Sumsum

Stopover in Senegal, the land of… Soum-soum!

Soum-soum is the name of an alcoholic beverage produced (more or less legally) in Senegal – it is obtained after fermenting the pulp of the cashew apple, with a mixture of sugar, water, and yeast. Spelling slightly different, it is also the name of the catamaran that is taking Martine and Henry around the world. They are writing to us this month… from Senegal.

Sumsum

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Published 11/02/2026

By Mary Nicholas

Issue: 206

Published: apr. / may 2026

Discover this issue

Who: Martine and Henry
Where: West Africa, Senegal
Multihull: Amateur design and construction
Blog: www.polarsteps.com/henrydeBaecque1/16952207-sumsum-autour-du-monde

Arriving in Dakar, we quickly had to sew a Senegalese courtesy flag and hoist it in the starboard spreaders. After completing the entry formalities, we set course south, and at the end of the day, we sailed into the Sine Saloum before anchoring at Djifer, a large fishing village. Sumsum anchored peacefully in front of the Keur Papaye hotel, half a mile from the village. We then began with a lovely walk among the baobabs, palm trees, and coconut palms. What a wonderful day it was! Welcomed with traditional tea, I discovered that they also repair pirogues, with a master carpenter and plenty of hands when a plank needs replacing, a bit like when Sumsum was built. This was followed by a few hours’ sail through the heart of the mangroves to reach
Toubakouta, sometimes with very little water under the catamaran. It’s not always easy to know where the tide will go, but like good sailors, we navigated with the rising tide, and when we actually touched, twice, I jumped into the meter of warm water before feeling with my feet whether to go to port or starboard. In the afternoon, we arrived at the Keur Saloum tourist complex, where, a real luxury, we were able to tie our dinghy up to a pontoon. In town, we found an ATM, a dry cleaner, a few stores, and several restaurants. It then took us about an hour to anchor off Sipo. Since the boat was believed to be just a large mangrove by the oysters, we also had to think about cleaning it. I asked permission to beach Sumsum between two pirogues to take advantage of the low tide and scrape the hull, which had been treated with copper coat. In the evening, we gathered around a small fire to share the cake I had baked, then we chatted, sang, played games, and danced. Afterwards, we set off again for Foundiougne, an old colonial town and the shrimp capital. Our final stop on the Saloum was on the island of the Zertes of Sangomar. After two days sailing with the wind on the beam, we were back in Dakar, with its hustle and bustle, its dust, and its traffic jams. We wandered through the market to stock up on fresh provisions for the upcoming crossing to Cape Verde. We also took advantage of our stop at the CVD, the Dakar Sailing Club, to repair the engine’s water pumps, make a large stainless steel dish for the solar oven, adjust the sewing machine, do the laundry, and have a few beers with other sailors. Then we set sail to go around Gorée Island, and anchored facing the ocean, along the Cape Verde peninsula.