On 15 November 2023, the training moved out of the classroom and into the water. Four speedboats, four teams, one goal: try the survey routine on real waves before heading south for the real thing.
How the day was organised
The team gathered at Kunduchi landing site on the Dar es Salaam coast. They were split into four groups, one per boat. Each group had a supervisor with field experience, smartphones for navigating to the sampling points, and the small camera setup for taking pictures of the seabed.
What the teams practised
At each point, the teams went through the same routine they had learned in the classroom the day before: find the point with GPS, write down the exact position, measure the depth, and lower the camera. Doing it on a moving boat is very different from doing it on a desk, and that was the whole point of the day.
Supervisors stayed close, answered questions, and helped fix small problems as they came up - a loose rope here, a phone running low on battery there.
Why a trial run matters
The real survey will cover thousands of points along the southern coast. If something is going to slow the teams down, it is much better to find out in a practice run near Dar than three hours offshore from Kilwa. By the end of the day, every team had been through the full routine and knew what worked and what needed sharpening.