The sail to from Diego Suarez to Nosy Hara involved going over the northern cape of Madagascar, which can potentially be tricky, but for us it was really beautiful, maybe the most enjoyable day of sailing I’ve had so far. The sun was out, the wind was good, and the scenery was spectacular.
Lighthouse on the cape
I’m in Africa!
Pulling in dinner (cero mackerel)
It was about a 6 hour sail before we arrived at Nosy Hara, an uninhabited island just on the other side of the cape. This was actually where we planned to sail straight to from Reunion but we were arriving in the evening, and didn’t want to pass the cape at night, so ended up pulling in to Diego Suarez.
Oblisk and Miramis rafted at Nosy Hara
We relaxed the first evening there and then set out to the explore the island early the next morning. We did a little bit of snorkeling and then climbed up to the top of the mountain pictured above. It was a rocky scramble and a little but sketchy at times, but the view was totally worth it.
Jesse and Conny climbing up
View of the beach on Nosy Hara from above
Obelisk and Miramis sitting at anchor
Later that afternoon we upped anchor to a different part of the island that had a small beach with a grill and picnic table. We filleted the fish we had caught the day before, loaded the dinghy up with food and wine, and headed to shore to have a cookout. The food was delicious and the atmosphere couldn’t have been better. The night sky was full of stars, there was a ridiculous amount of shooting stars, and we had a big fire to enjoy the wine beside.
Ladies building the fire
Wine time!
The next morning we spent a couple hours exploring this other part of the island before upping anchor and sailing to Nosy Mitsio, an island about 60 miles away that has a small village and resort on it. We spent a couple nights anchored here but it wasn’t nearly as cool of an island as Nosy Hara. We did find an island that’s shaped like a hat though.
Hat island
After our second night at Mitsio we woke up early and sailed for Nosy Be, the largest and most developed of Madagascar’s islands.
