Nomad's Travels: Dakar Senegal

The sun was setting as the last port of call in Morocco disappeared behind us in the dust laden wind. Nomad carefully picked her way through the fishing fleet of trawlers and large canoes found off nearly every African port, many of them with out regular navigation lights. The initial course was set to get us offshore into deep water away from the fishing boats before changing course for Cap Vert. On the first night out, there were some squalls with lightning and shifting winds which caused an unplanned jibe that tore the mainsail and bent the boom gallows. This was to be the last rain Nomad would be in until reaching South America several months later as we sailed into the dry season south of the Sahara desert. With the excitement of the first night finished, the rest of the eight day sail into Dakar was uneventful. Cap Vert was passed at a respectful distance and we sailed by Gore Island and past the busy commercial port in Dakar to anchor near the CVD (Cercle de la Voile Dakar) in Plage de Hann. A boat from the navy stopped by to inspect us as we were getting ready to go ashore. When they departed we went ashore and located the club manager who gave us detailed instructions about where to clear in and set us up with a taxi driver to take us to each of the offices we needed to visit. Despite getting a late start, with the taxi drivers knowledge of where to go we managed get the multitude of forms filled out and stamped and visas put in our passports before closing time. The usual assortment of repairs required after a voyage were completed and some time was spent exploring the local area. A trip was made to the Pasteur Institute in Dakar to get yellow fever vaccine. This cost about $12 USD, considerably less than the $110 to $200 I had been quoted in USA and Canada! This was the only trip we made into Dakar other than for clearing in and out as the local markets in Plage de Hann had everything we needed without the crowds and traffic of the big city.This was our introduction to sub-Saharan Africa which was very different from Morocco. The anchorage here was reasonably quiet, but the brisk wind that came up every afternoon made rowing to and from the boat a wet workout. CVD chaged us a daily rate for the boat and per person for the use of their facilities which included internet and use of their water taxi, if you could catch it. The location was good with produce vendors just outside the gate and the big market area with fresh caught fish and a fuel pump on the beach just a short walk away. After nine days here we were ready for the overnite sail to The Gambia. We had made two trips into Dakar already so to save a few dollars we decided to walk into the city to visit the officials to clear out. The Port of Dakar is a big place and we ended up at the wrong end of it. Seeing that we were unsure of where to go , two policemen who were directing traffic motioned for us to get in their car and gave us a ride through the port to the police office that we needed to find for outward clearance. Once there, we found our way to the other offices with no problems and walked back to CVD for a late afternoon departure.