Day 1? Or 3? How long have we be gone now?
After departing Zanzibar at 5am, swimming out to the boats through a pretty hectic breakwater, we finally arrived at Pemba at 1030 after a pretty rough crossing - though the ngalawas coming the other way looked to be having a slightly easier time of it.
We spent the morning mostly brain dead, and finally went into town to do some last minute shopping for food and other essentials. Chake-Chake was an adventure in itself, and we found most of what we needed, including a local SIM card - that then proved not to work in the Nokia we had brought for the purpose, so our final iPhone must remain at risk. D'oh!
We then headed back to the beach in a crowded communal taxi with 16 people squeezed into and onto it. When we got back, we began the work of choosing our boat and getting it shipshape, including re doing most of the lashings, replacing the sail, and getting it back on the water.
Of course, our luck continues, and on anchoring out in the bay we found that it was sinking fast! So in the rapidly falling darkness, I towed it back in to shore and bailed her out. We're now hoping a local blacksmith/carpenter (a 'fundi') will be able to stopper lost of the leaks before our first sail training in the afternoon.
Another early start to get all that sorted then, and as we are camping tomorrow night this may be the last update until NYE, but you should be able to follow us on the tracker location from tomorrow afternoon.
Oh, and we reckon we did a pretty good job on our sail - check the pic.
In other news, tons bag is now in Dar, so we may see it again after all!
Much love, and thanks again for all the support. Rory Tom and Alex.
