Perry - On course for Tanzania

We were very happy to see Zanzibar, birthplace of Freddie Mercury, on the horizon, even as we put another reef in the mainsail ahead of an imminent squall. The anchorage off Stone Town was far from flat but was a welcome relief. After tossing away the partially desiccated baker’s dozen of flying fish and the baby squid that had collected on our trampolines, we prepared to head to shore. We dragged the dinghy all the way up the beach, as the ten-foot plus (3 m) tides were good motivation to fix our busted dinghy wheel, and then started the process of checking into the country. Stone Town is one of the handful of places that we had previously had the pleasure of visiting to while living on land. Usually, when returning to a location, it’s been over fifteen years and some of the places are almost unrecognizable. The focus of our last visit to was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and going on safari. We had only stopped in Stone Town for a couple days, during Ramadan. This visit, we had time to more fully explore the narrow, ancient streets of what seems like a really big maze. We would see the same landmarks over and over but have no real sense of how we got there until the third day or so. The friendliness of Tanzanians is real. As Matt replaced the axle and fixed the flat tire on our dingy wheel, a crowd of men gathered to ‘help’. They meant well but ended up mostly being a distraction. For no apparent reason, one gentleman picked up a hammer from Matt’s bag of tools and randomly started pounding on the axle until Matt asked him to stop. But without the help of some of the locals, we would have had a hell of a time finding the machine shop that helped us with the stubborn dinghy wheel. Tanzania is much more affordable for us than the Seychelles and we have been able to enjoy eating out again. Street food is one of our favorite things and the eclectic mix of cultures and flavors makes this one of the best eating experiences we have had in a while.