Tej, Isiaiah, Noah and I wanted to get out fishing on the Indian Ocean. There was several tries to get out on the water; all of which were options that fell through. We contacted a guide/owner of a group of boats and he said that due to the short notice there was nothing he could do. The funny part of meeting this guide was that he also owned an Irish pub here in Tanzania (called “The Irish Pub” apparently there is only one). I felt right at home due to the fact that I am in the business of building Irish pubs, and yes it was surprisingly similar to the ones back home. So it came back to counting on the locals to find us an option. After a couple of calls by Marg and Tej there was a possibility of getting out on Sunday morning. By Saturday night we were going to be getting a call on Sunday morning letting us know if this option was going to work. So sure enough at 0800 we got the call from Tej’s friend and we had a boat and guides for the day; at a very reasonable price of $500.00 US. We were off to Slipway Marina to meet up and get out there on the water. All was going great, we arrived hopped in little skiff and made our way out to the boat. It was a beautiful forty five’ish foot sail boat. Not the best to fish off of, but it was out on the water and I must say that the teak wood work on the boat was nice to see.
It was only a couple of minutes out of the harbour when we realized that there was only one fishing rod. Maybe the guides thought that they were the only ones that were going to fish! After a painfully long and annoying conversation we turned around called the day off and made our way back to port. As we had just turned around Tej received a phone call from his friend and he tried to communicate better (he knew Swahili) with the guide. After another painful conversation we realized that they were planning on getting two more rods from another boat out on the water. So what do you say we turn around, again and try this one more time?
Rods in hand we were off towards the middle of the ocean. About one hour in we were starting to wonder when we were going to be fishing. So Tej asked and they said “now, why not, we have been waiting an hour.” Thanks for letting us know!!! No fish and four hours of trolling later we asked if we could do some bottom fishing and they said sure. We made our way to a shallower sand bar tried our luck. Did I mention that there was only three rods total? Oh ya and they were old and waaaayyyy to big for this type of fishing. So their option was to just grab a spool of lighter line and do a little hand jigging! After watching them setup their own rigs I setup rigs for us and we were now fishing.
The best part of doing the bottom fishing was that we had the boat to ourselves. No guides, no other people making noise, no music, no guides??! Yes I am serious, they went down in the cabin and had a sleep for a couple hours!! So I eventually said to Tej “let’s call it a day.” We started to make our way back to the marina and one of the guides asked me to take the wheel. So I did, I like boats and have driven them before so it was no big deal. The one thing that was a little weird was that after they had set the front sail they stayed up front and had another nap! I have never driven/sailed a sailboat before so it was a little bit of a learning curve for me. Back at dock safe and sound (they took over the driving for the last part) we owed them the other three hundred, which we withheld before. Needless to say we were not impressed with the overall day. With the most painful and annoying conversation of the day done and behind us we gave them two hundred more and that was it!!
I know that you may say that we should have given them the full amount and just not tipped them, but let me say this “ would you pay full price for a limousine with three tires that you would have to drive yourself?”
I did have great time out seeing the islands off of the coast and seeing the colors on the five small fish we did get. It was great see the beautiful blue/green waters in this hot tropical climate. It was just a little hard to focus in it in this shadow of the other down falls of the day!
Hoping that our next big travel goes better (and I don’t have to drive)we are off to Thailand through Dubai tonight. Two weeks of hot sun, and sand and cool rainforests and water here we come. Eric.
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