Filed August 25, 2008 at 4:05 am under Boating by Administrator
This is a post that I accidentally didn’t publish before, in Ismailia, so here it is anyway, although it isn’t in the proper order;
Tomorrow we plan to leave Ismailia for Port Suez, and are keeping our fingers crossed that the fuel problems we have had are finally behind us. Yesterday we asked for a pilot today, and put on the engine to check it, just in case. After 20 minutes working we had the same problem as in the canal- air in the engine. Since we know the tanks are full, we knew something else was wrong, and Oren got to work trying to find out what. Unfortunately, he thought that an electric fuel pump would help to prime the engine, and left it on the fuel line. Every time we got the engine working, but after a short time it kept getting air in. We cancelled the pilot and tried all kinds of permutations to find out where the leak was, and after about 7 hours work, came to the conclusion that the electric pump was leaking! So now we think everything is ok, but just in case we will have a spare jerry can of fuel ready to feed the engine by gravitation.
Meanwhile, I have managed to get some pictures up, but the internet is very slow here, so we will try again somewhere else. The pictures I have uploaded open into big pictures if you click on them.
Filed at 3:58 am under Boating by Administrator
We arrived yesterday evening here, the last marina in Egypt and the place where we will check out. This is a huge complex, totally devoted to trying to squeeze as many euros out of the tourist as possible, and probably because of that it is completely empty. There are altogether 3 yachts including us, and 2 dive boats in the whole place, which is capable of holding maybe 1000 boats comfortably. There are fancy restaurants, coffee shops, jewelery boutiques and at least 3 huge hotels, but everything is empty, like wandering round a ghost town. It is all very new, and there is no grass or anything yet either, so it is really weird. For the benefit of all the yachties who have told us various things about Port Ghalib, here is the real deal;
-there IS a supermarket with milk and sometimes you can buy vegetables (we were unlucky ) but you have to be prepared to walk 15 minutes to get there- on the way back you can get a lift if you buy enough stuff.
-dogs ARE allowed, and because the complex is so big and deserted Sheva had a really good time
-there IS water and electricity, and wifi ( the wifi at an exorbitant price)
We will be checking out today, and the next stop apart from anchorages will be Massawa, at least a week away. The best thing about the marina was the showers, of course, and the chance to catch up with everyone by skype.
The trip from Suez to here was fun, with all kinds of anchorages- one where black dust covered us during the night, one where we rolled all night and fell out of bed, and one magical one tied to a mooring rope off a reef in complete still, snorkelling and watching parrot fish, zebra and all the other reef fish, and eating a huge white palamida ( I don’t know its name in English) which we barbecued. The fishing is phenomenal, whenever we put a line in the water we get a big fish after an hour or two! The thing we didn’t expect is the lack of yachts generally in Egypt- we have only seen 4 yachts altogether including Port Said. The sailing has been good, sometimes with lots of wind, sometimes with 10 knots or less, and we have become used to using the spinnaker, since most of the time the wind is from the back. We can do 5 knots in a 6 knot wind with the spinnaker! There are also days with no wind at all, although today of course because we are in port the wind is blowing at least 20 knots.
Filed August 16, 2008 at 12:55 pm under Boating by Administrator
We got up at 5 o’clock in the morning today, and at 6 o’clock the pilot arrived. With our hearts full of trepidation we set out on the 80 kilometre voyage to Suez, hoping hope against hope that it wouldn’t be a replay of the first leg. Unbelievably, all was fine, and we arrived in Suez after 10.5 hours, even though the tide was against us most of the way. We have bought even more fuel here, and now have over half a ton of fuel and 700 litres of water! Tomorrow we will set out for the anchorages down the Red Sea, although Suez looks like an interesting place and we will be sorry not to stay for a while.
The next update will be from Port Ghalib, probably. Happy Birthday to Inbal, and thank you to Yasmin and Amos for the comments.
Filed August 13, 2008 at 2:58 pm under Boating by Administrator
Here are some updates for our long suffering fans ( Mum and Dad, this means you)- meanwhile without pictures because all the youth of Ismailia are on the internet this evening and the upload is too slow. Tomorrow we will add pictures, I hope.
Filed at 2:50 pm under Boating by Administrator
Today we went out of the marina gates and flagged down a taxi, asked him to take us to the pyramids and just went! It took about 2 hours to get there, in a little old Lada which really moved, through the crazy traffic of Cairo, and out to Giza. We spent a few hours wandering around, and came back with lots of photos. I think the best thing about the trip was talking to the taxi driver, Assad, who had never been to the pyramids himself! Orens Arabic is getting really good, and he can talk freely- I can understand some of it.
Oren was very impressed with the pyramids- I had been in 1982 and it seemed about the same. There were lots of ticket touts and vendors, but they all went away when we spoke Arabic to them, I guess they realised we wouldn’t be easy customers.
On the way back our fuel ran out again, this time not our fault! But the driver just managed to get to a gas station ( really gas, the taxis here are all hybrids) and we were saved again! Then we went and bought second hand jerry cans for about 3 shekels each, which we are going to fill with diesel from the petrol station for about 0.70 shekels per litre (!) and bring in so we will have loads and loads of fuel. The most expensive thing in the whole deal is the inevitable baksheesh for the marina guards, to whom we give a packet of cigarettes each. Actually they are very nice though, and didn’t arrest the dog for loitering in the marina all day while we were gone.
Filed at 2:48 pm under Boating by Administrator
Yesterday was a long, long day. It started with frantic preparations and ended well, but in between were several hours of believing that we were about to be;
a) towed away by a suez canal barge for $2000
b)smashed into little bits by a ship the size of the Hilton
c)shot by a nervous Egyptian soldier
d)thrown out of Egypt for breaking just about every rule the Suez Canal Authority has.
We set out with a very nice pilot called Mohammed, and for the first 30 miles or so we had a great time. We had wanted more fuel in Port Said, but there was no way to get any, and we were fairly sure we had enough. However, at about the 31 mile mark, we ran out of fuel, apparently. Anyway, there was air in the fuel pipes. Oren threw the anchor and started to get the air out, after opening the reserve tank. Meanwhile, the anchor didn’t really hold well, and we started gradually to drift in the direction of the north bound convoy of huge container ships, which of course had chosen this moment to start chugging by. So Oren waded to shore ( amazingly, the Suez canal is quite shallow at the edges) and tied a line to a road sign. Unfortunately, we were quite close to Kantara military checkpost, and two soldiers came running out and started yelling at us. The pilot, who by this time had given up on closing his eyes and pretending he didn’t exist, started yelling back, and things got to the point that they nearly came to blows. Meanwhile Oren managed to get the engine running again, somehow we convinced the soldiers to untie us and set off, yelling ” Inshallah”, “salaam”, and “Allah huakhbar!”
The rest of the way we prayed that the reserve tank would be enough, and the pilot screamed at the agent who had sent us without enough fuel, on his mobile phone. At the checkpost in Ballach the controller wanted to stop us for the night, as it was already dusk and no yachts are allowed to transit at night. The pilot went ballistic, and in the end they let us carry on- maybe the only yacht ever to transit during the dark. As a final gesture we opened our sails as we moved away- this is also completely forbidden, but by now the pilot had also argued with his wife, and was probably considering suicide if he didn’t manage to get off soon, and so couldn’t care less.
Only afterward did we realize how nice this pilot really was- he argued with the controller just for us, because he could have gone home in a taxi from Balach, and abandonned us to our plight, a thought which must have appealed to him, especially as his wife had rung him at least ten times. Also he took us into the marina and introduced us to the staff, and when Oren gave him the traditional baksheesh we even had to convince him to take it by assuring him that he really did deserve it!
So, now we are in Ismailia. It is a nice town, and the people are lovely. We have spoken to everyone on Skype, and done shopping. Everything is less than half the price of Israel, which is nice, and there are good supermarkets. Tomorrow we will go to the pyramids, and for the final word- it turned out that we didn’t run out of fuel, it was a fuel pipe blockage, and we now have lots of fuel after bribing the guards to let us jerry can it in to the marina.
Filed at 2:46 pm under Boating by Administrator
This morning the agent came and said that we are going through the canal today! We aren’t organized, haven’t even seen port Said at all, and really would rather stay a day. On the other hand, the ‘marina’ is filthy, there is wash all the time from big ships and there are no showers for women. Anyway, no-one seems to be asking our opinion.
The measurer came, and oren gave him the obligatory $20 baksheesh. Now he has gone to pay, and we will find out how much it is. I have got black coffee and snacks ready, and soon we will be off. The vhf seems to be working today, the navigation lights still not. No time to go up the mast though.
Filed at 2:44 pm under Boating by Administrator
I am writing this in the nasty, polluted yacht harbour of Port Said, and however horrible it is, I am glad to be here. We had a difficult journey here, to say the least. First of all, the wind was against us all the way, and raised a lumpy, uncomfortable sea. Secondly, we had quite a few problems; a kink in a sea water cooling pipe caused pressure to build up until the band was forced off and we suddenly had a massive pipe pumping seawater into the engine room, while the engine overheated at the same time, of course this happened at 2 o’clock in the morning. We acted quickly though, Oren closing the seacock while I turned the engine off, and pumped the bilge, as usual. We thought the head gasket might have blown, and meanwhile set a course under sail north-west, thinking that we would have to return to Ashkelon. However, after letting the engine cool down enough to work on it, Oren fixed the pipes which had variously blown apart, melted or become distorted, and we cautiously started up. Amazingly everything was ok, and we turned back round. We had gone back quite a few miles, and this, together with the wind, made what should have been a day and a half into a three day journey, all of it beating to windward. The next problem was that the navigation lights stopped working, a bit worrying when you are sailing through an area with lots and lots of big ships! So we got an old round engine light, and coloured it red and green with felt tips and oil crayons, and stuck it on the mast. Then for desserts, when we got close to Port Said the vhf stopped working! So we just followed the navigation marks and steamed in, and everything was fine- a pilot came along in a launch and hopped on, and showed us where to tie up. And so we are here, despite everything! We still can’t go and call home, because our passports haven’t been returned yet, so we will have to wait until tomorrow.
Filed August 5, 2008 at 7:28 am under Boating by Administrator
We can hardly believe that the time to leave has finally arrived! After loads of farewell parties, we will finally leave on Friday morning, bound for Port Said and the Suez canal. There we expect to wait at least a day or two before getting all the paperwork done.
The last few weeks have been hectic; we had the mast down for inspection and to change some of the rigging, the autopilot went on the blink again and I fixed it (again), we tried the spinnaker for the first time and for an extra bit of spice, the shaft broke! Yes, broke in two as we were maneuvering inside the marina! That had to be the best bit of luck there is, because if it had waited just a bit longer, we would have been in the Suez Canal, far from any workshop and at the mercy of the Suez canal tugboats, the only ones allowed to tow yachts in the canal. Now it is fixed, and as I write this the engine ( good engine, nice engine, there there) is running for the third hour at 2500 rpm, and seems (tfoo tfoo, knock on wood, hamsa hamsa) to be ok.
We have been in touch with Felix, the agent for the canal- fees have gone up as a result of the canal authority changing to Euros, unfortunately, but he will be waiting for us. We have clearance from the police to leave, and the marina fees are paid. That just leaves the actual stamp, which we will get at 7 in the morning on Friday. We also have all our visas, all the injections and lots of antibiotics and Immodium ( thank you Mum and Dad for the reminder!) We even found time to get the dog clipped, and she looks really great! AND I have photocopied our passports,visas,credit cards and driving licenses,and written on the photocopy the phone number in case of theft or loss of credit cards! Amazing, for me!
Oren holding the mast up!!!
Last farewells
And beautiful Sheva!
