YOLO south of Russian Bay Oct 2015

YOLO at anchor in Russian Bay, zoomed in from the beach, a long ways to shore, really.

This is the cruiser hangout in Crater Bay, just north of Russian Bay.  It's built around an old steam locomotive, with the car to the left as the toilets.  This is where we had our Pig on a Spit dinner.

Just outside the 'marina', this is the road to the town.  The entire length you can see here is lined with lean-to's filled with these pandanus leaves.  One family has the market on them and sizes and grades them and stacks them under these thatched roofs until they are dried and sold.  They use the leaves for roof thatching and weaving.

More pandanus leaves coming in from the boats.  It's low tide here now, so everything sits on the mud.

A typical shop along the road in the town of Darshalam.  I bought my new bucket from this shop for 4500 Ariary, about $1.50.

A zebu cow, used to pull an ox cart.  The owner has chopped up some kind of root for it to eat.

Myra, Karen, and Paraic on Saol Eile.  They caught so many fish they had to give it away and Myra learned to make 'biltong', the dried fish you see hanging on the left.  It makes a good nibbly snack along the way.

A man and his two boys paddling a dugout canoe past the boat.  They come to see if we wanted any fish or mangoes.

A local dhow in the bay where we anchored near Kisimani.  They scooted right along the edge of ehe mangroves and the two guys were standing out on the outrigger to control the sail and give them some ballast.  Much like me when I hike out on the Hobie cat.

As we left Russian Bay, this lone sailor was in a pensive stance, with little wind to move him along.

Paulin, a local in Russian Bay who spoke a little bit of English.  He provided tours to the old Russian settlement and could get mangoes and squid, but no bananas.  We gave him some books, but he really wanted/needed a French-English dictionary to make any use of them.  He was delighted with the "Keep America Beautiful" t-shirt I gave him, though.

A dhow anchored near the beach in Russian Bay.  It is full of dried leaves and sticks, but we never saw it move.

Another view of the dhow as we passed it to go ashore.

The scenery of Russian Bay.

The rocks on the shores here are so very strange.  You can tell they once were liquid, as they have such unique shapes and surfaces.

The dhows in Madagascar are pretty amazing boats.  They look decrepit but are used daily and get people and things where they need to go.  And the sailors know how to use the local winds to get around.

Strips of fish, and shark, I think, drying in the sun on the beach in Russian Bay.

The head of the shark was cut off and tossed into the water lapping onto the shore.  Statements that "nobody has seen a shark in these waters in a long time" obviously is not true.  Perhaps that's the line given to all tourists so they aren't afraid to get into the water to snorkel.

One of the villages on the shore of Russian Bay.  Nice sand.

 A river or creek sometimes flows into the bay and this is the mouth of it.  This boat has been sitting high and dry for a while here.

 Some of the stone walls from the days of the Russians are still standing in the village on shore.

 This old stone structure is now being used to build boats, with poles and timber leaning against the walls to dry.

 The beach view the other direction from where we landed the dinghy.  This bay is very protected and just a day sail across the strait from Hellville.  Many boats went back and forth several times.