KILWA - EAST AFRICA – following the dhows south continued. Shortly before departing a large thundercloud passed overhead and delivered a good soaking. To our surprise we found the coach roof Perspex windows to be leaking like a sieve. A quick bead of Sikaflex did the trick and we were on our way. Cruising catamarans have a reputation of not sailing very well – our battleship ‘SS Innisfree’ was no exception. It was going to be a slow adventure – think about moving in cold honey! The bay of Dar es Salaam passed slowly as we settled into our new routine. For the first part of our journey we would be sailing against the South Equatorial current. This current flows westwards across the top of Madagascar and when reaching the African coast splits into two – one arm flowing north up to Kenya and the other joining the Mozambique Current flowing south. In places it flows strongly at up to 5 knots - as we learnt the first night when our speed over ground was negative - we were effectively going backwards! The light south easterly trade winds making our point of sail a dead beat - were not helping either. Mafia Island lies approximately 75 miles south of Dar es Salaam – between it and the mainland are countless islands and sandbars that appear and disappear with the tide. The areas’ relatively shallow depth turns the world turquoise blue. Some islands were deserted and some dotted with fishing villages. We took a day to make our way through the Archipelago which hardly did it any justice. Our first planned stop was Kilwa further south. Our progress was slow as we dodged the sandbars but inside Mafia we had virtually no current. On leaving the archipelago we were faced with another string of islands dotting the coastline south. We elected to sail on the inside again to avoid the current. It would prove to be an anxious night requiring accurate navigation. My electronic charts proved their worth in gold and when dawn broke we had made good progress towards Kilwa. Kilwa Kisiwani is a small island lying about 150 miles south of DAR and half a mile off the mainland town of Kilwa Masoko . 5 days earlier a small cyclone had passed though Kilwa Masoko ripping off roofs and killing 5 fishermen that had been caught offshore in their Dhow. A dramatic turn, for this otherwise very sleepy town. During the 11th through 16th centuries Kilwa Kisiwani was one of 35 important trading sites on the Indian Ocean . Its earliest substantial occupation dates back to 800 AD. All that is left today are impressive ruins. Archaeological investigations at the site began in earnest in 1955 and the site was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981. There is currently a multinational sponsored project underway to restore some of the buildings. During its height of influence, Kilwa Kisiwani traded gold, ivory, iron and coconuts from southern Africa as well as cloth and jewelry from India and porcelain from China . Some of the earliest gold coins were minted here and one of them was found at the site of Great Zimbabwe. The prosperity of the port city remained intact until the last decades of the 14th century. In 1500 the Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabral visited Kilwa and reported seeing houses made of coral stone. During the occupation the Portuguese constructed an impressive fort, now know as the ‘Gereza’ which dominates the present day shoreline. Kilwa jerks the imagination back to a magnificent time. The footprint of the once trading town is large and stretches over a few kilometres. It is dotted with buildings, mosques, burial sites and a 100 room palace overlooking the waterway separating it from the mainland. It is not difficult to imagine flocks of Dhows plying their good to and fro – coming and going with the change of the tide. Our guide was a local fisherman called ‘Askari’ – actually the Swahili word for guard. He patiently took us around and with his broken English and frequent gesticulations was quite a character. Our guide books filled in the gaps. It was a peaceful place and at prayer time we were constantly bumping into people in quiet places mumbling away as they recited from the Koran. That evening aboard Innisfree as we watched the sun disappear behind the fort we realized that the only light on the island was that illuminating its silhouetted façade. The entire island and all its inhabitants were otherwise without electricity! Our visit to the mainland the next morning to buy diesel was an adventure in itself. Finding the gas station (consisting only of a pile of 44 gallon drums and an attendant) a few km’s up the road was step one - relatively easy but hot. Finding out they did not accept US dollars, step 2 – a bicycle was offered to get to the bank, step 3 – at the bank, no means of checking counterfeit notes was possible, so my 100 dollar bill was useless – I had to use my small bills noting down all the serial numbers of every one dollar bill and begging for them to accept them, step 4 – another hot bicycle ride, step 5 – filling the drums by hand decanting every 5 litres into a jug, step 6 – more negotiations to get the bicycle owner to transport the drums back to the beach where our dingy awaited, step 7 – another hot walk back and more haggling with the fisherman about how much to pay him for his watchful eye, step 8 and finally a cold coke aboard Innisfree ! – A day in the life of the cruising catamaran. |
