When South African Grant Ruffel and his Argentinian friend Gaston Bernal bought the Zanj explorer sailing yacht in Hout Bay near Cape Town in 1998, their main objective with the 20m steel ketch was to set up surf charters in Indonesia and find the “perfect waves”.
Little did the two skippers — both of them fanatic surfers and ocean lovers — know that six eventful years later they would be combing the bottom of the ocean, looking for ancient shipwrecks, lost treasures and artefacts.
As we board the Zanj for a week-long sailing trip to the island of Inhaca, just off the coast of Maputo in Mozambique, it is hard not to notice the skippers’ predilection for water sports. In every corner of the craft, water-sports gear is tucked away.
“When we bought the Zanj we wanted to use it to explore the oceans and all sports that can be practised on water. Surfing, offshore wind- and kitesurfing, extreme sea kayaking, diving, wakeboarding, spear-fishing and so on,” says Ruffel, sitting in the Zanj‘s pilot house.
In the yacht’s front storage compartment, he and Bernal have used every last bit of space to stack diving equipment, fishing spears and rods, and numerous surfboards around an air compressor that provides divers with an unlimited amount of oxygen.
In the back, more surfboards, snorkelling gear and two sea kayaks are attached to a tackle that is also used to air-lift a smaller rubber dinghy.
Sea of Zanj
Bernal, an outspoken entertainer, is in his element having an audience of 10 around him. His cooking skills and cuddly features almost immediately win him a female admirer. Leaving his homeland of Argentina has clearly proved to be a rewarding decision.
Finding the city life of Buenos Aires far too demanding, Bernal decided to sell his signwriting company in 1998 and exchange South America for the legendary seas of the Arabian nights.
It is from these waters that the yacht’s name sprung. Says Ruffel: “The name Zanj is Arabic. It derives from the time the Arabs were trading in the ocean they referred to as the ‘Lost Sea of Zanj’. It is that part of the ocean that stretches from the Maldives to Madagascar, and from the east coast of Africa all the way to the island of Réunion.”
In 1998, Ruffel and Bernal bought the two-mast Zanj in a fairly good state. However, much work needed to be done to outfit the yacht to their needs.
“We completely stripped the boat and built it up again from scratch,” says Ruffel, showing photographs of what the boat looked like when they had just bought it. “We worked on every part of the boat. I was mainly responsible for the carpeting and Gas for the mechanical and electrical part.”
When the deeply tanned and muscled skippers move about on the Zanj, one can tell they have spent many hours on the boat. While the newly arrived passengers constantly bump their heads and backs in the cramped quarters, Ruffel and Bernal move swiftly through every opening.
A good number of sea miles out, the waters get choppy. Most of the guests are now lying down on their bunks or on the deck fighting seasickness, but Ruffel and Bernal are working in the galley, preparing a hearty meal for the evening.
Back in 2003, after having invested nearly all their money to rebuild and prepare the Zanj, Bernal and Ruffel left Cape Town harbour for their first trip to Durban.
“We never sailed a long trip before, so Durban was our first destination. From there we wanted to set up surf and diving charters to Mozambique to earn a bit of money to continue sailing,” says Ruffel. “We launched in winter and we immediately hit bad weather. We had to be towed back to shore by the navy.”
Hitting bad weather was the best thing that could have happened to the sailors of the Zanj. Soon after their aborted trip, they heard that a team of marine archaeologists was looking for a survey boat. When contacted, the archaeologists — employed by the Portuguese-German company Arqueonautas, which earns its money searching the world for lost treasures — agreed to use the Zanj as a survey vessel.
Searching for treasure
In October 2003, Ruffel and Bernal set out on an archaeological expedition searching for the legendary sunken treasure of the São José, one of 126 Portuguese trade ships that disappeared beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean during the 16th century — and with them incredible riches.
Old documents stated that the São José — part of the fleet of Francisco da Gama, great-grandson of the famous explorer Vasco da Gama — was carrying nine chests loaded with silver coins when it sank to the ocean floor somewhere off the East African coast in 1622.
The archaeologists started to scan the ocean bottom near Ilha de Mozambique with a metal detector. After a seemingly endless search, they found a precious bronze cannon, one of 24 belonging to the São José.
But recovering the ship’s treasure — nine chests containing thousands of silver coins — wasn’t as simple as picking up the coins from the ocean floor. The diving team had to excavate slowly a field of debris that measured 20m by 20m, which they divided into 16 fields of 25 square metres each.
They had to remove layers of ocean-floor sediment hardened by centuries of unrelenting currents. Digging up the coins from that turned out to be a major challenge.
“We had two shifts a day of six-hour dives, during which we had to set up grids and pick up stones by touch. Picking up stones one by one without any visibility because of billowing sand was a heavy job,” says Ruffel.
“Working for Arqueonautas was like three Big Brothers in row,” says Bernal. “With 14 people on board we worked, lived, ate and slept together for up to eight months a year. In cramped quarters your social living skills were set to the ultimate test.”
But on board of the Zanj there was no time for arguments. “We had malaria and hepatitis to worry about. Sometimes sickness wiped out half the diving team,” says Ruffel. “For the ones that were capable of diving, this meant more work and more diving. At the end of the day, everyone was just too exhausted to be fighting over anything. We had to stick together.”
Almost 10 years after buying the Zanj, the skippers have made 429 archaeological dives, stayed 430 hours under water and helped make the search for the São José a great success. The team found 20 000 silver coins in fewer than four weeks, a discovery worth R8-million.
Rough life
After not sleeping for several days and battling sickness and 17-knot winds, the two skippers sometimes wish they were in the middle of the desert rather that at sea. “But the constant discovery of new places, people and cultures and the experience of diving with manta rays, swimming with dolphins and finding treasures mean that there are so much more pluses than minuses. There is just no time to get bored,” Ruffel says.
Adds Bernal: “Also, on a boat you have so much more time for your personal happiness. While we never hear birds at sea, I sometimes row in my kayak into the mangroves of an island and I just lay there for hours and hours, listening to the sound of the birds.”
Spending time with such freedom-loving individuals is a memorable experience. Because of their easygoing nature and seafaring expertise, a week on the Zanj is just too short. After some great diving, water skiing, exploring the Mozambican islands and having discussions underneath a star-lit sky, we experience our first hardship on the Zanj: saying goodbye.
For now, Bernal and Ruffel are back to setting up surf and diving charters off the East African coast. Their ultimate goal remains to set sail for Indonesia. However, when exploring the oceans, plans and goals change constantly.
“Right now, we are running a couple of day charters up the river off Maputo and after that we are heading back to Durban, preparing the boat for a group of people who want to go surfing along the coast of Madagascar,” says Bernal.
“As long as a crew provides us with fuel and food, and we can make a little extra for the maintenance of the boat, we set sail to any destination. And hopefully one of our next journeys takes us a little bit closer to Indonesia.”
On the net
Zanjexplorer.com