Saturday, January 10th, 2009
I’m sitting in the courtyard of the Hotel La Poste in St Louis, Senegal. This is the oldest hotel in St Louis.
The courtyard is in the center of 4 stories and has palm trees in it, very nice.
The trip here was quite the adventure. It took 4.5 hours in a small station wagon that held 7 people and the
driver. In order to get this car we had to go to the main transport hub, which is a large parking lot filled
with cars, vans, buses and lorries. None of them will leave until they are full so buses don’t run on any
regular schedule and are packed with guys even riding on the back bumpers. We managed to get this car
so we didn’t have to wait which was good. Of course everybody needed to get a cut before we could even
get out of the parking lot. That poor driver must have paid 5000 francs just to get on the road.
The road was in pretty good shape but getting out of Dakar took an hour and a half in stop and go traffic.
The traffic jam was swarmed by people selling everything from oranges to inflatable beach balls and
sunglasses. It’s a kind of slow moving market.
Once out in the country we were moving along pretty well.
The towns along the road all pretty much look the same, dusty and half built, half destroyed cinder block
buildings. Each one also has a drift of garbage surrounding it. Blue plastic seem to be the most obvious but
it looks like most of it is plastic, the smell is awful.
St Louis is a much lower key place than Dakar and definitely shows more of the French Colonial
architecture. The people are less pushy and they seem to speak more english but they still all seem to have
an angle of some sort.
Tomorrow we are heading even further North to the National Park so with any luck I’ll be able to get
some pics posted before we head back.
The current plan has the ship leaving for Cape Verde on Monday sometime and the trip should take 3-4
days.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
P.S. It is now 9:00pm on Sunday night and we finally made it back to Dakar after a 6 hour drive back. We
went to the National Park this morning and that was pretty cool. The park is setup to protect wildfowl
primarily.
There are a set of waterways and lakes behind a series of dikes that have been used to keep the sea out and allow the rains to wash out thensalt from the soil. It is a major Pelican rookery. We also saw many
different kinds of birds, Egrets, Storks, Ibis, Ducks, Spoonbills, Eagles, Cormorants and Terns. I’ll try to
post some pics before I head back to the ship on the 11:00pm skiff run.
Next stop Cape Verde in a few days.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
The pictures of the new Dory paint job and my trip to St Louis are here.
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Atlantic Rollers
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Dory painting fun Jan 8-9,09
Saturday, January 10th, 2009
The Captain has decided that we will not be going to Gambia as the strong Northerly winds will make it a
tough slog to get up to Cape Verde. This means that we will be in Senegal for another 4 days. It also means
I get another two days ashore. A bunch of us are planning to head out of Dakar into the countryside,
maybe up North to the city of Saint Louis which is near the National Park and sounds interesting.
I spent the day today sanding and painting the 18′ Dory that we have had stowed on the top of the galley
since Lunenberg. It originally was buff coloured with green trim but now it is considerably more brightly
coloured.
The outside is hot pink, red and sky blue and the interior is yellow a kind of light olive green, blue and red.
They say this is to get her ready for the Caribbean…yah man!
We will also we setting up her rig so she can be sailed, which will be interesting to play with.
There are several of the crew with various ailments at the moment. Some are flu like others seem to be
food poisoning. So far I’ve managed to avoid both so fingers crossed I will continue to do so.
I’m reading a very interesting scholarly treatise on the merchant seaman’s world in the seventeenth to
eighteenth centuries. It mostly talks about the seaman as a “free wage” agent but by putting his labours
into the overall economic context and the unique environment in which the seaman lived and worked, he
shows how the culture, superstitions and customs of the sea came to be formalized as much as they were.
The book is “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” Merchant Seamen ,Pirates and the Anglo-
American Maritime World, 1700-1750 by Marcus Rediker. If anyone is interested
More later…
It’s now evening of Friday the 9th of January 2009. Still odd to write that year out.
We will be off for the next two days so the big debate is what to do. I think the consensus is to try and get
out of Dakar and see the countryside. The issue is how. Apparently the trains no longer runt to the second
largest city, St Louis, which was one possibility. so who knows.
I’ll let you all know how we make out.
Please keep reading for more.
KJ
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
The Captain has decided that we will not be going to Gambia as the strong Northerly winds will make it a
tough slog to get up to Cape Verde. This means that we will be in Senegal for another 4 days. It also means
I get another two days ashore. A bunch of us are planning to head out of Dakar into the countryside,
maybe up North to the city of Saint Louis which is near the National Park and sounds interesting.
I spent the day today sanding and painting the 18′ Dory that we have had stowed on the top of the galley
since Lunenberg. It originally was buff coloured with green trim but now it is considerably more brightly
coloured.
The outside is hot pink, red and sky blue and the interior is yellow a kind of light olive green, blue and red.
They say this is to get her ready for the Caribbean…yah man!
We will also we setting up her rig so she can be sailed, which will be interesting to play with.
There are several of the crew with various ailments at the moment. Some are flu like others seem to be
food poisoning. So far I’ve managed to avoid both so fingers crossed I will continue to do so.
I’m reading a very interesting scholarly treatise on the merchant seaman’s world in the seventeenth to
eighteenth centuries. It mostly talks about the seaman as a “free wage” agent but by putting his labours
into the overall economic context and the unique environment in which the seaman lived and worked, he
shows how the culture, superstitions and customs of the sea came to be formalized as much as they were.
The book is “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” Merchant Seamen ,Pirates and the Anglo-
American Maritime World, 1700-1750 by Marcus Rediker. If anyone is interested
More later…
It’s now evening of Friday the 9th of January 2009. Still odd to write that year out.
We will be off for the next two days so the big debate is what to do. I think the consensus is to try and get
out of Dakar and see the countryside. The issue is how. Apparently the trains no longer runt to the second
largest city, St Louis, which was one possibility. so who knows.
I’ll let you all know how we make out.
Please keep reading for more.
KJ
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Goree Island Senegal Jan 7,09
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
Went ashore yesterday on the first skiff run.
Went into town to a very nice hotel, the F’aidherbe, and got a room to use for the night. Then after doing
the obligatory internet updates :-) we headed out to take the ferry over to Goree island.
This island off of Dakar was the original capital of French West Africa, it was also the largest slave
transport center in West Africa. It has along and bloody history. Originally occupied by the Portuguese,
then the Dutch, the English and finally the French. For 300 years it was the main point for sorting and
shipping “black ivory” to the New World. In all nearly 20 million men and women passed through this
little island. Of these 6 million or so died by disease, malnutrition or harsh treatment.
In the “Slave House” on the island there is a small doorway that opens out onto the sea it is called the
“door of no return” once a slave passed through that door they never returned. They were either loaded
onto ships for tranport or tied and tossed into the shark filled waters for disposal, if they were sick or
undersized! The other name for this island in slave times was “shark island”.
It is a moving and horrifying place.
There is also a big fort built by the French after slavery was abolished and the area became a colony of
France. It is a massive structure with huge guns. In 1960 when Senegal became independent the French
destroyed the fort (nice of them huh). The biggest set of guns are still in their position looking out over the
sea although the barrels and mechanisms are destroyed.
Interestingly they were only ever fired once and that was at a British merchant ship just offshore during
WWII. It seems the French were worried that the Brits were going to try and take the island from the
French after France fell to the Germans. The British ship was sunk and is marked by a buoy. Every ferry
that comes into Goree needs to make a swing around the wreck.
The island has many baobab trees. These trees can live for a thousand years and grow with trunks almost
9 meters across. They store water when it rains. Big ones can hold almost 100,000 liters of water.
By the time we got back it was rush hour! Amazing that anyone would want to drive here but they sure
seem to move along.
There are pictures from my trip to the island here.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Went ashore yesterday on the first skiff run.
Went into town to a very nice hotel, the F’aidherbe, and got a room to use for the night. Then after doing
the obligatory internet updates :-) we headed out to take the ferry over to Goree island.
This island off of Dakar was the original capital of French West Africa, it was also the largest slave
transport center in West Africa. It has along and bloody history. Originally occupied by the Portuguese,
then the Dutch, the English and finally the French. For 300 years it was the main point for sorting and
shipping “black ivory” to the New World. In all nearly 20 million men and women passed through this
little island. Of these 6 million or so died by disease, malnutrition or harsh treatment.
In the “Slave House” on the island there is a small doorway that opens out onto the sea it is called the
“door of no return” once a slave passed through that door they never returned. They were either loaded
onto ships for tranport or tied and tossed into the shark filled waters for disposal, if they were sick or
undersized! The other name for this island in slave times was “shark island”.
It is a moving and horrifying place.
There is also a big fort built by the French after slavery was abolished and the area became a colony of
France. It is a massive structure with huge guns. In 1960 when Senegal became independent the French
destroyed the fort (nice of them huh). The biggest set of guns are still in their position looking out over the
sea although the barrels and mechanisms are destroyed.
Interestingly they were only ever fired once and that was at a British merchant ship just offshore during
WWII. It seems the French were worried that the Brits were going to try and take the island from the
French after France fell to the Germans. The British ship was sunk and is marked by a buoy. Every ferry
that comes into Goree needs to make a swing around the wreck.
The island has many baobab trees. These trees can live for a thousand years and grow with trunks almost
9 meters across. They store water when it rains. Big ones can hold almost 100,000 liters of water.
By the time we got back it was rush hour! Amazing that anyone would want to drive here but they sure
seem to move along.
There are pictures from my trip to the island here.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Ashore in Dakar Senegal Jan 3,09
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
I’m ashore at the CVD Yacht club in Dakar Senegal on the West Coast of Africa.
We came ashore on the first skiff run of the day. The plan, such as it is, will be to do internet for a couple
of hours then send the laptops back to the ship so we can explore the city unencumbered by backpacks.
The “yacht club” is a nicely setup small compound right on the beach with lots of exotic birds singing and
WiFi. which hopefully I can get to work.
The first watch went ashore yesterday after we cleared in. They had some “interesting” things to say
about the town. Pickpockets and scam artists being the biggest issues. So we’ll see.
Later…
Just got back from a day in the frenetic metropolis of Dakar.
It is definitely a “much of a muchness” kind of place. The people are friendly but fairly aggressive. The
city itself is in a state of permanent disrepair. It is difficult to tell whether any given bit is being destroyed,
built or just being allowed to rot and fall down on it’s own. Any place of interest or beauty has high fences
and well armed guards. We had a guide and a taxi hired for the day which really helped.
We went to a market and went past a couple of fancy buildings like banks and government buildings. Then our guide took us to a very expensive hotel, the Meridian President, which seemed to be built in honour of
the Saudi King. The contrast was actually hard to look at. They wouldn’t allow the rattletrap of a cab we
had to even park in their parking lot.
I’m hoping to get some pictures uploaded before we leave here but not sure when that will be. The
Internet access at the yacht club was spotty and I was not able to get connected properly on my laptop.
More when I get back online on Tuesday.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Here are pictures of my first day ashore in Senegal.
Posted in Ashore | No Comments »
I’m ashore at the CVD Yacht club in Dakar Senegal on the West Coast of Africa.
We came ashore on the first skiff run of the day. The plan, such as it is, will be to do internet for a couple
of hours then send the laptops back to the ship so we can explore the city unencumbered by backpacks.
The “yacht club” is a nicely setup small compound right on the beach with lots of exotic birds singing and
WiFi. which hopefully I can get to work.
The first watch went ashore yesterday after we cleared in. They had some “interesting” things to say
about the town. Pickpockets and scam artists being the biggest issues. So we’ll see.
Later…
Just got back from a day in the frenetic metropolis of Dakar.
It is definitely a “much of a muchness” kind of place. The people are friendly but fairly aggressive. The
city itself is in a state of permanent disrepair. It is difficult to tell whether any given bit is being destroyed,
built or just being allowed to rot and fall down on it’s own. Any place of interest or beauty has high fences
and well armed guards. We had a guide and a taxi hired for the day which really helped.
We went to a market and went past a couple of fancy buildings like banks and government buildings. Then our guide took us to a very expensive hotel, the Meridian President, which seemed to be built in honour of
the Saudi King. The contrast was actually hard to look at. They wouldn’t allow the rattletrap of a cab we
had to even park in their parking lot.
I’m hoping to get some pictures uploaded before we leave here but not sure when that will be. The
Internet access at the yacht club was spotty and I was not able to get connected properly on my laptop.
More when I get back online on Tuesday.
Thanks for reading.
KJ
Here are pictures of my first day ashore in Senegal.
Posted in Ashore | No Comments »
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Dakar Senegal Jan 1, 09
Thur Jan 1, 09
We arrived in Dakar around 4:00pm this afternoon after an uneventful day sailing down the coast. Heard
my first real “Laaaaannndd Hoooo” which was pretty cool.
Dakar is a big bustling smoggy/hazy city of 2.5 million. We will be here for about 6 days and we are again
using the two watch system. I have to work tomorrow but will go ashore on Saturday to scope out the
Internet situation
Thanks for reading.
KJ
We arrived in Dakar around 4:00pm this afternoon after an uneventful day sailing down the coast. Heard
my first real “Laaaaannndd Hoooo” which was pretty cool.
Dakar is a big bustling smoggy/hazy city of 2.5 million. We will be here for about 6 days and we are again
using the two watch system. I have to work tomorrow but will go ashore on Saturday to scope out the
Internet situation
Thanks for reading.
KJ
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