Lamu to Jade Sea

We cast off from Tenewe at 8am, having reversed the boat rolling proceedure, which again worked well but could be a struggle with just 2 people: Then a gentle sail in to Lamu, with our boat on a mooring at Shela. The main thing is, we've done it! Not just the 220km sail but the whole 1,800km of our journey, "Lamu to the Jade Sea". We may have got the order slightly wrong and we did it spread out over the year, but that is just how it turned out. We also learnt that its impossible to drive our boat to the East side of Turkana; so another day, we may try to go for a sail from the Western shore. We are still very good friends and never managed to have a disagreement. We loved doing the walks with Emma and Catherine (and Sandy and Tim too). And so many thanks to Emma and Catherine for all their support and putting up with the whole mad escapade! The main thing is, we had great fun and saw amazing parts of Kenya and met many of its great peo

"Kenya's Bay of Biscay" for sailors: windy, waves that come in from hundreds of miles and very limited ports of refuge. We had both treated this section with a high degree of trepidation, and put it off 2 weeks ago, as the sea was still too rough.  Last night, we realised we had an unexpected problem: light winds were forecast so could we make the 100km before nightfall? That meant up at 5am, a quick breakfast and we weighed anchor at 6am, just after first light.  After 90 mins we passed Ras Ngomeni, the final headland and into the Bay. We had decided to go for the most direct route, straight across and then pass outside Ziwayiu Islands in the North. The day grew hotter and we were dousing ourselves with sea water. The boat is very impressive in the light airs, plugging away at a steady 9 or 10 kilometres an hour. We were on a reach (wind from the side) and could just fly the spinnaker, which we had up nearly all day. Around midday we could not see any land at

We woke up this morning to rain, removing all hope of wind ... but that soon cleared. However, that was only the start of our issues, as the electric motor (one of Tom's great ideas) packed up. No amout of WD40 in the plugs would coax her into action.  Out with the oars! But we still had 15 minutes of foul tide so that didn't work, especially as we could not keep even with each other. Sails up! Beating for 45 mins out of Mida Creek. We lost concentration, thinking of the high tide and touched a hidden part of the reef. Luckily we got off lightly. A clear reach up to Malindi where we kept 2km off the outer reef. The seas got very confused and we later learnt this is called The Boiling Pot for good reason. But then we turned north and got the spinnaker up. Surfing down the waves at up to 9.5  knots (c.18 kmph). The Mousehole Cat is performing admirably! Although it's like having an extra person on board with 45kg of water, engine, anchor and camping kit for tomorr

1st November 2022. Here we are, the sailing. Keeping the best until last. We missed the wind at the beginning of the year and so we are now sailing from South to North instead, hopefully catching the last of the Kusi wind from the South East. We were waved off from the beach by the Fevre family having packed a lot of kit, including 50 litres of water into our boat, The Mousehole Cat. She is a very fine Wayfarer, which is a 16ft dinghy. We set off upwind, as from Kilifi you have to go South East first, to get through the "mlango" or gate in the reef. Then it was bear away, turn left, spinnaker up and head for Watamu, some 25 miles / 40 km away. We are fully covered up for the sun. The wind was gentle and the tuna fish were busy, leaping about amongst the seaguls. Coming in to Watamu Creek was all about preparation: Tom had an exact route to get through the channel on the GPS. Sails down, electric motor on. You can get an idea of how shallow