Kilifi has been a lovely stop – a sheltered anchorage on a secure mooring, a delightful little yacht club patronized by locals, a good well stocked town and a great gang of cruisers to play with.  A couple days after we arrived Ian was checking the port fwd cabin bulkhead and found some rot. Hopefully it was to be just a small section but the more he checked the more he found.  Solution? A complete rebuild of both the horizontal and vertical bulkheads in the cabin. He had some plywood and glass – not quite enough but with the Kilifi boatyard 100m away it seemed like the best option was to do it here.
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We had spent a few days in Zambia and now wanted to spent a few days on the other side of the falls in Zimbabwe.  All this entailed was a short walk across the bridge, clear immigration and customs and find a taxi on the Zim side.  We didn’t know what to expect from Zimbabwe (which by the way means ‘big stone house’) but were surprised at how different the two countries were.  Zimbabwe is in strife – the currency so devalued that it is worthless, the people seem to have little hope for the future and there are shortages of many basics including bread and petrol.
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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 …>