Jocara Newsletter
Nov 27, 2004

After two days and half a night of sailing, we brought the tiny 
uninhabited islands of 'Cargados Carajos' (otherwise known as St. 
Brendan's) over the horizon and decided to anchor and stay a while.  We 
have been keeping a watchful eye on Cyclone Bento, a severe tropical 
cyclone with as much as 175 knots of wind, but it seems Bento has now 
headed on a more southerly track and is decreasing in intensity, allowing 
us some peace and time to explore these wonderful little islands of pure 
white coral sand and populations of nesting noddy's and terns.  There is a 
small fishing camp on the southernmost island, but all the others we have 
visited so far are deserted.  Jocara has attracted a small population of 
remoras, as many as 20 gathered around us at the last anchorage.  The kids 
fed them scraps from a fish they proudly caught, trolling form the dinghy.  
The coral is not fantastic, but the fish life is certainly varied and 
healthy.  The kids are itching to spear something for dinner with their 
spear guns, but we have been warned that many of the larger predator fish 
have ciguatera (a debilitating and sometimes fatal toxin found in fish at 
the top of the food chain around some coral reefs, particularly damaged 
areas). Today we wandered about a tiny sand bar, hardly an island, 
surrounded by birds wheeling and calling, nests, eggs and chicks scattered 
about all over the broken coral beach.  Now we are hanging out, waiting 
for the swells generated by Bento to die out and for better wind to set 
sail for our next leg towards the northern tip of Madagascar, taking some 
more air samples for pollutant and particulate analysis.  
PS.  We've noticed that several people have told us they've sent emails 
that we did not receive, and we've sent some that have gone missing too.  
So if you've sent us something, and it we have not replied, we probably 
didn't get it or we replied and it was lost.

P.S. Don't forget to check out our website at http://www.jocara.net for 
updates, pics and short movies, also archived newsletters.  Anyone can 
join the list or unsubscribe by sending an email to mandar@arl.nus.edu.sg 
with the subject line 'subscribe jocara newsletter' or 'unsubscribe Jocara 
newsletter' as appropriate.