Just a qucik update. We are in Tanzania, the workers are unloading us as slow as possible and last night our Salt Water Recirculation Pump failed. The pump is for our boilers and now we are running on the spare. If we get under way without a spare pump we could be screwed. So needless to say, we now have no idea when we will return home.
Well, Joy and I talked the boson into letting us have some time off of the ship today during the day. It is Ramadan and by the time we get off of work everything is closed except the bars and casinos. Going to see if I can afford some Tanzanite, but I doubt I can. Captain ran out of money so our draws are being rationed now LOL.. Well I will send a more detailed African Chronicles edition soon. Take care and missing all of ya Jesse
PART 2
We departed Tanzania last Monday and are now in route to South Africa. We are headed to Cape Town and expect to anchor tomorrow morning. We believe we will get some shore time, but nothing is certain just yet.
Tanzania - and the Tanzanite Quest
East Africa has defiantly proved to be the better side of the cotenant. Unfortunately I did not get to see as much of Tanzania as I would have liked. Cab fares were a bit high (I am sure that is only the case for out of Towner's) and the cabbies..... well, here is the Tanzanite story.
Joy and I were able to secure part of the day off so we could see the town. Ramadan is observed here, so every thing but the bars, casinos and restaurants closed by 5 pm. We wanted to try to see if we could see some gem stones and jewelry since this is the only place in the world were Tanzanite can be found.
I asked our driver to take us to a store to see some Tanzanite, a place that is not too high priced in case we wanted to buy something. The cab driver tells us he is an expert on tanzanite and knows just who we should see. He drives us all over town then stops in this alley way, and says he will be right back and then he exits the car. At this point I tell Joy that he is inside arranging the annual Ramadan kidnapping. The joke didn't go over all that well.
The cabbie then returns and drives us to another location were he picks up this kid who is supposedly selling Tanzanite. The kid (probably 19 years old) is in the back seat and hands me a small box with stones in it. The driver claims this is ORIGINAL tanzanite. I examined the stones. I concluded that Original meant that the Air Bubbles i the stone were originally overlooked by the guy pouring the glass into a mold. I tell the driver that the glass is pretty, but it is not Tanzanite and we would like to go to a store to see the real stuff. So the guy in the back seat gets out and were off again.
The same thing happens all over again. Only this time its a different guy in the back seat, and the stones he has are bright red. I tell this guy.. Hey, I am no expert but I know that Tanzanite is Blue, or some times purple, but not bright red. He gave me a very confused look, then we said our good byes. So after this, Joy and I decided to hell with Tanzanite, lets go somewhere were we can pick up a souvenir. We ask the driver to take us somewhere to go shopping. But he insisted on one more stop first.
Yet another back seat tanzanite dealer. HOLY Guaquamole!!! I think this guy actually had the real McCoy! The stones were beautiful in the sun casting dazzling colors through the blue hue of the stones. I was even more sure they were real when I could not talk the guy down to 75 us dollars for 1/2 a carat. I have no idea how much good tanzanite is at home, but this guy was not budging. He had a 3 and 1/2 carat stone that he would have let go for about $250 but would go no lower than that at all. This was the 1st African I came across that would not lower the price of an item so I could afford it. That settled it. The last guy had real tanzanite!
After all of that, I still never saw any jewelry with the stones. Neither Joy nor I bought any tanzanite. But at least our cab fare was incredibly high.... I did talk the driver into reducing his fare some though LOL.
After we spent nearly 3 hours in the car, we learned we could have taken the ferry to Zanzibar, round trip would have only been 2 hours... but we missed that boat. Well, with any luck our Recirculation Pump for the ship will be ready by Tuesday in Cape Town, and then we can begin the real trip back to the states. Right now it is looking like we may be back around the 2nd or 3rd of November. That should put me at working for about 160 days straight now, with only 2 full days off and a couple of 1/2 days. I am ready for a break!!!!!!!!!
I miss you all and hope you are doing well. Jesse
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