Nosy is the Malagasy word for Island and the other word is the islands name. To get from Nosy Be (which is reasonably set up) to Nosy Komba (which has no power and little in the way of infrastructure) is a 40 minute boat ride. Easy to do in the morning, but very choppy in the afternoon. There are 2 ports next to each other. The big port and the little port. The big port isn't necessarily for big boats only, but is cleaner. The little port is where the island transports come to and is filthy. At high tide this is not a big deal,
but low tide means walking through the water and risking a cut and then a probable (not possible) infection. The boats have no set time in which they set off from the port at Nosy Be to Nosy Komba. They just wait till they are full and then go. If they are half way out of the port and you wave at them from the shore they come back to pick you up. The more passengers the more money they make on one trip. By speedboat it would be a 15 minute trip but because they fill the boats to capacity it takes 40 minutes. At least they give you life jackets and at least I feel confident that I have my Bronze Medallion. Below is the picture from the port in Nosy Be where they are walking to the boat at low tide.