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.