Hey there, yesterday was a pretty exciting day for us. After waiting out the winds in Suakin... for too long... we headed out early North while the light South winds were blowing. We took a chance & went to the east to a lighthouse/reef out in the middle of nowhere. We were a bit concerned as the weather window just kept getting smaller at every check of the GRIBS (Weather). We heard from the VHF radio all of the other boats were just hopping 10 miles up the coast to the next safe bay on the mainland. Our sail was for 8&1/2 hrs for 35 miles. When we arrived through the first set of channel markers into the outer lagoon we decided to anchor out there instead of going inside the narrow channel so that we could make a faster escape in case the wind switched directions in the night! Just as we were getting ready to drop our anchor in amongst the coral & rocks Dave spotted a mooring. Hooray. It was a big fatty & i had to take a couple of grabs at it to haul it up. We almost jumped into the dinghy & raced off to the lighthouse & snorkel around there as they wrote in the Red Sea Pilot it was an excellent location. But..... i said.... lets snorkel around here first & then race off. Well low and behold we were tied to an old sunken ship. At first it looked pretty enticing & then Dave figured if we swung, those pipes would take off our keel. GREAT. So into the dinghy we roared to the inside of the lagoon to check out anchoring. After we came in another cat had come in also & was anchored over there. We saw that they got into the inner lagoon without any trouble. It was very very narrow & only 7 ft deep. TIGHT but sandy so anchoring wouldn't be any trouble. So, back to Miss FB, up anchor & threw the "hourglass" to the inner lagoon. By now, it was after 4 & the light was falling but we got in there. Again, lowered the dinghy & tore over to the lighthouse. What a site! It was a 50 meter tower made out of blocks of stone. We counted 270 steps up the spiral "staircase" up to the top. What a view!!!! Who forgot the camera????? That night we watched a beam of light from the majestic tower rotate across the lagoon. Like out of a movie.....

The next weather GRIB showed the wind switching directions to the North (back on the nose) at 3AM tonight so we thought we'd better not stay there today after all. We dived first thing this morning on the outer wall of the reef. It was a pretty deep drop. We only went down as far as 60 ft but saw lots & lots of soft corals, tropical fish & 2 big moray eels. We were hoping for Hammerhead sharks. They live around here. Jacques Cousteau's research center that he lived in for months underwater is the next reef North of here. We did see 3 black tipped sharks though.


While i was chatting with the 4 lighthouse keepers Dave ran the stairs & got a picture of Freebird from up there.

We left Sangraneb at 11 & are tucked in here at Marsa Fijab by 3. They are predicting 3 days of North winds starting tonight. After we got here 7 other boats joined the 3 of us here waiting out weather. Ciao for now, cheers, j&D



For info/pics of Sangraneb & Suakin: