Last night in Senegal
I know the saying goes that even the longest journey starts with just one small step but this is ridiculous! Eight hours sailing and only twenty miserable miles covered. Beating North over the shallows towards Senegal, our starboard tack takes us South of West, and as the day wears on and the wind increases we are pounding into short sharp water which puckers across the surface of the reefs hiding beneath. The sun hangs ominously a hand's width above the greying horizon and we decide to cut our losses. We execute a swift and nerve wracking jibe (the wind is hitting the high twenties and the water is less than 2 metres beneath us). Just before we lose the light we shelter behind a thin spit of sand which falls away quickly, giving us 4 metres to anchor in. The wind continues to howl and the water slaps our underbelly all night long. By morning everything is quiet. Our only companions are the many egrets who shuffle together across the sand and every now and then stretch out their wings, akwardly, as if to help them dry.
The sailing is pleasant today, with a flat sea and a light wind. We tack out, looking for the buoyed channel below Pointe de Sangomar. This will direct us North, between a large sand bar and the white sandy coast of Senegal, to our next anchorage at Dionouar. We see the buoys but they appear to lie in very peculiar places. It just doesn't feel right as we approach - too shallow to start with, there are two green buoys that are strangely close to eachother and, alarmingly, a red marker lies on its side, awash in the island's surf. With haste we douse the main and fire up the engine. I climb to the first spreaders and see clearly, for the first time, the wide channel that awaits us beyond the sandy spit. Ignore the buoys, keep calm and carry on. Just as we enter the channel the tide turns against us so we anchor for a while. A classically beautiful spot: white sand, turquoise water, no-one around. We had time to relax and explore the beach on foot - lots of jellyfish, some the circumference of dustbin lids, pretty shells and birds everywhere. The tide turned again and, amazingly, we were able to sail back to our first anchorage in Africa. It's from here that I am writing now, with an internet connection in the middle of a small creek. At Delta Niominka, 80 miles South of Dakar, we will wait for our weather window.
The sailing is pleasant today, with a flat sea and a light wind. We tack out, looking for the buoyed channel below Pointe de Sangomar. This will direct us North, between a large sand bar and the white sandy coast of Senegal, to our next anchorage at Dionouar. We see the buoys but they appear to lie in very peculiar places. It just doesn't feel right as we approach - too shallow to start with, there are two green buoys that are strangely close to eachother and, alarmingly, a red marker lies on its side, awash in the island's surf. With haste we douse the main and fire up the engine. I climb to the first spreaders and see clearly, for the first time, the wide channel that awaits us beyond the sandy spit. Ignore the buoys, keep calm and carry on. Just as we enter the channel the tide turns against us so we anchor for a while. A classically beautiful spot: white sand, turquoise water, no-one around. We had time to relax and explore the beach on foot - lots of jellyfish, some the circumference of dustbin lids, pretty shells and birds everywhere. The tide turned again and, amazingly, we were able to sail back to our first anchorage in Africa. It's from here that I am writing now, with an internet connection in the middle of a small creek. At Delta Niominka, 80 miles South of Dakar, we will wait for our weather window.
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