The Red Sea - Egypt

    

Whirling Dervishes, sand storms and leery men

12 April 2007

The motor on Aliesha had finally died, and when we left a couple of days later, the Irish yacht Aldebaran gave them a tow out of the bay. Mike and I were most impressed at how well they managed to tack without a motor. Aliesha is also a Hallberg Rassy but a more modern, racier version. Forever would never have achieved that much progress.

Port Ghalib was our first official entry port into Egypt and we spent all afternoon on the quay being checked in. Once again, this was an expensive business - $140 in total including 3 days in the marina (there being no anchorage) check in, visas, cruising permit and waste water. (The US$ was the most common currency in these parts and we’d bought a stack in Thailand – not enough, of course.) Then each boat had to pay $7 for a cubic metre of water which horrified us, and we declined to pay the extra daily fee to use the showers and swimming pool. There was nothing in Port Ghalib except this posh marina hotel with expensive amenities, surrounded by shimmering desert. It is weird they way they do this in Egypt. We worked out how to get free showers, and had a reasonable meal the one night in the restaurant, but there was absolutely nothing to do there unless one had money to spend, perhaps.

Our friend Boris, a most mild mannered and polite man, was shouted at most miserably by a German on a catamaran because he accidentally dropped their line into the water. Later, he and his girlfriend complained about the rest of us washing our boats in case a little dirty water sprayed onto their boat. Sad sacks. Though youngish, they were what you might call obsessive compulsive and both spent hours cleaning and polishing their enormous yacht. We’d known this couple since the Pacific but it was difficult to become friends with them. Aliesha arrived and someone went out to tow them in.  After much hassling on the telephone they eventually found a mechanic to come down from Hurghada to fix their motor. We felt very sorry for them.

After a few days, when the weather looked good, we set off again, Mike wanting to go directly to Suez, but I managed to persuade him to stop at the El Gouna resort, north of Hurghada. El Gouna is quite extraordinary – a sophisticated mini town built across 10 kilometres of beach, islands and lagoons. It has just about everything – hotels, bars, restaurants, shops, clubs, an international school and a hospital, a marina, an aquarium, a museum, and plenty of sports including an 18 hole golf course, pony stables, skate park, go karting, etc. etc. the whole thing surrounded by dazzling white desert and deep blue sea. It was all extremely modern and had that ‘instant garden’ feel about it, similar to Port Ghalib in concept but much more finished. We couldn’t figure who would want to actually live in an unreal place like this but there were plenty of people about. Perhaps they were holiday homes rather than permanent.

El Gouna Resort

This was our first marina (apart from Port Ghalib) in the nearly year since leaving New Zealand and we resented having to pay to be somewhere, but the facilities were nice and it made a lovely change.  So much so we stayed for five days, longer than we should have really, but we enjoyed the rest. I was a bit ill for a few days with the squits and just generally feeling off colour but got over it soon enough. Our friends Li were here, as well as Pat and Olivia on Aldebaran, and a few others.

On Saturday evening there was organised entertainment in the marina and we sat drinking beers with some nice Canadians on their yacht Rapture which had an excellent view. There were Cuban singers, a belly dancer and six whirling dervishes. We’d never seen the dervishes before and thought they were absolutely fabulous. (Rapture was unlucky enough to be parked next to the infamous German catamaran, who complained that they were too close!)

We left Abu Tig, speaking to Pam and Roger on Cap d’Or on the way out, crossed the Gubal Strait and went up the Suez Strait. We made good way, but the wind got a bit strong and we decided to stop at Ras Malab where we initially found good shelter. The next morning we were just setting off when a ferocious sand storm blew up. Mike had already released the snubber line on the anchor when the wind went crazy, the anchor chain jumped out of the bow roller which then got badly bent and cracked the teak on the toe rail again! It was an awful business. Whilst Forever bucked in the waves, the loose roller in the mast clattered horribly. Later when the wind eased, I went up the mast and moved the halyard balloon down which did help quieten the banging – a bit. We spent the rest of the day trying to get sand out of the boat, not to mention every orifice.

Through more hard winds we persevered to Ras Sudr where after three attempts we managed to anchor and spend an insecure night. And finally, we arrived the next day, very relieved, in Port Suez. Sailing up the Red Sea into mostly northerly winds and without a main sail for most of the way had been a real strain for us and poor Forever. Fortunately, diesel was reasonably cheap in this part of the world as we had to do a lot of motoring. There were no proper yacht facilities anywhere and we knew we’d have to wait until we reached the Mediterranean before we could get our sail repaired, or replaced. Though the Red Sea is famous for diving, I am sorry to say we did no snorkelling at all. The anchorages at which we stopped were somehow not conducive to snorkelling or swimming and the water was usually murky.

With such hard winds on the nose on this trip we had discovered that our new deck was leaking salt water into the boat, specifically through the fuel intake holes. Once settled in Suez, we removed the pipes, cleaned them up and re-sikaflexed both pipes back into the deck, and that sorted that out.

At Port Suez there was no actual marina as such, but the yacht club had pilings to which we tied up and the obliging young Car Car buzzed back and forth amongst the yachts in his dinghy looking after us, organising laundry, delivering water, etc.

Car Car from Port Suez yacht Club

We bought a sim card for our phone as we would need to contact my sister later. Once again, we had to check in with an agent, and we used Felix having already made contact with him by radio prior to arrival. His charge was $80 plus another $40 for check in/out. Mike and I took a bus into the town and did a bit of shopping. We stopped at Felix’s office and his colleague, Abdo, produced tea on our arrival and let me use his internet connection free whenever I needed. The men we dealt with in an official respect were helpful and polite, but in general we cruising women found Egyptian men disrespectful. Although we all wore long dresses or slacks, and sleeves on our blouses, the men still leered, gaped and whistled offensively. In town that day, wandering around and exploring Suez, Mike was walking a little way ahead of me at one point when a man on a bicycle came towards us and passed us, staring hard at me as he went. Then he turned around and came back up behind me and put his hand out towards my breast as he passed. I slapped his hand away in time and he wobbled on his bike briefly but looked back and laughed. I called out to Mike and he swung around, at which point this chap realised I was with someone and took off sharply on his bike. He’s very lucky he had a bike!

That evening we went out for an excellent and very cheap kebab dinner with Li and Aldebaran, and then all shared a taxi back to the yacht club.

With our planned tour of the Nile, timing was vital, so after a few days we booked to do the canal transit - we were measured at 17 tonnes and charged $140. This was more than we’d expected and hoped for, but it wasn’t as much as others so we didn’t complain.

Aldebaran in the Canal

30 April 2007

Unlike Panama, this transit was very straightforward with no locks to be negotiated, but once again we had to have a pilot on board.  Our pilot was a pleasant young man and with nothing much to do on the trip we got talking about Islam.  I expressed my dismay at the treatment of women, with the result that he spent the rest of the trip trying to convert me. His charm slipped at the end of the trip when he didn’t like the size of our tip of 40 pounds plus 5 packs of fags.  We increased it to 60 ($10), but he remained sulky and left without saying goodbye. Swapping notes with other cruisers later, we heard our tip was about normal and that all pilots expressed disappointment, no matter how much one gave.  That whole ‘baksheesh’ thing annoyed most of us, but it is a way of life here and we had to get on with it.

Ismailia is in the middle of the canal, set on Lake Timsah and Cairo can be easily reached by bus.  We had no choice but go into the marina there as we wanted to leave the boat.  It was a fairly basic sort of marina, but the facilities were better than at Suez, with reasonable showers and (bliss) an automatic washing machine.  The town centre was an easy walk away with good shopping and very cheap internet.  We were only there a couple of days, got Forever settled and well tied up and went to meet Pai and Natalie in Cairo.