Welcome to 2004 from the crew of SV Amarula!

CAPTAIN'S LOG October - December 2003

The last 3 months of 2003 were very mixed with some wonderful trips in October in between our Yacht Club sailing and fishing events and our Dar H3 1,000th Run event. More on these later. Unfortunately from mid-November Lynne travelled back to UK to spend some time with her family after learning that her father had been taken ill. Although she had some quality time there her father's condition has been up & down since the beginning of December and at this time he is in Christies Hospital in Manchester awaiting further tests & treatment for a rare form of cancer. We had planned to spend his 70th birthday all together in Dubai at the beginning of January. An unfortunate start to the year, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for better news soon. He is a fighter and will do whatever it takes to get well.

During the time that Lynne was away Eric took SV Amarula across to Zanzibar to the new slipway to do some maintenance as it is almost 2 years since she has had a clean & polish out of the water. The plan was to repaint the anti-fouling which has become rather worn, however TAB (That's Africa Baby) strikes again and the paint was never cleared in time to do the job, so despite managing to get a number of the routine maintenance jobs completed whilst waiting for the paint, she still needs to come out again to finish the job properly. I'm delighted to say, the paint is finally now on board waiting to be painted on to the hull!

Back to our trips of the last quarter of 2003. We took a group of Hash friends across to Zanzibar for a 4 day sail the week before the Dar H3 1,000th run. 2 of the group, Lis & Martin, had lived in Dar back in 94 - 96, so it was wonderful to catch up with them and a real trip down memory lane for them to be back here. Also joining them were friends from Uk and Jordan, where they are now based, plus Lesley from Smokies in Dar joined the party. We all had a ball and enjoyed the swimming, kayaking, sunsets, fishing, snorkelling and diving that Zanzibar has to offer. We had sundowners in Mercury's in Stone Town, which was new to our friends and of course we had to go to the old favourite, Africa House Hotel, which has been done up since they were last there and they actually serve cold beer now and you do get your change (eventually!!).

After our crazy & fun 1,000th Run Hash weekend mid-October (please do not confuse the Hash House Harriers drinking/ running club with the other kind of hash, which is illegal in Tanzania and absolutely not tolerated aboard our vessel) we took a great group of Durban Hashers across to Zanzibar for a similar trip. Again we all had a fabulous time visiting the islands of Menai Bay then moving north to Stone Town, Prison Island & Grave Island amongst other places. The group as a whole had a wonderful sense of humour and were very athletic and competitive having participated in the Dusi kayak event and numerous marathons in South Africa. On their final night aboard we all danced the night away under a marvelous star-filled sky at Menai Bay, then the following night we went along to a beach toga party at Mikadi camp (Dar's south beach area) as some friends were moving on to other places after a number of years in Dar. We said our goodbyes to our Durban friends on the Sunday after depositing the group at the airport for their flight home. It was rewarding to hear from a number of the members of this group that their time with us had been the best holiday they had had.

We had one final trip of 2003 with a group of Italians and an American who came on board from December 27th - Jan 1st. As they were on board for a week, this gave us the opportunity to make our way up to Nungwi in northern Unguja (Zanzibar island) and diving at Mnemba, which is rated as one of Zanzibar's top dive sites. The group enjoyed their trip with a variety of activities including some fantastic sailing (10 knots), catching baracuda, snorkelling and kayaking amongst the mangroves on Kwale Island, plus diving & snorkelling at various sandbanks & reefs off Stone Town as well as Mnemba reef. . Ashore they visited the giant tortoises on Prison Island and explored the Zanzibar markets and foodstalls of Forodhani. Nungwi was the ideal spot to celebrate New Year and the group went ashore to party with the crowds of tourists there. Eric & I had sundowners at one of the bars, then went back and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere of the boat as we shared a bottle of bubbly at midnight and listened to all the countdowns at the various bars & restaurants ashore. Finally around 4am the first members of the party decided it was time to crash out, whilst other members carried on partying until dawn. The next day was spent in leisurely fashion, relaxing and swimming at Nungwi, then at around 11pm we sailed overnight to put our group ashore at Lazy Lagoon, where they had decided to spend the last days of their holiday visting Bagamoyo.

In addition to the trips above, Eric has been working on various marine consultancy projects which is another aspect of our business here in Tanzania. We are hoping that 2004 will bring some of these exciting projects on line, which will add value to the lives of many people in this wonderful country.

We have a number of short trips and events planned for January and February so our calendar is filling up fast. With that we look forward to seeing you on board soon.

Why not read our Guest Book page - Enjoy!

Check out our Itinerary for more details.

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Click here for the July - Sept 2003 Captain's Log

Click here for the June 2003 Captain's Log (land-based safari trip)

Click here for the March/ April 2003 Captain's Log

Click here for the December/ January 2003 Captain's Log (Mafia - Kilwa trip)

Click here for the October/ November 2002 Captain's Log (Aldabra & Cosmoledo trip)

FOR OUR 2002 AUSTRALIA TO TANZANIA LOG & PHOTOS - CLICK HERE

Click here to view our 4 page full colour article in the UK publication "Country" (the magazine of the Country Gentleman's Association)