Hi Everyone,
We did manage to leave on time from Aden. Our plan was to arrive at the Straits of Bab el Mandeb at dawn, which is supposed to be the quietest time to pass into the Red Sea. In Arabic it means Gate of Tears and believe me a lot of people have been in tears passing through. We were lucky and had a fairly quite time. The wind and tide were with us and so shot through like a bullet. Our luck did not hold for long as later that day the wind started to pick up and at one time reached 35 knots. The only saving grace was that it was from behind. Nevertheless it did whip up large uncomfortable seas that carried on through the night. We were in company with 'Orca Joss' and at 2 in the morning they had had enough and reached off to an anchorage called Mersa Dudo. Although this gave them shelter from the waves it was an acceleration zone and they had 40 knots for 2 days. We carried on through the night and the wind finally subsided and we found a little island to hide behind for the following night. Because the winds were forecast to stay from the south we carried on the next day to Adjuz Island again just for the night then on to Port Symth.
Up to now the clarity of the water was a bit disappointing but on entering Port Smyth we were impressed. This anchorage is a narrow entrance between the reefs with a low-lying island to the East to give almost all round protection. The wind was predicted to go to the north for a few days so it gave us a perfect excuse to rest for a while. The island itself was uninhabited but fishermen use it for resting. It was once military owned with derelict buildings and an old lighthouse with out a bulb (I know because I climbed to the top). We walked a large part of the island, which was mainly scrub grass and sand, but it was good to get off the boat. While snorkelling at the pass through the reef we found the coral and fish to be the best we have seen anywhere. We also noticed that the water temperature was not quite as warm as we had become use to! The island belonged to Eritrea and some officials in a motorboat visited us. All the yachts said we would be going to Massawa on the main land to check-in in a few days. In fact only 2 of 9 yachts did. Several reasons, the main one being that they will not allow you to anchor in the harbour, as in the past, but make you tie up to a wall and charge you 15USD a night. With info from previous cruisers that have called there, many boats have been damaged so now most don't go there. The officials seem to think that by charging us to stay they get more money, forgetting how much we spent in the towns on food and fuel. So now instead of 100 boats stopping there over the season they get 10.
'Orca Joss' caught up with us up at Port Smyth and we left together for a small island 30 miles further on. This was to be just an overnight stop but on leaving the next morning at daybreak and after 5 miles the wind was from the north and we were not making good progress so turned back. Now the previous night Clive had noticed a fishing boat that seamed to be stalking us and anchored about 1 mile from us. Orca Joss said that when we left the fishermen were waving a shirt but Orca Joss just waved back. As soon as we dropped anchor again the boat came along side and asked for medicine. One of the crew had cut his foot badly and wanted painkillers. Asking him to show us the cut it was obvious he needed more than painkillers, it was about 2 inches long, 1 inch deep and gaping badly. I collected all I thought I needed and with the fishing boat coming up behind climbed over the stern and into their boat. I cleaned it, poured Benadine over it and closed it using steristrips. Then covered and bandaged it. It must have been so painful for him but he said nothing. I left them with more steristrips, bandage and painkillers. As I went to leave they opened the hold and brought out a 3 foot long Wahoo that was stored in ice. After talking to Orca Joss, they went over to the fishing boat and gave antibiotics. I will never know if my first aid helped him but I like to think that between us we stopped any infection.
The next day we had a good sail to Khor Narawat , a collection of small island just of the Sudan coast. The island that we anchored of had thousands of shells along it beaches. By time we had walked around the island I had picked up so many that Clive made me choose only 4 to keep. It was so difficult as they were all so nice.
The weather was right to move on to Suakin which was an over night trip. We arrived just as the sun rose and it was a spectacular sight as we motored pass Old Suakin Town. You would have thought that war and bombs had destroyed it, but you would be wrong. The buildings were made of coral and have just crumbled over the years. This was the major port but when Port Sudan opened and everything was transferred there, the people went and the buildings were left to crumble. This was the last slave-trading port in the world and only stopped trading at the end of the Second World War.
The people here are extremely poor but very friendly and everywhere we were greeted with shouts of "Welcome" and "How are you". One guy in the market told us to tell the world that the Sudanese are very nice people. It is the government that are the problem. He was right but that is the case in most countries of the world. Donkeys are used for transporting many things but also huge trailer trucks that if I hadn't seen it myself would not believe they could deliver to the market. Here we stocked up with diesel, gas and fresh fruit and vegetables, the first since Aden.
After a week the forecast was good again and so north we went. It was a mixture of dayhops and longer overnight sails until we got to Dolphin Reef. This was one reef I was not going to miss because you get to swim with the dolphins. It was an amazing experience. The pod that we swam with was only 7 strong but even then it was magic. Some people before and after we left swam with as many as 80+. If ever we come back this way it is definitely on the list of must go to.
Our insurance company only gave us 6 weeks to do the Red Sea? Well when we got to Dolphin Reef we had taken 4 ½ weeks so it was looking pretty grim. We had moved when we could but the winds here are a pain for going north - always against you. So Clive emailed the company and asked for an extension. They came back saying that they would remove the clause altogether. It took so much pressure off us and we had missed so much further south but now we could take our time. The next hurdle was only 1 month visa and cruising permit in Egypt. This was overcome in Port Ghalib when 14 of us hired a minibus and driver to go to Hurghada to extend our visa for 3 months and then in Port Ghalib they could then issue a 4 month cruising permit. Port Ghalib is one of the new resort towns shooting up in Egypt on the Red Sea mainly for diving. The best part was a marina with running water and Clive climbed the mast and washed the boat down from the top. There was so much sand stuck to everything we had a mud river on the decks. When our friends Mark and Jacquie knew we did not have to rush through Egypt they booked a holiday and came to Hugharda. It was good to see them especially as they had to cancel Lankawi because Mark was ill last year. They stayed in a hotel which was about 50 minutes walk or a 10 minute taxi ride away. We had some good times together especially a 4 day cruise down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor. The ship was a 5 star floating hotel and we had a guide to take us to the places of interest and explain everything. We were templed and tombed out by the end but thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately M & J pick up a stomach bug on the last day of the cruise, which dampened their last week.
So here we are in Hugharda waiting for the weather once again. Because it is late in the season there are no southerly winds so it just waiting until the northerly's are not so strong. We hope that will be leaving Friday but who knows. Predicting weather here is worse than in the UK.
We should be transiting the Suez Canal in the next 2 weeks and the on to Cyprus and Turkey before flying back to the UK for 2 months in July.
Bye for now,
Jane and Clive