Hello everyone.
The saga continues. I'm starting this on the midnight watch as we sail up Foul Bay and cross into Egypt. We're on the second of probably a three nighter. This is, of course, after we vowed to cut these marathon sails out after days and days of it just getting to the Red Sea. Unfortunately, we were planning on some kind of normal weather, but that is not what you get in the Red Sea. The choices are to take advantage of a good "weather window" where the northerlies are light or have moved more south OR you can bash into 25-30 knot winds and choppy 2-3 meter seas. Even if both motors were working (more on that later) we can only make about 3 or 4 knots in those unfavorable conditions. SO--the rule of thumb is get while the getting is good which is why we are sailing as fast and far as we we can with favorable conditions. (Monday 7PM--so much for favorable conditions. In spite of all the forecasts, the wind has strengthened out of the northwest--our direction of travel. Since we're already committed, we are just bashing into it and going only 2-3 knots. Oh well, we've been in LOTS worse; this is just slow and boring!!) On to the news update.
So, we left you a couple of weeks ago (gosh, our letters are getting more frequent now that we have lots more to bore you with) at Port Smyth on Shummi island awaiting the arrival of a whole fleet of yachties. Well, about 6 or 7 boats arrived that afternoon, and it was one guy's birthday so naturally that called for a beach party. It was highly amusing. It was BYO, but everyone brought snacks and someone had a fish to grill up. I got to use up what few fireworks Joey had left me, and one of the girls was pretty good on the guitar so we had a hootenanny. Wow, in 12 years, this is the first time I've actually done one of these even though all the articles say this happens all the time. It was pretty good though, until one of the women relieved the guitar player for the sing-along. She was one of those people who think they're great, but can't carry a tune. Think of the worst ever American Idol audition and you'll have some idea. Of course, the festivities were further disrupted when the awful singer's husband fell over backwards trying to sit down. It's no wonder he gets that loaded if she sings all the time for him!! Anyway, by that time it was way past cruisers' midnight (9PM) so we packed it in.
The next day was an easy 30 miles over to Massawa for the anxiously anticipated trip into the mountains to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. Someone we had run into years ago that had done 3 circumnavigations ranked it as a top three highlight. A little bit of Italy, dare I say Rome, in the mountains of Africa. More on this later. A couple of boats we knew were in the port which is the largest on the Red Sea. Officials made me tie up to a concrete dock which was a bear to get back off of, and immigration was off on a ship somewhere so check in wasn't complete 'til the next day. Except for the dock and long walk it was one of the easier ones. Next day after check in, we went to the other immigration office to get visas--necessary to visit Asmara--and to the tourism bureau for travel permits. The "go to" guy in Massawa is Mike and he arranged our transport to Asmara which we were sharing with the two guys on Quo Vadis. Massawa is sort of bombed out and interestingly, Mike's cafe is in the old Italian embassy, but, by and large, the place looks like Beirut. One of the guys decided to stay and watch the boats so there was only the 3 of us. Good thing as we had a tiny cab and it's a 3 hour drive. Solomon, our driver, was okay and had something going on the side up there so when we met up with him the next day to return, the cab had a bunch on stuff in the trunk. He got rid of that but then disappeared for about an hour instead of meeting us at the "recycling" market which is a bunch of people making whatever they can out of old tires, sheet metal, etc. This is really a poor country as was evident in the restaurants which were out of meat and stuff like that. While our room was good and really cheap, the trip was a bust. We had all these expectations and the place was really just a dump--no good Italian food, no designer cloths stores, no nothing, really!!. On top of that Rose and I got the Prophet's plague back. I guess African food just does not agree with us, but the pounds are flowing off!! The one saving grace was the beautiful drive up through the mountains to get there. Lots of photo ops!!
By the time we got back, the fleet from Port Smyth had arrived and already done the visas and travel permits. Well what could we do? Couldn't tell them it sucked after they all just spent $100 or so to go. So we all agreed to keep quiet--they actually thought there was a Carre Four up there--HAH! We haven't seen them since the trip as we left the next day and they haven't caught up. We had our first real case of Baksheesh on check out. The immigration/customs officer comes to the boat to make sure you don't have stowaways. Gift? says he. What? says I. $10, says he. Cigarettes say I. Settled on 2 packs. Still suffering from the plague, but wanting to escape before the other crowd got back from Asmara, we took off for Abu Sheik, about 30 miles away. Like all the anchorages so far, this was wide open behind some mud flats, and we had to beat into the wind to get there.
So our choices, given the lovely weather here, were to sit in this crappy anchorage, go another 30 miles to the next crappy anchorage and sit there, or gut it out and head off overnight to a decent place up north--nothing in between. It took us 36 hours to make the next anchorage only 160 miles away in the Shubuk channel, just south of Suakin in Sudan. This was actually fairly picturesque and well sheltered; a lagoon full of flamingos was right in front of us. We actually had a ratty gunboat with about 20 irregulars (un-uniformed) stop by to check our papers. They had a big machine gun and the requisite AK47s, but I doubt they had any ammo--another very poor country. One guy spoke fairly good English and they politely checked our papers and then left--no baksheesh--we were amazed. During the night the main halyard had broken, shattering the sheave and going down inside the mast. AND, the old bugaboo oil problem happened again. Some of you--one I know for sure--will recall that three years ago the bolts holding the high pressure water maker pump sheared off. Since those same bolts also hold the backing plate for the oil pump on the starboard engine, the oil simply goes into the bilge and the engine alarm goes off. Yep, same deal and I'm betting the guys in Penang didn't tighten the bolts properly when they worked on the pump. Anyway, after 2 gallons of oil into the bilge, the light went on and, sure enough, same problem. This meant a long trip to Suakin as the wind was against us again even though it was only 40 miles.
Arrival was easy enough and while Suakin isn't an official port of entry, the "go to" man, Mohamed, clears you in and gets fuel, etc. Our friends on Dreamkeeeper were there as was Joost, the guy who led the convoy. A great weather window was coming up and they were leaving Friday. Fortunately, we arrived on Wed, and with really very little effort and Dreamkeepers help, on Thursday we got the halyard squared away. Mohamed cleared us in, got us 750 liters of fuel (which I got him to lug and dump in the tank) and arranged a mechanic.
The mechanic was a bit thick and wanted to take the back half of the motor out to drill out the broken bolts. Then he decide 2 would do it (originally 4) and using a nail and hammer somehow got another bolt in--One hadn't sheared in the first place. So at 5 or so, we filled up the oil and cranked up the engine while he proclaimed all was well. Yeah right. Shut down the engine after an hour, checked the oil. Empty. Called Mohamed, but tomorrow was Friday (Arabs) so the guy couldn't come 'til 3. No worries as we were going into town--Port Sudan--anyway to do internet (had 3 more giant emails I needed to clear and am happy to report none were from this group!!) and get veggies, bread, etc. Everything, Mohamed assured us, would be open even though it was Friday (Muslim country, you know). Nope, and the cabbie kept getting lost. Anyway, we ended up at a really nice hotel for internet and had lunch there followed by the veggie market and "supermarket", then back to Suakin. Suakin used to be a major port and a lot of cool buildings are on a small fortress island by the anchorage, BUT, they built everything out of coral and the buildings just fell down so it is a big jumble and no one has the money to try to reconstruct anything.
This time, I had all the tools out for the mechanic--electric drill, screw extractor, tap and die set. He worked all afternoon and I can't say I know how he did it, but he got the four bolts in. We cranked it up, waited, looked, and he declared it fixed. Nope, but I don't know why. When I checked the bolts and the bracket everything looked good and tight so I think he must have screwed up the gasket or left a hose loose or something. Anyway, we still had an allegedly 4 day weather window so the one engine wouldn't be a problem. Which brings us to now. Window closed, one engine, putting along at 3 knots turning a three day trip into four and getting bounced unpleasantly around. All the weather stuff still points to a favorable wind shift so, with luck, we might get in tomorrow to
Port Ghalib, Egypt where we can get the motor repaired properly.
We have to say neither of us are liking the Red Sea at all. We just want to get to Egypt and do some touring. So far the coast has been pretty much stark desert with extreme poverty and decaying cities. And, of course, no internet. I feel like Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin!!
Cheers and a belated happy Easter to you all from Rose and me.
Tim & Rose
P.S. I'm sure you all anxiously await and study our little stories, but we're still waiting to hear from someone what the poorest country in the world is behind Eritrea.
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