port ghalib, egypt

in the middle of nowhere in the egyptian coast lies the most amazing marina complex we have been to so far. it has several world known hotels, many american, local and international restaurants, good internet (a novelty for us since it has been so bad for the last couple of months...) and a top class marina with everything we can possibly need. this was our port of entry into egypt. we happily washed the boat and enjoyed the luxuries of the marina life.

sailing up the red sea

after port sudan we continued north for roughly 300 miles until our port of entry in egypt. we had dead clam seas and also gale force winds. we also saw the most amazing amount of sand floating on the water for miles and miles. it literally looked like the wind had blown all the desert into the sea. while waiting for the winds to settle we stopped at amazing places where the water was so clear that we could see the bottom and even the fish under the boat. sailing these waters has been a beautiful experience and luckily for us, not that hard to sail up north despite the known strong head winds. I guess we got lucky with the winds and only had a few days of really strong winds against, but for the most part the majority of the red sea has been very benign to us!

port sudan

some 40 kilometers from suakin is port sudan. we paid a short visit and eat the world’s worse hamburger for lunch there; but at least, and to compensate; I think it was also the cheapest. for dessert though we had some very good local sweets. we walked around town and went to the market. we were not impressed with this city at all. it was big, loud and ugly. so we went back to the ruins in suakin and enjoyed the best part of this place: the quiet anchorage! we watched movies on board and catch up on our emails while waiting 2 days for the wind to die down a bit and allow us to proceed north towards egypt.

suakin

we thought eritrea was the poorest country we would visit on our voyage until of course we arrived in sudan. we arrived into the port of suakin and anchored in one of the most comfortable and protected anchorages of the trip. our agent mohamed made our stay in this port a very pleasant one. he helped us with diesel, water, internet and propane. he even exchanged our money at the most favorable rate. his entire attitude was so no agent like. we really liked him.










we also met a very interesting group of guys. they were architects and engineers from turkey on a project to restore the ruins of old suakin. in the middle of the port there is an island full of ruins from buildings dating back to the ottoman empire. the remains look very pretty but of course there is not much left standing. turns out the government of turkey is investing on this project and has sent a group of 5 professionals to do the task. they explained to us the details of their project over a delicious dinner in a place where food seems very difficult to find. we eat at their place which was pretty much the only nice building in town.




this town has no water or electricity so the few that have light at night get it from generators. the water is treated from salt water by water makers and then transported by donkeys to the individual homes. this is probably an upgrade from eritrea where it is transported by jerry cans over long stretches in women’s backs.

asmara

after a four hour bus drive through the country we arrived in asmara, the capital of eritrea, which looks more like a city in italy 100 years ago than what you would expect a town in africa to look like. first the trip itself was such an adventure. it was fun and pleasant. the roads were in great condition and there was hardly any traffic at all. we enjoyed the views of the dessert, and the mountains and the two towns we passed by. the entire countryside seemed very poor but clean and beautiful. Asmara itself was extremely clean for a city capital.


it was also full of cafes and restaurants. this trip was a treat to our stomachs. we had a delicious italian lunch (colonial heritage is extremly visible in the food) and right afte some coffee and pastries, only to be followed by fruit juices and later drinks, and then in the next day the same good stuff all over again, and all this great food for very little price. we enjoyed a little inexpensive pension and walked around the city for hours admiring the architecture. it was such an interesting and different trip away from the boat.







we also visited a war graveyard with hundreds of trucks, amphibious and tanks used over the years in the long war with ethiopia. We were amazed of the amount of vehicles piled on top of another making a 10 meter wall for at least a few blocks long. it is quite shocking to see so much evidence of war in the country. we saw it everywhere. on the streets, in buildings and in the people themselves. we had never seen so many handicap people together. We did not ask of course but assumed they were victims of the war.

massawa

the 300 mile stretch from assab to massawa took us a lot longer than expected. we finally met the famous red sea strong head winds. we started sailing less miles per day and tried to find shelter during the nights. the problem is finding the shelter. most of the islands are full of unmarked reefs making it very dangerous to approach during the day and virtually impossible to do so at night. on one ocassion we were happily sailing with the wind from the stern and within 5 minutes the speed decreased to nothing and within another 5 we had very strong winds blowing from our vows. It was night so we could not make any approach into an anchorage and the only option was to bring down all the sails and drift backwards, and so we did for 25 miles. it is really hard to predict the weather here. i guess the only sure thing is that it will be difficult to make progress north. on this leg we stopped in a couple of remote islands along the way and rested while the winds blew hard.


when we finally arrived in massawa we were happily surprised with what we found. the port itself is full of ruins and there is evidence of the long war with ethiopia in every corner and every building. the beautiful old constructions look like they are about to fall down. it is so poor but yet so clean and charming. the town has a great vibe. the streets are full of cafes and restaurants with tables outside each serving delicious pizza and coffee from sophisticated espresso machines.




the places are full of people enjoying themselves. we certainly enjoyed the food and the cheap and tasty local beer, not to mention meeting and talking to some of the locals which we found without exception extremely simple and polite. this was certainly a cool place to stop at.

more fish than we can eat....

another bonus of entering the red sea is the fish!! we have caught tunas, wahoos, mackerels, barracudas and other species which we do not recognize and are not in the guide. we have eaten as much fish as we desire and have even picked our favorites and thrown back to the ocean what we will not eat. our diet has greatly improved. it is healthier and tastier than the cans!!! we need to be fast thought. it seems we have competition. when we do not bring in the fish fast we will loose ot to the sharks and will only get a piece of the head...

africa!!!

the convoy stopped in a very remote anchorage in the south of eritrea to celebrate the end of the whole pirate story and that we had made it safely. we celebrated for two days with the other sailors and even with the local fishermen on shore. we also enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the incredible sunsets of africa. After a couple of nights of this beautiful and remote place we oficially parted ways and continued sailing alone. at this time we were so happy to be in africa and finish the convoy that we paid little attention to the challenges the weather had in store for us… supposedly the toughest area of our route according to the guides due to the constant strong head winds… but at least for the first couple of days we had strong winds but from behind and we continued enjoying the peacefulness we felt of being sailing alone once again in pirate free waters.

bob el mandeb

this has to be the place where we encountered the strongest winds of our entire trip (so far at least) and luckily they were from behind. It was blowing so strong that we were cruising at 8 knots with hardly any sail out. we now never know the actual speed since our wind indicator broke a while ago and as we find it not indispensable at this time of or trip we decided to continue sailing without it. So for a while we have not know the speed of the wind. It either blows to little in which case we motor, or just about enough to have all sails out or too much that we have to reef… here it was definitely too much, to the point we had to be with almost no sails out. we enjoyed this windy conditions for a change. We have had far too many days of light winds for the last months….


going through this strait meant we officially entered into the red sea leaving the pirates behind!! Good. We accomplished what seemed to be almost impossible back at the anchorage in the maldives, and we had done it in one piece! This was an important moment of our trip and where we definitely felt a weight being lifted of our shoulders. We finally stopped looking around for pirates on every vessel we saw… it was a good welcome back to our old sailing style which we have grown to like so much!