We left Dakar around 2pm on Thursday afternoon and had a pleasant overnight sail to Banjul with light winds and calm seas. It was the unlit fishing boats which kept us on our toes for the passage - a flashing light would suddenly appear in the inky night, followed by more and within minutes we would be sailing through a whole group of them! We were so close we even exchanged greetings and could smell their dinner cooking on their burning braziers. We navigated our way to "Stop in Time" bank and through "Schooners Gap" in the dark and made our way into the Gambia River to Banjul, anchoring about 9am at Half Die(so-named because half the people died in a 1869 cholera epidemic). Banjul itself is little more than an overgrown dusty village, everything has apparently relocated to the tourist resorts further along the coast.
After 4 hours of infuriating hassle, paperwork and walking around in the heat to do our check in, we motored up to Lamin Creek. We are anchored in front of Lamin Lodge, a picturesque log cabin nestled in the mangroves. It is incredibly tranquil here, no electricity so everything shuts down at dark and there is just the sound of the river and the birds. There are a couple of Dutch boats here and Bob & Liz, whom we know, on Yanina. Today has been spent cleaning the dust off Irony (worst ever in 6 years) and Nic has had to repair our anchor winch which decided to break as we anchored in Banjul!
No comments:
Post a Comment