Head to the Med 2015: Arabian and Red Seas
The Maldives across the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and Suez Canal
After months of planning, much deliberation, and intense coordination, we embark upon our potentially treacherous passage from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. Our journey takes us past the notorious coast of Somalia, still problematic with piracy though patrolled by naval vessels from many countries. We had decided on proceeding along this route though only with security on board. There were no companies providing this service for small vessels, only for large commercial ships. Undaunted, Roger contacted some of these companies and asked whether they’d be willing to give this a try. One company did. We’d have a security team of four – one on each of the two sailing yachts and two on the larger motor yacht with it’s fly bridge and better visibility. With the complexities of shipping arms internationally, they arranged to “rent” weapons in Male and drop them off at a station in the Red Sea prior to making landfall in Sudan.
Day 676 – 4 Mar, 2015 – Leaving Male, Maldives
We think we are leaving today… waiting for checkout and weapons… still. Waiting, waiting, waiting. 3 hours later we finally are checked out and have weapons on board. 2pm, off we go on a 16 – 18 day nonstop passage to Sudan!
Day 676 – 693 – 4 – 21 Mar, 2015 – Male, Maldives to Port Suakin, Sudan
HMR convoy day 1 – Wed4 Mar – Weather was clear and seas calm, which was the forecast for the first three days. This is a great way to begin our “Head to the Med through the Red 2015” convoy and let our security team get their sea legs. After the stress of the last few days and trying to get weapons and check out sorted, we are all glad to have calm conditions for departure. For dinner we had an awesome yellow fin tuna I got at the Male fish market for only about $3.50 USD! We had a pleasant evening and Roger slept solidly… I let him sleep an extra hour because he was so tired and stresses from the dramas in Male. We had seared fresh tuna from the market for dinner with rice and sauteed mushrooms and onions.
HMR convoy day 2 – Thurs 5 Mar – A beautiful morning, all is well. Max was on deck with radio and keeping watch with Roger. Calm seas with a little swell now, but only a meter and far apart so not uncomfortable. We had fresh tuna burgers and pesto pasta salad for dinner.
HMR convoy day 3 – Fri 6 Mar – we motor-sailed all day with calm seas and just a few white caps in the afternoon. We did weapons tranfer from our boat to the other two by dinghy. The large motor yacht carries her dinghy on davits, so they made the transfer while we hove to. Later in the afternoon we practiced closing up our formation and the security guys fired a few shots at a makeshift target to ensure the sights on the weapons we rented are in line. We had a spectra pump cardboard box and attached two balloons to the top. We had yummy lasagna for dinner. It took me hours to make a batch and only minutes to devour it.
transferring weapons to our vessels 
Target practice on board
HMR convoy day 4 – Sat 7 Mar – the seas are starting to build some, with about 2 meters of swell/waves. Hopefully the wind will come fair and we can sail without the motor. We have a long way to go and want to conserve fuel as best we can. I had a nice shower on the back deck in the late afternoon sunshine. We had chili for dinner.
HMR convoy day 5 – Sun 8 Mar – We both sailed and motor-sailed throughout the day and night. The other sailboat in the convoy couldn’t keep up while under sail alone, so we decided we would adjust our speed to the motor yacht, who would be running at a constant rpm of 1750 or 1800. The two sailing yachts would sail and motor and make sure we stayed in acceptable distance from the motorboat. That seems to be working well. We saw a group of dolphins at one point and although they didn’t come close to the boat and play in our bow wake, they were jumping high out of the water for joy. We had an egg-veggie-cheese fritata for dinner tonight. At 9pm we arrived at our first waypoint out of the Maldives. We have about four days to be on this new course and then will be at the way point by Socotra.
HMR convoy day 6 – Mon 9 Mar – During the night the motor yacht lost its autopilot… Yikes! They have been trying to find the problem and are hand steering the boat. Thank goodness for Max and his excellent team. They are all willing to do whatever is necessary and the two guys on the motorboat, Ben and Will, are taking turns at the helm while Max and big Ben are taking on extra watches on the other boats to compensate. Roger is on the radio with Bob working through the complete system configuration and the steps Bob has taken already, hoping to isolate the problem and then work on a solution. The menu for dinner tonight is tuna casserole… a new recipe. It was fine, but nothing to write home about. We are about in the middle of the Arabian Sea! Once we reach our next waypoint, off the coast of Socotra, I will have completed my first ocean crossing… hopefully with several more to follow!!
HMR convoy day 7 – Tues 10 Mar – seas were a bit unsettled in the afternoon and we rolled quite a bit, but then they started calming down and we motored the entire night as the wind died down. Will and Ben are taking shifts with Bob to hand-steer. Bob is sporadically working on the autopilot, but not making progress. Dinner was lasagna with chicken meatballs since we didn’t have quite enough lasagna for a full meal, and actually this turned out to be great. I will do this again as it gives us a bit more protein and extends our lasagna supply.
HMR convoy day 8 – Wed 11 Mar – the winds have died down and the forecast is for light winds for the next two days, so motor-sailing is the plan. We have another day or two of bread and then we’re out. I think since the conditions are calm I will try to make some bread for sammies. It takes a lot of planning to provision and feed three people for almost three weeks… I am not sure I have it all right, and though we may need to make some compromises, we definitely won’t starve. Max is doing great on board with us, but I am glad that we wound up with only one additional person on board as the boat, with only one head, isn’t well configured for more. The motorboat on the other hand is large and they are very glad to have the two lads on board since they are each doing shifts at the helm and Margaret is not. I tried a new recipe… special fried rice. I put some grilled spicy chicken from Male in there, sausage, some scrambled egg omelet along with some Chinese fried rice seasoning and loads of veggies. Yum… the guys loved it. 🙂
HMR convoy day 9 – Thurs 12 Mar – the wind died completely and the seas are calm as can be. We stopped to transfer fuel from the motorboat, which was carrying extra in a fuel bladder for us. We had spaghetti with veggie pasta sauce and the leftover chicken meatballs for dinner. During a long passage like this food becomes very important. Plus, writing down what we’ve had for dinner each night helps me keep the days straight in my mind… one seems to blend into the next, otherwise!
HMR convoy day 10 – Fri 13 Mar – We saw three pilot whales late in the afternoon! Yippeee… These are the first whales I have seen since being onboard. We had tuna, which I coated with breadcrumbs and crispy onion and garlic with herbs, sauteed in butter, and leftover special fried rice for dinner.
HMR convoy day 11 – Sat 14 Mar – we have passed Socotra and will reach the transit corridor in a few hours. This is the part of the trip where we need to be extra vigilent. At about lunchtime we saw our first fishing boats about 6 miles south of us. They were Yemenese dows but luckily they weren’t interested in us.
HMR convoy day 12 – Sun 15 Mar – we have big seas and it is rough going. We are in the Gulf of Aden now and will be sailing in it for three days until we reach the entrance to the Red Sea at Bab Al Mandab. RayPuss, our autopilot, is working hard but doing great, thankfully. I got Roger to help me cut into the little pumpkin (squash) that I bought in the open market in Male. I cut it all up and sautéed it in the pan. I took half out for another meal and made a satay stirfry with the other half. It was delicious with the added pumpkin. I will make that a regular part of our stir fry meals.
HMR convoy day 13 – Mon 16 Mar – Still more of the same… rough seas and little sleep. The wind is directly behind us and we deployed the spinnaker pole as a whisker pole so we could run “wing on wing”, which we did brilliantly for 24 hours. Our engine seems to be vibrating more or maybe it is the shaft or prop… either way, it is a worry and we can’t push over 1300 rpms. Roger changed the fuel filter and engine oil this morning while we were underway, since we had enough wind to sail with. I made an egg, cheese and veggie fritata for dinner tonight.
HMR convoy day14 – Tues 17 Mar – We reached our last waypoint in the Gulf of Aden and will be entering the Red Sea at about midnight. We used Max’s satellite phone and called the NagaMomCat (my Mom, whose nickname changes with our sailing locations and the holidays). It was great to speak with her for a few minutes. I know she is worried about me being out here in the middle of the ocean and especially in pirate waters off the coast of Somalia, but she is doing a great job of being supportive. We now have the wind and waves on our starboard aft quarter and have waves up to 3 meters. The boat is doing great and taking them in stride. Hopefully “Perkie”, our Perkins engine, will keep going until we can get to Sudan and check into what the problem is. Roger thinks that it will help to have the injectors cleaned again, but we’ll also need to change the engine mounts which might be getting too soft, or look at the shaft and prop. The seas and winds developed into full gale force with winds reaching over 45 knots at times. The seas were well over 3 meters and we were rocking and rolling with our wing-on-wing sail configuration. We had an easy-to-prepare dinner of lasagna.
HMR convoy day 15 – Wed 18 Mar – The winds and seas continued at gale force through the night, the morning and into the afternoon. Late in the afternoon the winds started slowing but the seas were still rough. The wind and waves came more behind us as we turned at a waypoint, which meant that we rode them better and RayPuss didn’t have to work so hard. Last night we were helping to steer during some of the most turbulent times so the autopilot wouldn’t get over-powered… we want to make sure that RayPuss continues working! By evening the winds had died down and the seas flattened considerably, so we all got a good sleep. At night, the tide turned and we had very damp cool fishy-smelling air surrounding us. We had chili for dinner tonight. Only two more days until we reach Port Suakin and can provision up again. I think I have done a great job of provisioning, meal planning and feeding the three of us with fresh healthy meals for over two weeks (we left a few days later than anticipated, so that added some extra meals to the trip total).
HMR convoy day 16 – Thurs 19 Mar – We are cruising along and are motor sailing again. The winds are light and the seas are calm. We should reach the 19N armory platform tomorrow afternoon and then Port Suakin the following day. Yippee, we have made it through the famed and feared pirate waters off Somalia, the Gulf of Aden, and the lower part of the Red Sea! The winds switched to the north and the seas started building. It wasn’t a very comfortable ride and we were really getting thrown around. I was planning a stir-fry for dinner but it was too rough and I wasn’t feeling in top form. So I heated up some tuna casserole for the guys and just had some plain crackers myself, which turned out to be a good decision because I felt better the next morning even though the conditions did not improve.
HMR convoy day 17 – Fri 20 Mar – the weather continued rough and the winds didn’t let up or switch to a more favorable angle. The armory was actually in a different location than previously advised – closer to Port Suakin, but further from our current location. On we went. A tiny little bird, tired and far offshore, landed on our boat for a rest. At one point he even landed on Roger’s shoulder… wish I had my camera ready for that! I made another rice dish for dinner, trying for saffron rice as a base, but the stuff we got in Indonesia was very weak and didn’t flavor it despite using quite a bit of it. In the end, I added some Nasi Goering spice for flavor and it was good.
HMR convoy day 18 – Sat 21 Mar – we dropped off the weapons on the floating armory Sinbad, then we continued on our way sailing into Port Suakin. We arrived at about 2pm local time into an amazing little harbor surrounded by ruins, minorettes and very middle-eastern looking surrounds with mountains far off in the distant background. Our agent, Mohamed, came out to each boat and took care of all the paperwork. We all were relieved to have the anchor down and we enjoyed a mini celebration on the motor yacht, then came back to our boat for dinner. I made a noodle and mozzarella casserole with zucchini and cauliflower, which was good. Yippee!!! We are in Sudan and have successfully completed our convoy!
Day 694 – 698 – 22 – 25 Mar 2015 – Port Suakin, Sudan
Pizza! 
The Head to the Med through the Red convoy team!
We dropped the security guys off the day after arriving so they could catch flights back to the UK. We invited everyone on board for pizza dinner and used the remainder of our last bits of produce. We are exhausted and are glad to have our boat back to ourselves again.
After three days at anchor on the boat we finally made it ashore for a short field trip that Mohamad arranged for us. We toured the local visitor tourist village which was sort of a folklore museum. We then went to the veggie market, a very small grocery and then finally the town bakery, which made divine little fluffy pita/rolls. We bought 20 and ate two right there in the bakery while they were hot. We ate another three for lunch. The town of Suakin is very rustic… lots of goats, camels and donkeys pulling wagons. I would have liked to walk around and explored a bit, but we were transported in a group by van so there wasn’t an opportunity to do that. We are going back to shore this afternoon to explore old Port Suakin. This was a bustling trade center island and very important over hundreds of years, but at the turn of the 20th century the commercial port moved to Port Sudan and Port Suakin was deserted and now lays in ruins.
Mohamed arranged for us to go into town to a local restaurant serving grilled chicken. It was absolutely excellent and we bought a chicken to take with us… sort of a recurring theme. This was as good as Nai Harn chicken in Phuket, though totally different.
Day 699 – 702 – 26 – 29 Mar 2015 – Port Suakin to Port Ghalib
Off we go from Port Suakin heading north while the winds are light and soon from the south. We’re glad to have stopped here and seen a little bit of N. Sudan, but probably not enough. We’ll cruise our way up the Sudanese coast and then check in to Port Galib in Egypt, where there is a marina and hopefully water and electricity. We are salt encrusted and the boat needs a good wash.
Once on our way, we decided that perhaps a better plan was to take advantage of the great weather window and continue all the way to Port Ghalib, which is what we did. It took three days and three nights, and we arrived in Port Ghalib first thing in the morning on Sunday 29 March. The check-in was easy, but I had an upset tummy from something I ate the day before (forgot to wash veggies in my salad). After a few hours of waiting on the boat, all the paperwork was complete and we moved into the marina and stern tied to the shore with a bowline on a mooring. Port Ghalib is a resort in the middle of nowhere and there are lots of tourist shops, dive and tour boats as well.
Day 703 – 709 – 30 Mar – 5 Apr 2015 – Port Ghalib
We have spent a few days resting up and sorting out the mess that has become of finalizing the convoy payments. It is so sad that such a great and successful endeavor has turned so sour. Everyone became hotheaded and dug in their heels to maintain their position. Poisonous emails back and forth and bad energy for days has left everyone exhausted, frustrated, saddened and at odds with one another… not just the boats versus the security team, but eventually between boats and couples as well. This is not the energy I want to put out into the world, and not the way I want to live. Although I’m sure we’ll get this financially resolved now shortly and put it behind us, I don’t think the relationships can be salvaged, nor do I think any of the parties have an interest in working towards that.
On a more upbeat note, we’re planning a trip to Luxor, a 4-hour drive west into the desert to the Nile Valley. How exciting is that???!!!
2 Apr –we finally have the financial situation for our final convoy security payment resolved and money has been sent as due to all parties. Whew!
Day 712 – 713 – 8 – 9 Apr 2015 – Port Ghalib to Hurghada
We had a calm sail through the afternoon and the night… water calming and no wind. That was until about an hour outside of Hurghada, when the wind switched back to the north and very quickly built from 0 knots to about 25 in the course of 10-15 minutes. We weren’t even sure we’d be able to enter the harbor and get docked, but the marina staff came out in a skiff and helped us tie up to the mooring on the bow and then back the stern up to the pier wall. This is the normal way to tie up in the Med apparently… no docks with fingers in between boats. I think that’s because the Med is so packed they don’t have room for anything else!
Day 713 – 717 – 9 – 13 Apr 2015 – Hurghada Marina
The wind is howling as we knew it would for the first two days at the Hurghada marina. We rested up after our overnight passage and the previous days of fabulous but exhausting touring in Luxor and began the process of sorting photos and writing up trip narratives.
11 Apr – Our agent (we found out we need an agent in and out of the ports here in Egypt) took us to the market in the old part of Hurghada. It was a bonanza of produce and we stocked up with all the things we’ve been missing since our last big provisioning in Male. Sudan had some good things but not broccoli, cauliflower or zucchini, staples of our diet. Also, we filled up our egg containers plus 6,and these eggs were lovely with bright yellow yolks, not the anemic pale (almost white) yolks of the Sudanese market eggs. Yippee! The wind should be calming down soon and we should be heading out within the week for points north.
Day 717 – 13 Apr 2015 – Hurghada to Sinai Peninsula – El Qad Yahya
We set out from Hurghada bound for a little island about 20 miles north, which would offer good protection from the seas if we got stuck there for a number of days waiting for the winds to die down. The reef there didn’t look too interesting, but we could snorkel around a bit if we stayed. As we neared the reef and the weather seemed promising, we decided to skip the island and head across to the Sinai Peninsula. We would work our way north from that side, since there were a few places to tuck in and get out of the winds. We made it across and were able to sail. The winds were about 15 – 23 knots and at one point we were skipping along at 8.1 knots! We arrived at about 5PM and had a good anchor set well before dusk.
Day 718 – 14 Apr 2015 – Sinai Peninsula – El Qad Yahya to El Tur
The trip from Yahya to El Tur was anything but pleasant. The winds were MUCH stronger than the GRIBS had forecast and we found ourselves pounding into winds of 25+ knots and waves of at least 3 meters, if not more. We were exhausted when we finally got into El Tur, which was only 25 miles from Yahya, but took us 7+ hours to get there. We had trouble maintaining even 3 knots at some points, and that was pushing the engine at 1500 rpm!
Day 719 – 724 – 15 – 20 Apr 2015 – Sinai Peninsula – El Tur
We knew we would sit out at least one day, but the day after looked promising for continuing north. It would be a long haul of 60 miles to get to the next good anchorage opportunity. So we enjoyed a relaxing day on Wednesday (tax day USA) and monitored the GRIB files for Thursday. It looked pretty good though not as calm as we would have liked. Roger has a cold and isn’t feeling well, which is unfortunate especially if we don’t have calm cruising conditions.
We got up at 4:30AM on Thursday, looked at the GRIBS and were debating whether to go… If not today, we’d have a wait of at least 3 or 4 more days, but also Roger wasn’t feeling great. In the end, we decided to head out. We got out of the harbor and around the point and immediately the winds increased by 10 knots and the seas started picking up. We weren’t even 15 minutes out and already it was very unpleasant. We decided it wasn’t worth it and turned around, heading back into the harbor. A few more days to wait for a better weather window would give Roger a chance to recover and we had plenty of provisions, books and movies to keep us well fed and entertained. On Friday, as we were relaxing (and while the winds were blowing 25 – 32 knots!) Roger noticed a flock of white pelicans heading our way from across the Gulf of Suez. He called me up to the cockpit and together we watched as hundreds… many hundreds of huge white pelicans with black wingtips flew by and headed inland towards Mt. Sinai. There were ribbons of them coming across the gulf, rollercoastering above the waves and ships. I have no idea why they were all headed inland at this time, but it was memorizing to see them, especially since I’m such a pelican fancier!!! 🙂
Since it was Friday – date night with pizza and a movie – we enjoyed a pizza that I put together, because Roger wasn’t feeling well. It was good, but I think I need to work on my crust… Could have been crispier. I also made two loaves of banana nut bread with the copious number of bananas we had. One of the fruit vendors we bought from gave us a huge bunch as a gift. I’ve been doing all of the galley stuff – prep, cooking, cleaning. Not that I am hugely inspired, but Roger takes care of keeping everything else running on the boat, which I can’t do, so I can do this part to keep us running. The one advantage is that I can prepare things more to my liking. I’m going to get creative sometime in the next few days and try a veggie meatloaf recipe using green lentils. We’ll see how that goes.
The “meatless meatloaf” turned out to be a real hit! I loved it and Roger liked it a lot. We had that on Saturday. We spent two more days in El Tur, then finally decided to head out on Monday.
Day 725 – 732 – 21 – 28 Apr 2015 – El Tur to Suez and Suez
As we pulled around the point coming out of El Tur harbor, the winds and seas picked up and we were afraid that they would continue to build throughout the afternoon. Luckily, at about noon, the seas flattened out and the winds died down some and we made great progress all the way to Suez. We arrived early the next morning and saw bunches of big boats anchored at the mouth of the canal waiting to transit. No one was in the shipping lanes and we soon found out why… A huge cargo ship was stuck in the canal and all transit was shut down. It took them about 8 hours and 5 tugs to pull the huge ship off the side where it was grounded and tow it back down to Suez. That made getting into the Suez marina easier, without the traffic to deal with.
We got settled and washed the boat, then started planning our little excursion to Cairo Egypt and the Pyramids.
Day 732 – 733 – 21 – 28 Apr 2015 – The Suez Canal
We had planned to leave Suez on Monday with a southerly wind in the forecast, but one hour before we were to pull away from the dock our agent got word that war ships were going to be transiting the canal and we would have to wait until the following day. That turned out to be a good thing as we ran out of internet bytes Monday evening and I had to go out to sort a recharge. Had we left on Monday and ran out of internet underway, we would not have had any way to get a recharge.
So Tuesday morning, stressing because I was still trying to activate our recharge, our pilot arrived (all boats need a pilot for transiting the canal) and had to wait an hour until we had the immigration check-out completed. Our pilot was named Mohamed. There seem to be many Mohameds… we had Mohamed tour guide, Mohamed taxi driver, Mohamed boat measurer and now Mohamed pilot. We were to travel up to Ismalia and anchor there, the halfway point. The trip was uneventful and we enjoyed looking up the information on the AIS for each ship passing us coming down the canal. The biggest was 400m and quite intimidating at such close range! And then there were the little guys, unexpected local sailing/fishing boats that somehow managed to stay clear of the big boys underway.
We had a quiet night anchored in front of the marina in Ismalia and then waited for our pilot the next morning… and waited, and waited… finally he showed up at 10:30 and we were on our way. We reached Port Said at about 5PM and a pilot boat came out to pick up our pilot, Gad. Then off we went and suddenly… WE WERE IN THE MED!!!!!