a bit rustic, we learned a week later and further down the coast that this tap was much superior to a well on the beach - both for ease of use and taste.



Ginger suggested we use our watermaker more. We had been using shore water as much as possible to conserve fuel.



We heard lemurs were common on this island. We took a walk, never saw a lemur, and then asked a woman standing in the trail “where are the lemurs?” She gave us a strange look and slowly pointed over our heads. A lemur looked down at us. She suggested that we take the guided tour to see more lemurs, so we headed back to the village to sign up. With a group of cheerful friendly French people,



we got up close and personal with the lemurs.



We also saw wonderful lizards.





It was interesting to walk through the village and see how people lived. Cooking is done on neat little stoves. The duck has been rooting around the ashes looking for tasty tidbits.



Octopus were drying for a future dinner.



As far as we can tell, there is no plywood in Madagascar. Many doors and shutters are paneled, in a pattern reminiscent of France in the 1800’s. Nails are rare - most woodwork is pegged together.



The village had many appealing cottages, lanes and courtyards.









The waterfront was busy. We saw these kids looking for fish.



These kids were out on the water, too. There are a lot of very young people in rural Madagascar, at a certain age they are sent away to boarding school.



The little ones were curious and often asked for candy. Giving candy to kids in a country without dentists is cruel, so we prefer to give pens and crayons – also always well received.



Exploring Nosy Komba was a pleasant time for the crew of the Marcy, but as the sun set it was time to make plans to head further down the coast.