We had some good sailing down the western coast of Madagascar. The winds are predictable and the waves are manageable. Here is Karen at the bow of YOLO under full sail.
More of the dark red dirt along the shores. It was the color of slabs of choice red meat.
The beaches here are beautiful. Not much development along them yet. Here we see the local boats pulled up onto the sand in front of a village.
Another view of the village waterfront.
Jason enjoying a sail, sitting in the shade of the genoa inthe afternoon.
Nosy Lava used to be an island penitentiary. We took the dinghy in at nearly low tide and had to leave it way off the beach and walk in to see the old ruins.
Jason walking ahead of me to reach the beach and the old buildings on Nosy Lava.
The old stone dock that used to see ships arrive. Now it, too, is in ruins.
Dry land and ruined buildings are all that is left here.
The prison gates. One is laying in the sand. We'd read that the old prison records were strewn about the place, but someone has picked them all up and cleaned them out as we saw no signs of paper or records anywhere.
The only two-story building still standing. A hawk screeched at us from the eves.
Here is the hawk looking at us.
The old prison buildings are pretty barren now. Just shells of stone and mortar.
Some of them still have the bars on the windows.
Karen making a break from the cell through one of the very few doors left here.
The toilet block. Holes in the rock sufficed for the purpose.
Hawks in the trees here. When I wandered the buildings, they dive-bombed me. They must be nesting somewhere here.
A rocked up window. Boards are too precious for such a purpose.
Some old rusted pieces of metal and wooden debris was all that was left in the rooms.
The roots and vines of the trees make this window look like it has bars, but it is only the vines hanging beyond it.
Real bars are still on this window but you can see the aging and wear from Mother Nature after a few years.
This is a cotton plant I saw outside one of the buildings. There weren't enough of them to be a crop, but it seemed strange to see the white bolls of cotton here.
More ruined buildings, now just piles of rocks.
An arched window still standing.
The prison beachfront. That tiny dot in the middle of the picture is our dinghy. The tide is waaaay out now and we had to drag the dinghy quite a ways to get it back in the water.
Looking down the beach the other way, there is a river that feeds into the bay here.
The river coming into the bay. Another ruin stood here, too.
Our first sighting of the baobab trees growing right out of the rocks at Moramba Bay, our next destination.
These karst islands in Moramba Bay were a surprise after the mangroves and beaches from the previous anchorages.
These mushroom-like islands are similar to Palau. The water undercuts the limestone and makes them look like they are on pedestals at low tide.
A shallow water channel between two island and a hole in the wall of the one behind. This was our view as we rounded one island to find the anchorage behind them in Moramba Bay.
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