East African sailing trip – log 69

SAILING LOG69

November 16, 2004 

We regretfully sail away from the sanctuary of the past 24 hours. We have made arrangements to meet Jurgen back at Mtoni Marine Lodge to collect the contents of our “bucket aquarium” on Wednesday. We sail to Kwale Island and after carefully navigating through the passage between the Island and the mainland heading for Zanzibar harbour. 

Whenever we motor or sail anywhere we troll a line behind us always hoping to catch a fresh fish. As we relish in the beautiful day watching dhows sailing back and forth between Zanzibar and the mainland packed with passengers, cargo or fishermen, we are suddenly interrupted by the squealing sound of the fishing line running through the reel. Wolf grabs the fishing-rod and I take the helm, slowing the revs on the motor.

He fights his fish and finally lands a good sized “King Mackerel. We drop the lure and feed out the line again, within minutes there is another fish on the line and the fight starts again. Wolf lands another King Mackerel. We contemplate whether or not to put out the lure again, and decides to go for it. It has been so long since we have caught fish and I think he is trying to make up for lost opportunities. Unbelievably, he catches another one…

Since we are only 20 minutes from Mtoni Marine lodge we discuss a clever plan. We will find our friend XXX the Food and Beverage Manager and trade our fish for a great steak dinner in the restaurant. He guts and cleans the fish. We cannot believe our good luck – 3 wonderful fish in 30 minutes.

We have made contact with our sister yacht McDuck who is now resident in Dares Salaam. Mattheus the new owner of this Dean Catamaran has his girl-friend and mother visiting and have joined us at Mtoni Marine. We enjoy a delicious buffet meal together on the beach, under a big bright full moon, in this exotic setting complete with Arabic ambiance and ethnic music.
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November 17, 2004

What a calm, peaceful anchorage Mtoni Marine Lodge offers. The sounds of the Muezzin calling devotees to prayer from several mosques, the braying of donkeys late into the evening and the laugher of children playing on the beach, fills me with a sense of timelessness. Almost like this is how it is supposed to be, far from the madding crowds. I might have already said this, but I’ll say it again. I have fallen madly in love with Zanzibar! It is like no other place I have ever visited.

We amuse ourselves with small things. Wolf’s favorite pastime is swatting flies – I am convinced he leaves the mosquito netting open on purpose to allow flies to come into the boat so that he can see how many he can swat. What the flies are doing so far from the shore, I fail to understand. 

This morning we take our little bucket aquarium ashore and wait on the cool veranda of Mtoni Marine for Jurgen to collect it. He arrives at 11:30am and doesn’t stay very long… we say farewell and make our way back to Karibu with heavy hearts. A place can be as lovely as humanly imaginable, yet cause one to descend into a pit of depression if you are lonely. We have each other, but there is still a void and an unending emptiness. We are both socialites thriving on the interaction with other people and knowing that Jurgen will be flying back home tomorrow only adds to the hollowness inside. 

We are bored… there are a hundred things to do but a thousand reasons not to do them. We realize it is the incessant heat and its constant companion the relentless humidity that has sucked our energy and caused this lethargy leaving us gulping for air like fish out of water. 

Determined not to wallow in self-pity we catch a taxi into Stone Town. We visit the produce market and stock up for our next move. Wolf visits the Port Authorities to complete formalities and we make plans to leave at daybreak. Back at the lodge we say farewell to the pleasant staff who have become our friends. The bar-tender hands us a CD with songs which will forever remind us of the many hours enjoyed listening to it while chatting or playing our BAO board-game.