East African sailing trip – log 73

SAILING LOG73

November 21, 2004
After a quick dingy ride to the beach and along the shore we set sail in a gentle breeze, our heading Tanga on the Tanzanian mainland. Tanga is the last sea town before the Kenyan border and is also Tanzania’s second largest city.

Within minutes our port engine dies… another case of fuel starvation? We last filled our tanks in Dares Salaam and we have been motoring wherever we travel due to the inconsistency of the winds. We are in the transition season between the two predominant monsoons and this is the time when the wind comes for various directions, or not at all.

Wolf tops up the tank from our spare jerry-cans and we bleed the system, we are becoming quite adept at this. The experience has delayed us by an hour but we are soon motor-sailing into the Pemba channel at a fair speed.

Looking at the instruments Wolf realizes that although we are moving fast through the water, we have entered the EACC (East African Coastal Current) which is traveling at 3knts in the other direction. This means that though we are moving at 7knts we are only traveling 4knts over ground. How frustrating!

To compensate for the lack of speed we are presented with a flat sea with no head swells. The line we are trolling goes berserk, spinning through the reel in a noisy commotion. Wolf lands a “mother of a wahoo” as he describes it and I spend the rest of the day frying fish fillets, some to eat fresh and the rest to curry pickle, which is a recipe I got from my late father and is so yummy my mouth waters just thinking about it. (Find this recipe under the recipe tag or click here)

Tanga Yacht club is reached from the south by entering the half mile wide entrance between Niule Reef and Yambe Island with a minimum depth of 7mts then into the harbour. We head to port and again to port to round the bluff. The anchorage outside the Tanga Yacht Club mooring is in about 9m over good holding sticky mud. We sneak in as close as possible to avoid long dingy rides ashore.

As we set the anchor we spotted the yacht ERAIS with a couple sitting the cockpit. Wolf drops the dingy from the davits and we head out to them. They are pleasantly surprised when we hand them a large packet of fresh filleted Wahoo steaks.

The Villas at Sandy Bay, Gibson Point.