Here we are, we made it..... or are making it right at the minute any way. We left Ra's Al' Arah, Yemen last night/this morning at, 2:15 am, the last stop around the corner from The Red Sea Straits. We weren't far off of a military base & they ~ YES ~ were shooting off flares over our boat around 1AM. The automatic weapons fire went on for hours. Then, there was the call to prayer. Not sure if & when i've had a full night's sleep lately??? Because of the wind, currents & light it's best to hit the opening of the straits right around 6am, which we did. We heard on the radio about 8 other sail boats that were in that vicinity as well. Yesterday, when we got to the anchorage there weren't any boats there .... by the end of the night we were with 5 other boats.

For the Wikipedia info on the Red Sea, click here:

Later in the day:

Have the hook down at 11am, almost 9 hrs of sailing. We are officially in Eritrea, Africa!!! The straits weren't too bad.......... but when we turned to go to towards the anchorage, oh baby. Wind gustting to 40, rough beam seas. Had to roll the jib twice. We were going 11 knots there for awhile. It's pretty hot here and if we weren't so sand blasted off this tiny scrap of island we could open up more.... On the beach there are a bunch of folks huddled under some scrub. Just as i was putting down the anchor, Dave says ~ hope they aren't pirates. Well there you go. Another one of those nights! Alright !!! Another boat , our friends on "Sundance" have pulled in next to us so we somehow feel a little more secure.....