“Vagabundo” moored off Mikadi Beach May 2009 

It’s not every day you get to sail an Arab Dhow! So when Joe from Namibia (http://www.desertelephant.org), please check out Joe’s work to protect the desert elephants in Namibia, invited me along as crew I jumped at the adventure not really thinking what I was getting into! As you do! I had met Joe during my stay at Mikadi in December 2008 and he was still around for my birthday early January 2009, so we got to know each other quite well.

Joe is the type of person I wish I could be! Carefree, intelligent and like something from a bygone era! His enthusiasm for this Dhow project was infectious and once he arrived at Mikadi in April 2009 to collect the Dhow from Zanzibar I was as excited as him. I had already been across to Zanzibar to gee up the Fundi (expert) boat builder with the offer of free beer etc etc to get the Dhow ready in time for Joe and Beau’s arrival from Namibia. Beau is an American from Boise in Idaho, yep you heard right! Beau was also around when Joe was with us at Mikadi in December 2008 with his girlfriend. This was when the idea was muted to build and sail a Dhow from Mikadi (Dar es Salaam) to Pemba in Mozambique.

Captain Joe (he is available to play Captain Jack Sparrow – contact Mikadi)

Once Joe & Beau had arrived we then planned the way we were going to collect the Dhow from Zanzibar, bearing in mind the rest of the crew would only start arriving from the 1st May onwards for a departure on or around 6th May 2009, and none of us were sailors!  

Joe and Beau, along with a Toyota Land Cruiser full of kit for the Dhow, had a rubber duck strapped to the roof rack and it is this that we used to launch the invasion party (Joe & Beau) from Bagamoyo to Ras Nungwi (Northern Zanzibar) where the Dhow was being built. I roped in a neighbour of Mikadi, Gillian or Gill as she prefers, lives 10 minutes walk from Mikadi at a place called Gracelands! She lives in Canada part of the year and is originally from South Africa. She came along with me to help launch the rubber duck (rather Joe & Beau than me – this is not a short trip – Bagamoyo to Zanzibar) and get the Land Cruiser back to Mikadi, she then agreed to come across to Zanzibar to help the guys & I sail the Dhow to Mikadi, where we needed to do more work to prepare for the journey – electrics stuff like that! Poor Gill I think if she knew what was coming ahead she would have declined to help crew the “Vagabundo” on its maiden voyage from Zanzibar to Mikadi! The name is a play on Vagabond, as its the Portuguese interpretation where “she” will eventually end up hopefully – Mozambique not Portugal (Mozambique belonged to Portugal for awhile!). 

Once Gill & I had got back to Mikadi we planned the Zanzibar Ferry trip the next day and were waiting to hear from the guys whether they had arrived safely. They did. Gill & I crossed easily on a very smooth Ferry trip to Zanzibar, caught a taxi to Ras Nungwi and then left all our bags etc with Langi Langi http://www.langilangizanzibar.com/ who had very kindly agreed to look after our stuff whilst we walked along the beach to the boat builder, Joe & Beau. This is a beautiful place (Langi Langi) and if you are looking to visit the North of Zanzibar comes highly recommended.

As we walked along the beautiful beach towards the Dhow builder we noticed they had already started launching the Dhow into the sea. They do this by rolling the Dhow on logs and plenty of manpower – I reckon the whole village turned out. Joe with a bottle of his favourite rum was egging on the whole process and when I arrived the bow was just entering the sea…..it was one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen! The launch was a great success and we all boarded and watched the Fundi and his boat builders as they put up the sail and “Vagabundo” did her sea trials without any hitches. After watching the Fundi and his workers sail it became apparent to us (non sailors) that sailing a Dhow was not as easy as it looks!

Joe egging on the “locals” to launch Vagabundo! (bottle of.. .rum in his hand!)

We dropped anchor and then talked about how many people we would need to sail across to Mikadi and whether the Rastafarian’s Joe & Beau had met in Zanzibar could be persuaded to come across as crew to help us. Well to cut a long story short we got two Rastafarian’s (brothers) to come having rejected a Captain who wanted USD$500 to help us! Now I must tell you that later we discovered that nobody in Zanzibar thought we would make this maiden voyage and was why we struggled to get anybody to crew for us. Captain was the nickname of one of the brothers, eldest and to say he was barking mad would be an understatement!

 

Rasta Captain “Captain”

We decided at midday to try and sail down to Stonetown where we would get some supplies for the sail across to Mikadi and maybe get some more crew. We collected Gill from Langi Langi and all set off with our Rastas sailing and us watching and jumping out the way! Joe used the engine and we slowly scythed our way through the sea to Stonetown arriving early the next day. We slept in hammocks that night and the Rastas slept on the deck – their choice.

Once in Stonetown we managed to find some calamari – Langi Langi had given us some freshly baked bread, which was an absolute life saver (read on) and some salad stuff. We all then set off for Mikadi although the weather was overcast and the sea did not look very friendly! Once out of the shelter of the island we hit the open Ocean and the Dhow was struggling as the engine was continuously coming out of the water due to the high swells (we were too scared to try sailing yet!) We made a group decision (Joe) to find shelter and wait for calmer weather! It was raining by now and we had already had a rain soaking sailing to Stonetown!  Nearby was another island called Chombe (a marine park surrounds this beautiful island) and after being directed by the lodge away from the harbour in front, found a mooring around the corner. They obviously did not want a Pirate Dhow in their harbour being a flashy place!

Next morning early we, for the first time, launched the sail, well the Rastas did! We then sailed with the engine for extra speed towards Dar and Mikadi. Gill broke pieces of the bread from Langi Langi and divided amongst us…this was the only food we had until reaching Mikadi! Thank God to Langi Langi. Thank You.

We alerted Mikadi to our arrival and to this date Jo from Mikadi has the only picture of us in FULL sail!

Come back for the next leg to Mtwara….

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Mikadi News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.