Return From Banda
With King Dom I, II and III

We came to Banda to collect our wood ^{[how we acquired the wood]}. 11 mukusu logs (squared tree stems). 10 were halved lengthwize into 20 half logs, weighing only 250 kilo.We lifted them in.

Lifting on board 20 half logs, 250 kilo each of mukusu hardwood (very similar to mahogany).

We failed to lift this 500 kg full log on board. It stayed at Banda to be cut in two half logs like the others

Binding sail at the East beach, the remainders of Dom's "Armada" waiting to become deck load

Left: Banda Viceroy Alex (the immediate past King Dom of Banda ^[more] would now still be on holiday in Europe) sold me the 3 hollow trees Roland wants his wild parrots to come and nest in

Though our deck load is essentially garbage, we could not resist naming the starboard catamaran floater "King Dom I" and the port one "King Dom II"

Left: "King Dom III" capsized and sunk after half an hour. Right: Berti mwanajeshi! , bows towed up short, the sinking shit spit most of its water back out and we gained almost normal speed.

After half an hour I told my crew I would have a nap, jokingly adding "waniseme itakapo hatari" (you tell me when there is danger). Not much later I woke up. Mashabala was shouting: "Berti! Hatari!". I stumbled up. The 505 had capsized and sunk. Towed behind the heavy canoe, once itself heavy with water it had pulled the canoe aside and filled it as well. Sail had been released, waiting for danger-Berti. Time to give a new boost to my reputation as mwanajeshi (warrior, soldier), deserved by my frequent jumping into water to save the canoe, to pull free and cut fishnets caught in keel and rudder. I jumped to connect the 505 directly to the dhow, have its nose pulled up to release the water. That worked. The 70 odd kilo plastic hull quickly left its water load behind. But the waves were too big to bail out the canoe so I pulled it up as well and accepted to keep towing the 200-odd  liters of water in the rear of its hull. I ordered full sail. This was first sabotaged because crew did not believe it would work. After some bad threats indeed they anxiously pulled, the two pieces of shit we towed lost much of its water and we gained nearly normal speed. "Berti! Mwanajeshi!!!!" Like every boy I already liked such cries at 6, later lost interest in them for a while, but at 60 they of course become again major sources of satisfaction.

20 half logs looked little on the shore, but visually fill the hold. 2.5 tons of wood however, only increases the dhow's draft with 2 inch.

Left: 11:00 AM: Southward behind the sunken King Dom III and our canoe, now bailed out, while on anchor at the Kampala bay mouth 30 km to go home, lake surface at horizon is darkened by the afternoon thermal lake wind ^[more] that will take us home. It will arrive in about an hour. Right: time to verify the dinghy type of King Dom III on Google images...yes, formerly a 505, a classical Parker 505 even (during a swim we found the serial number inside the stern panel).

Captain. As usual: silly hat, bare, very big dirty feet and cigar. New accessories: Mlawatu (the cat) and Fugawi double screen navigation (left the nautical map, right GoogleEarth in same scale with arrow for present location and direction). My old laptop refused the software but my brand new DELL latitude E5410 does the job.

Almost back home. I think it was the Japanese. They build this Gaba harbour dike, not long ago. Aid! But part of the stones were thought more useful elsewhere and loaded on the boats. Note!: this could never be done without bribing c.q. threatening into silence the entire harbour community. The harbour mafia itself, most of them official government officers and elected and appointed representative dignitaries, must have decided to dispose of the stones.

"Am I now a real commercial cargo sailor?", I asked (after all, this wood is sailed in for profit).
Charles laughed. Tanzanian dhows go down more than one meter by the weight of the wood they load, we descended 2 inches.