Cruising is such a lovely way to travel – you go slowly and get to see local life as you interact with them – the downside is that often you miss out on the interior. Being based at Slipway has been great because we have had the opportunity to explore more of Tanzania and now we were going to visit a couple more African countries and see another wonder -the Victoria Falls. -continue reading …->

Dar es Salaam has been a fabulous spot to stay for a while. We are staying in Slipway which is next door to the Dar Yacht Club as it has everything a cruiser wants.  It has good security with at least three guys on the security gate at the end of the jetty and no-one has access to the water without getting past them.  It has many restaurants, bars and coffee shops in the precinct, and many souvenir shops to satisfy the tourist in me.  There is a hairdresser, supermarket, travel agent, spa, and a bookshop.  Many a day has been spent just in Slipway using their fee wifi, drinking coffee and -continue reading …. >

It is a given that when you are in Tanzania you go out on safari.  There is so much to see, both in the amazing topography of the land to the amazing animals that wander free through the National Parks.  The problem is where to go and how big is the wallet.  The cost of an organised safari runs into the thousands of dollars depending on what you want to see and how long you are away, but you just can’t come all the way to Africa and not go on at least one safari.  We looked into the Serengeti – but – continue reading …>

 

Well we had done it – sailed across the Indian Ocean from Thailand to Tanzania – a journey of nearly 4,000 nautical miles with the route we took. It was not as bad as it could have been with no major breakages or storms to deal with. On our way to Tanzania we stopped at the island of Mayotte for a couple of days to have a break and also to visit this small outpost of France. Mayotte is as different from Madagascar as chalk is from cheese. Mayotte voted to stay part of France back in 1974 unlike the neighbouring island chain of Cormoros who chose independence. – continue reading …>

 

We decided to head down to a bay called Munoko Bay as we had heard really good things about it, so on the way we stopped at Tanikely.  The guys had a dive and we walked up to the top of the island to look at the view. Tanikely is a marine reserve which is good as it protects the island but it is so small we only stayed for the morning and the headed off to Munoko. We arrived just on dusk and so decided to explore the next morning. It is a lovely island with a small community of about 60 people and the head ‘chief’ is actually a woman so we gave her our gifts for the – continue reading …>

After a couple of days in Hellville enjoying the delights of being back in a bustling town complete with coffe shops, markets and restaurants we headed round to Crater Bay – a small fishing boat harbour about 5nm away.  This is where the Nozy Be yacht club is situated and we found a washing machine, book exchange, small chandlers, bar and restaurant here.  We were offered a mooring at $30 a week which we thought good value, so we settled in and spent the week exploring.  About 1km away was the small town which caters for the mainly ex-pat community and tourists.   Continue reading →

We ended up making the decision to come to Madagascar on a whim after not being able to anchor in Peros Banos, so the usual build up to a long crossing was absent.  I usually do some cooking for the night runs, have all the washing done, have a nap in the afternoon in preparation for the night watches, have all the charts checked and the route inputted to the computers, but this time we just made the decision on the spur of the moment and left.  This was to be our longest unbroken sail to date at over 1500 NM and we had expected it to take about 10 days.  There is an island called Agelaga which would be a great little stopover if we needed a break. Continue reading →