Expert: Ernest Tufft - 2/16/2008

Question
I am wondering if it is possible to travel by boat from the USA to Africa.How do I go about it? What are the prices?Thank-you for your answer to my questions.
Rachel

Answer
I'm not familiar with any cruise ship adventures going from the USA to any port in Africa.  East and South Africa, where the majority of the continent's tourism is located are quite remote from any USA port.  Nor have I ever heard of any cruises that stop at the West African ports.  The interest in sailing between the USA and Africa should certainly exist among those interested in learning about the old slave trade, and so there may be some special charter ship opportunities expressing this theme, but I have no information about such opportunities.  It's also possible that some cargo ships travel between the USA and Africa, but  to my knowledge, most such shipping more regularly travels between ports in Africa and Europe before transfer to ships destine for the port of Newark or New Orleans.

Having said all that, there are nevertheless many offshore boating opportunities in West Africa.  During our trip to Ghana, for example, we visited the fishing village of Winneba, where large handmade plank sailing boats were pushed off the beach.  I have also been in piroges on the Volta River and other inland waters of Ghana and Burkina Faso.  These adventures can be appreciated more fully at virtualtourist.com, using these destinations are the keywords during your search.  My membername is atufft.

Sorry I can't be of more help.