Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar

Masasani Bay from Dar yacht Club

Dar es Salaam

The “colonial procedures” offered by the yacht club, starts on the yachts. By using your radio and calling “Dingy, Dingy”, a club tender arrives at your yacht to pick you up. Here at the yacht club they have a “water taxi” which transports all yachties backwards and forwards to their yachts. The club itself has all the usual, restaurant, bar, pool and includes a kid play area with jungle gyms etc. The club is elevated and overlooks the yacht basin. Around the club bar, The Quarter Deck, is a white line and kids are not allowed over it. Most days an old pompous British lady sat at the bar and policed the white line! Any kid entering got her full wrath!

Every second night or so the restaurant has something different – Fish braai, Pizza evenings, buffet on Friday coupled to “happy 2 hours”. The place gets really festive with adults and kids of all ages enjoying the scene.

A real colonial existence which is frequented by diplomats, embassy staff, business folk and good old yachties alike!
So comfortable at Dar Yacht Club and we settled in quite easily!

The evening of our arrival, we all went up to the club for dinner. The kids shot off to the playgrounds and only made a rare appearance when they were hungry or dinner was served.

We met a few locals and enjoyed a pleasant evening. The choice of food was amazing with fish, chicken and T-bone steaks on the menu, along with salads.
We sat looking out over the yacht basin and, I must say, I got a great feeling about Dar, the club and people.
Later that night, with the kids slowly winding down, Jenna came across and sat with Belinda. Later B passed Jenna on to me as she went off to the loo. And then Jenna came up with a classic, “Dad, I feel sea sick”.
I told her to rest her head against me and she snuggled up closer. Well, her sea sick, meant she was feeling SICK and within 30 seconds, she was hurling. Not into the flower beds or onto the floor but down my shirt! And she did not stop! All I could do was hold her closer, while Sue dived for a towel. Poor Jenna, who has hardly vomited in her whole life, was not a happy chicken. I just sat there doing my best to contain a few digested meals! We managed to get things under control, all the time whilst Belinda was on the dance floor dancing with Simon! Well timed B!!

With Jenna feeling a little better, we sorted ourselves out. Luckily I had another shirt and put that on. We then gathered our goods and headed back to Shayile. Real party stopper hey!

That night Jenna was not well again and we were up a few times attending to her needs. She certainly ate something that did not agree with her.

Next morning she was up and away like nothing had happened!

Without much time in Dar, next morning it was time to head out to the island of Zanzibar. After saying goodbye to Simon and Grant; we motored out of Dar yacht club and headed up the coast to Zanzibar.

Business friends of mine were out at Zanzibar on holiday and we were planning to meet them for a day on board Shayile. Janet and Chris Frazer ran a transport company called Maxiloads. They did a lot of work for the Adwarehouse. Via SMS and the occasional call, we arranged to meet the next day for a cruise out to one of the islands.

It took us most of the day to get to Zanzibar as there was little or no wind. Besides loosing a nice sized fish, it was quiet an enjoyable trip and soon we were motoring past Stone Town. We headed for Mtoni Beach Resort where most of the yachts anchor. Anchoring at Stone Town is taking a chance as night visitors are frequent and certainly are not visiting for a cup of coffee. Closer to their needs is your outboard motor and any other item that comes in handy. Pity, as it was really convenient to anchor off Stone Town and be able to go ashore to visit this historic town.

We dropped anchor next to a mono hull at Mtoni Beach and, with dinner soon over, we went off to bed.

Talking security, we had an alarm system on board. Each night we set up two beedy eyes outside in the cockpit. These were positioned to pick up any movement on or off the back of Shayile. We then had the receiver that sat next to our bed and with this in place, we could hopefully have a peaceful nights sleep. It had gone off a few times previously but fortunately there have been no onboard visitors!

                                              

                         Approaching Stonetown, Zanzibar

           

                                    Sunset off Zanzibar                                   

Next day we went ashore to pick up Chris and Janet. I got talking with the manageress of Mtoni Beach Resort and got some info on the facilities and what we could do whilst at Mtoni. Soon Chris and Janet arrived and we headed on back to Shayile.

Just off Mtoni are 2 beautiful little islands and so we decided to head out there for some snorkeling.

We spent an enjoyable day with Chris and Janet, diving a few bommies, having lunch and catching up on business. With the day drawing to a close, we had to head back in order for Chris and Janet to catch their taxi back to their hotel which was on the other side of the island.

Our next guests to arrive would be with us in 2 days. Brian Keddie, a great friend of mine from school days and our next door neighbour whilst growing up, was coming out to join us. Joining him was his girlfriend Julia Middleton and they were to spend a week with us.

Our plan in the meantime was to buy some provisions so the next morning we caught a taxi through to Stone Town and started to buy a few things. As Stone town is so interesting, we were soon doing the tourist thing, wandering the narrow streets and checking out the shops and sights. We did get to a supermarket and bought quite a few things to last us a few weeks. On the way back, we stopped at a road side store and bought some mangoes and bread fruit. Bread fruit is an amazing fruit which appears like a huge prickly pear!

17^th – 22^nd NOVEMBER 2005

Next morning we upped anchor and motored down to Stone Town. We dropped anchor in front of the Tembo Hotel which is an up market hotel right on the beach. There were a number of dhows and other dive boats all around us and the setting was great. The plans were to go ashore and spend the day in Stone Town as Brian and Julia were arriving on the late afternoon Hydrofoil. Daniel, Jenna and I went ashore with diesel and petrol containers to get fuel for the next few weeks. I found a taxi driver and we headed out to a garage. 5 garages later and we had the diesel and petrol. Amazing how there was just no fuel available. The driver had a number of complaints about Zanzibar and the lack of fuel, electricity and water. He told us how the place was expanding and the services could not keep up with the growth. 

As we had not heard from Brian, we were wondering if all had gone according to plan and that they had caught the hydrofoil from Dar. At about 5.30pm we spotted the hydrofoil approaching Stone Town and soon all of us were waving hoping to see Brian and Julia waving back.

No luck, so we assumed they were inside. 3 minutes later I turned around and looked towards the beach. There Brian and Julia were, on the beach trying to get our attention! I jumped into the ducky and went ashore. With about 50kg’s of goods and 40kg’s of those for us in the form of gifts etc from the families, they were happy to be on board Shayile. Brian recalled how at Dar es Salaam airport, they were persuaded to catch a flight across to Zanzibar. This they did and arrived at about the same time the hydrofoil had arrived. All safely on board, we motored back to Mtoni beach for the night.

That evening we caught up with all the news from home! It really was a treat to hear about “home life’ and what everyone was up to. In reality, nothing changes but we took in all the news as if we had been away for 5 years!

As Brian and Julia only had a week with us, we did not intend to sail too far. The plans were to head up to the north of Zanzibar; Ras Nungwi.

  

Mangapwani beach

                                                   Sundowners with Brian & Julia

Next morning we upped anchor and headed out to Changuu Island for some snorkeling. We found a spot and soon we were all in the warm water, snorkeling amongst some great coral gardens. Brian and Julia really had a great dive and saw a lot. It was Julia’s first time snorkeling and she really got the best!

A classic was the underwater “break dance” performed especially well by Belinda and then followed by Brian. It happened like this: I was swimming back towards the duck where Belinda was about to get into it. All of a sudden I saw B backing off violently and doing some serious defensive moves underwater. As I got closer, I saw she was being attacked by what looked like a barracuda! A little closer and I saw it was a Remora (sucker fish) obviously not happy with B for approaching the duck. (These fish do find shelter and company under a small boat, where they can stay for days.)

I swam in closer trying to draw it away from B, who by this stage was in full break dance mode! Fortunately I had a long trident stick with me and was able to keep it at bay whilst B got into the duck, much to her relief! The Remora returned to under the duck and soon Brian returned and exactly the same maneuvers were performed by Brian! An entertaining session indeed!

From Changuu, we sailed north up to Mangapwani. That afternoon we spotted a beach and soon we were anchored off it and heading ashore. Just a few hundred meters of the anchorage, we were told by locals that there was a hidden inlet. Off this inlet there were hidden passage leading to “slave chambers.” Apparently during the slave trade days, dhows carrying slaves used to hide in these chambers to escape those looking for slave traders.

So off we went to find this inlet. Well, it must be a great hiding spot because we could not find it. We returned to the beach for sundowners at a magic little restaurant over looking the beach. I ask the barman about the chambers and he said that they were not easily found at high tide. As it was high tide, and springs at that, we decided to have another look in the morning. With that we settled into double G&T’s. One round of drinks was thirty US dollars and so we concluded; “sip slowly, enjoy the sunset and return to Shayile!”

This we did.

            

Daniel’s sundowner….

                                as the sun sets over the sea  

Next morning we set off on the duck again, and again we could not find the chambers. With that, we set sail for Ras Nungwi about 20 miles up the coast. A pleasant trip but in typical sailing style, we had to motor into wind the whole way.

Belinda and I had been to Ras Nungwi 7 years previously after having climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. We were now looking forward to seeing the places we had previously been to. As we closed in on Ras Nungwi, I realized that a few changes had taken place over the past 7 years. This place was now full of resorts and lodges! I could not recognize a single landmark!

We anchored off a beautiful beach flanked by restaurants. On the beach were coconut trees with bars and beach style restaurants. It was really scenic so onto the duck and off to the beach! The next 2 days were spent at Ras Nungwi diving, eating, relaxing and having the odd sun downer. We all had henna tattoos done whilst on the beach.

Henna tattoo’s done at Nungwi

After Ras Nungwi, we sailed back down to Stone Town and anchored off the wharf where the open air evening food stall parade takes place.

Besides B, who stayed on board to watch Shayile, the rest of us went ashore and explored Stone Town.
We headed down to the open air food market to get dinner. All along the wharf were stores selling all kinds of cooked foods. Meat, calamari, prawns, chicken crab; all on kebabs served with chips. A favorite was the sugar cane juice. A length of sugar cane is put through a roller. The sugar juice is squeezed out and to this is added a touch of lime juice. It is then served in a glass. Once finished, the glass is washed out, and the next squeeze takes place! Every stall owner was trying their level best to get us to buy dinner from them. Each one had their own plot at getting us to buy and we almost felt bad when we declined and moved on to the next store, not having succumbed to their sales pitch! We eventually decided on a full spread of assorted meats. Prawns, calamari, beef, chicken – all kebab style. Along with roasted bananas and chips, we were ready to head back to Shayile. I called B on the VHF and she picked us up right outside the market. Back to Shayile and we all settled into the dinner spread, and a great bottle of wine. With Stone Town buzzing around us, we sat, talked and enjoyed our last night together in Stone Town.

  

Jenna’s 5^th birthday; Ras Nungwi, Zanzibar

As we needed to head back to Dar, we made the decision to sail that night and arrive in Dar early the next morning. Unfortunately the wind was not playing ball and it seemed it would be on the nose…. again!!

We upped anchor at 9pm and slowly made our way out of Stone Town. Initially we were able to take advantage of the winds as we headed out into the channel but soon we had to head south and into the wind. The fun started and, again, we motored into wind and swell. For the next 7 hours it did not let up. I headed towards the mainland to try get some protection amongst the islands. The swell calmed down a bit but the wind persisted.

We all had turns on watch and at 6.30am the next morning, we slowly motored into Dar Yacht Club. It had been a long and tiring night. Not the pleasant sail I had anticipated. Unfortunately Brian and Julia had experienced true sailing – the wind does not blow from where you want it to!!
With the anchor down in Dar Yacht Club, I went off to sleep for a few hours.

Once we were all “in the mood” and feeling a lot better after the nights sail, we headed down the road to the local shopping mall - The slipway. We shopped and checked out the local produce before heading back to Shayile.

That night we all headed off to the yacht club for “pizza night”. We were joined by Simon, Grant and a few others and enjoyed a feast of pizza. Everyone on Shayile was kind of tired, except me, as I had had a sleep that day and was now keen to go out!

Simon, Grant and I went out to the infamous Q-Bar. A long night but I did get home at about 5am. This would prove to be the first of many late nights in Dar!

That morning, Brian and Julia left to go back to SA. We thoroughly enjoyed having them on board Shayile. Home company cannot be beaten!!