Nosy Be & Northern Madagascar

Nosy Be earned its nickname off the back of a single crop: ylang-ylang, distilled here for generations and said to number among the ingredients in Chanel No. 5. The Perfume Island is also the most workable way into Madagascar's northwest — a flooded volcanic crater at Hell-Ville doing duty as the region's one real hub, formalities cleared once with a local agent and cruising begun properly from there. Black lemurs move through the last stand of lowland rainforest at Lokobe, reached only by pirogue (the traditional dugout canoe); a Russian battle fleet once rode out two ruinous months at anchor in the bay that still carries its name; and beyond the inshore islands, the Mitsio and Radama archipelagos scatter reef, granite and near-total solitude across the Mozambique Channel. There is no superyacht marina here — this water rewards those prepared to anchor out, cruise the April-to-November dry season, and let an agent handle the rest.

“Thirty-odd Russian warships lay at anchor here for two months in early 1905, coaling for a fleet that would be broken within days at Tsushima.”

Signature anchorages

A hub in a drowned crater, two wild reserves within a morning's run, and open water beyond it — Mitsio to the northeast, Radama to the south.

• Crater Bay, Nosy BeThe hub — a flooded volcanic crater immediately north of Hell-Ville, now the preferred anchorage over the town waterfront itself and home to the small Nosy Be Yacht Club. Good all-round shelter and holding; La Marina Crater offers around 20 berths to about 25m LOA (length overall) in 2–5m of water, useful for tenders and support craft rather than the yacht itself. Clear customs and immigration at Hell-Ville first, before dropping anchor.
• Nosy Tanikely Marine ParkA day anchorage 10km south, and one of the more reliable green-turtle encounters in reach of Nosy Be; became the region's marine nature park in 2010. Shallow, current-free water either side of the beach, open 7am–4pm — a morning stop, not an overnight.
• Nosy KombaThree kilometres south, its Malagasy name translates as 'island of lemurs', and the black lemurs around Ampangorina village have been protected by residents for generations rather than fenced in for visitors. A forested summit at 622m gives real relief for a stop this close to the hub; anchor off the village in settled weather.
• Lokobe ReserveThe last stand of lowland rainforest on Nosy Be, some 740 hectares beneath 450m Mont Lokobe on the island's southeast coast. Anchor off Ambatozavavy, then a short pirogue crossing into the reserve for black lemurs, boa constrictors and chameleons — a guide is compulsory, and there is no other way in.
• Baie des Russes (Russian Bay)A wide, well-sheltered bay that hid Admiral Rozhestvensky's Russian Second Pacific Squadron for two months in early 1905, coaling before its run to catastrophe at Tsushima; old ruins still mark the shore. Dolphins and manta rays work the bay today, turtles nest on its beaches, and crocodiles and fiddler crabs hold the mangrove-lined river upstream.
• Nosy Mitsio (Grande Mitsio)Eleven islands and islets some 70km/38nm northeast, crystal-clear water over reef running 5–35m deep, and grey-reef, white-tip, silvertip, zebra and, in season, scalloped hammerhead sharks. Nosy Mitsio itself is the only inhabited island, home to Antakarana fishing families; anchor there for open space, or in the shelter of Marimbe bay for the night. Nosy Tsarabanjina, the smallest named island, carries the one lodge out here.
• Radama archipelagoA wilder, far less visited scatter some 60km/32nm south, best treated as an extension beyond the standard week rather than folded into it. Nosy Berafia, roughly 10km by 3km, is the largest island; Nosy Saba, a private 128-hectare islet at the archipelago's southern end, carries its only lodge. Open-water anchorages throughout — bring range and self-sufficiency.

The scene

A perfume trade, a stranded fleet, and a town whose name has nothing to do with the obvious joke.

Stay ashore

Three lodges, three different islands — the closest thing this water has to a hotel scene.

A week, sketched

Pair with

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