Category: Mozambique

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Cyclone Dineo: Message from Lalaland in Tofo, Inhambane

Cyclone Dineo: Message from Lalaland in Tofo, Inhambane

Some of you may know that southern Mozambique just sustained a direct hit from Severe Tropical Cyclone Dineo. The majority of the southern coastline has sustained unbelievable damage and entire communities have been physically erased. Many in these communities have lost literally everything they owned: homes, crops, and livestock, and livelihood. Everything.
There will be no Big Government swooping in to save them. No international movie stars will rally to their cause or help them feed their families and rebuild their homes. No catchy Top 40 song about it will grace your radio waves. To the outside world, African tragedy is just not news.


Literally all they have left is their sense of community, which is absolutely unbreakable. Its the kind of community that most better-off people with lots of material wealth will simply never know. It’s also the exact reason that for almost 10 years, Corinna Heidi and myself have been very proud to call Mozambique home. It is a beautiful, friendly place full of beautiful, friendly, hard working people and they need your help.


Please consider doing just that. It’s impossible to describe how far the smallest contribution can go in this part of the world. Thanks.

Chad Leavitt and Corinna Heidi

Contact Chad and Heidi through http://lalalandafrica.com or buzz me on umzimkulu@gmail.com if you would like to assist in ANY way.

 

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Cyclone Dineo damage count

Cyclone Dineo damage count

The Cyclone Dineo damage count is really bad for the local population, many of whom live in reed and grass houses. And on exposed islands and wetlands. The lodge owners and better off population in stronger houses held out far better.

The technique of building rooves to go, on top of sturdy ironwood frames, worked really well in application. The roof blows off leaving the structure intact. Houses built in valleys or behind the primary dune, were relatively unscathed.

Four fatalities have been reported in so far.

Hats off to Kevin Pitzer of Construa Inhambane, who had this to say…

“Construa/ Built it are saddened to learn of the devastation within Inhambane province owing to the huge damage caused by Cyclone Dineo which made landfall yesterday pm. We are currently investigating discounted pricing to victims of which lately the liquidity of individuals in Mozambique has been extremely low. We understand the damage did not choose against wealth of poverty where we would like to go further and offer an emergency line to the impoverished people who have very little income so that they may at least replace what little shelter they had. Should anyone wish to join us in this iniative we intend to accept donations to assist in subsidising replacement materials at our own already discounted pricing where we intend put teams on the ground in conjunction with our local Ministry of Finance where after damage and individual status of affordability is assessed the victims can access replacement materials. Construa/Build it has outlets in all the major effected areas and is a legal and honourable and accepted Mozambican National Buiders Merchant brand. My initial and personal contribution will be MT 1 million where I believe many small helping hands can go a long way to make one big helping hand.Should any person or company wish to participate in this endeavour please inbox me personally or drop a mail to Dineo.victim@construa.co.mz of which will be operational as of 08.30 this morning.”

Hats right off!

 

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Blue Marlin Bazaruto

Blue Marlin Bazaruto. The Sardine News Travel Agency can get you out there

Blue Marlin Bazaruto

Blue Marlin Bazaruto action has been on the rise year after year…according to Captain Duarte Rato. And Duarte is being supported by many other regular marlin chasers up and down the East Coast of Africa. And even down into the Cape.

Duarte fishes out of Vilankulos and Bazaruto each season – and has noted a rise in both the size and frequency of the blue marlin being encountered, especially this time of the year. It’s weird how each billfish species seems to have their own month or so, with which to frequent a given area.

It’s the Striped Marlin who next move in shallow to terrorise shoals of unsuspecting baitfish congregations on our East Coast of Africa. Who invites them and how you get on the invite list is still a mystery!

Check out the full story on http://fishbazaruto.com. Click on Captain’s Log and read the latest stories Duarte has posted (he documents each and every trip he takes), right back to 2010!

Cheers Duarte, for getting that really compilation of pics and facts together.

Keep it coming Captain!

Click this link for the full story…

http://fishbazaruto.com/2017/02/15/blue-marlin-mozambique-africas-east-coast/

 

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Cyclone DINEO is here

Cyclone DINEO

Cyclone DINEO is here

Cyclone DINEO will very likely hit Inhambane and surrounds, head on. Tomorrow?!

Winds were predicted as low as 120 to 140 kmh, but this is all changing fast as the tropical storm eagerly upgrades itself. It’s winds tomorrow are now being shouted about at up to 200kmh.

So it’s all very serious if you live there, or are holidaying there now.

Signs of the trouble permeated an otherwise lovely summers day in Vilanculos, as deep dark clouds started to form up and move in, reported by Carlos Carvalhos of MozInfo.

The weather in Natal is glorious today – the odd shower, that’s it.

We will endeavour for more photos and news updates, as the next 24 hours progresses.

Stay posted.

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Maputo to Pomene by sea…there and back

Captain Sean A. Lange at the helm in Maputo to Pomene mission

Maputo to Pomene by sea…there and back

Yeboooo, we managed to get in a cool job from a secret organisation, late last year, to take a huge landing craft Maputo to Pomene…there and back.

The secrecy of the mission still is of international importance, so all we can do is show and narrate the trip to you, with this short movie.

The Sardine Charters and Chandling have been pulling off clandestine missions like this aplenty over the last few decades, in Mozambique and around Southern Africa. We put together highly trained and disciplined crews to take all sorts of crazy missions, involving long duration at sea, and being flung into hard-core survival threatening conditions, as we were on our return trip.

Click here to read all about that tragic evening…40 lives lost in Maputo, many of them drowned at sea. We did what we could to help, but with an exhausted crew and pitch darkness to work in, it wasn’t much.

But as you can see from the video, most of it is just plain sailing at full speed alongside huge 4 to 5 metre swells, often times breaking on our outside, we had to weave our way through sandbanks and huge waves. The twin turbo, duo prop Volvo Pentas gave us 660 hp to throw the 16.5m semi-displacement aluminium hull around. It’s as maneuvrable as a ski-boat and the acceleration is immense, to the point of being dangerous. The landing craft can take 90 people with their equipment.

For more information on The Sardine Charters and Chandling operations and availability, pls contact Sean on umzimkulu@gmail.com or call +27 79 326 9671, or click here.