Sunny, 30 C wind NW 12 knots
11/09/2008, Gulf of Aqaba

I first arrived in Eilat in October and every year at this time I am reminded why I chose to stay. October is the month when the summer heat finally abates and the cool fall breezes blow. Local holiday crowds start to thin and here and there we begin to hear other languages as the winter tourist season sets in. Within weeks the town takes on a whole new personality.

October also is a month for passage making on the Red Sea. Some yachts that have spent the summer months in the Mediterranean now head towards the warmer winter climate and cheaper marinas of Egypt, Jordan and Israel. Others begin a slow meander down the Red Sea in October taking time to gunk hole along the way with plans to reach the Indian Ocean in spring. Sometimes a boat will come through that is actually on its way back north. One such boat sailed into Eilat this week with Yaron, her proud new owner on his way back to Ashkelon marina in Israel to do a refit.



All of these sailors have many challenges before them, but surely the one that that has received much publicity of late is piracy. While piracy only affects yachts transiting the lower reaches of the Red Sea, lately we have been contacted by a few yachts planning passages in the region. They have posed questions about piracy, weather and general passage planning. While I would like to make it clear up front that Manny and I are not experts on the subject by any stretch of the imagination and that we have no personal experience of transiting Bab el Mandeb, we are living and sailing in the region of the Red Sea and therefore privy to ongoing reports from yachts who have made the transit and to local news on the subject. For sailors choosing to stay in the northern reaches of the Red Sea we both have transited the Suez Canal, and sailed in the area, so we can speak to that experience personally.

In that light, I am dedicating the next two month's blogs to posting whatever information and links we have on the subject.

Many people seem confused about exactly where the piracy is taking place. I have read more than one post on a major sailing forum that refers to the Red Sea in general as being a dangerous place. Actually the piracy is concentrated in a relatively small area at the very bottom of the Red Sea where it meets the Indian Ocean. This map provided by UNOSAT shows the positions of piracy attacks in the first half of the year 2008.



For a look at the map in PDF format go to the UNOSAT website
here

Boats choosing to sail in the northern reaches of the Red Sea along the coasts of Egypt, Jordan and Israel will be quite removed from this region and need not be concerned with piracy.

Between the boats that will choose to sail through the Red Sea on their way to the Indian Ocean some will choose to join the Vasco da Gamma Yatch Rally. This is a non profit rally for cruisers that leaves Turkey and sails via the Red Sea to India every two years. This year rally organizer Lo Brust is also arranging a rally that will leave India and head back north to Turkey, thereby helping out cruisers making the north bound passage. In December 2005, the first Vasco da Gamma Yacht Rally came through the Eilat marina. We had a chance to meet Lo personally and to chat with many of rally members. Later we followed several members' passages by email and through their blogs. From everything we have seen and heard we feel that this rally is a good choice for cruisers. It offers the opportunity to safely sail the Red Sea in company and avoid piracy, while still allowing time and space for getting away on your own.

You can read for yourself about past rallies or collect information about passages through Bab el Mandeb and current rallies on their website here

Sailors wishing to travel on their own might be well advised to keep a good eye on Noonsite
This site was started by Jimmy Cornell and is now managed by The World Cruising Club. They offer regular updates to piracy in the area as well as general information and news from the countries bordering the Red Sea. Noonsite also offers a Red Sea page where cruisers heading this way and looking to team up with other boats can post a message.



Over the last few years, we have seen more boats choosing to explore to the northern reaches of the Red Sea. Those coming from the Mediterranean will be faced with some adjustments as they enter an area of poor or non existent weather reports. Getting a good reliable weather report on the Red Sea is almost impossible. While several internet sites do give reports, it is our experience that they are often wrong. This is due to a lack of accurate data collection in most countries along the Red Sea. Both The Red Sea Pilot by Stephen Davies and Elaine Morgan and Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Routes are good books for general weather advice.

We have found sea conditions to be very local. On one passage up the Gulf of Suez we battled forty knots of wind, while only 350 kilometers away in Eilat the sea was flat calm. During winter, weather systems seem to pass through this area very quickly. Winds and sea conditions can change without much warning and sailors are advised to heed local advice. Perhaps the best weather advice we ever received was to prepare for lots of wind and to be pleasantly surprised when you don't get it. Adversely, some of our nicest sailing on the Red Sea is done during the winter months. The summer calms and intense heat are gone and we often have anchorages to ourselves.

Boats equipped with SSB radios may be able to tune into cruiser nets or pick up weather information from sailors further south. Noonsite generally gives a yearly update as to who is running a weather net during the popular months for a northbound transit (February/ March/ April).

Next blog, I'll be giving tips and information on transiting the Suez Canal and exploring the Red Sea coastlines of Egypt, Jordan and Israel.

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09/30/2008, Gulf of Aqaba

Now that summer is over we are exchanging summer news with family and friends. Everyone is asking us what we have been up to and inevitably "Why aren't you sailing?". We patiently explain that replacing a diesel engine in a sail boat is no small task, especially when you live aboard.

Projects on boats are never simple. So, when it came to replacing our diesel engine, Manny had a plan. As he had already begun to take apart the Ruggerini, why not save ourselves a few hundred dollars on a crane and haul the engine out ourselves? Of course this idea required some minor engineering. A metal stand which would serve as a temporary engine rest had to be welded and fitted in place at the bottom of the companionway. Angles and weight loads needed to be checked for the viability of using the main sheet tackle to lift the old engine out. Then a cart had to be found that could wait dockside for the engine to be lowered onto. Finally Manny had to wait for high tide as our marina berth isn't on a floating dock.

My job in the plan was to prepare access in Yofy's main cabin. Within days I had disassembled all our creature comforts and stripped Yofy's main cabin down to bare walls. Along the way, I rummaged through lockers tossing aside anything we hadn't used for a couple of years. Everything else was wedged in the forward cabin and covered with an old sheet against grease.



Once the temporary engine stand was in place, Manny got to work stripping everything he could off the engine to reduce as much weight as possible. Then he jacked up the Ruggerini and pulled it forward on to the stand. There it stood for a week or more while he found someone with a pickup who could help truck the engine and its parts to a new temporary home.

Around this time we got a call that our new Nanni engine was arriving in Eilat and Manny quickly welded together a cart for it. Along came Shlomi a neighbouring skipper with his pickup and within two days both engines were sitting in our friend Amnon's shop. Now Manny could have a good look at the Ruggerini and begin to fit a new transmission for the Nanni.

One day he came home with pictures and the news that our old Ruggerini actually had a broken crank shaft. It was past repair and we would have to sell it for scrap metal. On hearing this, my first thoughts were how fortunate we were that we never headed south on the Red Sea with our old engine. As often as Eilat feels like the outback, it is still much better to replace an engine here than in some far off Egyptian village.

THE BROKEN CRANKSHAFT


Back aboard Yofy, we took the opportunity to give our engine compartment a thorough cleaning. Along the way, Manny found an electric junction box that would need moving and began to think about installing an air conditioner. This would be a once in a lifetime chance to get to all those corners that will become inaccessible once the new engine is installed.

Throughout the month, we shuffled back and forth between Yofy, our temporary land based accommodation and work. Inevitably whatever we needed had been left at the last place. A simple enquiry such as "Have you seen my keys?" or "Where did you put the eggs?" was bound to set off a display of exaggerated eye rolling and more than once Manny hopped into the car, to drive back to wherever and pick up some forgotten item.

Then last week, I got a call. Even before he said hello I knew who it was. "I STARTED the engine! And it runs like a dream - so quiet! ". .

THE NEW NANNI DIESEL


This year the holy days of Ramadan and the Jewish New Year both fall in the month of September. May we wish all our friends and neighbours in the region Shana Tova and Ramadan Mubarak. May many good new things come to us this year and may we all live in peace.

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08/31/2008, Gulf of Aqaba

We have wondered at times during this month if it is worth it. How long can we go on with this refit before we loose all enthusiasm for the project? After all we seem to be doing more renovating than sailing.

August in Eilat is an unbearably long, hot month at the best of times. Most of the locals flee town and head for a quiet, cool mountain retreat. Yet here we are and we can't even leave the dock.

Left with few options, we finally decided that the only way to cope was to begin to deal with each of our problems one step at a time. Manny began to take apart our old Ruggerini. Day by day, bits of engine collected in the aft cabin until finally the flywheel appeared under the salon table. Around this time it became clear that a bearing had gone and we were looking at an overhaul.

We renewed our internet search for a good used diesel (and may I take this opportunity to voice an official complaint to websites that post contact details but never answer their emails). After several weeks of searching, it became obvious that while there are good rebuilt diesels out there; no one really wants to ship them abroad.

Convinced we were going to have to buy a new engine; Manny put his nose to the grind and took on several new jobs, working around the clock to make some extra cash. Let me just say that during these weeks, a lot of beer was consumed and Manny and I kept a careful distance.

Mid August our new neighbour, Mosheko invited us to join him on a sail to Coral Island in Egypt. Although Coral Island is a mere ten mile day sail from the Eilat marina, sailing there involves a tremendous amount of planning and bureaucracy. Weeks before, we helped Mosheko open a file in the Egyptian embassy for his boat. Then he had to run around getting documents from our marina and printing up pages of crew lists and entry requests. Saturday came and all the crew arrived early for a special bridge opening at the marina and a scheduled clearance time at the commercial harbour. Three hours later we were tied to a mooring, drinking in the deep peace and quiet of Egypt's Sinai coast.



While we typically had light winds, we had a fun day snorkeling over reefs and climbing the island to investigate the crusader fort on top. It was a fine day that served to remind us exactly why we go through all this hard work and heartache.

On our return we got a call from Quest's previous owner Chen. Chen had been a live aboard neighbour of ours for years and had just sold Quest to Mosheko and bought a Moody 42. He was currently living aboard the Moody in Ashkelon Marina in Israel. Chen told us that he had heard about a 29 hp Nanni diesel that was for sale in Ashkelon. He gave us the contact number and Manny called right away.

It seemed too good to be true. The owner had replaced the engine because he wanted more power. The price was right and if we waited two weeks we could see the engine. Before we could get all excited, Manny called all his contacts: the Nanni dealer in Israel, a trusted marine mechanic who works in the area and even the Ashekelon marina manager. We wanted to do our best to avoid spending hard found cash on a lemon. Everyone seemed positive.

So, last week we drove up to Ashkelon to check out the engine. We met Walter, the owner and went with him to the mechanic's yard where she was being stored. When Walter peeled back the tarpaulin and opened the wooden crate the engine was stored in, Manny couldn't believe his eyes. There sat an almost new looking 29 hp Nanni diesel. No rust, no oil stains. Original paint. Walter handed him the rebuilt starter and a bag of spare parts. He carefully explained to Manny the engine's history. They shook hands and the deal was sealed.

Now while I don't exactly know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and we all know that we can't celebrate this deal until we see the engine running; this coming week our Nanni diesel is due to arrive in Eilat and Manny and I are back to talking to each other.

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