Low Tide

I’m a couple of days into training already.  Unfortunately there is not a lot around here to photograph, and we’ve been warned about walking too far from the hotel with anything valuable on or with us.  Too bad, though I may go to the shopping area to show you what that’s like.  The fortunate thing is that in one direction, the place is beautiful and is constantly changing.  Which is difficult at times because our classroom looks right out into the inlet formed by the Msasani Peninsula.  
 

Yesterday morning when I walked out to class, it was low tide.  Much different than when it’s full of water.

Boats get stranded and just lean over.  People walk out in the water to their boats.  I even watched some folks fishing standing chest deep in the water.  Others come in, anchor their boat and walk the rest of the way into shore.  And by late afternoon the tide comes back in and you can see the water steadily rising.  It’s very interesting.  Everything at first glance seems to stand still, but as you watch, things change, anchored boats change with the direction of the wind or tide, people come and go, and in reality it's all constantly changing. 

So this morning I grabbed a camera and went out onto the hotel patio and took a few shots of the low tide area, and of the morning activity.

It’s interesting to watch some of the night fishing boats come in, and the morning fishermen leaving.  I think most interesting are the dhows.  They push/paddle/motor the boat a few hundred feet away from other boats and then unfurl their sails.  When the wind catches them, they form this beautiful arc.  It’s hard to imagine that folks sail these things well out into the ocean to fish, but they do.  I guess even stranger are the guys who come out of nowhere in a dugout canoe.

Last evening I went to dinner at a waterfront restaurant, wondering if I should have brought my cameras.  No worries because the sunset wasn’t much - clouds had come in and the sun got obscured well before the color of the light changed.  Today was different.  After class a few of us went for a walk.  As we got back to the hotel I realized that the sun was setting and it was going to be, if not spectacular, pretty darned nice.  This is the view of the dock that extends from the back of the hotel property.

Not a bad place to study, you think?