Mahajanga is a good sized port city where pretty much all visiting yachts check out before heading to South Africa. It’s not a big international tourist destination though it is known as a place where Malagasy’s from inland come for beach holidays. It’s pretty run down, and many streets look like former war zones, but it does have some charm and the people are extremely friendly.
Mahajanga was much more of a resupply and bureaucracy stop than it was a leisure stop. There are a couple of really cool things near by I wanted to do, mainly a group of natural swimming pools and caves, but everyone was ready to get going to South Africa. We had to get diesel, water, and checkout of the country. Accomplishing all of this with two boats, five people, and one dinghy was not going to be the easiest task.
Local boat
We arrived late afternoon on the November 16th, too late to accomplish anything. The next day we were extremely efficient and were able to completely fill Obelisk and Miramis with fuel diesel and fill up Obelisk’s water tanks as well. Conny’s little dinghy was the one doing most of the work though.
A very full dinghy
The next day we knocked out the paperwork and fees for checking out of the country and did all our grocery shopping. We ate a nice pork chop dinner on the boat and set sail for South Africa the following morning, November 19th, at around 7am.