Nadezhda

Going Home

2009-11-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

4^th June 2009

(Gibraltar)

We haven't really done too much since we arrived here, just pottered really. Fliss has finished her underwear shopping and has made a few forays as far as Morrisons. We went to the chandlers and looked for engine mounts and turning blocks for the headsail sheets (ours are well past their prime) and were met with no success. I did however splash out on grease for the stern-bearing (to go in the greasing 'gun') and a new stern light since, when I bought Naz, the survey indicated that I needed a new one. It has taken me 7 years to get around to it!

These items now fitted, I have washed, polished and cleaned Naz who deserves it for taking us around the world and I am now half way through re-fixing the puncture in the dinghy floor - my original attempt being unsuccessful.

Yesterday, we were invited for a cuppa by a couple of chaps on a boat a few places further down the pontoon. They are out for the week and have not managed to get sailing due to strong winds in the Gibraltar Straits. We went aboard their rather fancy Jeanneau (or however you spell it) and the owner showed off all his whizzy kit including his AIS that Fliss is keen for us to have. Only after some slightly criminal activity of supplying him with unlicensed software did I learned that he was a judge and his friend was a solicitor. However, he was thrilled with the goods and we celebrated with a few too many drinks followed by a barbeque on the pontoon with a number of others moored here.

The likely Lads

Today is another lazy day and the weather forecast is telling us to stay put for a good while yet. It may be possible to do some overnighters once the wind eases a bit but there appears to be no let-up in the WNW airflow over the whole region. Night sailing will reduce the effect against us and it looks as though we will be burning a lot of fuel to get as far as Cabo de Sao Vincente and probably further. The fuel here will be a little more expensive than Tunisia but otherwise is said to be the cheapest in the Med.

We learned that the ship that is pressed hard against the cliffs at Europa point came to grief in October when they had hurricane force winds here. It had engine trouble at the time but fortunately no one was killed.

We will be here for a while and might therefore eventually summon up the energy to go for a walk around the rock. There-again, we might just sit and idle our time away. I could always sit on deck and slowly sand back the grab rails prior to another few coats of varnish.

6^th June 2009

We have had another lazy day reading and wandering around the town. Tomorrow, we will re-provision and get ready to move. We need to get out of the marina just to even pretend that we might go! It has been too good being landbound for a while with all the necessary and luxury items easy to hand.

The dinghy floor seems to have stopped leaking and so the repair, although not pretty, seems to have worked. I will leave it inflated until we leave and see if it slowly deflates. With it inflated outside of the dinghy, I have worked out that it could have many other uses...A blow-up bed, Li-Lo and surfboard.

This is the last stop for cheap fuel and alcohol. When we leave the marina, we will top up with diesel and tonight at 6pm we go to the booze shop and hopefully have our order fulfilled and delivered. The really cheap stuff comes in plastic bottles which is just what we want onboard.

8^th June 2009

We paid up at the marina and then moved to the fuelling dock where we re-filled with fuel (284 litres for 196 GBP). The fuel is now leaking profusely into the bilges from the port tank (air breather pipe, inspection hatch and taps) . Something that has needed fixing for a year now but we need to stop, get to chandlers strip Naz down before we can effect a fix - therefore impossible whilst always on the move. We shall run on the port tank until it stops and then mix the bilges with soap and pump more pollution overboard.

After re-fuelling, we moved to the anchorage and had a chill-out afternoon. The plans are to move the 12 miles to Tarifa tomorrow and then push onwards to Faro on Wednesday when we might get some favourable winds. We would try the run to Faro tomorrow but the tidal streams will not allow us past Cape Trafalgar before they turn against us and, being Springs, we would have to battle against 4 knots at worst. So, Leave tomorrow at 8am and then Wednesday at 8:30am to be in Faro sometime Thursday. The weather down the Atlantic coast looks pretty nasty until Sunday and so there is no rush to get to Cabo Sao Vincente.

We are back onto our old Imray charts and have already rubbed-out pencil marks from three years ago. We are now re-tracing old steps but in the difficult direction. It is funny that I cannot remember winds from directly astern when we came down here but the weather at the moment is certainly bang on the nose at the moment!?!?

10^th June 2009

We managed to sail yesterday for about 15 minutes until the wind died and then headed us as we entered the Straits. The wind was so flukey that it tacked the boat automatically every 15 minutes or so and we therefore kept the engine on for the whole run. We started off with about a knot of tide with us but soon lost it to about 2.5 knots against us. The advice that we had been given was to hug the Spanish coast and to sniff out the Westbound current by moving towards or away from the shore - apparently a couple of hundred yards may be all that is needed. We moved quite close to shore and spotted the shear-line between the currents and soon had 1-2 knots in our favour that we kept all the way to Tarifa. We anchored on the Eastern side in calms and had a look around the town which is quite pleasant if you find yourself into the older backstreets. Whilst there, a whale watching tout caught us and told us that the weather will be good today (and also calm) but poor on Thursday when the Levanter blows through. The Levanter is the Easterly that we wanted and so we have stayed today. We had another wander around the town this morning looking at all the windsurfing and kitesurfing shops (Tarifa has a reputation for strong winds) and then returned to Naz as the wind had already turned Easterly and was picking up. We motored around the Southernmost tip of Europe and dropped the hook around the other side of Tarifa where we are no longer on a lee shore.

Playing with the Locals - Tarifa

Tarifa

11^th June 2009

We awoke at 7:30 with the wind blowing hard outside. We were glad that we had moved around Cape Tarifa yesterday.

With just the reefed headsail set, we set off at 6-7 knots with a load of current against us creating wind over tide conditions that were a bit messy. The forecast from Tarifa gave F7 at Tarifa but significantly less elsewhere and we slowly lost the wind and passed Cape Trafalgar with light airs dead downwind at 4.5 - 5.5 knots under full sail.

12^th June 2009

We lost the wind somewhere just past Cape Trafalgar yesterday afternoon and had to motor all night. I thought that we would start getting headwinds since we had wave action against us but they failed to materialise and the sunrise brought light breezes that we managed to sail for a couple of hours today before it died again. We arrived at the anchorage at about 10:30 after surging against the rapids and overfalls at the entrance to the Faro lagoon at half-ebb tide.

We are having Bolognese tonight made with bacon since it is the only meat that we have on board and has managed to survive the warm fridge conditions. Tomorrow, we will head to Olhao in the dinghy to get some more provisions and have a look around. Now, it's time for a chill-out and early night since we have the usual problem of single-overnighter fatigue.

13^th June 2009

The forecast has changed its mind and it might be possible to start heading North on Tuesday. So we upped the hook this morning and started heading Westwards in preparation. We are heading towards Portimao at the moment (8 degrees 32' West) where we will try to find a sheltered spot to anchor and will then head West again to give us good proximity to C de S Vincente. No wind to speak of and so we have been motoring again although there is a swell from the SE that could make anchoring a pain.

Somewhere along the route, we will need to re-provision and that will probably be at Baleeira (8 degrees 55' west) since the shops will close for Sunday tomorrow.

14^th June 2009

We anchored inside the moles that form the entrance to Portimao yesterday and the surroundings are quite pleasant except for the Grand Prix Jet Ski championships going on here all day long. We went into town to get some shopping in and that is all we have done. The skies are cloudy and it is hot and sultry.

The weather keeps changing its mind about next week but we may have the opportunity to run North around about Wednesday so we shall head West tomorrow in preparation.

15^th June 2009

After a struggle with some ropes caught around our chain, we got the anchor up and started to leave only to find someone on a nearby boat jumping up and down and waving furiously. We motored over to see what the fuss was all about. It was John Owen from the Emsworth Cruising Association (to which we belong). We chatted for a while whilst holding station and then sailed off towards Baleeira. After not very long, we decided that we really should go back and invite this him for dinner and so we returned and dropped the hook again.

It was a very slim chance that we met up since he has only just returned from England after having to attend a funeral there. What a small world it is.

16^th June 2009

37 degrees 01' North, 8 degrees 55' West

We motored with a very light Southerly past Lagos and then the wind did a complete flip and started blowing from the North North West. A reef was quickly put in the main and then we started putting a few rolls in the headsail. With the wind hard from this direction we instantly decided that it would be unwise to poke our heads around Cabo De Sao Vincente and made for Baleeira. Eventually, we decided to do away with the headsail altogether as we were screaming along at over 8 knots and could not be bothered to put the second reef in the main with just a short distance to go.

So, we have dropped the hook in the same spot that we did on the 29th July 2006 and it is blowing just as hard now as it was then. The good thing about this anchorage as opposed to the one round the next headland is that you can feel the full force of the wind here and therefore can tell when it eases up. If it does ease overnight then we will get going again and head for Sines.

17^th June 2009

We found the wind abating at Baleeira and set off again only to be caught in more strong winds just around the corner. The wind was a straight Northerly and we thought that heading into it and the Ocean swell would be very uncomfortable so we dropped the hook again just inside Cabo De Sao Vincente with the view of leaving at midnight if things abated. At midnight, the wind was still howling in the rigging and so we went back to bed again.

At 04:30, we were awoken by the Portugese Navy - 4 men in a RIB from their mother ship. We had forgotten to put out our anchor light (oops!) and they wanted to know who we were and why we did not have a light on. They were pleasant but checked all our paperwork etc etc. They also checked the date on our flares and found them out of date as of Dec last year (oops again!) and then checked my ICC certificate that was also out of date (oops, oops!). I did not realise that the ICC ran out.

The winds had abated and turned Easterly and so we decided to lift the hook and set off. We had a good sail around CDSV at 7+ knots and then it all petered out again so we put the engine on again. It was still playing up and having serious problems with higher revs. After a while of fretting and fiddling with the throttle, I decided to turn it of and wallow whilst I changed the filters. They were changed back in Simi and the sight glass was clean as a whistle and the filter does not look clogged but the change seems to have done the trick. Now I just need to find somewhere that sells filters for the D2-55 since I have no more secondary filters left.

We have 37 miles to go to Sines and the time is 11:00, we are hoping for some wind that we can use to get us there.

18^th June 2009

we anchored next to a German sailing boat last night and he gave us a wave and seemed to be wanting to tell us something. Since neither of us had our dinghies launched, I called him on the VHF and found out that, just outside the harbour, his engine had failed and he had to have a tow into the small inner harbour where we are anchored. It turned out that his filters were blocked and the local police had told him that another yacht has had the same problem only a couple of days ago. He had filled up in Almeira just up the Med side of the Spanish coastline. I told him that we had the same problem and that we were going to get more filters today on the assumption that we would need one set for every 30 hours running until we replaced our fuel.

This morning we all took a taxi to the local engineering outlet and I got 5 primary and 5 secondary filters and the Germans were less lucky with filters for their Nanni diesel but did get secondary filters.

20^th June 2009

Yesterday Evening, we picked the hook up and headed off in light airs Northwards. The Germans (Klaus & Brigetta on 'Santa Maria II') had left half an hour before us and radioed to say the seas were calm. We thought about going all the way to Peniche but decided to call it a day at Cascais and arrived there at 5am and went back to bed. Santa Maria II only motors at 3 knots and so we had passed them relatively quickly but we were surprised when they arrired at Cascais 5 hours behind us. It turned out that they had opted for Peniche but found 20 knot headwinds, rough seas and fog past Cabo Resa and Cabo Roca and had decided to turn back.

We went into town - which is very nice and chic, bought some supplies and then invited Klaus & Brigetta over for drinks and snacks before getting to bed early.

This morning, we set off at 7am in flat calm seas and followed 3 other yachts that were headed North. As we approached Cabo Raso, we watched as one yacht with sails up heeled over hard and the other started hobby-horsing in the swell. A bank of fog ran all the way down the coastline and the white water was quite visible - it was still blowing hard from the North. We did not particularly want to bash hard to windward for the next 40 miles to Peniche and so did a prompt about-turn and headed back to the anchorage. On the way in, we met Santa Maria II and they also turned around. The forecast for tomorrow is for lighter winds in a more useful direction and we shall have another go then. Of course, the strong winds and fog could just be a local phenomenon but we did not want to test out that theory! Maybe tomorrow?

So we are having a rest day today and then tomorrow, hopefully, we will get as far as Bayona or even beyond. What we don't want is a NEasterly breeze since we will be headed East of North!

22^nd June 2009

05:30. 40 degrees 47' North, 9 degrees 20' West

Yesterday, we have had very little in the way of wind since leaving Cascais and the bit we have had has not been of much use. Fliss managed to squeeze some power out of the sails whilst I was off watch but the sails would not play properly for me later on. Sunday was very foggy and I spent the whole day staring at the radar. The sea was flat apart from a gentle swell and I kept staring at weak images on the screen and trying to see them in real life by peering through the mist. I eventually worked out that most of the images were fishing pots that gave an echo almost as strong as the small plastic day-fisherboats that tie up to buoys whilst the men drink beer and play with their rods.

However, the mist eventually cleared as we passed Berlenga Island and we had a good view of that beautiful island that we visited 3 years ago. We were sorely tempted to stop but we really must get the miles under our belts whilst the conditions are not trying to push us the wrong way. Ho Hum!

At 01:10, I was playing with the laptop when there was a thunk followed by a barely discernable change in engine noise. I moved around listening to the engine and could not work out whether I was just hearing things. I then noticed that our speed had dropped over half a knot but the engine was still revving at the same speed. I checked the Aries rudder with a torch but nothing had snagged on it. We were still going too slowly so I put the engine in neutral, waited until we stopped and peered over the side - surely enough, there was a bundle of orange rope hanging off the prop. Putting in reverse did not clear it and so I had to wake Fliss who held the torch and assited whilst I climbed down the rudder with a bread knife tied to a stick to cut it free. I am glad that the water is not too cold in these parts and that there was no wind and no sea running.

At 04:30, a bit of breeze picked up on the beam and we managed to turn the engine off. It increased a few knots and had us yomping along at over 7 knots for some time but is slowly dying now even though we are still maintaining 6.5 knots. Let's hope it continues as it is for the rest of the day.

41 degrees 33 North, 9 degrees 13 West @ 14:30

We made good progress last night and have sailed well until now. The wind is dying a bit but we are still getting along. The forecast for Finisterre is 'Rough to Very Rough', seas 2.5 to 3m coming from the East and, although the wind is set to die off by tonight, we don't want to poke our noses around the cape to meet the mess coming at us. So, we are now headed for Bayona and hope to be there before dark although the entrance is lit and we remember the layout from being there last time so I don't suppose it matters if we arrive in the dark. Hopefully we will be able to sail all the way and find a suitable spot to drop the hook just past the marina.

If the forecast bodes well tomorrow than we will set off mid morning and head straight for La Coruna on an overnight passage that gets us around the cape in daylight.

23^rd June 2009

We arrived in Bayona at about 9:30pm with grey overcast skies and dropped the hook outside the marina. We decided not to move on today as I have had a bit of a cold and was a little tired as a result. Since we have stopped here and can re provision here, we have decided not to go to La Coruna but to go to Camarinas and wait there for a suitable time to cross the Biscay.

We went into town and did some shopping and then I did 2 runs with jerry cans for refuelling and that has been the sum total of the day except for another dinghy repair. We found that the dinghy was soft and then heard a hissing coming from the rear of one of the tubes. The engine to the dinghy was scratched-up in Cascais as the tide rose and jammed it under the concrete pier but we thought the dinghy was ok. Not so. There is a small scatch but enough to leak air so I have added another patch - we need to get somewhere to buy more glue - Falmouth here we come!

Off tomorrow to Camarinas (70 miles) and then wait and hopefully get on with some boat jobs.

24^th June 2009

We left Bayona at 5am and have had very little wind but what there was has been from the South. Even so, we have had to keep the engine on to make good progress so that we cover the 70 miles to Camarinas. So far, an uneventful journey and we hope to get in by 6 or 7pm. We now have tide with us giving 0.8 of a knot which is certainly helping and a very welcome rarity.

The weather pattern over the next 3 days is very good for crossing the Biscay but we are not mentally prepared for the run and want a few days relaxation instead. So, we shall stop at Camarinas and hope that the sun breaks out (it has been grey and cool the last couple of days). Looking forwards, Sunday might be a good day to leave but we shall see how the patterns emerge over the next few days.

No wind at sunset

25^th June 2009

The final leg into Camarinas was perfect as the wind increased enough and we also bore away from dead downwind enough to get the engine off and have a pleasant sail with up to a knot of current in our favour. It is windy cold and grey this morning and we are anchored just North of the harbour. Last time we were here, boats anchored inside the harbour but there are a number of pontoons now available for yachts and the only anchored boats are where we have now dropped the hook. I assume that anchoring in the harbour is now discouraged but we shall take the dinghy in and find out.

The weather is looking fine for a Saturday departure but we shall keep our eyes on it tomorrow since there is a nasty low pressure just West of the Azores. The view is that it will curve North and not affect us but we shall see.

26^th June 2009

Looks like a F6 or 7 tomorrow and, although it is in a good direction, we have decided that the low pressure system driving it (990mb) is a bit too close for comfort and will wait an extra day before departing so we can see where it is really headed. So, currently it looks as if we shall attempt the Biscay on Sunday.

We have done a few minor boat jobs this morning, went into town again this afternoon and also sneaked into the marina showers when no-one was looking and are feeling beautifully clean and fresh. We cannot remember the last time we had a shower.

We are glad to hear that warm weather is now with you. We were getting worried that you might not be able to sort out the damp and cold before we arrived back but we are feeling as though you are now making a real effort - thanks for that!

There was a new looking steel boat in the marina and the captain and crew were all gathered around the front looking at a big scrape up the bow. They had come into the marina, put it hard in reverse and shot forwards quickly into the pontoon. It was failure of the gear cable like you have had once.

We are trying to get Naz all clean and tidy before our arrival back. Unfortunately the water here is green and murky and Naz has a green and slimy skirt growing that is difficult to get off without erasing the antifouling. Never mind, she should look presentable for aour homecoming.

27^th June 2009

43 degrees 06' North, 9 degrees 12.7' West

we decided to move across to the South end of the bay opposite Mugia since the forecast is for strong winds tonight from the South. With luck, they will ease by the time we plan to leave tomorrow morning and we shall not leave until we get the latest forecast tomorrow to ensure that the F9 severe gales blowing in all areas around us are heading North and away.....

WARNING NR 331 , FRIDAY 26 JUNE 2009 AT 2045 UTC

GENERAL SYNOPSIS, FRIDAY 26 AT 12 UTC

LOW 1003 38N23W EXPECTED 992 46N17W BY 27/12UTC THEN 985 50N20W BY

28/00UTC.

FARADAY

FROM 27/18UTC TO 28/12UTC

FAR NORTHEAST, WEST OR NORTHWEST 8 OR 9. SEVERE GUSTS.

ROMEO

FROM 27/06UTC TO 28/06UTC AT LEAST

CYCLONIC 8 OR 9. SEVERE GUSTS.

CHARCOT

IMMINENT TO 27/18UTC

IN EAST, SOUTH OR SOUTHEAST 8. SEVERE GUSTS.

PAZENN

FROM 27/15UTC TO 28/06UTC

IN WEST, SOUTHEAST 8. GUSTS.

Not exactly an Azores high going on out there. However, the winds are set to be no more than F4/5 in our direction and we shall again check tomorrow to see how things are shaping up.

From the sea, Mugia looks like it was designed in the 1960s with old-style mid-rise apartments - not very pretty. However, once you walk into the centre it is very pleasant with old granite stone buildings and a nice atmosphere. The local church on the headland is very pretty and there was a wedding taking place. We stood and watched the bride arrive with her long flowing dress and veil billowing in the wind.

We went wild and crazy and had a beer at one of the seafront cafes to say 'Goodbye' to the continent and are now back on Naz with Fliss preparing a pizza for later. A British boat is anchored inside the harbour and they have invited us for sundowners at 6pm so we shall go for an hour and then get to bed early ready for our next passage. The harbour has quite a few mooring bouys inside and we did not want to drop our hook in there amongst the inevitable anchor-fouling concrete blocks that will be scattered on the bottom.

28^th June 2009

43 degrees 18' North, 9 degrees 09' West, 12:00 BST

we had a nice drink with Colin and Annie on their Warrior 40 and managed to leave after an hour so that we could get some shut-eye. Not so! The wind picked up as the predicted front went through and it gusted fiercly off the land making Naz dance backwards and forwards with the end of the harbour wall only 500m behind us. Fliss went to bed but I stayed up on anchor watch as the rain fell in curtains (very nice as it will have cleaned the Red Sea muck off the rigging).

The wind veered at 4am and I went to bed having only snatched snoozes for the previous 6 hours.

This morning, all was calm and the sun was shining. We picked up the forecast again and decided to leave for England - 460 miles to Falmouth. We are now goosewinged with just enough wind to keep the sails set and with the engine on. The forecast is for calm weather today and tonight with 15-20 knots tomorrow and the day after Southerly or South Easterly. Let's hope the forecast is correct since it is still kicking up a stink to the West. Colin had the 500mb weather charts and he said that the reason these lows are not running up the English channel is due to a static high (at high level) that has killed the jetstreams that drive these systems. He suggested that this phenomenon will remain for the forseeable future and we hope it does.

Colin and Annie left England in April and are heading for the Med. They have no plans except that they will sail to wherever for the next 11 years by which time they will have reached the age of 70. Now that's the way to do it!

29^th June 2009

45 degrees 30' North, 7 degrees 55' West

We had some motoring yesterday followed by a bit of gentle sailing and then back to motoring as the wind eased off last night. This morning, the breeze slowly filled in and we turned the engine off just before dawn. I went to bed at 7am and when I awoke, we were storming along at over 7 knots on a broad reach with full sail. It has continued in this way so far and is due to remain like this until tomorrow morning when we expect to lose the wind again. So we are eating up the miles whilst we can and now have only 297 miles to go to our waypoint at the Manacles.

30^th June 2009

47 degrees 02' North, 6 degrees 59' West 03:30 BST

A good days sailing but the breeze departed at about 9pm and we have been motorsailing since. It is a pitch black cloudy night with some rain which makes life a bit tedious especially as there is a bit of shipping to look out for. We are thinking of turning around and heading back to the warm and dry.

We were going to meet up with Ian and Kathy in Falmouth. Ian left the Azores singlehanded on Saturday and his wife Kathy is in Falmouth with a bad back - I think we mentioned them earlier. We don't think that Ian will get to Falmouth before we need to leave and so, unfortunately, we will probably miss him.

We saw, and almost ran-down a huge whale this evening. It was black, had a stubby head and old-ladies gill-like neck. It was acting very strangely on the surface and there appeared to be what looked like blood in the water. After we had passed, we watched it spouting again and again as though it was exerting itself at the surface. We looked in our identification book and decided that it may have been a Long-finned Pilot Whale. Fliss suggested that it may have been giving berth - we could not otherwise account for the strange behaviour since it has no predators.

We had instant noodles for dinner last night which is a far cry from the delicacies that you were tucking into. Both of us were hungry again by midnight and had mustard sandwiches with ham garnish. We are looking forward to getting to Falmouth and having Cornish pasties and chips.

1^st July 2009

As we approached Falmouth we were stopped by Her Majesty's Customs who gave Nadezhda a serious checkover. They must have been on Nadezhda for well over an hour looking for drugs & people. Naz has been swabbed for traces of Class A drugs and finally we were given a clean bill of health. They found our tobacco supplies which was ok as it wasn't duty free but they didn't comment of the 70 odd litres of booze stashed in the bilges.

Friendly people & it's good to know that they check long distance boats. The reason we were checked wasn't that they tracked us in but the amount of sailing paraphernalia on the back of Naz.

6^th July 2009

We have been utterly lazy over the last few days and have not moved from the anchorage in Falmouth. Having said that, the weather has been gusty, cold and rainy since we arrived and has not encouraged us at all. It is now blowing F8 and the showers, when they arrive, are heavy and merciless.

It is promised to be down to a F7 and reducing tomorrow and so we will probably go as far as Fowey.

Today, I have been updating my CV and logging my presence on the internet jobsites. I also called up some people from Fujitsu and found out who was the latest director of the Post Office Account. It turns out to be an ex-boss of mine and so I called and re-introduced myself. Alan D'Alvarez knows me and said he would call back in the next few days - if there was anything suitable he would recommend me. Let's hope.

We are hoping that Ian on Ariel finds his way in today. It is about time that he got here from the Azores since the wind has been behind him for most of the way. Still, if he does arrive today, I would imagine that all he will want to do is sleep.

Yesterday, we managed to find about 2 hours to go for a walk around Pendennis Head. The rain held off apart from some light spitting and we got back to Naz just before the heavens opened.

9^th July 2009

The day before yesterday, Ian arrived back in Falmouth after having a bit of a wild time in the Biscay with waves breaking into the back of the boat. When he arrived, he had not slept for 48 hours and his eyes were glowing red. We spent the evening with him and Kathy and left early yesterday for a good sail to Salcombe to meet Bobs and her Friend who arrived an hour before us. They spent the evening on the boat and we all had pizza for dinner. They went back to their tent by taxi at about 11:30 (late for us!).

Today, we met up with the girls again and had a nosy around Salcombe. We were just starting out for a walk and looked down at the river to see two boats alongside Naz and people running on deck. I ran down, got in the dinghy and powered over to find a gaggle of harbourmasters. Apparently we had been reported as dragging and the guys on board had just lifted our anchor. Someone doesn't know the difference between swinging and dragging since there was no wind, the tide was fairly slack and, with the hook up, we did not move from our position (40 metres of chain in 5 metres of water!!). I picked up a buoy and when we went back to the boat, we re-anchored and I put one upstream and one downstream so we hope that we will not be confusing people in future.

Saturday looks grim in terms of weather and so we shall leave here on Sunday, stop at Studland and then leave Studland at about 10:00 to go to back to our old mooring.

13^th July 2009

Welcome Home!

Mum & Dad met us at our old mooring and we tied up and celebrated with a bottle of champagne.

Entering the River Hamble

Can someone take our lines?

Flying our 'Brag Flags' of visted countries

14^th July 2009

A telephone call came from Fujitsu. The day after arriving home it seems that a budget has been approved for me to start work. The words “We want you to start as soon as possible” gave me the willies since even the concept of working seemed remote after 3 years on a boat. We needed somewhere to live, suits to buy, transport to arrange et etc.

Still it was very, very welcome news.

Tunisia to Gibraltar

2009-10-04T04:59:00.000-07:00

24^th May 2009

Yesterday, the winds appeared in our favor and were set to be at least favorable or calm. There is a big high appearing over Europe with a low over North Africa that is set to produce strong NEasters by early Wednesday morning all the way through Friday to the South West of the Balearic's. We were hoping that we might manage 5.5 to 6 knots if we kept going with engine and then only catch part of the strong winds as they build behind us.

Not so. This morning, the current built to over a knot against us and the wind has headed us such that we are only doing 4 knots. I dialed a higher resolution GRIB for the area affected by the strong winds and it confirmed 30-35 knots in a swath between Cartagena, Africa and Ibiza. Knowing the Gribs, you can always add a few knots to the forecast and we don't want to go there (I checked an old GRIB against the recorded windspeed for our trip across to NZ as a little exercise - for 30 knots please read 35 gusting 40+). So, after much umming and ahhing, we have decided to set a course for Majorca and keep an eye on things. This decision started to materialize when we read Jimmy Cornel's routing guide that suggests keeping off the Algerian coast to keep away from the worst of the Eastbound current. So, hopefully, we will start to lose the current against us and will be snugged in an anchorage waiting to catch the tail-end of whatever is blowing towards the West once it has abated a bit.

It will be a bit of a battle up to Majorca for the next couple of days and we will probably use a lot of that diesel that we bought. Never mind, a bit disappointing but par for the course. Having got rid of the Red Sea, we really want to get the Med over and done with. It is not enjoyable for those on a tight schedule. Then it will only be headwinds and adverse current up the Portuguese coast and we will then be able to get more favorable conditions!!

The Aries seems to have responded to my repairs. I had to hang over the back of Naz after we had got under way to re-mesh the cogs more accurately but it now seems to be working ok. The wooden bit that allows the tiller pilot to operate the aries has been glued together with securing pieces of plywood and also seems ok.

25^th May 2009

The weather does not know what it is doing. Or maybe it does and we are the ones who haven't got a clue.

There was no wind to speak of last night and we motored NW to get some Northing in away from the African coast currents and to line ourselves up for a better angle for the next leg. Our destination is still dependent on the winds and we have very mixed information on that front. The GRIB Files show light Westerlies tonight and light Northerlies tomorrow followed by breezy NE Tuesday night. Just right for heading West and aiming for Ibiza and on to the Spanish coastline where we would stop to let the gales die out that are predicted further West.

Navtex has a different spin on things. South of the Balearic's shows NW 4-5 and the outlook says that there is a threat of Gale or severe gale from the NW from Gulf of Lyon to the Balearic. This must be the Mistral effect, a build up of high pressure releasing over the mountains of Europe and flushing into the Med. We are hoping that this threat does not materialize since we would be catching the bottom end of it.

So our plans are changing by the minute and we have a number of options from Mallorca (couple of likely looking anchorages there), Ibiza (some good protection from any direction) and Spain (not many great anchorages but well endowed with marinas). We do not want to go South since we cannot stop in Algeria and we do not want to get into the gales that are forecast to the West of us. These have increased in the GRIB forecast to 35 knots (read 40++).

26^th May 2009

Thankfully the gales didn't reach us but it's kicking off in Menorca. Thank god we didn't go there as it's forecast for gale 9 till tomorrow at the least.

At the moment we have light'ish headwinds but it is slowing us down. Thoughts for the moment...

We have 34 miles till a small island South of Mallorca where we could drop the hook & wait for the winds to come around which are due later on today or carry on burning fuel to Ibiza. It's all dependent what the weather forecast says which is due in 50 minutes.

We motored hard all yesterday and today with light winds that were not really sufficient to even motor sail with. So, we bashed the oncoming swell that always seems to be our fate and managed 4-5 knots with loads of revs. Luckily, the current in this part of the world is about 0.3 of a knot in our favour and we felt truly blessed.

We have just arrived at Isla De Cabrera and have decided that it is not worth pushing on until the winds that are promised to us actually arrive. We will pick up a new GRIB file this afternoon and decide how soon we can leave here without running into the back of the severe gales that are forecast towards Gibraltar. With any luck, we MIGHT be able to ride into the back of the strong winds and carry the lessening winds all the way to Gib before it all turns into a Westerly (probably around Sunday Lunch). The threat of gale from the Gulf of Lyons has been lifted but we pretty well know for sure that conditions where we are headed will be rough - The GRIBS have been forecasting it for about 4 days.

We have been trying to avoid marina's and we would rather not use them since anchoring is much easier especially when we may want to leave at short notice and in the middle of the night. Also, in the Med, they Med-moor - this is very dangerous:

Damage to rear nav light and banged Aries when a boat hit us in Gib.
Damage to Cap rail when a boat hit us in Turkey
Damage to Aries when a policeman hit us in Tunisia

Plus the hassle of trying to maneuver and trying to get on and off Naz plus the extortionate charges for zero service

And, we have only Med moored seven times!!

Unfortunately, there are only a few anchorages along the Spanish coastline so we might have to do it again.

It is nice to stop and turn the engine off. The island here is quite pretty and is a local nature reserve - no other boats or signs of life but the bay is full of mooring buoys and we have attached to one of these. I think that we must have motored most of the way from Suez and a bit of sailing would be a blessed relief if we can find the right conditions that take us where we want to go. We hate motoring but love the engine!

27^th May 2009

We did not stay long at Cabrera. We had dinner (Pizza again) and, by 20:00, the wind was coming from the East with enough to get us along and so we dropped the mooring and set off towards Ibiza. For a few hours, the going was good but eventually, the wind died and, when we got down to 2.5 knots, I turned the engine on again and it has been on ever since. We got a new weather forecast this morning and decided to carry on past Formetera and Ibiza towards a little anchorage just past Cartegena . The plan is to stop there overnight on Thursday and leave Friday morning to ride the back of the gales towards Gibraltar. If we are lucky, we will get into Gib on Sunday morning just before the forecast tells us of a switch to Westerlies. All great in the planning and we shall see what transpires. If the weather is not too strong when we arrive at the anchorage, then we might plough on regardless just to make sure we cover the distance.

Fliss....

We only stayed at Cabrera for 3 hours in the end. The wind changed to the North East so Pete suddenly wanted to leave just after dinner. I must admit to being totally fed up. I was looking forward to a nights sleep then going again.

We are now 25 miles from Ibiza and we'll have a look at the weather forecast as to what we do, we don't want to go too far west as it's kicking up a right pong, 33 - 40 knots of wind, so it's either stay here for 12hours & then carry on to Carteghena or just carry on straight there. It's another overnighter if we carry on. Today is 10 days at sea with a 36 hour break in Tunisia. So I'm very tired.

But from here it's only 380 miles to Gib and it looks like maybe, maybe subject to the weather we might get to Gib Sunday or Monday.

It's about 760 miles after Gib to the UK and we're planning on slow hopping it back so it's still scheduled for arrival in the UK, 7th July'ish.

28^th May 2009

Welcome to the Western Hemisphere!!!!

Formentera as we breeze past

We had light winds coming away from Ibiza but the wind picked up a a bit around midnight and we were able to set sail properly and turn the engine off. Overnight, we varied between 3.5 and 6 knots and the breeze properly kicked in this morning giving a good speed of about 6-7 knots. Fliss got me up to put a reef in at about 09:00 and we stormed along towards the Spanish coast. At about 11:00, I got up and we reviewed the forecast......it looks as though the wind is in our favour for a good three days and so we decided that, since the weather was starting to get a bit frisky, we would head for shelter in a likely looking bay. We saw three boats going the opposite direction, either they are completely mad or we are getting very soft. The first one had only headsail out, a very nice scimitar-style piece of kit and was trying to tack. Each time he tried, he either did not make it, or he had his sail so pressed against his rigging that he could not budge the sail onto the opposite side. We watched as he attempted this 3 times and then he was over the horizon bound, unintentionally, for Africa.

We are glad to have a brief rest and will probably set sail for Gib at 02:00 tomorrow morning to catch the rest of the Easterlies. Hopefully we will have not lost the wind (it was about F7+ when we came in here).

If we get to Gib on Sunday morning, then we are 12 days ahead of schedule and we can relax a little bit. Not too long in Gib but we can at least release the pressure of "Go, Go, Go...." all the time and maybe save some fuel as a result. It will be nice to have a holiday for a while!!

29^th May 2009

We set off this morning at 05:00 and motored for a short while until the wind assisted. It died off again later and we had to double reef the main to stop the flapping from shaking Naz to bits. At about 10:00 the wind returned and has been steadily picking up again so that we are now back to two reefs and are just thinking about furling a bit of jib.

The wind is behind us and the current is giving us almost a knot of lift in the right direction as we head for Cabo de Gata. I assume that it will die off after the cape but it is giving us a welcome speed of 8 knots SOG.

We are hoping that the winds decrease a bit as well so that we can have a more peaceful night, the increase is probably afternoon breezes plus a bit of acceleration from the steep coastline. Still, no complaints!

The weather looks like it will calm down over the next couple of days but remaining in the right direction. Landfall in Gib will hopefully be late tomorrow night or early Sunday morning and we will drop the hook there and wait until daylight to see if we can get a berth in a marina.

I am not sure where any adverse current might get us. The predominant current is Easterly but there is a West going stream along the coast of Spain. As we approach Gib, we are going to keep North and hopefully catch an eddying current there to carry us to Europa Point at the tip of the Rock. With our current speed, we will hit the tide in the wrong direction but only for a short distance we hope. We are hoping that the winds have eased there because we don't want a lot of wind over tide as we arrive. The weather files suggest 10-15 knots which would be fine.

Later that day..........................

I did have to go and reef the headsail. After that, we reefed it still further and we prepared to gybe past Cabo de Gato onto our direct course to Gibraltar. By the time we had .... headed towards the wind, taken off the gybe preventer, moved it to the other side, gybed, reconnected the gybe preventer, corrected course, furled in the headsail and disconnected the jib pole ...... we decided that it was now blowing so hard that we did not need the jib and so I was spared the effort of having to pole it out the other side.

We careered off on our new course at 7.5 knots (8.5 over ground) and it was not too long before we decided that 2 reefs in the main and no headsail was a bit unbalancing for Naz, especially as the waves were short and steep. Moments later, I was back on deck fighting to put the third reef in the main which is not that simple when you are blasting along downwind at speed and trying to pull the third reefing clew in against the strength of the wind. So, by the time I had spent 15 more minutes messing around on deck and had returned to the cockpit, the wind had increased and we were still doing 7-8 knots boatspeed. Luckily, by this time, the waves had been blown flat and the ride through the water was relatively smooth.

It was not long before we decided that the mainsail was a little too much for the conditions so we pulled a small amount of jib out and dropped and secured the mainsail. This had the desired effect of slowing us down but the little hankie of jib was snatching backwards and forwards and shaking the forestay too much. More deckwork later and we had the scrap of jib poled out, pulled taut and unshakable. Fliss told me that, whilst I was messing with the jib pole, we were doing 4.5 knots boatspeed without any sail - I'm glad that we had been slowing down a little over the last couple of days to allow the gales in this area to pass by!!.

Fliss.....

It ended up quite comfortable and stable even though we reckon that we were having the strongest winds we had ever encountered (with the exception of Cape Melville). This morning it was very quiet then about an hour or so later the wind picked up. The weather forecast was force 4-6 so we weren't worried actually what it turned into was a severe gale 9 with short & steep waves. We took in our headsail & took in even more main sail. We ended up with a scrap of main out & we're still going too fast. Jesus we thought what do we do next? the only options available was to take all the sail down & get blown by the wind or chuck a drouge out the back to slow us down. We don't think we've ever seen conditions as bad as it was today.

I called up Almeria Traffic on the VHF to ask if the forecast had changed and they were brilliant. The guy told me that conditions were due to ease & that we must contact them immediately if there was a problem, It's comforting to know that someone knows were out here.

Bloody hell this place packs a punch! Anyway it's 11pm and the wind switched itself like a light bulb, we've still got left over seas but no wind, thank the lord for small mercy's. Tomorrow's set to be light, here's hoping as we don't want to go around Europa Point in screaming winds which will be against the tide, it would be nasty!

You can't fault the Spanish marine support, they broadcast forecasts every two hours. Pete reckons that it's better for a women to call them up than a male as they are more sympathic. It has been proven.

So we are set to get to Gib either late tomorrow night or1st thing Sunday...

Pete....

Fliss went off watch and I kept an eye on things. It wasn't too long before I was able to unfurl another scrap of jib, and then another, and then another until we had full jib and were being picked up by short, steep tumbling waves and being surged forwards erratically whilst dipping alternate gunnels. Why is it that, when the wind is blowing furiously, the seas are blown flat and then when it calms down a bit, they rear up short, steep and breaking??

By 10:30, the sea had calmed a bit and we were only managing 1-2 knots with full jib so we stowed the jib pole and turned the engine on. Back to motoring AGAIN.

So the old saying is true...In the Med, there is either no wind or too much.

30^th May 2009

Gib is now beckoning enticingly with the thoughts of re provisioning. No more tomatoes left on board, a few slices of dried bread, mustard running low, cheese sparse, no salad or greens and the last carton of milk. We are down to dried foods, canned foods, potatoes and onions - not a lime in sight! Morrison's awaits with fresh veg and salad cream, cold meats and mustard, Stilton and Hovis biscuits, gin and limes and much, much more. Unfortunately, the chips that we had the last time that we were in Gib were greasy, soft and tepid and turned into a homogeneous grey sludge in the paper wrapping before we even attempted to eat them - we threw them away. However, this time we will go on a hunt for decent chips with Egon Ronay avarice.

31^st May 2009

After yesterdays fun & games we motored gently towards Gib. At approximately 6:30pm we spotted Europa Point! What a great sight! We've done it... circumnavigation complete. Mixed feeling really, we are excited about getting to Gib but now it's all down hill to England and we both feel a certain amount of anti-climax.

We are totally exhausted and looking forward to hitting the supermarkets to pick up all the foods we have been lusting over but tonight we'll crack open a bottle (or two) of fine wines given to us by generous cruisers to toast our completion.

Nothing like a pint of English Real Ale

Greece to Tunisia

2009-08-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

17^th May 2009

Westward Ho! Goodbye Greece.

We headed off today in a Westerly direction. The wind is supposed to be from the South but there is very little that we can see here. Unfortunately, the steep swell remains from the previous days and we are motoring with a cross swell that is having us over from gunnel to gunnel and probably not doing the engine mounts any good at all nor is it any good for the rigging as we have the mainsail up with one reef to try and remain more upright. Very uncomfortable and we hope it settles down soon. We seem to have had no good sailing for months and both of us will be glad to get all these miserable passages over and done with - it has been a slow and arduous slog and is set to remain that way until La Coruna in Northern Spain. Therefore, we will keep an eye on the weather and simply slog it out as far as we can whilst we can make progress Westwards - The forecast looks ok for the moment but means that we will be motoring until we run out of fuel. Options are; Malta, Carthage (Tunisia), Tabarka (Tunisia), Sardinia, Balearic's, Spain and Gibraltar. Very Very unlikely we will get to Gib before the next bout of strong Westerlies arrives to halt our progress.

18^th May 2009

We had a decent bit of sailing for about 5 hours yesterday after my griping and then the wind died and we motored all night with a swell still coming from the South. The light breeze headed us just before dawn and slowed the boat speed with some weird chop but later this morning it veered and we were able to get the head-sail out but still with the motor on. At 11am the wind picked up a bit and we got sailing proper until we were reefing the main and jib in a NNW F5-6. It has calmed a bit and the reefs are now out again with the wind at 60 degrees to the starboard. We are keeping a Westbound track to keep some degrees of leeway in the bag for when the wind starts to head us, theoretically, we now have 13 degrees that we can pay off if we need to.

A few ships were sighted last night and came fairly close, one was a tug with badly lit tow but I remember the light signals from the Malacca Straits and managed to pick out the tow with the binoculars.

Fliss wants to stop at Carthage because it is supposed to be an interesting place and I just want to keep going whilst the weather allows us to. I think that we will have to flip a coin for it and, even if I win, we might end up in Carthage anyway! Problem solved.

The forecast is looking not too bad at the moment although it may be breezy tonight and we might have to use those spare degrees but the weather on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning looks ok for a transit of the Malta/Sicilian channel which normally has strong Nor'Westerlies blowing down it.

19^th May 2009

A little bit of sailing was done yesterday and we managed about an hour at 5am and a couple of half-hour stints since. Other than that, it has been motor-sailing to keep us going. Unfortunately, the sea here is nothing like the English Channel and sometimes is lumpy and confused even when there is little wind. Therefore, when you feel that there is enough wind to get you going, the sea stops you dead in the water. The sea is now calm with a gentle swell but no wind to speak of and so we are motoring again.

Malta is 70 miles away and we have about 200 miles to go before we are out of the Sicilian Strait. It looks as though the winds will head us a bit there but it is to be expected since the geography of the place enhances the general trend of NWesterlies. Also, we are expecting stronger currents against us here as the land squeezes and accelerates the Eastbound trend.

20^th May 2009

Last night was dead calm as we rounded the bottom of Sicily and took on the rest of the shipping that was doing the same thing. There are no separation zones here and that made life interesting for Fliss who did the first dark watch. After my watch started, we hugged the coastline and most of the big ships stayed to seaward where I could see them clearly without the backlighting of the towns/villages. However, this meant that we were in the firing line of the fishermen whose paths are more erratic. Still, with the engine going, we had radar on which makes life so much easier since it sees boats that are almost invisible to the naked eye.

It's a lovely day today and the sea is calm for a change. Usually, even though there is no wind, there are waves around that slow us down. Here in the shelter of the Strait of Sardinia it must be sheltered since we are close to land and the strait is only 150 miles across so no mush coming from distant winds. The wind is light at about a F3 and it is perfect sailing weather if only we had the time for it. Unfortunately the wind is coming directly from where we want to go and we are passage making rather than sailing. We stayed close to Sicily hoping that the NWester would curve around enough with onshore breezes to get us along. Unfortunately that is not the case, it curved enough to be useless in any direction and therefore we are now motoring offshore to see if we can make a more-or-less direct run to Cape Bon (on the African Coast) once the land-effect reduces. It will be nice to go sailing again without the pressure of needing to be somewhere sometime.

It looks like we will have to stop before Gibraltar as we have just finished one tank of fuel and have started the second. That's 200 litres used which is Eu200 (Greek prices) and much more will used by the time we get to re-fill. So, the plan is to go to Tunisia to top up and then that should get us to Gibraltar where fuel should be duty free (or at least a bit cheaper than Spain). The port in Tunisia that we have earmarked is Tabarka which is the Westernmost port of entry/exit almost on the border with Algeria. They have a fuel dock there and we hope that we can re-fill directly from the bowser. We are not sure how long we will stop there, it depends on weather and how long it takes to check-in/out.

21^st May 2009

We motored up the side of Sardinia and then cut across towards Africa. The wind picked up a bit but, for some reason, the sea became very choppy and heading into wind was too difficult and we kept the engine on to keep boat speed up. Eventually, we decided that it was too mucky to keep heading in the direction we wanted and we decided to head to Pantelleria Island where we could make the decision to anchor or keep going. I went to bed leaving Fliss as decision maker and soon the seas eased and we were again able to make a decent heading and turn the engine off. At about 04:00, the wind died altogether and we are now motoring.

The forecast is for no wind for a couple of days and then for some Easterlies. The long term forecast (1 week, and therefore probably fairytales) is that a big fat high pressure is going to run across Europe giving Easterlies in the Med by Wednesday. We have decided that we can therefore stop in Carthage for two days to re-fuel, re-water, re-provision and still see the old city and ruins there. The marina is Sidi Bou Said and a port of entry. The thought is to then leave on Monday and run for Cartagena in Spain as long as the weather keeps promising favorable winds.

We arrived in Sid Bou Said at 20:00 our time and 18:00 their time. They have done without daylight savings this year and are therefore the same as BST. They gave us a berth about as far into the winding marina as possible and we reversed up the line of boats and got in no problem since it was dead calm with no currents. The lazy lines that they use to Med moor were absolutely filthy and dripped muddy gooey goop all over us and the boats sandwiched in beside us. The harbourmaster and police were still open and so we managed to clear in without fuss except that they rushed me so much that I forgot my glasses and therefore had difficulty not only with the French language but actually seeing the forms to fill them in. Afterwards the police wanted to come to check the boat. They did not even look at it but were saying something along the lines of "Un Petit Cadeau" - we gave them a few euros and they were happy with that.

Fliss....

Last night just before it went dark I either saw a shark or a sun fish, there was this dorsal fin swimming by the side of Naz for ages. I also saw a great shooting star which went on for ages, they really are fantastic to watch especially if the burn out slowly.

22^nd May 2009

We decided to do the whole of Tunis and Carthage in one go and hired a taxi for the day. We decided that we could therefore have a guided tour and also save on one nights marina fee. It was about 55 euros for 2 nights stay. The driver spoke English well enough and we set off for the Tunisia museum first. Lots of statues and mosaics later, we went to the centre of Old Tunis - Medina. This is an area of winding souks dating back hundreds of years and full of gold and carpet shops. The driver had organized a guide who would walk us through and describe the area - he really just wanted to take us to his mates shop where he could earn commission on what we bought but he was sorely disappointed with the way we held onto our money. The whole place is a maze of alleyways covered along most of their length with a long stone arch making a covered tunnel - very nice and we could have spent much longer there browsing if the guide hadn't decided to drag us back to the taxi.

From there, we went to Carthage and another museum (yawn) and then onto a variety of the old ruins. The size of the town over 2000 years ago was enormous with pillars and carvings from rock brought from across the Med in Greece and other places. However, eventually we got over-ruined and we asked our guide to take us to Carrefour for some re-stocking. My credit card did not work at the checkout which was a bit embarrassing but a cashpoint nearby sorted the problem out.

23^rd May 2009

This morning, we checked out with the police and they again wanted to come and look at the boat. We assume that they wanted another lump of baksheesh. I had found a plank and rigged it from the quay to the back of Naz so that we could get on and off and it worked even it it was a bit wobbly. I walked across and turned to give the policeman a steadying hand. He was not shy of large dinner portions and halfway across there was a large CRACK and he plummeted into the stinky water with a big splash. It was lucky that he was not hurt since he collided with the Aries breaking my wooden tillerpilot attachment and completely dislocating the main gearing. The problem was getting him out of the water again but two locals managed to drag him up the quayside. All credit to him that he held onto our passports and they are ok but a bit smudged. Not so lucky was his mobile phone. After he had got over the shock he started demanding that we replace his mobile phone and cigarettes. We said that the boarding plank belonged to the marina and he should talk to them an I got on with fixing the Aries. The poor guy will now be the butt of the police and marina staff jokes about the size of his belly and other things.

We motored around to the fuel quay and paid 0.91 Dinars per litre (1.8 Dinars to the Euro) and therefore had a saving equivalent to the cost of our stay. After refueling we set off at 8:30 local time and are now motoring with a light breeze just aft of the beam. Maybe I can get the cruising chute out and we can sail later. We are hoping to get all the way to Gibraltar on this leg but it is going to get breezy sometime between Tuesday and Thursday so we shall have to keep an eye on it (not that we can stop anywhere along the Algerian coastline since they make life difficult for unannounced yacht arrivals).

Greece

2009-08-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

5^th - 8^th May 2009

We arrived at Simi in Greece yesterday and the small town is absolutely beautiful nestled around a small bay and stone harbour. The pastel coloured houses and small churches cling to the steep sides of the surrounding hills and many of the dwellings are only accessible by foot.

I managed to get on with a few maintenance jobs such as winch maintenance, rigging check and engine service. Re-fuelling was a simple operation since the local garage has a fuel tanker that drives along the quayside and blocks the traffic whilst the driver passes a bowser across and we re-fill. No messing around with moving the boat – great service!

The harbour is also very cheap. We tried the tricky Med-Mooring again yesterday and had two local guys take our lines ashore for us and tie us off. One of them asked for 5 Euros for berthing and we expected that this cheap sum was for one night only. It now appears as though the 5 Euros is the fixed price for a stay here as long as we want to. We are loving Greece already!

The people that we had drinks with during our stay in Datca (Turkey) turned up. Morris sails single handed but has his ex-wife over for a holiday at the moment. She likes the luxuries of life but 40 foot boats do not offer what she expected. Their toilet blocked the day after her arrival and had not been fixed since and so a bucket was the order of the day. Morris spent much time trying to fix the blockage and eventually took all the piping out and purged it by poking a boathook down it. At the same time, there was a long local procession going on that was celebrating Greek independence from Turkey and they marched grim-faced past the stinky operation.

Our time spent in Simi was a great rest from our recent long-hauls and we really enjoyed our time there.

9^th May 2009

We had a relaxed departure from Simi at about 08:00 after getting the dinghy on board but after I let go the stern lines, we found that a mooring line on a small dinghy next door had wrapped itself around the Aries rudder and we were stuck. Morris from the boat next door came to the rescue and got aboard the dinghy and freed us.

Our aim is to cross the Aegean sea and get as far as possible towards the Southern tip of Peloponnisos where we will eventually head to Malta. Unfortunately, the forecast of NW-N winds did not materialise and we were headed with a wind direction of 280-290 degrees which was much too bothersome and had us over on our ear blowing F4-5 with choppy sea so we have decided to call it a day having only made it to Knidos in Turkey (36 degrees 41' North, 27 degrees 22.5' East). We shall see what the wind is going to do early tomorrow morning and try again.

10^th May 2009

The night at anchor was gusty with the wind blowing through a gap produced by the isthmus between the mainland and the headland. Our anchor alarm went off twice as the wind moved us one way and then the other. On the second occasion, I found that a charter boat was much closer than it previously was and appeared to be getting closer still as it hunted wildly around its chain. The people were in the cockpit but not doing anything constructive and so I thought it best to get our hook up before our chains got tangled and we both ended up on the breakwater. It was a vain attempt because they were too close but our motoring forwards and calling to them seemed to gird them into action and they upped their hook and re-placed it where it stayed put.

We left early bound Westwards. The first hour was a good sail followed by about 2 hours of motoring. The wind picked up again giving us a close haul and we soon had one, then two reefs in the main. With a general plan to be heading to the Southern tip of Peloponnisos, we wanted to go over the top of Nisos Astipalaia but were making hard work of it so we decided to stop there and leave again very early morning. Plans then changed as the wind eased a bit and we motored hard to get over the top of the island and then bore away for some good sailing Westwards again.

If we had time to read the Pilot book, it mentions gusty conditions around the South of Amorgis Island - up to F7/8. We already had 2 reefs in the main when the wind started to pick up and head us again so we rolled more and more of the jib away and pounded away towards the setting sun with spray covering Naz from stem to stern - yuk! Our destination was now Nisos Milos and we managed a heading that took us over the top of Nisos Ios. As quickly as the wind begins, so it stops. Suddenly the winds died and I had not even got around to unfurling all the headsail by the time I had to furl it fully and turn the engine on.

11^th May 2009

This morning before sunrise, the breeze came back at a respectible 60 degrees off the nose and we made good progress to our new anchorage. It would have been quite nice to keep going with the current conditions but we tried that yesterday and it all turned to Poo. So, we are happy to stop at Nisos Milos for a rest - Malta is out of the question until the weather settles in that direction so we can afford a short stop.

The anchorage is quite pleasant but the cliffs of the surrounding islands are white/yellow/red and look like a quarry. Oh, there is also a quarry here as well. 36 degrees, 46.5 North, 24 degrees 33.5 East.

Fliss......

Tempers are a bit fraught on Nadezhda at the moment, it seems that what ever we do we get a smack. Yesterday we had force 7 headwinds all day & most of the night. We stopped for a rest at 9:30 this morning and are off again. 12 hours rest then back out to sea. Excuse my French but it I'm bloody fed up with it.

Unfortunately Pete and I have different wish lists. I want to stop at night whilst we can before we have to head off on long passages and Pete wants to carry on doing overnight sails. I really don't like being out at night if I don't have to due to it being bloody cold, dark and loads of shipping. Yesterday was the icing on the cake for me. Anyway I can understand why he wants to keep going. We're both dreading the passage home as it's going to be really hard work, especially if we just keep going. I'm all for doing it the easy way, running over to Tunisia, Algiers & Morocco and Pete is more of the opinion to just make a dead run to Gibraltar. We have to get across the Bay of Biscay before Mid August as gales kick in then. Anyway enough moaning!

Not sure what happens next as the weather is set to go against us for a few days so we can't stop unless we carry on up the Greek Coastline & then run up to Sicily.

Pete.......

So, just to keep the pressure up, we had a few hours sleep and then upped anchor at 8pm for another westwards hop to the bottom of Peloponnissos. There was absolutely no wind and the seas were glassy all night so we motored along until morning brought us between Maleas Pt and Nisos Kithera.

12^th May 2009

Fliss......

We are heading for an anchorage on the Peleponnisos Islands and then we'll move again tomorrow slightly further up the coast ready for the jump across to Malta. By going slightly further up it cuts half a day of the passage time to Malta which is only about 3-4 days.

Calm Night and Moonlight

Moonlight Reflected in Calm Morning Sea

It is a busy stretch of water here. This morning I slowed down to let a super tanker go past me as we were both going around the same headland and cutting in close to the shore. Anyway as I watched him go past and around the headland a yacht appeared going in the opposite direction. They hadn't seen each other as the land was in the way. Huge puff of smoke as the supertanker & the yacht were on a collision course. The tanker must have put his engines hard in reverse to miss the yacht. Both Captains must have had brown pants as they nearly hit, they were so close.

Pete....

From Maleas Point, we had a light breeze close-hauled on the Port Tack that increased enough for us to turn the engine off and pinch up to our desired course. We arrived at Porto Kayio (36 degrees 26'N, 22 degrees 29'E) and we will stop for a day and then move on tomorrow to Methoni (45 miles West) which is about as close as we can get to Malta without actually going there. There we will wait for the weather to settle before we move on.

13^th May 2009

This morning was very peaceful and we relaxed reading in bed. We had a restful day yesterday and visited a tiny chapel on the headland nearby. The Greeks seem to have a habit of building churches in the most inaccessible places on headlands or steep sided mountains well away from habitation. I cannot understand why since the building of them must have been exceptionally difficult and visiting them a real chore. Still, I suppose that the road to God must be made difficult or it's not worth it!?

The afternoon was very gusty and a single hander came in late in the afternoon and plonked his hook right in front of us. Since the holding in the anchorage was not the best due to sea grass, we decided to move along a bit and probably put ourselves in a windier spot for the night. Fliss had little sleep as a result.

14^th May 2009

This morning, the winds had died and we motored hard against the leftover little waves that have a wavelength too short to ride over and so we ploughed a course to Methoni. We rounded Ak Tainaron which, withstanding Tarifa near Gibraltar, is the Southernmost cape in mainland Europe and, looking up the cape, you can see the snow capped mountains of the Taiyetos which rise to 7500 ft.

The wind came fairly light and we close-hauled our way to our destination with glorious sunshine.

Having motored quite a bit recently, we had quick look around and a walk to the Diesel station. It ended up a long way but a kind hotel owner was going that way and gave us a lift at least one way. We don't exactly need diesel but we are just keeping things topped up.

15^th May 2009

This morning, we took a walk into the old ruins of the castle at Methoni. They are quite grand and at one time had a small town within the walls until the French eventually razed the houses and settled the people outside the walls due to sanitary problems. The castle obviously did no good whatsoever since it was built by the Venetians, then occupied by the Turks (Ottomans) 1500-1686 before being retaken by the Venetians again 1686-1715. The Ottomans eventually retook the castle in 1715 before giving up to the French in 1828. So much for fortifications.

We returned to Naz as the wind started increasing from the SE. This had been forecast and we took the breeze up to Pilos (36 degrees 55'N, 21 degrees 41'E) where there is good protection from the SE Gales that are forecast (Methoni is open to the SE). The marina was full when we arrived and so we tied up to the ferry quay where we were being blown off the hard concrete and visited the town. Later, we moved off to anchor where we felt a little safer given the expected increase in wind speed.

16^th May 2009

We have been into Pilos town again today. It is quite quaint and packed with locals sitting outside the numerous cafes drinking beer or fancy coffee at xx Euros a throw. I don't know where they find the money considering that they are not working whilst they are lounging around. At 2pm the whole place shuts down until 6pm so the cafes should be even more busy right now. We threw our mouldy veg away hoping for some fresh replacement but will now have to wait until gone bedtime before the shops re-open.

17^th May 2009

Goodbye Greece!

Turkey

2009-08-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

29^th April 2009

Pete......

Yesterday, we left Cyprus bound for Turkey and were hard on the wind with engine running most of the day. We managed some sailing and bashed our way to windward straining the sails and leaning over on our ear. Thankfully, the seas became less confused and the wind died overnight giving a flat calm that we motored gently over. This morning the wind picked up a bit from behind and we were eventually doing 7.5 knots towards the harbour town of Kas. The coastline looks very interesting and seems like a great place to explore if time was on our side. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that we no longer go sailing but simply bash away at passage making with only one aim - getting from A to B. We need another year just to touch small areas of the Mediterranean.

This morning, we have found out why the Northerly winds are cold. They are blowing off the snow-capped mountains here but we had a cracking sail over the last 20 miles of the passage.

We arrived at the small harbour here in Kas at lunchtime and prepared fenders and lines for our Med-style mooring attempt. The harbour is long and narrow and the wind was blowing straight into the entrance meaning that we would have to reverse to the dock with a cross-wind. There was not a lot of space to be found but, as I tried to slow our wind-blown progress towards the dead-end by reversing, the prop-kick started a turn exactly adjacent to a small slot between moored boats. We dropped the hook and kept reversing straight in and an English guy on the boat next door took our lines. Beginners luck we suspect.

Seconds after we got lines ashore, a local man zoomed up on a moped and told us that the Coastguard had ordered us to take down the courtesy flag that we were flying otherwise we would be charged Eu400. We think that the problem with our home made one was that the Crescent shape was not crescent shaped enough (a problem when taking a pattern drawn on paper, translating it to cloth and then trying to stitch the cloth to a red background). The guy threw us a new flag that we quickly hoisted - welcome to Turkey.

We paid the harbour fees for 3 nights (Eu55) and then went to check in. The harbourmaster was the first call and both John from Aldora and ourselves wandered up and searched for the hidden office. Once found (and a boat surveyor grabbed as an interpretor) we were on our way to becoming legally in the country. When asked where we had come from, we told them that we had come from Cyprus. "North or South" they asked. "South" we replied. "Then you cannot enter Turkey, it is forbidden" they responded. "You must sail to Meyisti and check in there and then come back to Turkey" they said. Meyisti (Kastellorizo) is a Greek island about 12 miles away.

So it appears that the Turkish and the Greek Cypriots are still at loggerheads and the Turks are trying hard not to enter the European Union by being childish over the matter. John intervened and said "Oh....WE have come straight from Egypt". I promptly took back my exit papers from Cyprus and flourished our Egyptian exit papers and told them that it had been a long sail, I was confused and that we had also come straight from Egypt. With the matter resolved, we had crossed hurdle number one and paid another Eu55 for the privilege - welcome to Turkey.

Next stop was Customs but they told us to go and see Health. So we went to the Health department who wanted photocopies of our quintuplicate form that we had already filled out at the harbourmaster and they then rubber stamped our paperwork. Then, to the police who wanted Eu30 for visas (rubber stamping galore) and onwards to Customs (and a few rubber stamps). After customs, we then had to return to the harbourmaster for more form filling and Eu5 payment for tonnage (plus a couple of rubber stamps) before being sent back to Customs for the final salvo of rubber stamps on our paperwork - after 3 hours we were officially landed - welcome to Turkey.

Oh yes. We are not allowed to flush toilet waste into the water for fear of fines but the facilities in the marina cost Eu0.50 for use of the toilet and Eu3 for a shower. Welcome to Turkey. A quiet anchorage is sounding very appealing.

Kas

30^th April 2009

Fliss......

The weather blew up in the harbour today and poor old Nazza got too close to a large local Turkish Gulet and came off worst. It was blowing stink sideways-on and the large local boat kept creeping over towards Naz. Anyway they touched and Naz got her wooden rail caught underneath their boarding ladder, making a dent. First injury in 25 years. Pete spent all day being seriously worried about another collision. It did calm down later though.

So Turkey, it's stunning. The town is beautiful with lovely little cobbled back streets, café culture and shops selling everything that I wanted to buy, if only... The people are friendly and I love it, I really want to go back to Kas but as a tourist (by plane) and spend a week exploring it, family holiday next year???

1^st May 2009

Pete..........

We got up at 7am and motored back to Kekova Roads (Approx 36 degrees 09' North, 29 degrees 49' East) with a swell behind us from the 35 knots of wind of yesterday. The morning was calm and peaceful and the anchorage between the rocky hummocks was beautiful. We had breakfast and launched the dinghy and went out across the bay to the sunken city (not fully sunken and most above water). These are ancient ruins and we do not know the history to them but believe them to be thousands of years old.

Back across the bay to the village of Kale Koy that is built from the waterline up the hill to the old Castle on the top. The castle dominates the surrounding area and the way in which the higgledy-piggledy stone buildings reach up towards it is very picturesque. We took a walk through the village along small stone pathways that constantly seemed to be someones backyard and were stopped by a grizzled old lady who was sitting cross-legged on a raised stone patio. She waved some bead bracelets at us said "One Lira" and, since I wanted the photo opportunity, we bought one. She then tried to unwrapped a bundle of cloth with one arthritic hand whilst squinting and making hard work of it. We helped a little and found cotton shawls inside and she held up 10 fingers and said "Lira". We ummed and ahhrd a bit when she pulled the sympathy trick by patting her legs and saying "Kaput" so we bought one and gave her a 20 lira note. She held onto it and we tried to explain, using sign language, that we needed ten lira change. It was then that she decided that she was blind and firmly gripped the note in from of her. We eventually recruited help from a teenage lad and explained to him our predicament. He carefully explained to her what was needed and a gentle tug of war started with the 20 Lira note. He eventually extricated it from her iron grasp and the deal was done with change that he produced.

We wandered up to the castle for views right across the bay and then we walked along the ridge of the hillside where ancient sarcophagi stood - massive tombs of hewn rock. From there we could see right down into the village where an old woman was dancing in the square waving a 10 Lira note.

After a beer in the local restaurant - courtesy only you must understand since we used their pontoon to tie the dinghy up against, we set off back to Naz. By this time, the wind was blowing hard again and we had a difficult job getting the dinghy around the small headland against the chop and got a serious dowsing in the process. It seems that, regardless of forecast, the wind picks up to 20-30 knots by mid-afternoon.

2^nd May 2009

So, we picked up the hook at 6am this morning and it looked as though we would only make it as far as Kastellorizon before the wind wakes up. However, we kept on ploughing on and were surprised when we did not get any afternoon strong winds. The forecast for tomorrow is for favourable winds and so we hope to push West as far as we can get. As it turned out the winds stayed light so we decided to carry on to Datca, Turkey.

3^rd May 2009

The timing was just right as we approached Datca during darkness and the horizon lightened just as we dropped the hook. After a couple of hours morning sleep we wandered around the town and had a couple of beers with a South African family who are here cruising.

4^th May 2009

Today we decided to check out of Turkey and go to Simi (Greece). I went to the harbour master and he told me that we had to pay an agent to go to the bank and pay some money for our Gross Tonnage. We had already paid massive amounts to Turkey during our check in process so I thanked them and we pulled the hook up and buggered off the 12 miles to our Greek port of entry.

Having worried about not having exit papers from Turkey, we were surprised about the informal reception we had. So we are now checked into Europe and Turkey simultaneously and can go where we like.

Simi is a little jewel with steep hillsides and a small harbour with stone built houses rising vertically from the shoreline. All of them painted in different pastel colours – lovely.

Egypt and Cyprus

2009-07-06T08:46:00.001-07:00

2^nd April 2009

Pete....Dolphin Reef

I went to bed at 16:30 yesterday absolutely knackered. In the middle of the night, the wind had died away completely and so the ones who carried on yesterday would have had an easier time motoring directly to their destination rather than tacking back and forth.

Getting out of Dolphin Reef at 05:15 in first light was a bit daunting as we could not see any of the bommies that were so visible yesterday in good overhead light. I very slowly followed our GPS track of the previous afternoon whilst Fliss stood on the bows looking into the murk. The water beneath us was perfectly clear but everything beyond was invisible. Anyway, the stillness of the night was still with us and, so far, has stayed with us. We haven't even bothered to get any sail up since it would only slow us down.

Our intended destination was to Gezirat Wadi Gimal Island - a rather daunting 45 miles North. Given our previous experience of square shaped oncoming waves and wind, we were not really expecting to make it. However, with the calm seas, we made good progress. The knot or two of contrary current that plagued us yesterday and earlier on our passage eased and disappeared altogether and so we made good progress.

We therefore stopped at Gezirat Wadi Gimal Island and went ashore for a short walk (first landfall in well over a week) and did a bit of snorkelling although the water is now getting a little nippy.

3^rd April 2009

We left at 05:00 to get some miles under our belt and to probably keep going the whole night. However, the wind started up again NNWesterly as usual and soon there was a nasty chop and swell directly at us. We decided to stop at Samadi Reef (just off Ras Samedi) and negotiated the outlying bommies to be met by a RIB from a dive boat who told us that the reef was now a National Park and we were not allowed to stay - a shame because it looked beautiful. He told us to pick up a mooring at a reef closer to shore but following an inspection, there appeared to be no real shelter there so we turned back into the waves and came into Marsa Tundaba (24 degrees 57.7'N 34 degrees 56.2E). There is surprising shelter here considering that this is just a dip in the coastline but there is a reef to the North of us that is keeping the worst of the swell out and it is quite comfortable. We were soon met by the local officials who wanted to know why we had stopped and wanted paperwork as usual. They were quite friendly and the local Dive School instructor acted as translator.

We listen to the Vasco De Gama Rally boats on the radio. They have just come across Foul Bay and are now entering Port Ghaillib having trouble finding the entrance in through the reefs in rough conditions. Glad we are not there.

We had Pizza again for dinner tonight and Fliss baked some bread for morning breakfast so she has been a busy bee since we arrived at the anchorage. We decided to get an early night and got ready for bed. The wind had been dying since we had arrived and, just after Fliss got snuggled in, I suggested that it might be a good time to go on the next leg. The basis being that the wind seems to ease at night.

So, up with the hook and out we went into the leftover seas. Fortunately, we were just able to get the sails set against the angle of the wind and that helped enormously but, as usual, we still have the engine running to get us along.

At about 22:30, we passed a yacht going quite slowly, they called us on the VHF to say hello and said that they were running low on fuel but were headed to Port Ghailib and were due there in the morning. As we went past, I looked at them through the binoculars and, in the moonlight, realised that they did not have their mainsail set. It was then that it struck me that they had also said that they had previously broken their boom. I called them back and offered to stay with them until they were sure that they could reach Port Ghailib on their remaining fuel supplies, they were very grateful for the moral support and we therefore chugged slowly along with them at about 3 knots for the next 3.5 hours. At 14:00, they called and said that they were that they would make it on the few remaining litres of fuel and we parted company.

Fliss...

Just as snuggled under the covers with my book, Pete stuck his head in the cabin & said “the winds have eased maybe we should go now?” great! I thought as I pulled on my thermals & Henry Lloyds.

I'm afraid to say that I wasn't thrilled at having to slow Naz down after all the early starts & long desperate runs to cover some miles. I know it was un-seamanship but it's been a slog so far.

4^th April 2009

Well, the job of good Samaritan paid off. We had slowed down and therefore not passed Ras Toronbi by first light. It was then that the wind started picking up and the waves had got quite a bit steeper. I tacked slowly towards shore in the direction of Ras Toronbi and the winds eased but backed. Tacking out again, I could maintain a course that had us directly into the boat-length steep waves going 1-2 knots. The wind then increased and veered. You could see the shear line between less windy water and windy water. Knowing that the waves could only get worse, we tacked back to Ras Toronbi and by the time we got there, things were getting really fresh. We found the anchorage here quite easily and tucked inside the reefs in 6.5m on sand and payed out loads of chain.

Later on, we saw a dive boat (think 30-40m gin palace) fighting against the weather inshore. The whole boat was pitching and diving (no pun intended) and making very slow progress. We commiserate with the sick people on board.

The army lads wanted to see us and I brought one back to Naz and gave him the usual paperwork even though he did not want it. These guys are young and doing National Service and can't quite work out what to do with us. I took our raw recruit back to shore and sat with him for a while at his lookout (he spends each day on a seat looking out to sea) and another recruit came along with better English. He liked Bob Marley and so I went back to Naz and made a few of copies of CDs for them.

I am supposed to be joining them later but don't know when or why.

The wind has died and I have been out in the dinghy taking transits for our departure early tomorrow morning when the light is good enough to see land. Hopefully the sea will have abated by then and we will get a run at it for 24 hours. If it all turns to poo again then we can always come back or simply hove-to and wait it out??

Fliss....

I hang my head in shame.

5^th April 2009

We got up again at 05:00 and were on our way by 05:30. A small set of waves was holding us back a little with no wind to push us forward. The weather forecast was for 15 knots South Easterly and it seems to have lived up to its prediction and even more! It was glassy calm so the Southerly winds must be strong enough to hold back the usual Northerlies.

We have just had home baked bread with cheese and tomato - really, really nice - Fliss has got her pressure cooker bread to perfection but we still crave Sainbury's wholemeal.

Fliss...

Hurghada is a real tourist town & we're really looking forward to it. Pete's promised me dinner our one night, which be nice. I've started my boat provisioning list and so far the list is up to 45 items. Last proper shop was Aden on the 24th Feb and that was really just fresh stuff. I reckon I could still cater for about 3 weeks but it would be all tinned food. Strange really but the stuff we are eating now I've bought in England, Caribbean, Panama, NZ, Australia, Indonesia, Malayasia, Thailand & Aden, all over the world just looking at the labels brings back memories.

We've heard about other yachts that haven't been able to make this journey and have been forced back. One yacht ran back 60 miles, that must have been painful to give up that distance, 60 miles is a good & lucky days' sailing in The Red Sea. We are keeping our fingers crossed for landfall in Hurghada.

6^th April 2009

You might think that we are being a little cautious about our daily grind up the Red Sea but here are a few comments from those who have been before us................

This is a description from various boats - Foul Bay

"Prism"

Therefore, we set off across the infamous Foul Bay, 110 miles, and a certain overnight passage, in flat calm and good motoring conditions. It is generally agreed that Foul Bay is the worst stretch of water on the west side of the Red Sea, reef strewn, uncharted and wild. There is clear passage if you stay outside the line of the defining capes, but it is said that you venture inside this line at your peril.

Pariah was ahead of us about half way across, when the wall of wind hit. 30 knots makes for horrendous sea conditions. They were able to make Gez (island) Zabargad, a high volcanic conical island before nightfall, where they anchored hanging off the sheer drop off of the reef wall in the wind. We were still at sea, reefed down and punching into it ever so slowly.

"Outa Here"

As the wind gusted to 30 knots - as is common in the Red Sea at this time of year - we made cinnamon rolls, applesauce bread, rye bread, brownies, watched football games and movies, and even did a few 'fix it' jobs. Thirty knots of wind on the nose is not that bad, a lot of you are probably thinking. In addition, it is not. What gets you is the chop, which gets shorter and steeper with each additional knot, until the bow just slams into wave after wave. That gets you. Such conditions are not only hard on the boat and crew, they make progress very slow.

these are various descriptions of our next leg....

"Prism"

Turned out we were a little premature. The wind, which had behaved itself for the days we were gone, came back with a vengeance and blew in the 30's for two weeks. We tried to leave on one occasion, made it as far as two miles past the Ras on the north side of the bay, but were turned back by very steep and short seas. Since we were seven miles north of Safaga, and reluctant to give up even an inch, we hung out in the semi-shelter of the dunes on the Ras and got sand blasted for two days before finally giving up and going back to the Paradise where we learned an anchoring rule which goes, "If you arrive in a bay lined with hotels all sporting numerous flagpoles, it may behoove you to determine if the flags bear the logos of various and sundry windsurfing companies before surmising it is a tenable anchorage in a blow." This has now been added to our list: "Things we have learned along the way and now try to pay attention to."

"Khamsin"

The next day, after sail repair, we beat up a few miles until we could get in the lee of the reefs and made it to Marsa Zeitiya. This was not a nice place, screaming winds, and a Teflon bottom. By this time we were getting used to the frightful conditions so we stayed one night of anchor watches and took off again. Our perseverance was rewarded. After we struggled past the lower Gulf of Suez, which has high mountains on either side, creating a canyon for the wind to rush through, the winds diminished to proportions that are more manageable and the sea became less confused.

"Prism"

We did not know it yet, but we were well into the saga of the Gulf of Suez. While further south we had been reluctant to put to sea in twenty knots, here we routinely were up at dawn raising the anchor and heading out into twenty five and thirty. With no letup in sight, there was little choice. Many days we'd be underway at five, sail all day within a mile or so of shore, use any small headland or indentation to gain advantage and make anchorage eight or ten miles north by dusk, fifty or sixty tacks later. To say we were in shape by now is an understatement. Lean, lithe, and brown as nuts. The anchorages were largely in the lee of great sand spits, extending sometimes four or five miles into the sea, exposed to the wind but very secure in shallow, hard sand. The seaward tips would usually have a hook, behind which we could hide, watching the great racing swells sweep by in relative comfort and gird ourselves for the morrow. One afternoon we found ourselves trying to round the thousand meter high cape, Gezerat Hamam Farran. We could see our destination, Ras Mal'ab, three miles to windward, but in forty knots and gusting, unreachable. Nosing ten meters off the reef, we hove to and gradually slid back behind the cape to discover asmall area of comparative calm under the cliff where we shot the anchor in fifteen meters of good sand. Whether to stay the night was the question. We were loath to give up the hard won nine miles back to Ras Abu Zenima, and in any event, would arrive there in the dark. The cliff was white sparkling limestone shot through with bands of jet black on one diagonal and rust red on the other. Several fault lines, vertical gave the face the appearance of black and red lightning bolts against a shimmering white background. Suzzi kept insisting the place gave her the creeps. To me it was awe inspiring, especially after the full moon bathed it in light and shadow. The place exuded surreal power. It was a long night keeping watch as the bullets blasted down off the cliff side, laying Prism on her side, shivering the mast like a piece of rope, followed by minutes of calm where the only sound was the foaming breaking crests of the swells just outside and the soft moaning turned to a roar of the descending wind in the crags.

"Outa Here"

Everyone ahead had a less-than-pleasant experience on this stretch, and spent lots of time taking refuge from 50-knot winds and the choppiest seas you can imagine. The wind funnels through the narrow passage between the Egyptian and Sinai shores, so it is a challenge.

During the next 13 days, we stopped at five anchorages and had two overnight passages - one through shipping lanes and oil rigs that was no fun at all! It was quite miserable - especially when we realized we had drifted into the shipping lane at 0200 with no moon, 35 knots of wind, and two ships bearing down at us at 20 knots. However, it did not last that long, was not as bad as it might sound, and we would do it again. At least Dick says he would.

Extracts From The Red Sea Pilot Book....

"Dawn broke on the wildest scene I've ever known ... On either side were the great barren mountains, giving a sense of timelessness as if they had outlived their own souls, and in between lay "Sheila" tossed by a furiously angry sea...we were fleeing headlong towards a narrow exit"

W A Robinsons account of "Svaap"

Like a battering ram pounding at the gates of a medieval fortress we hammered away against our indefatigable enemy, the NW wind. . .There, only 25 miles from Tor, safety, and fresh supplies, we nearly encountered disaster. . ..We had entered the Strait of Jubal, Asia and the Sinai Mountains towered abruptly .. .. At 4pm, there was a sudden shift in the wind and a strange yellowish cloudbank bore rapidly down on us . . It was a sandstorm, the first of our experience, and I hope the last. For the next two hours we were buried in a yellow murk, while wind of hurricane violence tore at us.

So. We wait for a forecast of no wind at all, verify it at 05:00, stick the engine on and drive like a maniac until you suddenly get slapped by 20-30 knots headwinds and then find yourself the next anchorage where you can hide. We have been adopting that attitude all the way up here and it seems to work just fine.

7^th April 2009

We got into Hurghada at about 00:30 yesterday morning and dropped the hook. Luckily the Cmap charts were accurate and we had no problems navigating ourselves in. At 07:30, we moved into the marina and moored Med style, bows first up to the concrete jetty. We were pleased that the wind had not piped up by then and the operation was very simple. Unfortunately, we are pointing South and therefore would like to be a little way off the dock now that the Northerlies are gusting again with a vengeance so we have to use the dinghy to get ashore and a short ladder tied to the dock to get out of the dinghy. I suppose that means that we are immune to petty theft.

We went to do immigration and got our visas and customs were supposed to visit us today but after a whole day sitting on Naz, they failed to materialise and we have promises that they might turn up tomorrow. Hopefully after 48 hours waiting we might get ourselves checked in???

Hurghada is a big tourist resort but no different to any other Red Sea town. Half built, half decayed, where the half-built places are already subsiding and decaying. We know why these people are poor. We had a walk around town and the candlelit dinner ended up in McDonalds without any candles. Fliss (God Bless), decided that the tourist prices here were too much to stomach but we are now enjoying fresh food on Naz and I have now decided that my favourite food is bread and cheese.

We will probably stay here until the weekend when the Northerlies are due to abate again (assuming we have managed to get checked into the country by then). Then it will be a mad rush to see how far we can get before they return - hopefully as far as Suez.

We went for a wander last night & got chatting to a young Egyptian lad, he was telling us that here is a major sex industry for women basically the female version of Thailand. Loads of women all ages come here and buy a boy for their stay. He was disgusted by it. They love the Brits here but hate the Russians & Polish. The Russians are everywhere they were starting to really take over parts of Thailand when we were there.

8^th April 2006

We're still waiting for Customs clearance. They were due to come at 9am yesterday morning then it changed to 12 and then they never came at all, so a day spent hanging around the boat. They are meant to be coming today, we'll see. The problem is you can't get belligerent with them as they can make your life hell. 3 days so far & we're not cleared in Egypt.

Still windy but it looks like we can make a run for it on Saturday.. It's only 180 miles so not far but impossible if the conditions kick off.

Nice people here, the guy next door is going the opposite way to us so I've been picking his brains about the Suez Canal. He said Baksheesh is the way of life so we expect to hand over at least 20 bucks to the pilots. Also the Pilot Boat drivers expect cigarettes and if you don't hand them over they ram the boat.

9^th & 10th April 2009

Spent the day getting fresh stuff for our next leg.

11^th April 2009

After 3 and a half days, we eventually cleared customs. The agency kept promising that they would be there at 11:00, then 12:30 and then 16:30 and warned that we must not get off the boat in case we missed them. In effect, we were prisoners on the boat for most of the time. Never mind, there is not much to see in Hurghada except rotting buildings, and tourist areas - the marina is the best bit. We also had to wait for the weather window for the Straits of Gubal - a notoriously rough bit of sea.

We managed to get provisions from a Western style supermarket and so we now have bread and cheese and eggs etc. It is good to have a load of fresh provisions on board again.

We left this morning only to be told by Toboggan that it was blowing 30 knots in the Gubal Straits with steep waves. They have been holed up in a small anchorage about 20 miles up the straits for 5 days and had poked their nose out for a look - they managed 5 miles to the next anchorage. So we stopped at lunch time and left again this morning at 2am. So far so good but we're not counting our chickens yet. However, if we can carry on as we are we'll be at the top of the Red Sea as the sun comes up tomorrow morning. We're hoping to get a quick transfer to the 1st leg of the Suez Canal, then stop refuel, see the Pyramids and then carry on to Port Fouad to wait for the window across to Crete or Rhodes.

Five minutes after we left the marina we got beeped on the VHF. Graham & Judit on Nomad Life were just coming in. Last thing we heard they were a month or more behind us and have seriously hard-cored it up the Red Sea in one long run all the way to Dolphin Reef followed by a couple of hops to Hurghada. Balls of Steel award goes to them. They planned to re-provision and leave again this morning so we shall see them again in Suez.

After hearing that it wasn't a good idea to carry on we stopped at Endeavour Harbour to wait for the wind & seas to die down. We'll leave early morning tomorrow.

12^th April 2009

We left at midnight and motored in calm seas. There are many uncharted oil platforms and well-heads in the area and a good watch had to be maintained in the dark. At around lunchtime the wind started coming from the SOUTH! We got the headsail poled out and romped along at over 8 knots all afternoon – unbelievable. At dusk, the winds turned gently against us but not sufficient to set up any real wave action and we continued making good progress.

Oil Rigs

13^th April 2009

We arrived in Port Suez after a perfect weather window that the agent said only occurs 3 or 4 times a year. After all the fretting that everyone has been doing about the last run, it turned out one of the easiest legs of the Red Sea.

We docked stern-to against the new plastic pontoon that had been installed especially for the Blue Water Rally and have electricity and water on tap. The place soon filled up after us as the whole of the Red Sea fleet tried to bundle in behind us. They had all taken the same weather window but we had left earlier and beat them to it.

14^th April 2009

Today the weather window surprised everyone with about 30 knots from the South again as a small depression came over. The locals at the dock were asking people to run lines to shore and to mooring bouys further out because they were worried that the dock might break up with all the boats attached to it. It does not look very strong and we were worried when the barometer started rising again and the wind turned 180 degrees and started blowing the other way at about 35 knots. Suddenly, everyone on the other side was asked to run long lines to lampposts ashore. The dock held-up ok and the wind eased again at 21:00.

It was a real concern if it would hold us all. I asked our marina manager how heavy the mooring blocks were and he said 6 tonnes. I said Nadezhda alone we was 16 and with other yachts tied to them is was worrying that it would give under the stress, he just shrugged his shoulders and said “We'll find out wont we”. The pontoon buckled and gave out horrible creaking sounds and one of the pontoon piles was bending over. When the wind died we all gave a sigh of relief.

You could see the wind shift and the sandstorm coming , something was driving all that sand. Very strange to watch.

Light Plastic Docking

15^th April 2009

We waited and waited for fuel in Suez. Again, we had to stay on the boat just in case it was suddenly available. Eventually, at 10pm someone turned up and said "Captain, Captain, hurry, hurry, be quiet, bring your fuel jugs". We had borrowed a few jerry jugs and we walked past security and deposited them in a car that would go to the service station to fill them. The ferrying of fuel to boats is smuggling in Egypt and I assume that they had to wait for the right security guards on the gate who would accept the cheapest Baksheesh.

The fuel was returned and we sneaked the jugs back to the boat whereupon Captain Heebi (our agent) wanted to charge us for 250 litres rather than the 200 that we got (and even the 200 litres was short-changed in regard to the volume in each jug). I carefully explained "The DIESEL FUEL that you have just brought to me" in a loud voice and we agreed on the fee for 200 litres.

16^th April 2009

We got up at 04:30 and we had the pilot aboard at 05:00 and were suddenly off. The transit is split into two parts that must be done in separate days although we could

have completed the whole passage in one. We were lucky that we had a pleasant pilot for the trip to Ismailia where we finished the first part of the transit. We had started out ahead of the shipping and watched as the convoy of larger ships slowly came up behind and passed us. The large ships travel at about 8 knots and therefore created no wake to trouble us. Into the Great Bitter Lake, the larger ships have to stop to await the influx of ships heading South before they can enter the next part of the canal. We carried on against 15 knots of headwind and were ahead of the fleet again as we entered the channel up towards Ismailia. The day was cold and I had to wear fleece and windproofs - we must be getting too far North.

Arriving at the marina and were unfortunate enough to get a space there (if there is space then you must use the marina). If we had slowed down and let the other yachts us overtake us then we would have had to anchor for free instead of paying $21 per night. The marina is part of the Suez Canal transit zone and Visas are not required for passage or waiting at the marina. To go into town we therefore have to get through the security guards with our passports so that they can check our visas. They are a surly bunch of badly dressed low-lifes whose only relief of boredom is is their authoritarian position.

17^th April 2009

We joined up with four other boats and hired 3 taxis to take us to Cairo. Muhammed (the main driver) organises everything for the yachts here including Baksheesh runs for fuel, gas cylinder refills and also taxi services. He charged 200 Egyptian Pounds (35 GBP) per car for the day out and it seemed like a very good deal considering that we were sharing the car with another couple. We went to meet the taxi outside the gates at 06:00 and walked through security without being challenged. At the same time, another cruiser was furtively going the other way with two jerry jugs of diesel. There was a confusion with the number of taxis for a short period during which the security guard must have woken up - he was very irritated, took our passports and told us all to return to his guardhouse. We went with him and he sat there sneering at our passports, shaking them wildly at us and shouting in Arabic until the change of guard turned up 30 minutes later. I think that he was bluffing and blustering because he had been caught napping and after 45 minutes there was a group of 20 people all trying to get though the gates. With safety in numbers and passports in hand we eventually just walked out en-mass, got into the taxis and went.

We visited Gisa first to see the Pyramids. They are right on the outskirts of Cairo but that does not diminish their imposing and collosal size. The postcard touts, "photograph me and my camel" touts, donkey touts, horse-ride touts, turban touts et al are not too aggressive and we had a pleasant time wandering around the area and going inside one of the smaller pyramids as well as gawping at the Sphinx with the other hoards of tourists.

The Cairo Group

From there to a lunch stop and then on to the Cairo museum. Again, this was packed with tourists. Unfortunately, the exhibits were badly labelled and there was very little information about the various historical periods and the different Pharaohs and so we just wandered and looked at loads of similar looking statues and trinkets without really knowing what was what. The Tutankhamen exhibition was very good but again lacked very little visual commentary.

Crew of "Helen Kate"

We returned to the marina at 7:30pm and downloaded the latest weather. After procrastinating over it for 20 minutes, we decided that we could make it to Rhodes before the next set of strong NWesterlies arrives and so we booked our pilot, paid our marina dues and had a last swift sundowner with “Aju” before setting the alarm for 04:30 this morning. At 11:30 last night, Captain Heebi called and told us that the departure was to be set back to 09:00 and so we had a lie-in. There are 2 warships anchored off here and, since we cannot transit whilst they remain, we eventually got cancelled at about 10:30. We will try again tomorrow, and then the next day, and then...... Tomorrow or Monday look ok to get to Paphos in Cyprus and so our next destination will be there. Anywhere really to get ourselves out of Egypt since we have been held prisoner here for too many times - 3 and a half days for customs clearance, 2 days for fuel and now here in Ishmailia wanting to leave. The marina is full of people waiting for the next weather slot towards Rhodes and we do not want to join the lottery of who can get a pilot when the next perfect opportunity arrives to get as far as Rhodes.

18^th April 2009

I got up at 04:40 and awaited our pilot with baited breath. The dockside was deathly quiet and at 05:15 I went back to bed. At about 09:00, a pilot came along and said "Stand By Your Engine" so I went over to him and told him that we were ready to leave. He decided that he then needed to go and change his clothes??! and disappeared. “Helen Kate” and ourselves wandered around and eventually they then turned their engine off having also been told to "Stand By Your Engine".

When we were eventually told that it would be 11:00 before we were leaving and having had the latest forecast of strongish headwinds, we cancelled them. I don't think they were coming back anyway and with the 20 knot headwinds and 45 miles of canal to get through, it would have been 8pm before we even reached the end of the canal. Another boat left a bit later and was followed by his mate who did not have a pilot. They were intercepted and turned back to the accompaniment of lots of shouting and swearing (usual practice in these parts).

We took a walk into town and got nabbed by the local TV station who filmed us walking down the flower gardens by a small canal tributary. They wanted our views about Ismailia and filmed us. We said a few nice words (the town is probably the cleanest and greenest we have seen) and were told that we would be on the evening news. If so, this is the second time we have been on Egyptian TV since we were interviewed about the tourist bombings when we were in Luxor many years ago.

19^th April 2009

We did not even bother to try and leave today. "Barefeet" tried and waited from 05:00 until 11:00 when they had word that it would not happen. We are going to give it a go tomorrow but I don't think that there is much hope as it is a national holiday today and so no-one will be booking places for tomorrow.

Last night we helped “Nomad Life” with Jerry Jugs of diesel. The diesel delivery system in Port Suez has shut shop and so loads of boats here need to re-fuel. It is the usual Monty Python scene where word leaks out that fuel is now permitted to pass through the guards. People on their boats watch as the first brave sailors carry empty jugs to the gates and then wait 5 minutes to see if they return empty handed. If they don't return then there is a mad rush to the gate where utter mayhem ensues with the guards trying to hold people back and gather Baksheesh. Some people sidle silently through whilst others argue money. The guards are getting a bit worried about all the White Faces walking down the road with jerry jugs and last night forced everyone to take an overpriced taxi. However, conditions and regulations change hourly. Occasionally the limit per boat was 2 jerry jugs, then, due the the number of runs being made, that rule was lifted. Other times no fuel is allowed, other times, fuel is allowed without Baksheesh, other times baksheesh needs paying. We had an easy run today with no hassles - at 20 US cents per litre it is worth getting. A guy getting fuel walked with us to the guard gate today and the guard wanted to see our passports. The guy with jerry jugs had forgotten his but whilst the guard was examining ours, he simply walked through and kept going without looking back. We think that when the weather window presents itself for going NW, we are going to have 50 boats all wanting to take the opportunity - maybe we simply need to all slip our lines together and get out of here - what can the authorities do?

So, we are going to try and leave again tomorrow. I don't think it will happen but we shall try. In the meantime, "Barefeet" are having a NOT LEAVING barbecue this afternoon.

Oh. In the taxi with Nomad Life last night, the taxi driver offered for Judit to sit in the front. On that leg of the journey he repeatedly atempted to touch her up even though Graham was sitting in the back. Judit held her rucksack firmly on her lap and treated it as a joke but I sat in the front on the way back. Many of the Egyptian men are lecherous filthy perverts who don't have enough camels to go around. We now know why the women here wear burkhas

19^th April 2009

After yesterday when there was a public holiday and a big party in Ismailia, we decided that there was no opportunity to leave today. Eventually, the marina officer turned up at 8pm and we put our names down again for departure tomorrow. The marina manager told us that, if there were any pilots available, then they would turn up at 8am.

21^st April 2009

At 5am this morning, we heard a knocking on the hull and got up to find a huddle of pilots trying to wake people. We cast off our ropes at 05:30 and went past one of the anchored boats blowing our fog horn in order to wake them for their pilot.

The pilot was another very agreeable man who we got on with well. Normally a pilot boat takes them from us at Port Said but he arranged to be set down on a boat moored alongside the quay. He had said that the pilot boats can be nasty (if not enough baksheesh is paid) and can be very careless when picking up the pilots. The other word for it is "ramming". So, we set him down alongside and, just as we pulled away, a pilot boat came roaring up screaming "Where is your Pilot!!!!". We pointed backwards and smiled sweetly before turning and entering the Mediterranean.

Our friendly Pilot

Only 5 boats left today. Barefeet are going to Rhodes (daft considering the forecast) and two Dutch boats are going to Turkey. Another French boat left as well but we don't know who they are.

22nd April 2009

The winds were not initially as strong as forecast so we gently motored towards Pathos.

Just as the sun set the wind increased. We'd been studying the weather so we knew that as we approached Cyprus the winds would come from the North West eventually to head us, so we went North West early to get a better angle on the wind for Pathos. Good job we did as we would never made it in a single tack.

The forecast was for 15-20 knots but as we know what they really mean is 25-30 with nasty steep seas.

Unfortunately Fliss had been sick for the last couple of days (farewell gift from Egypt) with painful stomach pains and feeling very unwell so I had most of the night watch.

23^rd April 2009

Arrival Pathos, Cyprus 05:30 this morning. Hello Europe!

Paphos Harbour and Marina

We anchored in the harbour and went to see the port police. Then we did customs and health and the paperwork was swiftly dealt with. The rest of the day was spent asleep until about 5pm when we went for a meander along the front and Fliss eventually got her candlelit dinner (with a real candle!). The food was not as good as her own home cooking but it was a nice change and very civilised.

24^th April 2009

I went and paid the harbour master (36 Euros for 6 days) and then reversed Naz alongside another boat here with a couple of Scots aboard (Stewart and Margaret). We then walked around the seafront and found our way into the old Roman ruins and mosaics by the back gate and so saved ourselves 7 Euros in the process. Then, onto the flower display at the local old church which turned out to be Anglican and was full of ageing ex-pats selling bakewell tarts and chutneys as though they were at some rural English village fete.

We decided that the vast expense of the meal the night before had got us into spending mode and we both decided that the torn and tatty trousers that have suffered salt degradation needed upgrading and went on another spending binge with one pair for Fliss and one for me. We haven't needed trousers for a long time but they are necessary here in the evening. After a (much tastier) meal aboard Naz, we went aboard the boat next door for a glass of wine and then bed.

25^th April 2009

Today, is a rest day. I am trying to use a bad internet connection to get an updated AVG and Fliss has got the bit between her teeth and has gone shopping again (Bras this time). I might work myself up to a little boat maintenance later if I can summon the energy.

26^th April 2009

Today,we explored a little further but the outskirts of Paphos are little more than tourist resorts and the frenetic building of villas and chalets. All a little bit faceless but it certainly did our legs a bit of good being able to use them.

I think that we have therefore 'done' Paphos and will probably leave early on Tuesday morning and see how far we get Westwards. The plan now is to probably go as far as Kekova Roads in Turkey and coast-hop it too Greece. If we are lucky, we can do this without checking into Turkey and, once in Greece, that should be the end to our checking-in and out formalities.

Aldora arrived this morning and have rafted up next to us. They have brought our Turkish and Greek cruising guides (that we hastily left in Ismalia) and so we now know where we might like to go en-route to the Western Mediterranean. We will only have a brief time to visit the islands but at least we can now make some sensible choices of destination.

Fliss cooked a Shepherds pie last night with sprouts - it was delicious but the sprouts gave us some unwanted side-effects. Unfortunately we do not have bacon joints but we can get bacon here which is great after our journeys through Islamic territories.

27^th April 2009

We set off again this morning at about 06:00 bashing into the waves with the motor on as usual. The wind was light but there was a sea running, holding us up. It is a short weather window with light winds before stronger Westerlies appear and we hope to make it to the Turkish coast before it arrives.

The Red Sea

2009-05-06T03:25:00.000-07:00

24^th February 2009

We decided to make an early start with Aldora at 06:00 and go to Ras al Arah (20 miles short of Bab el Mandeb). We had a stonking sail at over 7 knots average and Aldora did not lose us too much. When we arrived at the anchorage, the army went over to Aldora and told them to leave, Aldora pleaded tiredness via sign language and we were allowed to stay overnight.

We had to leave Aden as our free 72 hours was up. One of the soldiers climbed on the yacht with his AK47 swinging wildly about, the gun was pointing straight at Johns head. John gestured that he was unhappy about the gun & the guy gestured back that he meant no harm. We haven't got visa's so that's why they told us to leave. Another boat stopped at another anchorage & they were told to leave straight away so we were lucky really. I think they army took pity on John as he had 3 children onboard.

Leaving Aden

25^th February 2009

Pete....

Today, we set off at 03:00 for a run to somewhere.

It appears that we are now headed to Ras Termah where 3 other boats are also headed after being told to move on by the Yemenis. We hope to get a better reception here in Eritrea where we will plead that we are headed to Massawa to check in formally and need some rest.

The natter on the radio is all about weather. It seems that the convergence zone between the Northerlies and the Southerlies is unusually low at this time of year and we therefore expect headwinds earlier than we wanted (actually, we don't want headwinds at all). Tomorrow and the next day look good for moving on again with a 03:00 start for 180 miles to the next anchorage that will give shelter regardless of the wind direction (N or S). We hope to arrive before 14:00 the next day to make sure that we can con our way in.

Well, I got it wrong, it was about 95 miles to Ras Terma and we arrived shortly after 16:00 after a stonking good sail with up to 2 knots behind us and gusting 40 knots winds only the third time downwind when we have had to resort to the third mainsail reef. With the current behind, the sea was relatively flat and we did some good speeds almost catching "Purr", "Cormarant" and "Kirsten Jane" who passed our anchorage earlier in the morning and had a 20 mile head start.

2 Knots up the Chuff

"Purr" at Ras Termah

Sunset at Ras Termah

26^th February 2009

No peace for the wicked though. This morning we left as a group at 03:30 to do the 180 mile trip to our current anchorage. Again, we had a real blast with the wind behind touching 8 knots through the water and having up to 1.5 knots current at best times. Our plan was to get in sometime today on the basis of calms overnight but we had only about half an hour becalmed and had to reef right down to reduce boats peed overnight. The fast cat "Aldora" had shot ahead in the strong winds and by 23:00 had gone to bare poles still running at 5 knots - they eventually resorted to towing a milk crate to slow down for the daylight arrival.

Then of course, 20 miles out and the wind died completely followed by about 8 knots bang on the nose. We stopped sailing at 10 miles out and therefore did not run the engine too much. "Purr", "Cormarant" and "Kirsten Jane" took the inshore route and had little wind all night and motored most of the night. We and Aldora stayed outside the 20m line and fared better.

Northerlies are forecast and all 5 boats intend to sit it out here. First impressions are favourable and we might even find a reef to go snorkelling on.

27^th February 2009

We arrived at 10:30 today and we have simply chilled out and done nothing all day apart from have a cool off in the sea and checked the prop for missing pieces and cutlass bearing wobble - no problems. The sea temperature here is perfect for swimming but the water is a very murky greeny colour with bits floating in it - all probably due to the minuscule plankton and such-like that glows at night.

It's Pizza again tonight. Since Fliss has learned the art of making them from scratch, we have had them regularly (only to use up the 300 peppers, chillies, tomatoes and onions that she bought in Aden of course). Ready in about half an hour, yummy.

Pizza Tonight!

Windy from the East, Northerlies forecast for tomorrow so Sunshine, wind and lots of power means "Movie Night" tonight. It will be almost a matinee because bedtime will be before eight o'clock

Local Fishermen wanting fuel etc

28^th February - 4^th March 2009

Fliss....

We're fine and just hiding out in a beautiful bay, the forecast is for strong North wind. Sheldon our mate who's delivering a 65 foot Cat to the Med emailed us to say that he's had a right hammering trying to get to Egypt, the waves tore the trampolines of the front of the boat and he said it was a terrible experience. Sheldon comes from South Africa & sailed the Southern Oceans loads of times (it's where they have the freak waves & horrendous winds) he's got 250,000 sea miles under his belt (we'll have about 35,000 by the time we get home) for him to say it was terrible means you don't go out. The winds are due in sometime later on today so it's boat jobs, movie watching & just chilling for the next four days... Suits me as I'm tired of all this sailing. Someone said we could be hear a week, we'll have to see.

Pete from Purr came over and suggested that I throw away the manual and try something different. He got a stiff, thick piece of wire and a jubilee clip and told me to attach the wire to the prop flange and line it up against the gearbox flange. Having also stopped the shaft moving backwards and forwards using another jubilee clip against the stern gland, I could use the wire as a reference point against the centre of the shaft. We found that the engine was out of alignment both horizontally and vertically by this method so I spent all day tweaking here and adjusting there with every movement putting something else out of alignment. When all was well, I tightened everything up and having done that, then had to re-align again because I had taken up some slack.

I eventually finished the job and placed the two flange faces together. I had none of the flange face misalignment that I originally thought was due to the flang being not exactly 90 degrees to the shaft and I could not get a 2 thou feeler gauge in anywhere around the flange faces.

After letting the nutlock dry on the flange bolts, I started the engine and gave it a try. The results are inconclusive at the moment since I had the engine cover off and everything was noisy anyway. Funnily, the engine seemed to have more vibration than usual at minimum revs and this was felt also in gear (even though tickover revs are still the same). However, we have not yet done any sea triails and will leave that until tomorrow. Also strange is the fact that the engine still nods back and forth under power - I thought that the proper alignment would have fixed it.

Well, after finally aligning the enine in all directions and letting the loctite dry, I started the engine and, even not moving and in neutral, it was vibrating the cockpit floor at tickover. I did a couple of forward and reverses and decided that the sea-trial would wait until today because it was damp, windy and not enticing to get the hook up.

Pete from Purr came over and had his "stethoscope" to the engine as we shimmied around. I had don the same yesterday and could not find any obvious problems and nor could he. The noise and vibration still occurred when in neutral with the prop turning and Pete got a wooden pole and loaded it onto the engine which stopped the noise. He eventually pinned it down to the aft starboard engine mount that he told me was soft and wonky. To prove the point, he wound the holding nuts up 2 and a half turns and the pre-loading immediately solved the problem. Obviously what has happened is that my better alignment has taken load off that mount and allowed the engine to rattle disturbingly and rather oddly in time with the prop turning leading us to think that it was the gearbox chattering.

So, all my efforts at alignment are now useless with a cock-eyed mount that we have pre-stressed. I will try and get another mounting somewhere between here and the Med but I am not holding out much hope. Pete said that any old mount will suffice as long as the dimensions look ok.

We eventually got off the boat today and took a walk across an island nearby. We found a camel skull and extracted a few teeth for souvenirs as well as some lovely shells. Pink flamingos were wading in the shallows and three very tall grey waders were wandering ashore, we have no idea what they were but they were huge.

The Desert Scene

4^th March 2009

we decided to join Aldora today for the 37 mile run to Shumma Island so we left Purr, Kirsten Jane, Cormarant and Aju at about 06:30 this morning and it looks like motoring all the way against a light headwind.

The Blue Water Rally are back in the vicinity. We heard one of them on the radio yesterday and there are three sailing boats off our starboard side as I write. They are headed for Suakin in Sudan (about 50 miles South of Port Sudan) as their next congregational meeting. We are also headed there but will wait for some decent weather to get us there. The Grib Files promised Southerlies on Saturday or Sunday but as we get there they are starting to change their minds. A southerly (or at least, not a N'Westerly) would be very useful since there are no anchorages for 120 miles as you cross the Eritrean and Sudanese borders. Let's hope. The Pilot book says that the Red Sea passage is a waiting game. Generally, at this time of year you can get to Port Sudan with Southerlies if you are lucky. From there it is headwinds all the way unless a freak weather pattern emerges - in which case be very careful!

The engine is sounding ok at the moment but is now out of alignment again due to loading the poorly engine mount. I have thought about drilling through the engine bearing bulkhead and strapping string through it and over the mount to hold it down firmly. Then, I could probably re-align the engine and hope that the temporary fix lasts until I can get a replacement.

5^th March 2009

we motor-sailed again today the 30ish miles to Dohul Island (although the log read 37 miles). Headwinds and current against us but we arrived at about 14:15 and, although the anchorage looks exposed, there is little wind and it is supposed to stay that way through tomorrow.

The anchorage last night was pleasant although the run through the reef was a bit unnerving since we have had low grey cloud for the past few days and the visibility through the water as a result is very poor. However, CMap matched up with hand bearing fixes and also with the GPS Co-ordinates in our guide book so we were ok even though the >1knot current was pushing us sideways until into the pass. The leading lines were impossible to make out - the rear one was an easily seen stone cairn on the hill but the near one was a small pile of rubble that was the same colour as the surrounding sand and stones. I eventually managed to find it after anchoring by scanning with the binoculars. Four rally boats were there and two have just motored past us to go the extra 10 miles to Harat Island.

If the weather remains calm, we will stay here tomorrow with Aldora and do a bit of swimming and engine checking (are the bolts tight? Does the stern glad leak, etc etc). Hopefully then the wind will turn Easterly then S'Easterly and we will do a big hop to Suakin just South of Port Sudan. A bit of planning is required to make sure that we come through the approaches in good light since there are a plethora of reefs thereabouts.

6^th March 2009

We had a lay in today until about 08:00. Just after we woke and turned the VHF on, Aldora called up and suggested that we get going immediately for Suakin with the view that we could do an overnighter and then be far enough (at or past Khor Narawhat) so that we could anchor before dark tomorrow and then do the last leg in daylight. It sounded good but we had to shift it and get going immediately. The first part of the morning was a bit dead and we motor sailed. Later we managed the cruising chute and took it down when we started surging at 8 knots. The breeze has filled in now (15:00) and we are getting along at 7 knots with smooth seas and winds from the East.

The wind should stay with us until Monday Morning and we hope that we will be snugged into Suakin by that time. Then, it is rest time for however long and a load more boat maintenance. Engine to try to firm-up, rigging to check and turning blocks to wash (the fine dust collects everywhere).

It was a bit of a pain leaving in a hury this morning but the plan sounds good and cruising with Aldora has its benefits - they have a water maker and have given us 80 litres over the past week.

7^th March 2009

Well, the wind abated as the land cooled in the evening and by 21:00 we were poled out and doing abouy 5 knots. Not long after, we turned the engine off and then gybed as we motor sailed. Later in the evening, we gybed again as the wind came a full 360 and had the engine off for about 2 hours between 05:00 and 07:00. From there on, it was motoring without sail-assistance as we must have had about 1 knot of appararent breeze or less from the front ( 4.5 knots from the rear).

We arrived at Khor Narawhat at about 14:30 where Aldora had just arrived having entered the North Channel where we entered the Eastern Channel. Soon after we arrived, the wind picked up and there is now a good breeze blowing. We have 84 miles to go to Suakin and must therefore leave here at about midnight to ensure a daylight arrival. The first of the coral dodges starts in 46 miles and so we should have good daylight to spot surf and darker patches by the time we get there. There are many ways to jiggle through the reefs; The inside passage that is tortuous, the middle passage that our CMap chart shows bearings for, the outer-middle passage that has a few extra miles. We are going for the middle passage that eventually runs very close to the coast for the last leg. Aldora wanted to do the inner passage - don't know whether they have changed their minds but I personally do not want to be cairn-counting through reefs with only a few hundred yards or less either side and dodgy charts.

It looks as though we will be motoring all the way, the Southerlies that were predicted actually arrived but at 5 knots rather than the predicted 15 - better than Northerlies! More engine alignment, securing and maintenance ahead.

Fliss....

Great snorkelling. We saw huge brightly coloured fish that we haven't seen before, the coral was healthy too. I am a bit nervous in these waters as there's meant to be Hammerhead Sharks which are aggressive and real predators. We all snorkel together so safety in numbers. We did see as the sun set the other day a group of sharks by Naz, unusual really as their not meant to be pack animals. Pete reckoned one was the size of me. The rule is no swimming at dusk & dawn as that's when they come out to feed. We don't want to miss the snorkelling here but we do keep looking behind.

8^th March 2009

We bashed to windward luffing the headsail a bit but still doing 6.5 knots at 40 degrees to the wind. We were astonished at how well Naz behaved but the seas were flat as we were in the lee of a reef. As we turned up the inner channel, the wind was dead ahead and we took the sails down and motored against it. The pilot book has good instructions for the entrance keeping a minaret on the old ruins at 215 degrees until a conspicuous chimney appears at 181 degrees and then follow that track. Luckily, we read some cruising notes that said

"The Pilot suggest passing within 20 feet or so of the ruins on the right (going in). Good idea. Three boats, including Pilgrim ran aground on the way out and had to be pulled off by the helpful harbour master and his tug."otherwise we would not have believed that the bearings took us so close to the shoreline. We stayed about 30 feet off the shore which was about 10 feet from the fringing reef and, being only the third boat in the anchorage, there was plenty of space to choose a spot to anchor. No less than 4m depth at any time. The Blue Water Rally and the Vasco De Gama rally are due soon - Ha, Ha - we were here first!

Apparently Suakin was the main port here in Sudan and was a slave trading centre at one time. What happened was that the merchants moved to Port Sudan for economic reasons in the '20s - and took with them the actual cornerstones and coral bricks from their buildings! This began the initial collapse of the city that time and wind have now pretty much completed apart from the remaining minarets that were left untouched and still stand above the rubble.

9^th March - 17^th March

Walking into the centre of the town is like walking back in time 1000 years. The rubble of the original city gives way to the shanty town of today with market traders selling on the streets or from their small shacks. We were woken by the braying of donkeys this morning and these provide the main source of transport here towing makeshift carts with wobbly wheels sporting bulging misshapen tyres. The place is brown and dusty but the fruit and vegetables and the clothing "stores" add splashes of vivid colour to the scene. Someone likened the place to be right out of an Indiana Jones movie and I could not describe it better. A few brightly dressed camels roam around, we bought flour that had just been ground using an old petrol driven milling machine and we wondered at how the old diesel single-pot engine that was pumping the well was still going after the years of service it must have already contributed. There is no electricity in the town centre so everything must either be done by hand or combustion engine (of which we saw only three).

The place is so different to anything we have seen before and the people are very friendly. We were met by Muhammed to do the officialdom which was painless and we have swapped our passports for shore passes so we do not actually have a visa here. Apparently this is not an official port of entry but cruisers are welcomed. I am not sure what happens when we leave and whether we will have to buy a cruising permit for the rest of the run to Egypt.

Vodaphone Anybody?

Can you spot the toilet?

Suakin

I will get on with some boat jobs whilst we are here (the winds are pumping hard out of the North so we will let them abate) and we will also catch the local bus into Port Sudan for a look at what is there. Taking the boat into Port Sudan is supposed to be very expensive and we shall try to avoid that.

Fliss.....

The people here don't look desolate & seem quite happy. We haven't seen any beggars, which is surprising. I would imagine further inland would tell a different story though. They are a stunning race, very dark and have gorgeous ebony features. The women who are Muslim wear these stunning coloured robes which look amazing against the background.

We've had a great time in Suakin but it did end on a negative note. Pete & I decided to meander the back streets (ruins) to Naz and we came across a load of camels laying down scratching themselves in the mud. Anyway we walked closer only for a 10 year boy to start throwing rocks at us. The boys father (I think) came running over shouting at the young boy to stop. He then came over shook our hands and gestured for us to walk away. The sad thing was we would have liked to know what his problem was. We hate negative endings.

Port Sudan Goods Transport System

Suakin Video

17^th March 2009

We arrived at Port Sudan after about 35 miles of headwinds. We left at 05:45 with 7 other boats and there are 4 of us who opted to stop here. 4 of us decided to long-tack up inside the reef but, as the wind headed us, two gave up and put the engine on. We eventually decided that the tacks were getting shorter into steeper seas and did the same in the narrows of Towartit Reef before bearing away to Port Sudan and getting the engine off again. The hard labourer who kept on tacking was Spanish and kept going under sail at a surprising angle to the wind, we are not sure where their final destination is since afternoon sun and Marsa (reefed inlets) entrances are not good in the afternoon sun.

We will do the same tomorrow and do either 28 miles to Marsa Fijab or 38 miles to Marsa Arakiyai. The weather looks as though it will be OK for the next few days and we plan to get 35 miles per day until we run out of half-charted navigable water at the Egyptian border. There we will wait until the weather looks good for the run across Foul Bay.

We shall not be going ashore here since they apparently charge huge fees, hopefully no-one will come to us and we shall creep out tomorrow morning at first light. Theoretically, this is allowed.

18^th March 2009

We left Port Sudan for Marsa Arakiyia at about 05:15 this morning and had a decent hour of sailing before the wind died and then headed us. From there it was motoring all the way again. I think that this will be a recurring theme for a while since we want to eat up some miles and do not want to short tack between reefs.

We have just been visited by two suspicious looking men in a rotting glass fibre boat who claimed to be army officials and wanted to look at out passports. Having given them a cursory glance, they then wanted to know where we were from. "Port Sudan" I said. "No, No - wear u fram?" they replied. "Oh. British". "Ok. Ingleterrer". "Yes, England". After that, they were on the cadge for some cigarettes and so I told them they could have some tobbaco and rolling papers - they were not interested so we got away without payment.

We caught up with the boats that left Suakin yesterday and so there are an amazing 8 boats in the anchorage. I think that most of these are coast hopping as far North as prudent navigation allows before jumping across Foul Bay. However, the weather window looks perfect to have a shot at it right now and we might be tempted but haven't yet got into the mindset of an overnight passage into headwinds. We will wait until the next window of opportunity.

There is not much here apart from the usual small smattering of small wooden huts and brown sand although it is very peaceful. If we were energetic, we would launch the dinghy and go for a wander but that seems like hard work right now especially if we are off again tomorrow at the crack of dawn for the next leg.

19^th March 2009

We left Arakiyai with the other boats at about 05:30 yesterday morning and managed to sail for about an hour before the wind headed us and, again, we did not want to short-tack between reefs when the charts are so inaccurate. We went past a post marking one reef and the Admiralty had it positioned over 2 miles South of where it really was. Luckily, we had the sketch chart from the Pilot book plus some waypoints that worked out accurate and we led the fleet through the narrows bashing into the wind and waves and digging our bows into the waves at about 3 knots. Outside the reef, we bore away and got half the headsail out and bashed and crashed our way out to sea a while. People say that the waves have a peculiar square shape here, I would enliken it to being in the middle of a set of overfalls. Anyway, by getting a load of distance out to sea, we were able to tack and make the course to the Taila Islands and the inside channel. As we got behind the reefs, the seas calmed and we then beat our way to Marsa Inkeifal to anchor for the night (20 deg 47' N, 37 deg 10.34' E). Toboggan was there and had been holed up there for a week waiting for better weather, yesterday it was only blowing Northerly 25 knots where the previous days had apparently been 30 knots plus. We went over for a couple of drinkies with them and then called an early night and went to bed at 19:30 for a 05:00 start this morning.

20^th March 2009

Today was much better, calm seas behind the reefs and Islands as we started out and then a gentle swell once out and more exposed. Again, it was motor sailing but we managed to make best use of the sails and had a pleasant journey to Khor Shinab. The entrance is supposed to be difficult to spot but we had no trouble with the waypoint given in the Pilot Book and the winding route to the anchorage was easily followed. We are now safely anchored in a barren but beautiful inlet.

"Aju" a Dutch couple seem to have adopted us and appear to, informally, want to buddy-up with us. They want to make headway North tomorrow to Khor El Marob and we are wondering whether we stay here for a couple of days or move on. We will have to stop somewhere for a few days since we decided not to catch this last weather window for the big push North and now we will have to wait for the next. Aldora have suddenly decided to catch us up (we passed them yesterday at the Taila Islands) and so we will have another set of opinions to listen to later. It is slightly comforting to have company in this desolate place but cruising in groups causes differences of opinion. Sometimes in the past we have simply said "we are doing this" and generally the company then submits and does the same. At the end of the day, the weather (and how you interpret it) dictates movements.

21^st March 2009

We left at a reasonable 06:00 this morning and made good progress motoring with about 5 knots southerly blowing. W arrived at 11:45 at Khor El Marob. Toboggan were already here having aborted their plans to get across Foul Bay because the later weather files indicated that the window of opportunity was about to close on them. Aju and Aldora left with us and we are now anchored in a rather beautiful anchorage although it is a bit deep here at 20 metres. Toboggan got the 7 metre patch but it is coral that they are sitting on - we hope that we are on sand because we don't want to foul the anchor at this depth.

We are resting here today and tomorrow and then making a dash for the next anchorage on Monday before stronger winds appear from the North. There is apparently good snorkelling and reasonable walking here and the rest will be good. It also gives me time to check that all the nuts and bolts on the engine are still secure and to do some overall checks on Naz.

Well, after the light winds this morning, the wind did a 180 shift and within half an hour had picked up quite strong. Everyone started playing with more anchor chain and Aju moved to anchor just behind us. The next day, the winds were blowing 30+ knots from the North and Naz was hunting back and forth with our full 80m of chain out. As it increased in the afternoon, I decided to put out our second anchor on 15m chain and 100m of 22mm Nylon rode so that we could rest in peace. The maintenance took a back seat since we wanted Naz prepared for action.

Khor El Marob

Fliss....

You can guess what happened after we put the 2^nd anchor out, yep, within 10 minutes the wind died.

The water is so cold that we could only snorkle for 15 minutes but the coral was beautiful and loads of brightly coloured fish.

23^nd March - 31^st March 2009

At 05:00am everything was flat calm so we raised the dinghy, got the anchors up and all 4 boats left for the 30 mile jump to Marsa Halaib. The wind picked up to about 15-20 knots soon after we set off and we motor sailed North out between the reefs and then tacked off for a good close-hauled sail to our destination. It was good to actually get some sailing in at last rather than trying to dash from one place to the next before the winds picked up and the angle of the sun obscured the reef passes.

As we approached the Marsa, we heard the local Navy talking to a yacht already in the anchorage. They were enquiring about our approach and the people on the yacht said that they would talk to us and ask our intentions - I think that the Navy were unsure about their use of English. Anyway, we anchored near the local Navy Patrol vessel who visited us immediately and checked our papers. They were very cordial but no snorkelling and no going ashore is allowed here due to the sensitivity of the area. The land used to belong to Sudan but is now firmly in Egyptian hands as shown by the naval presence, the watch tower and the 5 large shore-based military cannons.

This is the last stop before Foul Bay and we are now waiting for a weather window that does not look like appearing in the next seven days. We know of a couple of yachts that made it across in the last window but, even then, I felt for them if they have had weather like we have. Many other boats have 'gone for it' only to scurry back into an anchorage as soon as daylight allowed. Toboggan did the same and went into Khor Marob at night following a GPS trail that they had from another yacht that they are able to show on their chartplotter - damned foolish if you ask me since the charts are of little use at best and are very misguiding if you actually believe them.

After yesterday's respite and a quiet evening, the wind started blowing again at about 04:00. I went out to add a bit more scope and others were playing with anchors as well. It has died off a bit but has kicked up a load of dust so visibility is poor and Naz is again plastered. The rigging and lines never have recovered from the dust that has blown over the last month and are a dirty chocolate brown. The decks and lower areas get washed as we gather spray and waves over the bow but the high salinity of the Red Sea means that these areas become frosted with salt deposits. What we need is a serious downpour.

29^th March 2009

The Egyptian Navy said that we could come to their boat an obtain some fuel. At a dollar per litre it is quite expensive but it is worth topping up the tanks. I only took 40 litres since that is all we have the capacity to carry in our jerry cans and I am hoping that they will let me have another 40 litres today so that we can leave here with full tanks and full jerries as well. I got to the Navy boat with my empty jugs, I heard a hissing coming from the dinghy and found that the inflatable floor was quickly getting soft under me. It had chafed on a bolt that holds the retractable wheels on and worn through so I had a small job of removing it and patching it.

Also, I found that the bilge pump that empties the grey water tank had got a leak. It appears that this has been a problem for some time since the bilge had collected quite a quantity of water. I spent about 2 hours trying to get the bilge pump extricated from its location and decided that removal was utterly impossible without taking apart the steps from kitchen to the lounge. After fighting with the pump, I decided that the leak was only coming from the bottom inspection hatch and so removed it, replaced the rubber seal and re secured everything. Once we have some more grey-water to pump I will know whether my efforts have worked. The alternative is to take the pump apart in-situ.

The weather forecast is looking good from tomorrow until the foreseeable future and so it looks as if we will be moving on tomorrow morning. If all goes well then we will take the window and go straight to Port Suez rather than stop anywhere and get holed-up again for days. With any luck then we will be there by Saturday although a glitch in the forecast for about 12 hours on Friday or early Saturday may cause us to interrupt our passage for a short time.

Aldora have just passed by in the dinghy. They had been talking to the Navy about supplies and it has paid off. They have just dropped off tomatoes, potatoes and onions to us. We offered to pay but they said that the cost was so small that it was not worth bothering about. The three kids on Aldora love Fliss' pizza and I think that the veg was a bribe for Fliss to make a couple and take them over tonight.

Dinner with "Aldora", "Toboggan", "Aju" and "Tulamain"

Red Sea Dust

31^st March 2009

We are over on our ear in what I must again refer to as the Red Sea overfalls. We sailed out and met 20+ knots on the nose with waves from 2 directions. Yesterday calmed down a bit in the afternoon and we turned the engine on to make way through the waves. This evening it picked up again and was truly wet and miserable.

We are thinking of calling it a day and stopping at fury shoals where there is supposed to be a good reef anchorage.

The other boats that sailed with us are still nearby and two are thinking of carrying on whilst ourselves and Aju are thinking of stopping and waiting for the weather to listen to the forecast.

1^st April 2009

The wind died a bit this morning and the seas flattened out a bit but the current, wind and waves were against us and we were tacking with motor across a 90 degree angle (pushing it a bit) doing twice the distance of the rhumb line. Fliss and I decided to make for Dolphin Reef (Fury Shoals) and anchor for the night rather than beat ourselves into it.

The other three boats (Aldora, Toboggan & Aju) decided to carry on to Port Ghaliab which is another 112 miles. With the angle of the wind, that makes it 200 miles tacking through the water and strong winds are forecast for late Thursday (tomorrow). I hope that they either make it in or find one of the few anchorages along the way. Either way, we are tired of doing double the distance that we need to, running the engine to stave off the "Red Sea Overfalls" and getting sodden with salty spray. We made it across FOUL BAY ahead of the pack and have decided that a good rest before a short dash tomorrow is a darned sight preferable to continuing. The short dash is either 45 miles or 90 miles tacking into wind - we are not even sure that we will make our expected landfall tomorrow so will need a bolt-hole for when the hit kicks the fan later on.

A little word about weather forecasts........6 knots means about 15 knots. 60 degrees means 345 degrees. We will not go out in in anything predicted over 10 knots - and never have here!

The anchorage here is beautiful with crystal clear water such that the bommies were easy to see and we weaved our way to the northern arm of the reef for great protection and smooth azure water. It has been nice to stop. The reef is called Dolphin Reef and, soon after anchoring, a group of small dolphins came cruising past Nadezhda to admire her. If the forecast tomorrow is more than 4 knots directly in the face (read 13 knots) then the sea (read overfalls) will stop us from moving and we shall stop in this lovely place. It is abit like Minerva Reef in the Pacific where we are surrounded by waves but nothing enters the anchorage.

So that's where we are - we wimped out but are looking to a different window of opportunity on Sat/Sun. Don't want to go to Port Ghalaib since the charges are beyond our means.

Oman to Aden - Pirate Alley

2009-05-06T01:35:00.000-07:00

15^th February 2009

We went early to the customs and immigration this morning at 07:00. They had to complete one small form for each of the three yachts and then stamp our passports. It only took them three hours and they seemed to enjoy the fact that they could keep us waiting. Eventually, we returned to the boats, got our hooks up and requested permission to leave the port. When Zappler V requested permission, the Port Authorities told him to come ashore and see Port Finances. After a lot of confusion, it transpired that, since they had needed to go alongside to re-fuel, the port wanted them to pay for mooring for the 8 hours it took them to deliver the fuel. We dropped the hook again and waited another hour for payment to be made. What a bunch of neolithic monkeys.

We set off in a sand storm with zero visibility & no wind, it's going to be a long trip!

16^th February 2009

Things are tricky in this convoy since the boats are all completely mismatched. We have "Zappler V", a 60 foot catamaran who carries 3500 litres of diesel on board and continually runs his engines to keep a boat speed of 7 knots, "Aldora" a super-fast 45 foot catamaran who will only motor begrudgingly at 5 knots and then takes off at the first puff of wind and moans about us laggers. Lastly, there is "Nadezhda" who is a traditional monohull that rarely gets above 7.5 knots and is a sluggish starter. Things are made worse by the 1.5 knot current against us and little breeze which has everyone a bit edgy. Oh Well, we will split up once through Pirate Alley and will be able to run at our own pace again.

So, this morning, we poled out the headsail and tried to sail but didn't manage the 5 knots minimum boatspeed, then the wind came round and we used all three sails under motor, then we got the cruising chute out and have been monitoring it all day whilst motor sailing. Aldora decided that 5 knots minimum boatspeed means 5 knots over ground, I pointed out that I took notes during our convoy meeting and they clearly state that Aldora stipulated 5 knots through the water - nice to be able to refer to the "minutes". Anyway, we are all plugging hard today to go as fast as reasonably possible since 2 knots motoring against 2 knots of current wastes fuel.

However, it's to have company. We use Ch17 which means we do not forget to turn to Low Power setting and we also use the hand held VHFs so the range cannot be more than a couple of miles. We have just done a book delivery to Zappler V, he motored up behind us and I bound them and threw them frizbee style onto his front net. You've got to do something to break up the day!

Zappler V - Bookswap

I have the responsibility of position reporting and itinerary updates to UKMTO at noon GMT each day, they pass the details onto the " relevant battlestaffs" but I have no clue what is done with them. At least they know whereabouts we are, the vessel details and the names and the nationalities of those on board.

So, not the best passage and we are all praying for 15-20 knots wind to get us all going.

17^th February 2009

Still motoring!

18^th February 2009

Last night, we turned into the separation zone between the West and Eastbound shipping lanes. There was not a lot of traffic about as we crossed the start of the Westbound lane so life was quite easy there. Since then, we have seen plenty of ships going in both directions but they all comply with the rules and none have encroached on our sacred ground except those wishing to cross the lanes.

About 04:00 yesterday morning, three ships came down the Westbound lane together. The last one was going twice as fast as the two in front (probably 30-35 knots) and came within half a mile of us before swerving North. That was the first warship we had seen. Today, another warship came barrelling towards us at a similar speed to pass a mile and a half in front of us and, as it did, it received a helicopter on deck. We have also seen spotter planes and heard them calling ships on the VHF so we feel well watched.

We are still motoring with very little wind. What breeze there is tends to be right behind us and so the apparent wind is next to zero. However, we managed to get the cruising chute to fly early in the afternoon until it collapsed on us an hour later and later on we set it out on a pole and flew it spinnaker-style for about an hour and a half and turned the engine off at the same time. It was absolute bliss having some peace and quiet for a while. Eventually, the others had then pulled too far ahead and it was soon to be dark so we packed it away and resumed our puttering along.

Motoring at our agreed 5 knots is a pain in the bum, our engine has developed a resonance between 1300 and 1600 revs that causes vibration in the boat. Since I don't like anything feeling a little unhappy, we have decided not to run the engine in that range until I have the chance to investigate. In these conditions, 1600 revs gives us about 5.8 knots and 1300 gives us 4.2 knots so we have to drive forwards for a period to catch up and then fall back again as we toggle between the two rev settings. Life is so much easier when not having to play by these speed rules. However, sailing to an orchestrated speed would/will be much more difficult and I don't think is fully appreciated by the others.

The current levelled out today and, for once, was not against us. However, it has come back again at an adverse half-knot. I am hoping that tomorrow will bring change in our favour. All these poor sailing conditions have caused me to have to revise our itinerary with UKMTO twice and we are now over a day behind our original passage estimate - an estimate based on 5.8 knots over ground (usually quite achievable and especially so with supposed fast boats with us). Oh well, at least life is calm and gentle here which is quite nice.

19^th February 2009

We have entered the high risk area an were greeted by two warships who were milling around at super-high speeds with their respective helicopters overflying. One of the helicopters called up and suggested that we turn up the speed a bit "Make best possible Haste" but Aldora cannot run their engine any faster so we are still chugging along relatively slowly. I have eaten my words about 5 knots! It is ok if you are sailing but, since we have to have the motor on to keep over 5 knots, then we might as well use it to good effect rather than simply running at idling speed.

Last night and the previous one, we saw frigates roaming around with high intensity searchlights scanning the horisons. On Fliss' watch, they picked us up and focussed in on Zappler V for a while before moving on. Communication from the forces is minimal and the only time we have been called up is when we were asked to step on the gas. This morning, we were suddenly surrounded by an escorted Westbound convoy of about 10 ships that split to go around us - it's all go here.

Fliss....

The Gulf of Aden is without a doubt a war zone. Yesterday we were buzzed by a helicopter, the type you see in Vietnam movies with the guy sitting in the door with a machine gun. I waved & the guy waved back at me, anyway they called us up and said "Sailing vessels be aware that you are in a high risk zone of piracy make the best speed you can, if you are approached call Coalition Warships on channel 16 and we will get to you as soon as possible, best of luck & safe passage".

Sheldon on Zappler 5 who is part of our convoy is a virtual third member on board Naz. I feel much happier knowing he's out there keeping an close eye on all the large ships. He's got AIS on board which tells you what the big ships name is, course & close they are going to pass you. As one gets within 12 miles he calls me up on the VHF to let me know. It really has been great & taken a lot of pressure off. One night when he was off watch he called me and said “Fliss, don't panic but you have a 586 foot tanker travelling at 22 knots which is going to miss you by just under half a mile”. I could pick it up on the radar but he was unlit so I couldn't see him. When he did finally pass us the sky went completely black and just under half mile seemed very close, too close for my liking!

20^th February 2009

Today was much quieter and we are still motoring with about 6- 8 knots of breeze behind us which means that we sit in the cockpit breathing in the exhaust fumes all day. There is no forecast of any reasonable wind in theforeseeable future so we will continue to motor.

We have had dolphins with us for the last couple of days. They have been very playful with great jumping displays. At night, we can see their jet trails of phosphorescence coming towards us from a long way off and then can watch their zig-zag path through the water. This evening, we also saw an ominous large pool of phosphorescence that glided about back and forth at a leisurely pace, sometimes under the boat and sometimes moving away 1-200 metres before coming back again. We hav no idea what it was since it never seemed to break the surface and create phosphorescent waves.

We have decided to make a stop in Aden to look at our engine problem. Yesterday, I had to switch fuel tanks and this meant that I had to shut off the engine and remove all the engine covers to get at the fuel taps. We usually put the gearbox in reverse when the engine is off but forgot on this occasion and so the shaft was turning when I performed the switch-over. As it did, I could see the engine nodding back and forth and therefore assume that the problem we are experiencing is due to the shaft and is probably only a matter of engine re-alignment. Anyway, I have decided that it is not wise to enter the Red Sea with engine issues since there is no support there whatsoever. We have therefore decided to run to Aden where I will have a go at fixing the problem and, if I fail, then I believe there is a Volvo Penta agent in Djibouti.

Aldora are also going into Aden for more fuel (although Zappler V have offered them as much as they could want) so the convoy disintegrates shortly - probably a relief to Zappler V who has been silently gagging to go faster. On my last Noon (GMT) report to UKMTO, I asked where the best place would be to exit the corridor if bound for Aden. They obviously read the e-mails since they replied that we should go to the very end. This does not make sense since, if we turn up towards Aden at 46 degrees East, if will half the time at sea than if we turn up at 45 degeres East. So, we will make our own passage plan based on advice to make best possible haste and reduce time spent in a risk area.

No other yachts seen to-date, most yachts have a passage plan to run one mile North of the Westbound lane so we would not see them from here. I think that the advice from UKMTO to run down the separation zone is much better since ships tend not to wander into it and it puts us smack-bang in the middle of the patrolled area.

Gulf Convoy on Radar

We had about 0.2 knot current in our favour for about 8 hours today but is has come back against us at almost half a knot again. We compare our log readings and they all concur so it is not just us who over-reads!

We turned for Aden just before 46 degrees East and had 60 miles to run. The wind picked up and we got every scrap of sail out to keep up with Aldora So, we got full main out, put up the cruising chute and, since the wind was a bit far behind to run it effectively, we poled out the headsail adjacent to it to funnel the wind into the luff. We were happy that there were not going to be any sudden gusts and we cruised at over 6 knots that way.

Full Sail

As the wind picked up, we put away the chute and turned the engine back on just to keep up with Aldora - we decided not to set the slowest pace. The wind picked up even more and we were doing a good 7 knots so we turned off the engine and still kept up with the 'fast' cat. Naz shows her colours once again - she's a wonderful girl.

Aden harbour at night is very confusing so we followed Aldora in. Unfortunately, they did not have a working stern light so we couldn't see them.

Adious Zappler 5 and Bon Voyage.

22^st February 2009

This morning, we had to up the anchor because we were told that we were sitting over High Tension power cables. As we pulled the hook, we pulled a plastic sheathed cable up on the anchor and had to motor forward, hoist the anchor a bit more and free ourselves. No electric shocks thank goodness.

"Aldora" in Aden

The wind blew hard all day today, over 20 knots in the anchorage. Why couldn't it do that whilst we were at sea????? We are now anchored close to other boats and the harbour wall so I decided that I would do an engine service instead of looking at our problem since I did not want to be without a shaft just in case we dragged or needed to move. I found that we had been leaking oil from a loose filter and that we were just below min level......lucky we had not continued!!!

A number of yachties around here are well versed with engine alignment and I have had the offer of two torque wrenches and also offers of help. Nigel Calders book has three pages describing the technique of engine alignment plus diagrams and they are very understandable so I should have no problems sorting it out (if that is the problem). The chapter ends saying that it is a long, tedious and frustrating task so I am sure that the air will be blue by the time I have finished. The problem may have been caused by the loose bolt on the mount or may have been caused by settling of the rubber bearers themselves.

Fuel must be jerried from the fuel dock since you would not want to take the boat alongside. People who have done the run so far have come back with filthy dinghies, filthy jerry cans and dirty feet complaining about the requests for baksheesh.

However Aden looks quite interesting and we need to get out and have a look. However, today has gone, tomorrow is shaft alignment, the next day is fuel running and we only have three days here before we have to pay $65 each for a visa. Fliss might go out alone or with other yachties here and I will keep plugging away.

Aden Port

22^nd February 2009

Happy Birthday Pete .............

I eventually got around to parting the shaft today and could see immediately that the alignment was wrong as a gap opened up at the top of the flanges. I could not quite poke my finger in and measured it at 33 thou instead of the max 4 thou. I unbolted all the mounting top-bolts and checked to see if that caused any of the botom ones to become loose - all ok there. Then I raised the front of the engine 16 flats of the nuts (although I raised the Starboard side more than the port side since it was the one that had been loose and seemed to have less resistance to turning. This brought the flanges into alignment but we had a misalignment side-to side. I went to the bolts that hold the mounts onto the bearers and found that the rearmost bolts had stripped the threads in the bearers and the sideways adjusting mount bolt was loose. I re-aligned side to side and took the stripped bolts out for treatment. The core of the bearers is foam and the bolts are threaded into 1cm of GRP only so I punched the foam away with screwdrivers and a pencil, filled with Expoy mixed with filler and screwed the bolts back in (without the washers) after I had treated them with special 'no stick' provided by Toboggan. I will extract the bolts later, put the washers back on and tighten them up.

The flanges of the gearbox and shaft are not the same diameter so it is difficult to do an actual engine position test but the shaft needed a bit of urging upwards to get the machined step to locate so I also dropped the engine 6 flats on each nut and that seemed to do the trick. I would much rather have the means to test this properly but there are other anomalies that prevent it. The shaft flange is either not circular or is not centred on the shaft properly,I believe that it is not circular (it is an unmachined casting) because the machined step seems ok. Also, there is about 2-3 thou runout on the flange face which is not truly perpendicular to the shaft but I have so far managed to get the whole flange within 4 thou which is tolerable.

In the meantime, John from Aldora delivered a bunch of jerry jugs full of diesel so I have been spilling that all over the deck and getting some in the tanks as well. Tomorrow, I have to continue the filling operation and then return his jerries full.

It's all go! Lucky fliss is away with people from two other boats doing the tourist thing so she is happy and I will be happy if she returns with some more ATF oil.

Fliss....

Poor old Pete really didn't have a nice birthday. This morning at 8am Keith from Kirsteen Jayne came over and said “Get your glad rags on your coming out with us for the day, we have no idea where we're going but we're going out” bless them I think they were rescuing me from sitting around the boat all day.

We went to a old fort that sits really high up with great views over Aden. The place itself is very barren with tall peaky mountains, the locals reckon next month the rains come so the 1500 year old water tanks (big holes in the ground) filter the water into the city. The markets are great, loads of stalls selling fab fruit & veg we went to the Grass market. The men chew lumps of this grass which looks like privet hedge leaves and get stoned. You see them sleeping it off on the pavements. At the Military Museum the Army Guard was stoned out of his face holding a AK47 machine gun, mad eh!

Grass Seller

Local Monument

Aden from the Fort

The Brits were here around 1940 and you can see it in the official buildings, apparently when they chucked us out the Russians walked straight in and invaded them. They said it was a much nicer place when the brits were here and the things worked.

It's dusty, dirty, full of people rushing about the place & women in Burkhas, but the locals are really really friendly and as you walk past they say welcome to Aden. The ladies in the Burhas have no problem with us. I do have to wear a long sleeved shirt & long skirt but they are friendly.

We were taken to a Mosque and inside was a row of wooden tombs draped in satin. I asked guide who was in them and he said a prophet and his family dating back hundreds of years, he promptly called the caretaker over who opened the tomb up. The guide put his hand inside and scooped up some of the ashes, Pete from Purr and I cracked up laughing wondering whether or not it was an arm or a leg, bizarre.

Local Tombs

23^rd February 2009

We prepared Naz for the journey into the dreaded Red Sea.

Maldives to Salalah, Oman

2009-05-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

29^th January 2009

We left at 9am this morning for Salalah in Oman. What a great place & we had a magical time there.

Sheldon & Vanessa are about half a mile on our left hand side, we're hoping that they increase their lead over night as otherwise I'll have to watch them all night. They're very sweet and I think they're keeping close so that they can keep an eye on us... They've again offered us diesel if the wind doesn't pick up. We're not used to sailing so close to another boat.

All's well on board & only 1218 miles to go to Oman.

30^th January 2009

Pete....

Last night, we put away the cruising chute and put a single reef in the main as we always do. We had motored on and off during the day to keep the boat speed up and did the same overnight. As long as we were doing over 5 knots, then we were happy.

Today has been a good day (I slept for 6 hours) and we have made good progress with full sail at about 6 knots. Zappler is even further ahead and we hope that they give up on us and keep going since it relieves the pressure of trying to keep up with a boat with twin engines and a lot of fuel. We shall have to see whether they still want to convoy with us since the 3rd party interested is a fast sailing catamaran. When we suggested that we keep a minimum of 5.5 knots through the Gulf using engine where necessary, Sheldon thought that 6 was a better figure - unfortunately, if there are light winds, that would mean motoring all the way which is impossible for many cruising boats.

31^st January 2009

After a period of no wind at midnight last night, we got a decent breeze all night although fairly close hauled. Today was a mixed bag with light airs but we managed to sail 90% of it and are doing 5-6 knots at the moment.

Apart from that, there is little to tell.

We added our bit to the Cruisers Gossip yesterday as we had received a mail from Toboggan saying that French military had arrested 9 pirates off the Yemeni coast. Fliss got wires crossed and told Sheldon that 7 Yemeni pirates were arrested off the Yemeni coast and he told a yacht that he was passing this morning that 7 Yemeni pirates were arrested and were probably co-ordinating with the Somalis. We will soon hear that Somali Militia, in conjunction with Yemeni coastgaurds and customs officials are mounting pirate attacks based on information fed secretly from the Joint Task Force.

Another bit of Cruising Gossip is that the Joint Task Force has moved its corridor of protection somewhat further South and that this change is to take place on, or around, the 6th February. The reason was that there were too many Yemeni fishing boats in the present corridor and that this was causing a lot of security overhead with each needing to be checked.

1st February 2009

We have been lacking wind here in the Indian Ocean and the ride has been very stressfree with slight seas. The motor goes on and off at least 5 times a day as we use tickover speeds to generate apparent wind. Sometimes, the sails just flog and we really have to motor. Toboggan are 240 miles ahead and have decent wind so we are hoping to catch some of that in the near future.

Sheldon has zoomed off into the blue with engines running hard. He can motor all the way and I suppose that is what the owner wants - fast passage times, less risk.

2^nd February 2009

After a night of turning the engine on and off to keep us going, the morning saw an increase in wind and we have about 10-15 knots getting us along at 6-7 knots. In fact, it is perfect sailing conditions with the wind at about 60-70 degrees on the starboard side with little in the way of waves. We have full main, jib and staysail with not much heel. Probably because the starboard side has all the weight since we store the heavy stuff that side and are using fuel and water out of the port side.

Fliss made bread yesterday and has done another load today. She makes it in the pressure cooker which is very energy efficient and it comes out a bit heavy but very tasty. We are looking forward to digging in.

Fliss....

I had a busy day today, well busy by my standards. I started my watch at 7am and then made lunch, baked bread & then did dinner. All this done with Naz leaning over on her side. the wind kept picking up so we had to put 2 reefs in the main but it kept getting windier so I got Pete up twice in the night to reef the headsail. By the time I went to bed at 12:45am I had been awake 18.5 hours I was tired & thoroughly fed up with life on a boat. I think anyone out here doing this feels this way somedays.

3^rd February 2009

The forecast that told us of headwinds has changed its tune and it is quite possible that we will keep these conditions until we arrive (although the weather forecasting is a bit dubious). The winds tend to increase overnight and die off during the day, probably due to cooling of the deserts even at this distance,

More bread today!! Yum Yum. And Fliss has also made an Omani flag so she has been busy.

4^th February 2009

With the weather forecasting strong headwinds to come we are pinching up as high as we can so that we have a decent sailing angle to the wind when they arrive. It's hard work as you cannot relax on night watch as you have to keep a constant eye on the sails. At night the conditions are gusty so one minute your ticking over at 3 knots and the next your screaming along in the high 8's. Very difficult trying to set your sails for comfort.

5^th February 2009

Well, we are glad that we had been nibbling away to windward since Monday. Last night, there were some ominous waves coming from ahead and the Navtex told us of a Shamal in the gulf of Oman and other coastal areas that we could not recognise. The Grib file had played down the Thursday Northerlies since its forecast on Monday but they arrived at about 04:30 yesterday morning. I furled some turns in the headsail and then did some more about 10 minutes later. 10 minutes after that, I got Fliss up to put the second reef in and we ran like that all day with about 30 knots and seas that seemed to be coming from every direction causing us to pitch and roll with loads of water over the decks and in the cockpit.

Getting Wet

The winds abated somewhat at 16:00 and I got a couple of hours sleep, then noodles, then sleep until midnight. Fliss had got some more headsail out by then and she went to bed. The seas had calmed down very nicely. About an hour later, I had re-reefed the headsail and by 02:00, I got her up again to get the third reef in the mainsail to try and slow us down. So, it's now 04:00 and I am hoping that the winds eventually abate some time today.

Our original estimate of arrival has been extended since we are getting 2 knots of current against us. We are hoping that we will make it into Salalah by Saturday sometime in morning daylight hours. Hopefully with calms although they say that the Shamal can last up to 2 days.

I should not be so optimistic in my outlook!

6^th February 2009

Winds are easing and we got the third reef out about half an hour ago, also a bit more headsail!

still looking at tomorrow morning for landfall although it may be in the dark as the current has also eased against us.

So, Happy bunnies here and hoping that we do not get a lull followed by a repetition.

The Net today was all concerned with yachts about 500-600 miles behind so no news about local conditions but, never mind, we are looking forward to better to come.

It's 17:20 local time and we have only 2 reefs in the main and the wind has veered so much that we are able to pole the jib out but still keep the staysail going. I love the staysail when you are heading into wind and have nothing but a scrap of headsail peeking out, the staysail can be kept going and pulling with the correct shape. Other than that, it's so small that it is pretty useless - but very good in a blow.

The wind has eased to about 20 knots but when it is 120 degrees apparent, it feels like bliss. We still have current against us (now making waves rather than calming them) but we are hoping that, as we close the coast, it will reduce.

GPS tells us of 12 more hours to go but it may be more since the forecast is for the winds to slacken early tomorrow morning.

So, all well with us looking forward to landfall, kissing the last Ocean goodbye and hopefully we will be able to find a space in the crowded anchorage

7^th February 2009

The last evening was bliss with wing-on-wing gentle surfing on the swell. We arrived as the sun came up which was good timing and motored around the small anchorage trying to find a space. A 20 metre yacht motored past us at speed about half an hour before we got in and we arrived just after it. After trying a number of different spots where we swung too close to others, we eventually plumped for a place just close to the breakwater and nabbed the spot just as the larger boat had the same idea. The larger boat is part of the Blue Water Rally and he eventually convinced port control to allow him and other members to Med-moor against the dockside.

Fliss....

We love landfall! As we arrived Ben & Corrola's little children were jumping about in the cockpit, waving and shouting “Salaam al haykum, Pete & Felicia” “welcome to Oman” they really are a lovely sweet family.

Little Nials hero worships Pete, as in the Maldives he watched Pete swim under their boat. The little boy (about 5) couldn't contain his excitement, his arms & legs we're thrashing about and he was shrieking in laughter, calling his dad saying “Papa, Papa Pete just dived under Lassa”.

I spotted 2 shells on the sea bed and Pete dove down for them, Nials was transfixed by this. Pete resurfaced and we gave the shells to the kids only to be told by their parents that they had dumped them overboard the previous night. How funny!

The little girl Lisa (4) is my shadow, if we go anywhere I have to sit with her & I'm often invited over for a massage.

Sheldon & Vanessa asked If I wanted to go shopping with them. Pete being shattered stayed on Naz and got some sleep. We went to a butchers which isn't for the squeamish as they had a huge wooden block covered in blood with an axe next to it. The walls were splattered with blood and the meat just laid on a dirty looking work surface. I bought steak so he took a lump of meat and sliced bits off. Vanessa knows her meat & she said it was very fresh. Thank god we didn't turn up earlier as I couldn't watch an animal being butchered. Hypocript I know.

The veg & fruit are gorgeous looking & I picked up some pears which I can't wait for them to ripen.

We hope in the next few days we can take a trip out into the mountains to see the Bedquins, sink holes & caves.

It's a fascinating place with the women in full Burquas & then men in white flowing robes. They all look so beautifully turned out, It's not a poor country as they all drive around in 4X4's.

We went out for dinner with Sheldon, Vanessa, Nancy & Steve, delicious steak but not cheap as our bill at the end of the night came to 35 pounds. Mind you we didn't go short on beer or wine.

It takes me back to the time I was in Dubai. Camels everywhere and dusty white cubed houses. It's not scenic but I do like it here.

9^th February 2009

Sheldon drove me to the fuel station and lent me some jerry cans as well. The security people at the dock entrance checked our passports for the appropriate visas and had a look in the boot on the way out and also stopped us to look in the boot on the way back in again. The security guy then proclaimed that we could not bring diesel into the port without the correct paperwork. Luckily, Sheldon had a mobile phone and the number of Mohammed the "man who arranges everything". We sat in the sweltering heat at the port entrance for half an hour and eventually Mohammed turned up, had a quiet word and we were allowed through. Other yachties had to wait until 16:00 when apparently getting fuel was "allowed" and they all convoyed in cars to bring the diesel in.

I misjudged how much we needed and had a panic when the tank was full and the funnel was also full. I am going on a hunt today for someone who has decent water containers that we can borrow to re-water.

We had our first convoy meeting yesterday evening but it turned into more of a social event rather than anything else. Unfortunately, I think that the two catamarans are much too fast for us and we will get left behind. The other catamaran is a 50 foot Outreimer that will not be able to slow down with a good wind behind. John told us that he can take down all his sails and still run at 12 knots when there is a good puff from behind. Three boats (Skeedemusnke, Toboggan and Lasse) are leaving tomorrow and we wish we were going with them since we have known them for a long time and we are much better matched for speed. They had invited us and even said that they would wait until we were ready but we feel that we have committed to Sheldon and have to honour that. Oh Well.

10^th February 2009

Fliss.....

Today I had a ladies day with Vanessa & Kerri. We decided to visit the Souks & do some re-provisiong.

There really wasn't that much too see as the Souks were just shacks selling tourist tat. As I walked down a street and old man said hello to me, so I said hello back he followed us into the shop & started shouting at me for money, well I think he wanted money. Vanessa & Kerri carried on looking at things ignoring him, I couldn't as he was just a few feet away. The male shop owner was lost for words & it took his wife in full Arab Bhurka to tell him to go. It was awful as I didn't know what to do, damned if I'm giving someone money if when he's shouting at me.

Provisioning is excellent but it does come at a cost, but after a month or so not being able to re provision we're more than happy to blow the budget, we owed a few luxuries.

11^th & 12^th February 2009

Just MORE boat jobs

13^th February 2009

We took a run out along the coast in a hire car. The mountains and gorges are quite spectacular but the visibility is down to about a mile due to desert dust hanging in the atmosphere. It is all over everything, right through the boat and there is no point cleaning it up since more settles straight after. Apparently it is a phenomenon that occurs rarely so, although we cannot see much, at least we have experienced it.

Fliss...

Lovely day out & really nice to get of Nadezhda for a few hours. The blow-holes were great. Before the water appears you can hear this loud roar and then the water shoots20-30 feet in the air.

The sun looked so strange as it was really white and almost eerie.

We also saw loads of camels being herded down the road.

Blow Holes

Fliss & Crew of Zappler V

Camels

14^th February 2009

Today is busy, busy day before departure tomorrow. We have contacted UKMTO in Dubai and have organised our anti-piracy vessel reporting details that need registering via the internet later. I have e-mailed them so that they can send a large document to us when we get our internet connection. They were very helpful and described the differences between the fast Yememi fishing skiffs and the faster Somali pirate skiffs. I think that they are getting concerned about the number of alarmist calls from boats (probably sailing vessels) who call emergencies via VHF whenever they see small, fast boats - the fishing skiffs run at about 20 knots trawling for tuna.

Thailand to Uligan - Maldives

2009-05-06T00:47:00.000-07:00

10^th January 2009

We left at 10:30 today with a fair breeze up our backsides and soon got our headsail poled out opposite the main and had a good 6.5 knots going. Since then, the wind has turned more Northerly and abated so, although we are currently managing to keep the pole out, we are 10 degrees low of our course. Seas are a bit rolly so there is the odd slam and bang as the mainsail slaps around. We are hoping that the current conditions will improve tonight and will continue to improve as we get away from land. We think that the Northerly slant and the dying of the wind this afternoon is due to the convection on land.

Naz is feeling very heavy with all our supplies and quite sluggish.

11^th January 2009

Today has been a good wind from 120 degrees apparent but, with a wineglass bottom we have been rolling like a P.I.G.

Surprising 136 miles for the 24 hour run. With the amount of time we spent lolling around with little wind, I would have thought we would not have achieved even that poor figure. Fliss must have done some good sailing whilst I was in bed.

12^th January 2009

We went through the Nicobar Channel at 14:15.

We couldn't see anything due to haze but you can tell that people live on the island with the amount of single flip flops & plastic bottles.

13^th January 2009

Fliss....

Not a very nice night last for us. The wind picked up and in the gusts I couldn't slow the boat down, I reefed the headsail so many times I was only left with a scrap out. With wind brings waves & they were a total pain as they had us rolling like a pig, nothing scary out there just hard work keeping an eye on Naz... we're very heavy at the moment so we won't let her to go too fast as she could go out of control. Still the same today but I'm hoping that it'll ease by tonight. It's not that windy just mucky.

Pete...

Fliss tells me that the seas abated quite early on and she now has full headsail out doing 7+knots. I must say that it is much more comfortable.

14^th January 2009

Last night, we eventually got what can only be described as the perfect Ocean passage making weather. Wing on Wing, we had 2 reefs in the main and some rolls in the headsail and surged along all night at 6-7.5 knots. A good 24 hours run of 160 miles. This afternoon, the wind has eased and we are moving at a more leisurely 6 knots.

15^th January 2009

Another blinding sail today with the wind blowing about 20 knots from 130 degrees with 2 reefs in the main, the pole out and surfing the waves. For 2 days, we have been doing 6-7 knots giving us over 160 miles per day without feeling pressed - when we do feel a little over canvassed, we simply roll a lump of headsail in and maintain the same speed. A few waves "get us" since they are from the rear quarter and can sloosh us around but these are rare.

Pete....

I read "Smileys People" by Le-Carre the other day. About a load of boring ex-boarding-school boys going "ra-ra" whilst making-up funny handshakes and pretending to be spies. However, it included a paragraph that has a strange coincidence. It reads "Which was funny because her real name was not Felicity at all; Felicity was what she had chosen for the other nuns. Her real name, she had told Alexandra as a secret, was Nadezhda, meaning 'Hope'." Two unusual names, both of which accompany me across the Indian Ocean.

16^th January 2009

Just been waving to people on a large container ship - the first visible human contact since Thailand. We spoke to Tobogan today, they are 14 miles ahead of us and Nancy has an inner ear infection that is not responding to antibiotics so they are dropping into Sri Lanka to see a doc before sailing further into nowhere.

Another good run yesterday of 174 miles - almost our record. Of course, we have been cheating with a good current running underneath us. Last night was really quite peaceful as we ran at 6-7 knots but the wind has come on the beam and we are back to 2 reefs and a bit of bouncing in 25knots. Hopefully, it will revert back more to the rear later.

17^th January 2009

We had an interesting night last night. We were knocking along at 7.5 knots and, just before my off-watch, we put a few furls in the jib. For some reason I could not sleep and so, after about an hour, I got up and decided to go for the 3rd reef in the main. After all the messing (since it is a difficult one to do), I eventually went back to bed only to get up again shortly after to put the tenth furl in the jib. Having gone back to bed again, I heard Fliss cussing and bemoaning the umpteenth burst of heavy spray that was frequently dousing the cockpit so I got up and she went to bed instead of me -" until the weather calms down"

There were only 3 ships visible when Fliss went to bed but these soon multiplied. Most could be ignored but they were all travelling either with us or against us. The ones coming towards us would come in flurries of between 4 and 7 of them all doing their various speeds and loosely staggered. One of the early sets almost ran us down and only drastic action on our part saved a collision - I could clearly illuminate the bridge with my heavy duty torch.

From then on it seemed up to us to play dodgems regardless of what COLREGS say and we weaved and dodged our way through these convoys of ships with the wind blowing 30-40 knots (as strong as we have ever experienced at sea) and spray and airborne spume lashing the cockpit.

We decided that I was not going to get any sleep and that we needed somewhere to get a little R&R. The initial thought was to get behind the lee of Sri Lanka and then hove to - so we set off towards land (all GRIB Files show a dead wind zone there). This took us straight through both shipping lanes and things got a little busier. Getting in front of any ship was dicey since heading-up slowed us down considerably so we weaved around the back of each and lost our windward edge with each one. Anyway, we made it through the lanes just as the sun was coming up cruised down the coast with ever decreasing wind and seas.

We sailed to Galle harbour and hove to just 5 miles off with hardly a breath of wind. I have just had 8 hours sleep and it is now Fliss' turn before we set off once again to the Maldives.

Fliss....

It was a foul night. Being short I can't see over the spray hood and with all the big ships around I had to have the hood down. As soon as one wave hit the side of Nadezhda and sent gallons of water into the cockpit soaking me from head to foot another one surely followed. I admit the air turned blue. I was totally fed up with it. I'd only been on watch for 2 hours with another 3 to go... arrggghhh.

Pete being my hero took pity on me & told me to go off watch, I was grateful & immensely relieved.

Big ships & gale force conditions are not a winning formula for me, I hate it with a passion.

A real shame as we bobbed by Galle, Sri lanka it would have been nice to check in but we decided against it as they want to charge you 175 pounds. They also put the Navy on your boat to check if you have any bombs (They still have problems with Tamil Tigers) we didn't want the navy onboard as they'd have seen our 70 ltrs of spirits and they demand a lot of it as gifts or they would have confiscated it. “Supplies” on Nadezhda are protected at all costs even if it does mean sitting out at sea for 12 hours.

Fliss....

Quite amusing just sitting there as a fishing boat came up to Naz wondering why she was just bobbing about, they must have thought she was abandoned. They came over gave me a wave then moved off.

An hour later they came back offered me some fish then left. Another hour later they came over again. They must have wondered what the hell I was doing.

17^th January 2009

Yesterday we left our heave-to position at about 18:00 local time and tacked through the counter currents dodging loads of local fishing boats. Further offshore, we picked up some West going current and headed towards Uligamu on a close haul. The winds around the bottom of Sri Lanka always seem to be either light or counter to the prevailing winds. We had been going for about 6 hours when the wind veered 90 degrees, we tacked and it increased slightly. Soon, we were about 80 degrees to the wind and bombing along at 7.5 knots. We had 2 reefs in the main and furled away a large portion of headsail and had a good nights run. Today has been more of the same - quite windy, wind on the beam, 7+ knots through the water and over 8 knots over the ground. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a wet ride though.

The forecast shows that the winds tend to die as we approach the Maldives due to the shadow effect of a big stationary high that sits over India. Our rough guess is that the winds will ease by 21:00 tonight and we are hoping for a more restful evening although, eventually, we might have to resort to motor. I think that a peaceful end has been earned but would mean hoving-to off the Maldives because we would then arrive too late to make landfall with good light.

18^th January 2009

The current has decided to go against us at about 1 knot slowing our progress somewhat and making it impossible to get into the Maldives by sundown tomorrow. We resigned ourselves to our fate and kept going with a good wind. By the time I came on watch at midnight, Fliss had unfurled some headsail and we were doing 6.5-7.5 knots over a smooth swell. I upped the anti and gave the full headsail and we surged along at 7.5-8.5 knots averaging about 8 through the water and 7 over ground. The Maldives were back in the adgenda. Over the evening, the wind piped up and veered causing us to pole-out and reef quite significantly but we kept going in the 7-8 knot region.

19^th January 2009

The wind is slowly dying now and we have full poled out jib, full mainsail and staysail - the whole works. About an hour ago, we dropped into the 6's but, fortunately, the current against us had weakened to nothing. We must keep 5.5 knots as a minimum and we dropped to that about 10 minutes ago. I said to Fliss "Nearly time to turn the Donk on" to which she replied "Why? We are doing 7.5 knots over ground!". Happy days!

20^th January 2009

We arrived here at 10:30 (Thailand time, 08:30 Maldivian time). The sun was too low to really see the coral but the local officials guided us in their dory to a patch of chain-grumbling stuff so we shall see how well the anchor pulls back up when we leave! Must go and snorkel over it since it was only in 11 metres depth.

5 Officials come on board and are very polite but have a rainforest of paperwork too be filled in, signed and stamped. You need 5 copies of the crew list and everything must be "chopped" with your own boat stamp (don't know what they do if you don't have your own boat stamp). It is the first time that anyone has requested use of our rubber stamp.

We saw Manta Rays as we were dropping the hook, they were ghosting through the anchorage and we also saw them whilst we had our arrival G & T's. We cleaned up, pumped up the dinghy and then promptly slept for the afternoon.

We are going on an organised tour with Ben and Corolla from "Lasse" on the 22nd. Boat trip, lunch included and some good snorkelling sites. Only about 12 dollars per person and sounds like a good deal. Tomorrow, we will familiarise ourselves with our surroundings and then get to work with boat jobs (cockpit varnishing, top-up varnishing, repair of sail covers, rig-check and various sundry items).

21^st January 2009

We went snorkelling today and we're was a bit disappointed with the marine life, we've seen better. Tomorrow we're off with a load of other yachtie's to do a boat trip. Loads of snorkelling & hopefully we'll get to see some Manta Rays. We've seen them right by the boat but we couldn't get in the water with them as we were getting ready to anchor. Friday it's dinner on shore as were going to do a traditional Maldivian dinner.

22^nd January 2009

Pete....

All the people in the anchorage went on a tour on a local boat to a couple of other islands in the atoll. We were treated to a view of the local school, the hospital and wandered the hot dusty streets of the local villages. The most interesting part was the local boat building. A wooden pleasure boat was being built on the shore and, elsewhere, they had polythene tents enclosing moulds where they were building glass fibre fishing boats - BIG ones all in various states of build from the bare mould to complete hulls. Noone was working on them and we did not see any other forms of wok being done either. We still don't know how these people earn a living - maybe it is all subsidised from Male. Certainly, the immigration and customs and health people (who all have separate offices) are heavily subsidised. Yes, we also got a stamp in our passports!

Local School - Nugget of Learning

Local Boat Building

Nials & Lisa from "Lasse"

We did a bit of snorkelling and had a local lunch of noodles and fishy bits and then back to the boat where we met up with Sheldon and Vanessa on Zappler V for a barbecue.

We are anchored near the temporary coral breakwater here. They are just starting to build a new resort here and have made some attempts at digging a small harbour to get supplies ashore and I am sure that a posh new harbour will result. The resort will occupy the Southern half of the island and the locals are a bit concerned about having their island taken over.

Fliss....

Quite amusing as if you needed to use the loo you were taken to a locals house. As I found my way to the bathroom I had to walk past a man fast asleep in bed. He woke up & nearly jumped out of his skin. What was a white lady doing in his house!

23^rd January 2009

The traditional dinner was excellent, they went to so much effort. Coconuts opened as drinks for us, banana curry, fish curry's, dhalls, chappati's and loads of lovely spicy food... really good value for 6 pounds each. The table was laid beautifully and the local men kept coming around offering us drinks of sweet tea. The ladies are nowhere to be seen. It would appear that the dishes are prepared by individual ladies in their own kitchens.

Local Dinner

24^th January 2009

We have been fairly lazy since we got here apart from a little varnishing (new coats on the tiller and cap rails and repair varnishing around the cockpit). Yesterday, we went off with Sheldon and Vanessa and did a drift dive on the other side of the island which was fun just floating by the side of the dinghy being taken by the current. We saw a couple of turtles and some very interesting bright blue fish. We then finished up by doing a complete circumnavigation of the island followed by a barbecue on Zappler that included a humongous fillet steak. Vanessa is a trained cook so the meat was superbly accompanied by sauces and other delights.

Apart from the varnishing again, we have not done a lot today. We went ashore to find the laundry and were shown to an outdoor area with a well. We were hoping that some enterprising soul on the island would be providing laundry services but it is not to be. Fliss and I will have to handwash.

Boats keep on turning up here and there are now 31 in the anchorage. Last year, they had 100 boats visit. They must find it odd that this mass migration occurs from Mid-Jan to Mid-Feb and then they see no other boats for the next 11 months.

25^th January 2009

Today we saw the Manta rays in the anchorage and quickly got snorkels and fins on and got in the water with them. They are spectacular. The first one we saw seemed to be showing off as it swam straight towards us with gaping maw and then dived under us and cartwheeled over and over in graceful arcs showing us its white underbelly speckled with black dots. Steve from Toboggan had has waterproof video camera with him and has made us a CD of the footage which is very, very good.

Manta Ray

26^th January 2009

Sheldon and Vanessa joined us with the Mantas and I have also got some good photos and video from our little camera. Following Hong Kong, Fliss has now ticked off another "Must do before I die" experience - let's hope she doesn't use them all up too quickly!

We are now a group of three for our convoy in the Gulf of Aden. Another catamaran called Aldora has agreed to join us. They are a real sailing catamaran (rather than the motor-sailor Zappler) their words not ours. They will outrun us if they tried but are happy to hold back to stick in a convoy. They will leave Uligan in a couple of days and meet with us in Salalah. The Blue Water Rally will be leaving Salalah in groups between the 13th and the 18th and so we will have them hot on our heels after we leave on the 12th.

Thailand

2009-05-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

9^th December 2008

We motor sailed all the way to Ko TaruTao to the most NW Anchorage where there is a park ranger who supposedly is interested in sailors and is willing to guide you on walks. We arrived and found a new, rather tacky concrete set of chalets and the park warden wanted 3 quid each to land our dinghy. How things change in the 10 years since the cruising guide was written!

Fliss...

3 pounds each was total rip off, unfortunately there was nothing we could do so we handed over our 6 whole pounds with a pained smile. There really wasn't anything to see and the locals were so surely & miserable that we were back on board Naz within 30 minutes.

Welcome to Thailand!

10^th December 2008

This morning, we managed to sail to Ko Adang. We had a good sail and managed to strip varnish off some parts of the cockpit surround whilst under way. After arriving, we finished off the stripping of damaged areas, sanded and varnished before going snorkelling on the surrounding reef. We had noticed the water becoming steadily clearer as we moved away from the mainland and the visibility was really quite good. Tomorrow, we will move about 3 miles to the West side of Ko Adang and do some more exploration.

Ko Adang - Checking depth of bommies after anchoring

Last night, we confirmed that we were in the Northern Hemisphere since we both got up to relieve nature at about 5am and the Plough was sitting well above the horizon like a long lost friend. We haven't seen the Plough for maybe 2 years now - we must be getting close to home!

12^th December 2008

This morning, we set off at 05:30 and followed the Plough to Ko Rok Nok and Ko Rok Noi. As we arrived, the water turned azure blue with browny bits (Coral) and we investigated the mooring bouys set up for visiting yachts. Having decided that they were too close to the reef for comfort, we set of between the islands only to have to suddenly reverse as the depth dropped and the water turned brown (Reef!!). We circuited it and found another bouy in 8m water with just a few bommies around us that were deep enough not to cause concern. We were immediately surrounded by fish of all sorts and (after another quick varnish job) we went off to explore the underwater world. We have a waterproof case for the camera now and have taken a few good shots although it is difficult to find the subject via the display on the back. We snorkelled around the bouys that we refused to go near and found that they were amist coral heads so shallow that we could stand on them!

We will probably stay here tomorrow since an American couple we met here told us that they had been to Phuket and that this was the best visibility of water that they had found in the whole of Thailand.

Fliss....

Probably the best marine life & coral we have seen in a long time. The fish are so tame that they swim alongside you sneaking quick glances. Loads of brightly coloured fish and our all time favourite Clown Fish. Funny little fish as they are very territorial, if you get too close they'll come out soft coral and swim towards you as if to say back off. It really is a spectacular island.

Finding Nemo

Little Fishies

13^th December 2008

We stayed another day at Ko Rok Nok . When we inspected the bouys at Ko Rok Nok that were close to the reef, we found that they were actually tied around the coral heads (ours was securely fixed to a big concrete block). A Belgian family had moored to one of these and was friendly with an English catamaran who arrived yesterday.

The Belgian family had left very early this morning and we have just heard an English voice on the radio saying "he got up at 03:00 to investigate the mooring buoy banging against his hull and found himself to be in the middle of the bay - we don't think he wanted to leave so early". Lucky he wasn't on the rocks.

Yesterday we were visited by the park wardens.

They came out to Naz at about 6ish and asked for 800 Baht in park fees (400 each). Fliss said that we didn't have that much so the warden immediately agreed to drop it to 400 but without a receipt. I said that we only had a small amount of Baht because we only changed up what little we had in Ringitt when we left Malaysia and Fliss confirmed that we didn't have that much as we'd already paid park fees at Taruato. Fliss showed her theTarutao tickets and the warden immediately said we can stay no charge & promptly buggered off, god knows why!.... another boat said they had no Baht as they were on their way to Phuket to check in & they only gave them a packet of cigerettes...

We checked the information leaflet that we picked up in Ko Tarutao and it clearly states...............

The Service

Charge goes inside 200 national

park adult baht borders

100 children are baht

the season travels

island uncle loud group attack

the chinese unit of

weight equal to 37.5 milli-

grams

is accurate a stool is but

16 November - 15 May

of every year

island Tarutao group

open travel through all year

So now we know every finite detail and will proudly regale these simple rules to anyone else who wishes to charge us National Park fees.

We again went snorkelling and saw a 4 foot painted lizard happily walking along the beach not at all bothered by us being so close, amazing.

Lizard

14th December 2008

We had good winds for the initial run to Ko Phi Phi and were close hauled with one reef, on our ears, blasting along at 6.5 knots. "A bit of practice for the Red Sea" I thought as we pinched up to 45-50 degrees apparent wind. However, we are now back to motoring as the wind has died but left behind the steep chop which caused us slow progress.

We went to Ko Phi Phi about 14 years ago and the isthmus in the middle of the island had a few wooden and bamboo buildings which housed restaurants and lodgings. I suppose that most of that was washed away with the Tsunami a few years ago and they are rebuilding with vigour. Lots of new hotels and the main bay in the South of the island is packed with tripper boats racing around with unsilenced engines - a bit of a disappointment really. We anchored next to the rubbish barge and sniffed diesel all day.

Ko PhiPhi was wiped out by the Tsunami

Fliss...

Ok it was very touristy but sometimes it makes a refreshing change. It was interesting watching how the other half do it. Pete & I ordered a beer & a glass of wine and nearly passed out at how much it cost. The table next to us was overflowing with empty glasses and dinner plates. We really are out of touch on how much things really cost.

Early afternoon we stopped at a food market to sample some local Thai food, I ordered TomYum soup & rice & Pete had chicken with cashew nuts and rice. The soup was served in a huge bowl. Pete laughed and said it was nearly as big as me. It was very very hot & delicious the only thing with Thai soups is working our what you can eat as it's full of bits of bark and leaves.

It's shame that it's built up but there's no denying that it is still a beautiful island.

Early evening we took the dinghy to explore the caves and you could hear the bats squeaking. As we motored back big monkeys and their off spring were play fighting on the beach. Lovely.

15^th December 2008

Today we set off at about 09:30 and had a spanking good sail to Ao Chalong on the island of Phuket where we visited officials and made ourselves legally here. There is a "Yacht Club" here where we parked the dinghy and we got chatting to two retired English guys hoping to pick their brains about the correct prices for taxi fares to the supermarket. One of them, Ian, said that if we parked Naz just in the next bay, he would drive us to Makro's the following day.

Local Fishing Boat

16^th December 2008

So, this morning, we moved around the headland, dropped the hook and met him on the beach where there is a small restaurant/bar. We spent the rest of the day re-provisioning at Makros, Tescos and visiting the house that he rents here. He keeps a boat in Cyprus and is Wintering in Thailand before returning there next April.

Fliss....

The guys who have been ferrying us about to get shopping in for the sail across to the Red Sea have been great, in the evening they took us to a restaurant which was really cheap at 2 quid a head. I had a Thai (not spicy) curry, it was nice but too many peanuts in it for my liking. I don't like nuts in food for some reason. Jeff came back to the boat for a night cap, at 2am I made them ham & cheese sandwiches and left them to it.. Pete crawled into bed at 6am this morning. Later when he feels better we'll head back to Ao Chalong

17th December 2008

Fliss...

I went and had my hair cut given the language barrier she did a great job. I left Pete at the Yacht Club nursing a hangover and doing some internet stuff.

18^h December 2008

Today, we went to the Boat Lagoon (the only marina here) by taxi to sort out spares ready for the next leg. More epoxy resin, deck caulking, engine filters, alternator belt, dinghy repair kit, sail telltales (for Red Sea close hauled), Engine Oil, ATF Oil, Switches to have as a backup for the Bowthruster control that is dodgy. There are boat maintenance and building companies everywhere at the Boat Lagoon and it appears that you can get anything you want - we certainly did. This afternoon, it has turned out a bit too late to go anywhere by sea so we might just go for a walk at Ao Chalong and then head North into PhangNa bay tomorrow where there are said to be superb limestone stacks, caves into inland lagoons, bats, birds etc etc. We will probably head for Ao Nang bay for Christmas(just West of Krabi) and back to Phuket for Christmas before heading West across the Indian Ocean very early January.

19^th December 2008

Today we set sail from there the 10 miles to Ko Phanak. The wind was light so we put the main up at anchor and ghosted out of the bay. Soon, there were flurries of wind that had us going well across the flat sea very close hauled but the breezes kept increasing and I decided to put a reef in the main. As I went up to the mast, the headsail suddenly started luffing and we realised that the webbing strap at the head of the jib that is attached to the halyard shackle had parted. we quickly got the jib down on deck and then put in the reef in the mainsail because the wind had increased further. Ko Phanak is a very tall island falling vertically into the sea and we found good shelter behind it where we stopped for the rest of the day. I unpicked the top of the headsail and spent the next few hours trying to persuade the awl to go through so much cloth.

Ko Phanak has a couple of Hongs. These are inland lakes with vertical cliffs caused by collapsed limestone caverns and reached at sea-level through caves. They are accessible by dinghy at high tide but high tide today was about 17:00 and the wind was starting to blow into our anchorage pushing us towards the cliffs that were only about 100 yards away.

21 December 2008

We heard that there was a spectacular one near to where we had anchored Naz... so 1st thing this morning we took the dinghy around to have a look. Unfortunately the tide was too low so we could get the dinghy into the entrance as there was a rock in the way. So we ear marked it for another day

We decided to move to Ko Yai where the vertical islands huddle together and there is another inland grotto reached by cave. The tourist boats are here in abundance but they all move off at about 15:30 so we shall have peace and quiet then.

We have had an amazing day today.

They have things called 'Hong's" which are collapsed caves with an inland lake, tall vertical cliffs that totally enclose the lake.

The wind died in the afternoon so we decided to risk taking the dinghy back to the Hong we had tried earlier on in the day...

We took the dinghy into the entrance of the cave & within minutes it was pitch black! inside was really creepy as you could hear that bats squeaking. The sides of the cave we really sharp with rock oyster shells so we were not only worried that our torch wasn't charged enough (you'd have serious problems trying to find you're way out in the dark) or that we'd puncture the dinghy. This would be a serious problem as we were we'll over 3 miles from where we had anchored Naz, so we chickened out! Again

As we came out of the cave a tour boat arrived and put loads of people into canoes with torches into the water. We asked them if we could follow them in and they said no problem.

Amazing tall cave with loads of bats clinging to the roof and squeaking as we went passed.

Apparently at the end of the cave you go through a gap in the cave into the enclosed inland lake, well, as we got to the end we realised that the dinghy was too wide & too high to make it through the small gap which was only 1.5 foot high, Damn we thought we're buggered and it's end of the road for us. Again fortune smiled as an inflatable canoe came alongside and asked if we wanted to go with them through the small gap. We were so lucky as he had an 4 man canoe & there was only him & another guy so there was room for Pete & I...

To get through the small gap you had to lie flat on the canoe and the roof of the cave was 2 inches away from my face!!! scary stuff as the tide was still coming in. Pete asked the guy who was paddling the canoe if we would be ok to get out again & he said no problem.

It was THE most beautiful place we have seen. Tall sided cliffs covered with jungle. Monkeys sitting on rocks picking rock oysters, banging them on the rock and eating them. The place was tranquil with woodpeckers calling & pecking & crickets singing. wonderful!

Getting out was interesting as the guy let a lot of air out of the canoe so we could just make it back out under the ledge...

They were so kind to take us through & they didn't ask for any money. Other people who had taken the trip would have paid a lot of money to take the trip and we were so lucky that they were there & had space for us! Pete & I were buzzing all evening..

In the evening we took a drink & sat inside the open Hong where Naz was anchored & watched the bats fly out.

22nd December 2008

Today we drove Naz against headwinds a little North to the Ko Raya group of islands. The dramatic vertical stacks become even more impressive here and we took the dinghy around to visit arches through islands and eventually anchored of an island with a massive stone column at its western end - beautiful. During the afternoon, we went over to James Bond Island (Man with the golden gun was filmed there) and you could not fit another tourist on the place however, everywhere else was very peaceful. In the evening, we met up with a solo sailor from Australia and went back there (with dinghy) when the tourists had left. A nice island but we were anchored in a much nicer spot.

Ko Raya

"Sahula"

23^rd December 2008

Last night was a bit windy but we were anchored in 4m with loads of chain out. We sailed down to Ko Roi, where there is a tidal Hong and beautiful scenery and met up with some Belgium friends. We have also met with a few World Rally English boats and everyone seems to be heading for Ao Nang, Krabbi for Christmas. We are doing the same & will hopefully meet up with Nomad Life & Toboggan.

Ko Roi

Phang Na Bay

24^th December 2008

We went to Ao Nang for Christmas but the people that we thought we had arranged to meet there are in Ao Chalong. Anyway, Ao Nang was busy and very noisy with unsilenced engines of the longtail boats running tourists hither and thither so we rushed around to get some more petrol and some more supplies at the local market and set off to Ko Dam Khwan where we had been invited for a barbecue by 3 British boats and an Italian boat from the Bluewater Rally. We went over for and we plan to have a BBQ on the beach for Christmas lunch. A very nice bunch of people they are and we shall enjoy their company.

25^th December 2008

Christmas morning and it is raining HARD, what a shame as the BBQ would have to be cancelled. Luckily one of the English boats was big enough to house all of us. A wonderful day spent with them and Yes, it was well lubricated....Hugh the surgeon turned up having already had 2 bottles of wine and Ian told us that he got back onto his boat and promptly fell overboard. Luckily, no-one drowned or injured themselves and everyone seemed reasonably perky in the morning except Hugh.

Fliss....

We couldn't help feeling sorry for the poor tourists who were just dumped on the beach and left all day there in the pouring rain. They'd obviously had romantic notions about spending Christmas Day soaking up the rays on a Thai beach, poor sods.

26^th December 2008

Not much more to tell since we had a quiet day yesterday with a little exploring on the beach and some reading. Christmas day was very nice and we were made very welcome amongst the ralliers.

27^th December 2008

We are now off to Ao Chalong again where we hope to get some of the main organising and provisioning done as well as final check on all the main boat systems before we depart across the Indian Ocean in the New Year.

31^st December 2008

New Years eve was very pleasant and ourselves and Toboggan went over to Nomad Life for dinner. We did the starter of fresh prawns and toast and the others provided curry, veg, rice and dhal alongside the nan bread that we had bought from an Indian restaurant earlier. Following that, we had my hand-made fruit salad with yoghurt. Yum Yum but we were all stuffed by the end. After that, we met up with Ben, Corolla and family from Lasse on the beach and went to the Novotel Hotel at the beachfront to listen to a local singer and to countdown the new year and associated fireworks.

1^st January 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We just had a lazy day recovering from yesterdays festivities.

2^nd January 2009

Now the work starts getting ready for the push across the Indian Ocean.

8^th January 2009

Pete...

Some time ago, dad sent us details of yachts wanting to convoy through the Gulf of Aden. I got in contact with Sheldon Lindsay and we have been in e-mail contact since that time.

Today, we met up for a spot of lunch with Sheldon and Vanessa. Sheldon is a professional delivery skipper who picked up a 60 foot catamaran in Hong Kong and is headed for Spain with 2 Phillipino Crew and Vanessa. Both Sheldon and Vanessa are from South Africa during lunch Fliss mentioned that we know another delivery skipper from South Africa called Otto (we did our trail run through the Panama canal with him). "Oh Yes" said Sheldon, "Otto with the one eye! Was he delivering Moorings catamarans?" So, immediately we had something in common. Sheldon and Vanessa have friends in England and said that they have visited Surrey on a number of occasions. We said that we lived in Surrey and it transpires that the friends own Hambledon Manor where Holly has previously waitressed to help out the "Lords n Ladies".

We sent them our schedule by e-mail yesterday and it apparently fits precisely to their own plans so we are now officially a convoy of two. Sheldon said that they are not as fast as they should be and that the difference in boatspeed should not be a problem. They are slowed up with heavy generators, 3500 litres of fuel, the heavy duty washing machine in the bows, the air conditioning, the large stock of ice cubes, the 240 volt full cooker and oven, the 700 bottles of fine wine etc etc - it's a hard life worrying about someone elses boat.

So, we will leave a couple of days before them and then meet up in Uligamu (Maldives) for a full roast dinner, G & T with loads of ice being gently fanned by a cool, de-humidified breeze. Sounds good to us!

Sheldon received a phone call from the owner whilst we were with him. It appears that the owner may insist on their taking a couple of heavily armed mercenaries through the Gulf. We will stay close by!

9^th January 2009

Last of the potable water supplies delivered to Naz today and only additional shower water to load this evening. We checked out with customs, port authorities and immigration at lunch time and then went to Tesco's for the last of the provisions.

We are now stowing and packing everything securely ready for the off tomorrow morning.

Malacca Straits - Part 2

2008-12-31T22:57:00.000-08:00

17^th November 2008

We left Admiral marina this morning at about 07:30 for the trip to Port Klang (50 miles). The wind started out in our favour for about 10 minutes and then turned 10 knots bang on the nose as the rain spilled down in an incessant drissle. Not a very nice sail but eventually, the rain eased and we motored our way through the short, slight chop.

After a few hours, the tide turned with us and we entered the Klang delta entrance at 8 knots SOG. As we turned into the river, we bore away and got the headsail out to get a bit of peace and quiet but, of course, the breeze had other ideas and we were soon headed again!

We decided to go to the Royal Selegar Yacht Club to use their facilities rather than anchor out in the river. The fallout from the industrial port clung to the back of our throats as we ploughed our way through the plastic bags, plastic bottles, polystyrene food cartons, old shoes and other detritus and were met by a guy in a dinghy who waved and showed us our pontoon mooring in the middle of the river. With a tide of 2 knots running, it should have been an easy ferry-glide in but the pontoon was not aligned with the flow and we could really only get the bows close-to. Anyway, Fliss jumped off, I did a leap of faith and we managed to get bow and stern lines on even though Naz was now 10 feet from the pontoon and pulling hard. Eventually, we managed to heave her alongside and settled down.

Rubbish floating on the tide

As the rubbish piled up between Naz and the dock, the Royal Selangor Yacht Club Ferryman deposited a couple of people on the upstream pontoon, I hailed him over and tried to pay for the night (we had already decided the state of tide for an early departure). Unfortunately, he could not tell us how much it was nor could he take any money so we left this morning without having been able to make payment. Oh well, really we should be charging them to clean-up our topsides!

18^th November 2008

We left the Royal Sh177y Yuk Club and headed to Pankgor Island stopping twice to await more favourable tide. This allowed us to have breakfast and evening meal in comfort and took 6 hours of adverse tide from our passage. We arrived between Pangkor and the mainland about 03:30 and dropped the hook in the lee of the mainland.

Local Traffic

19^th November 2008

We awoke at 10:15 and by 10:30, the waves and wind pushing us landwards were causing us to hobbyhorse quite drastically in the wind against tide conditions so we upped anchor and headed up the Dingding river to a place where Rod Heinkell suggested was particularly nice. Another bridge (built since the charts and cruising guides were published) blocked our path and it had no height printed on its side so we motored at zero knots up to it to find that we fitted under with a few metres to spare. We got there and it rained with a vengeance all afternoon so we spent the rest of the day sweating with the hatches closed and being pestered by a plague of flies. We did go out to have a shower but we were really too close to the Muslim village to sit out in the rain exposing ourselves.

20^th November 2008

This morning, we motored down the river and went around the seaward side of Pangkor Island to a lovely little bay with a resort at its head. We were going to leave towards Penang at 01:00 this morning for the 80ish mile run but have decided to rest here for a day and leave tomorrow at a much more civilised 02:00 with, possibly, 10 knots of favourable wind. You never know, we might even get the cruising chute out and turn the engine off. We need to make our fuel last until Lankawi which is said to be a completely duty free archipelago.

Fliss had scraped her knee trying to pull Naz in to the pontoon at the RSYC and we have been treating the nasty grey patch with Iodine since then. Hopefully it will respond to treatment soon. In the meantime, no more strenuous jobs and no more kneeling and flaking the anchor chain. I have managed, after much persuasion, to encourage her to sit back in the cockpit and take some medicinal liquid elixir.

21^st November 2008

Lazy Day at Pankor

22^nd November 2008

We left Pangkor Island at 02:00 this morning for the run up to Penang, another long 80 mile slog under motor. Before dawn, we had some quite impressive displays of lightening which always has me on edge since there is nothing that can be done about being struck if unlucky. We have read about strikes and met a couple who were hit in Panama so that only enhances the nerves. We shall be so glad to get to Lankawi Islands and have a breather before passing into Thailand and hopefully getting some trade winds showing up.

The night watch is always interesting here with all the fishing boats around. They display an array of lights that variously include bright red flashing lights accompanied by the white neon tubes that are used to attract the fish. Many also have green flashing lights and blue flashing lights as well as an array of white, green and red fixed all-round lights. You never know whether they are stationary or moving nor which way they are supposedly travelling. Mixed in with all of this are the static nets which are bouyed at intervals with either red or green flashing LEDs. All of this is fairly simple to negotiate as long as you keep alert, avoid each boat and go around the nets. However, do not be deceived!! Amongst all these Christmas trees are ones that display a Port or Starboard fixed light topped by 3 white lights, there are quite a few of these and their towed barge hangs hundreds of yards behind and is invariably unlit - do not cut across their stern!

One of the various designs of fishing boats

Well, we arrived at Georgetown about 16:00 and are anchored at 5 degrees 24.5 North and 100 degrees 20.5 East. The guide books tell of a dirty anchorage with goopy muck on the bottom and not very nice. We had to move twice here because (1) we were too close to a barge when the tide changed and (2) we were too far out in the channel for tugs and tows to pass. Anyway, we hope that we are now settled and will find out when the tide changes again! At no point did we find any goopy goo on the chain or anchor and the water here is free of litter and dead bodies. So, quite nice really.

Fliss is going souvenir hunting in Georgetown. She is on the lookout for Chinese lucky charms that she has seen previously. Apparently they should only cost one Ringgit (about 20p) so our 50p will stay firmly in the purse.

23^rd November 2008

We went into Georgetown today after a sampan picked us up from the boat and deposited us at the village adjacent to us. The village is Chinese, wooden and built on stilts over the water, a very pleasant introduction to the town. We wandered through the backstreets where most places were closed (being Sunday) but we found bustling life in the market places. A local man about 65 years old offered us a pedal-rickshaw ride for 3.50 quid and we took him up on the offer for a slow-paced ride past all the local temples and through "little India". Having found curries rather than Chinese Chicken Feet, we wandered back there and indulged in a multi-ingredient set of different dishes all served on a banana leaf - Yum Yum.

Georgetown Marketplace

Last evening Fliss was using the Nosy-Noculas and spotted a big sign down the coast that spelled T E S C O. So, after visiting the Penang museum (where we bought a mug for Nadezhda), we caught a taxi there in an attempt to replenish our stolen Marmite. Unfortunately, we searched in vain but found some decent meat, HP Sauce, salad cream, basil and a couple of new pillows (1.20 quid each) since ours were getting a bit minging.

Fliss' knee is starting to look a lot better and the grey sludge that coated it is starting to wash off with the Dettol baths so, hopefully, it will continue to respond to the cleaning and the Iodine cream.

24^th November 2008

Another day wandering around the backstreets of Georgetown and through the buzzing marketplaces. We had a few attempts at booking a lift-out for Nadezhda to re-antifould the bottom but did not meet with success and, to be honest, we are really looking forward to getting to Langkawi and will try to haul out there. The costs there are not as much as Phuket but still very expensive and the marina could only lift and launch on certain days due to depth restrictions.

Bhudist Temple

25^th November 2008

We upped anchor at 05:30 and headed off to Langkawi.

We had about 5-10 knots of wind close-hauled but with a little nudge from the engine, we made the 65 miles by about 16:30 and dropped the hook in Kuah Bay (06 degrees 18.5 North, 99 degrees 51' East). Kuah is the largest place here and we think that we could get most things sorted here.

26^th November 2008

This morning, we went to port control and customs to formally check in (which we should have done all the way up here) and they processsed us quickly and efficiently. We rang Rebak marina who told us that they were fully booked for haul-out in November and told us to send them an e-mail - so back to Naz to send the e-mail and then, off to size-up the duty free shops - most of which sell chocolate in great abundance to the Malaysians who come here on short trips.

We then went to an internet cafe to research haul-out facilities - there was one in Thailand (Satun), that looked ok but a seriously winding, rising tide approach and we also found another one in Langkawi. Having then found the Jotun Antifouling suppliers (a shop with half-disassembled motors as its frontage), we called Waveriders liftout and then went to see them via taxi and booked a slot for Friday to be relaunched on Monday. So.....300 quid for lift and launch, 180 quid for antifoul and we are a lot, lot poorer than we want to be but we will be clean for beating up the Red Sea and all the way home.

Whilst at Waverider, we saw a boat called Zipedeedoodah from Dart who we had met at the 2005 boat show and then again at the Blue Water Rally seminar. Whilst I discussed details of lift-out, Fliss went over and said hello. They are with the Blue Water Rally and complaining of rushed schedules.

It rained all last night and has started again tonight. However, the NE Trades look like they might start to settle so we are loking forward to that. By the way...............We are officially out of the Malacca Straits - Yeeeeeeehaa!! So sorry to see the end of that!

27^th November 2008

We ran around sorting out provisions for our lift-out and finding and ordering duty free supplies since this is a duty free port.

28^th November 2008

Well, we eventually found the trade winds - early this morning blowing down the bay here and ending-up at the haul-out site. We towed the dinghy the few short miles to "Waverider haul-out" and anchored off since we were an hour early. I had in mind to go and check out the lifting bay with the dinghy and, after we had dropped the hook, there were people on the shore waving so I jumped in the Zodiac and went over. They said we could lift immediately and that I should take two workmen aboard to help take lines. I picked up the workmen, got the dinghy aboard and motored in with the wind blowing us one way and the fairly active tide taking us the other. The guys on the dock were telling us to go to starboard but the tide was already doing that for us so we crabbed into the haul-out and eventually ended-up touching the starboard cap-rail on their rubbing-posts with a little bit of scratching (a dab more varnish will sort it out). The haul-out was not enclosed - simply two piers standing on piles - so we bounced up and down on the waves whilst a diver went down to check the straps. Then, we were lifted, with the straps too far forward for comfort and balance but we are now settled on the hard with a clean bum and ready for antifouling.

The "Project Manager" gave us our bill and we saw that they had charged 100 quid for the diver. I told him that we had not asked for a diver and that they had not told us of this fee. "Did you not get our e-mail" he said. "yes I did" I replied. "So you know that it was part of the bill" he said. "No, I only received confirmation of the date" I replied. It turned out that they had given me confirmation of lift to the GMN account and a list of services/costs to the Gmail account. I asked whether we could negotiate the diver and the chap came back to me and negated the cost altogether. Top Man.

We have put new anodes on the rudder and are ready for masking and antifouling tomorrow. Unfortunately, today has been windy and rainy but we hope that it will abate by tomorrow when we will get going just after first light to make the most of the cooler part of the day.

29^th November 2008

I got most of the seacocks re-greased yesterday and got up at 07:00 to mask-up and apply a spare half-tin of antifoul on the rudder and upper areas with Fliss filling-in with the brush. After that, I did the last 2 seacocks whilst Fliss went to the shower facilities to do the laundry and then we got on with the new paint to do an all-over coat which we managed to do without using the entire 5 litres. It always makes me nervous when applying because we normally only just manage to get around with one tin and, with the hot climate here, it makes it all the more difficult. Tomorrow morning, we will make the most of the early cool and do the next coat and then clean the topsides and we are (hopefully) ready for launch on Monday.

30^th November 2008

The final coat went on before 08:00 this morning and I then did the fiddly bits such as bowthruster and impeller. After that, I spent the rest of the day cleaning and polishing the topsides. It is the most laborious job and sometimes I wish for a smaller boat with less freeboard. It is made all the harder with the heat but a refreshing wind evaporated the sweat.

1^st December 2008

This morning, we got up early again and filled the water tanks and then the lift guys (about 10 of them) came to dangle Naz whilst I painted the bare spots left under the supports. There was a 15 knot breeze blowing under the piles that held the jetties that support the travellift and we threw a piece of paper into the water to prove that the tide was just on the turn going in the opposite direction. So, we launched and the boatyard guys held us with 2 ropes each to bow and stern whilst I checked all was ok and then we were off - just missing the shorter of the jetties as the tide took the rear and the wind blew the nose off.

Re-Launch

All done and Naz looks beautiful again and hopefully, that will be the last of the great expenses before our return.

We went to the duty free shop today to stock up on cheap liquor and ciggies since Thailand will be much more expensive and alcohol is unavailable after that point. So, 5 months worth of provisioning to be done and space made for its storage. The last bit of supplies running is due tomorrow morning and then we are off to see some of Lankawi that is supposed to have beautiful anchorages.

2^nd December 2008

We moved off lunchtime to a position 6 degrees 12' N, 99 degrees 46.8 East near the pregnant Maidens Lake. Apparently some god or other lost a child and then bathed in the lake and, ever since, childless women can bathe there to ensure fertility. We went and had a swim but, since we are not childless, we hope that this will prevent any unwanted conception.

The land is limestone and superb karst scenery, the lake is made from a collapsed cavern and has vertical cliffs around most sides with rich vegetation festooning the precipices.

Nadezhda At Anchor

3^rd December 2008

Today, we took the dinghy South to visit the small islands just one or two miles away. They are also steep sided with undercut cliffs that you can drive the dinghy under to keep in the shade. There were a few caves but too high on the sides to reach or were not too deep to really explore by dinghy. After returning to Naz, we found that a slight swell was creeping into the anchorage and decided to move to make life more comfortable so we upped the hook and drove through the Fjord anchorage to its southern entrance - The Fjord anchorage is between Pulau Gabang Darat and the main Island and four yachts were already there making it a tight squeeze and so we are now anchored at 6 degrees 10.9' N and 99 degrees 47.2 East. We are hoping that the big bullets of wind that troubled us last night are not going to repeat themselves tonight - otherwise, the anchorage is much more comfortable with no movement at all.

Deserted Beach

4^th December 2008

We moved a full five miles yesterday to a lovely little anchorage surrounded by islands and had a lazy day reading and visiting the small beach close by for a swim.

5^th December 2008

More laziness today. We got up late (around 9:30) and eventually managed to get the hook up and travel another couple of miles to anchor alongside Nomad Life just outside Rebak Marina. The marina is completely invisible from seawards but you can just see a couple of mast tops poking above the hill that creates a completely landlocked basin for them. There is a nice breeze out here but it is absolutely stifling in there. We met up with Steve and Nancy from “Toboggan” who we last saw in Tonga last year – small world! Nomad Life and ourselves went over for an evening meal in the marina with them and caught up on all the gossip.

6^th December 2008

We upped the hook again this morning and sailed back to Kuah in order to prepare for leaving Malaysia and entering Thailand. Tobogagn had followed us here and we had drinks aboard their boat in the evening.

7^th December 2008

We did our last bits of re-provisioning and then went to the fuel barge to fill up. It was nice and simple and the diesel was only 2 ringgits per litre (about 5.5 to the pound) so we filled up with 323 litres.

Rain at the Fuel Barge

8^th December 2008

This morning, we checked out of Malaysia and filled with petrol - again, only 2 ringitts per litre and got 25 litres. We went into town and changed up ringgit into Thai Baht and then motored off to the East side of the island (6 degrees 25 North, 99 degrees 53 East) where we are now peacefully anchored after a day of pouring rain.

Tomorrow.................Goodbye Malaysia – Hello Thailand!!