Sailing the trade winds

A dhows are traditional Arab sailing vessels. They usually have one or two lateen sails. They are used along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, India, and East Africa. A larger dhows of up to 500 tonnes can have crews of up to 30. The smaller fishing dhows have about12 crew.

Dhows are mostly motorized these days, but some of them still trade between Duabi, Muscat and Yemen all the way to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, almost 4,000 km away. They’ve been using the seasonal monsoon winds for almost a thousand years, traditionally trading dates and carpets from te middle east with spices, mangrove trunks and slaves from Africa. These days the cargo is more mundane – plastic buckets, toys from china, electronics from Korea.

But that does not explain how beautiful they are. The first time I saw a dhow was on Lake Victoria, late in the afternoon. Two dhows came past the ferry I was on, their sails raggedy patches of bed sheets, laden with fruit and people to within 6 inches of sinking. But they were so beautiful. I still take photos of them whenever I can.