Massawa at Last!
After 11 days at sea, we finally got into Massawa yesterday. We had a mixed journey, partly with northerly winds, some of which were light enough to use the spinnaker, and partly a mixture of calms and southerlies or south-easterly winds, out of pattern for this time of year. We even managed to get caught in a thunderstorm near Massawa, and one of the blades of the wind generator hit its post and broke off- our fault for not remembering to tie it up when we saw the storm coming. The wind generator seems to still be working though, it just needs a bit of help getting going.
We had good luck getting in to Massawa, as the wind and current were in our favour. There are very strong currents in this area, and part of the time, when the wind died down we would start going backwards faster than we had been going forwards! We had one day with light fickle winds when we did only 20 miles or so all day, and then the wind went down in the evening and by morning we had drifted back almost 10! But after the thunderstorm we managed to catch reasonable winds all the way into Massawa, and with the current with us too, we came roaring in at 6 knots. ( Well, roaring for us, anyway). The engine is making life fun as usual, it has either air or water or dirt in something, and Oren will have to go down and try and fix it again. This is harder than it sounds because it is so HOT here. The thermometer says 35.5 celcius, but our bodies say about 100 degrees! Ever since we left Port Ghalib the humidity has been rising, and we had two days becalmed in the sea off Sudan when we just swam and showered all day to keep cool. Oren has a tea-towel which he keeps wet and plasters it over his head, shoulders and body all the time! Now we have bought a new 12v fan too, and it is working all the time.
On the way here we caught another 2 tuna and I dried one, but it was too salty this time, so we didn’t eat it all. With the other one I made sashimi, which was really good, and hraimi (Moroccan spicy fish) which was ok but not great- tuna is a bit dry for it. After this we got a bit fed up of tuna, and tried to catch mackerel with a small lure, but it got snatched off the line, probably by another tuna!
Until Monday we have to stay in Massawa, because the immigration is closed, so we can’t get a pass to go up to Asmara. The internet here in Massawa isn’t working, and it seems likely it won’t be working in the near future, but at least we managed to phone home, although the lines are dreadful, and half the time you can’t hear anything.
Massawa is an interesting place, and the people are very nice, everyone says hello and is willing to help, and the officials in the port are really good. No-one asks for baksheesh, unlike Egypt, and we feel welcome. People are very poor here, some live in the ruins left by the war with Ethiopia and many have no electricity or running water. Banks and government offices have electricity, but keep lighting very low and use a mixture of air-conditioning and ceiling fans together to save power. We went to the market today by bus, but it wasn’t very good because on Friday there is no fresh supply. We will go again tomorrow to see, meantime we bought some tomatoes and onions and some tiny little oranges. I wanted to take pictures, but the people are afraid to be photographed because they think you can steal their soul or something, so I only got a picture of a donkey who seemed quite glad for someone to cart his soul off. Now we are hiding from the heat in the cockpit with our sun awning round us and the new fan working hard, and in the evening we will take our laundry to be done and will have some Eritrean stew, which we have heard is really good. In the market we went into a little restaurant and ate ful, which is a kind of bean paste with tomatoes and onion in, which you eat with a kind of hard pita bread. It was really very good, and very cheap, about a dollar each. This is the typical Eritrean breakfast.
Sheva is quite happy here, they like dogs unlike Egypt, and she has loads of room to run and smell and so on, although no grass. She is a bit out of condition, but it is a bit hot to run anyway! In the middle of the day we put her in the cockpit and pour water over her. She doesn’t actually seem to like it, but we are afraid she will get heat-stroke or whatever dogs get.
Our next destination is Assab, probably after a stop in the islands near Massawa. That will be towards the 20th of September, and there may not be internet there. After that we go out of the Bab el Mandeb and set course for India, a journey of at least 3 weeks, and maybe a lot more if we have as contrary weather as we have had so far!
One Response to “Massawa at Last!”
 Comment by uri November 9th, 2008 at 11:04 pm |
3 weaks… hey, just trying to comunicate… i checked this blog thousands times |
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