Well we tried to leave Egypt, but it was closed.

In spite of organising everything the day before for our departure from El Tig Marina, they still managed to lose the clearance certificate for the Coast Guard.

By the time that was found we did not have time to make our rendezvous with the Customs at Hurghada, thirty miles away by sea, because that is where the only local “port of entry/exit is”. We arrived ten minutes after their open hours, which it seems is between 1000 and 1200.

Pity nobody told us!

Tony is convinced it is because they are trying to get more Baksheesh from him. He should know because he has travelled all the way from Cape Town to Cairo and back with Marjo, overland in a camper van. He has had plenty of experience with delays in Africa.

I think it is more sinister.

I think Pharaoh Ramses III is still in the driving seat somewhere here.

And he won’t let us go.

And we have no Moses to plead our case.

I am anxious that we don’t pray for any help, as the last thing we need right now is a plague of frogs coming out of the Nile and stones falling from the sky.

As for parting the waters, that won’t do us any good at all, because it is well known that trying to sail a catamaran over dry land is extremely difficult.

And we have enough “difficult” right now.

Marlene has stated categorically that cleaning plagues of locusts out of the Galley is not in her job description, as Galley Slave.

So we have had to spend the night at the marina in Hurghada in the small hope that we will be able to catch the various officials during their small “open” window, and between their prayers, which started this morning at 0500.

I must say that the Imams here are much more melodious than further north in Egypt. In Port Said and Port Suez their prayers sounded much more aggressive. There the prayers sounded much more like a “Call to Arms”.

The resulting bloodbath back then in August may have been the new rulers’ reaction to that.

Anyway, today we are supposed to clear customs and immigration, then top up the fuel and then meet customs again outside the port where we will take possession of the Crossbows that Tony brought from South Africa as “Sporting Equipment”.

Of course that involved even more Baksheesh at the airport on his arrival.

Whether we will be able to get them back still remains to be seen, because in Egypt right now it is illegal to even have distress flares on a boat.

This is all still due to the potential civil unrest which is putting the kibosh on tourism at the moment.

This is distressing for all the small Egyptian entrepreneurs who are anxious that the tourists return, and they are trying very hard to please all the visitors that do come here, because they know how important good reports of holiday makers are.

The one plus of our short voyage from El Tig to Hurghada was that we saw the Ospreys have made a nest on the outer buoy marking the entrance to El Gouna. The female was sitting and glaring at us as we sailed past ten feet away. We do wish them luck with their very exposed situation.

We will miss the friendliness of the Egyptians as we progress further south, as well as their infrastructure.

Our next port of call is a ruined ancient city.

But more of that later.

 

Pictures will be loaded later when we have a faster internet connection.

 

Departure delayed from El Gouna

Well, we have been delayed form our departure from El Gouna.

The “wind” got up…… Well it is true, it did.

And it blew red dust all over the boat which upset Marlene as she had spent a long time getting it all pristine and clean!

It blew at about 35 knots, gusting more, which Tony says it just what the boat needs ‘to really fly”.

 

So the Port Authority closed the port and prevented us from leaving.

But we had another delay.

Our navionics chip in the Raymarine navigation device has been stolen.

We discovered this during last minute checks on the boat systems.

This most likely happened while we were away and the key of the boat was with the Harbourmaster.

We had a meeting with the Port Authority, which is the Harbourmaster, and offered a reward! We are also trying to locate another one, which has its own problems, because to get anything sent to us it has to go through customs.

Tony claims that this is all for “Backsheesh”, and so far his experiences with customs seem to bear this out.

The other problem was that a local “driver” was caught trying to deliver some diesel to us from a fuel station, and this is illegal in Egypt. It turns out that even in this modern marina we have to get fuel sent in a fuel bowser from 30 kilometres away, and they are disinclined to do that for a 100 litres or so.

It was much easier for us to get fuel at our other “stops” in Egypt with the boat where the local taxi drivers did the service for us and the process is acceptable.

 

This delay gave me some time to communicate with the naval forces that are on patrol in the pirate High Risk Areas.

 

I will give some of the emails back and forth below.

Please skip if you find it boring.

 

 

I received this message via a friend from the commander of United States Naval Forces in Bahrain, who apparently co-ordinates and resists pirate activity.

 

        Unfortunately the resources that provide support for safe transit to commercial vessels do not afford the convoy/escort protection to recreational vessels.  This is due to the generally slower speeds they travel at which would slow the entire convoy.
        In fact there is a notice we developed in 2013 as a coop between EUNAVFOR, CMF, UKMTO, MARLO, and NATO Shipping Center that clearly states the activity from Pirate Action Groups (PAGs) and warns that all recreational vessels are sailing under their own risk: "Its conclusions are clear and incontrovertible - all sailing yachts under their own passage should remain out of the High Risk Area or face the risk of being attacked and pirated for ransom.."  To the best of my knowledge issues with regards to recreational vessels have not changed.  If you look at the latest PATS msg, it contains the contact info for the convoys in the area.  They may be able to provide updated information.

Please note all the acronyms. They prove that this is an American Communication.

My response to this was to my friend was:

I have been thinking about this reaction from the USN and I am not impressed.

What they are saying is that they are there to protect the commercial vessels and not the private individuals.

I am troubled by this because it is the individuals that pay their taxes to provide these naval people with their careers.

The commercial ships they are protecting are registered in places like Panama and Liberia and pay no taxes.

This is rather the same as the Police saying that they will only protect the passage of large trucks on the Highways of the world and that the private citizens can be swept aside and killed with out compunction.

I think this is a dangerous and ill conceived attitude.

As I said before, the naval forces should be delighted to have an opportunity to live up to their responsibilities and protect the people who keep them where they are.

On the other issue, I really admire the Somalis for protecting their fishing grounds.

They are the only people in Africa who have combated the rape and destruction wrought by the Israeli, Spanish, Japanese and Russian trawlers and seiners.

This is what I have written to the MSCHOA:

Good afternoon Antonio

Thank you for your response and concern regarding the piracy problems.

We have registered with MSCHOA and we will be complying with the times and routings as far as is possible with a sailing yacht under power.

We feel that it is important for people like us to exercise our right to navigate the oceans, and we do not wish to be intimidated by either terrorists or pirates. We all have experience of wars in Africa and we know what we are confronting. I hope that the "powers that be" will see us as an interesting "bait" to entice some activity, for which action can be taken.

We are an American registered yacht with a mix on board of British, Canadian, South African and French connections.

If something happens to us I am sure that one of these countries will see it as an opportunity to give their naval forces a reason to rise to their responsibilities.

Thank you to you and your team for working to keep the seas safe for navigators of the high seas.

Best

 

Chris

 

Perhaps the outcome will be that we are attacked by a drone from the USN Bahrain!

Let’s see if we can shoot it down with a crossbow.

After all, it wasn’t far from here that David slew Goliath.

 

 

So many South Africans at Sea.

Our transport plans have come together perfectly.

Ian arrived in Hurghada looking well and fit in spite of his long multi-leg journey from Western Canada.

Our flight on Transavia France from Paris was smooth and on time.

Tony arrived from Cape Town in good spirits with large black bags filled with “toys” for the boat. It was like Christmas, with underwater cameras, crossbows, spear guns and night vision optics.

Since then Marlene has been shopping in the local stores and supermarkets with long lists of essential items ranging from potatoes to dehydrated beans to beers ‘under the counter’ as supermarkets do not sell alcohol here.

We have all been impressed with the changes at El Gouna with new extensions to the marina such as the island pictured below.

 

 

During our preparations we have met some South Africans who are the only active sailors here at the almost deserted marina.

Steve, who has sailed his racing catamaran from France, then the length of the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal, is moored next to us. He has operated this eight man racing cat all by himself, which is a courageous thing to do. Now he is preparing to follow us down the Red Sea and then continue on to Muscat in Oman, where he works.

We have offered to tow him, on the clear understanding that he will be “bait” for the pirates, and that we reserve the option to “cut him loose” if we are attacked. He has seen through our “offer” with typical South African good humour. He will need all of that to complete his voyage and we respect his daring and wish him luck.

 

 

On the other end of the scale we have been happy to meet Peter and Debbie who are operating a luxury super yacht. This is a masterpiece of Egyptian Engineering and is accepted as the best yacht available for charter in the Red Sea. It is a huge responsibility for both of them, but it seems that South Africans will rise to whatever challenge they meet.

 

 

Once again we are struck with the beauty of the units around the marina basin. They are a harmonious combination of architectural design and colours, which reflect the shades of the desert. Tony has rated the design and layout as ten out of ten, and he knows what he is talking about having created a similar development at Gordon’s Bay in South Africa.

Sadly the marina is filled with parked boats, all awaiting better political times. There are very few tourists, but we are sure they will come flooding back soon, when the situation improves.

 

Tomorrow we set off on our voyage down the Red Sea, so I will not be able to update this blog for a while, unless the Satellite phone works, and at the moment that is not happening.

With all the Africans on board Freedom we have tried communicating with Jungle Drums, but so far we haven’t achieved a decent range.

 

 

Final preparations before flying to Egypt

One of the things that people who travel up and down Africa have learned is that the US dollar is the true currency of Africa.

If one day the Americans give up the dollar in favour of an Amero, or the World Bank successfully introduces the Yuan or Yen as an International Trading currency, in Africa it will remain the dollar.

The Africans have had lots of experience with their own currencies devaluing, sometimes to joke levels, that they now trust and accept the US dollar.

You can bribe your way through borders, buy guns and pay off falsified criminal accusations with dollars.

Even Pirates like dollars.

So dollars we need and so dollars is what I went looking for in Paris.

I am only mentioning all of this because I found a wide range of exchange rates in Paris and the best one was at “Yes Exchange” in Rue Rouget de l’Isle which is adjacent to the Tuileries Gardens near the Louvre.

I also found a wide range of prices for things like T-shirts, which ranged from five euros on street markets to more than my monthly household budget…. For a T-shirt!

On my way to do this, Marlene took the advantage of the situation to try and improve my appreciation of the Arts, so she routed us to the Musée Rodin. What a worthwhile visit is was in spite of the clouds and rain, all of which made the “Gates of Hell” more dramatic than a Spring day would.

We had to photograph the “Thinker”, which I felt was misnamed and could be better known as the “Regular Ruminator”, or perhaps the “Calculating Colon Cleanser”.

His pose is correct for that.

 

I have to apologise for the ‘starboard list’ of this picture, but it seems that Rodin has constructed most of his works with a ‘leaning’, perhaps to give them a sense of urgency. Perhaps this fellow’s urgency was evident before he sat down?

On a more serious note our preparations have included buying night vision optics, which give us the possibility to “see” in low light conditions and also to illuminate objects with infrared light, which makes them easy to see on the darkest night.

This is only a part of our anti-piracy procedures. We have set up communications with the International Piracy Centres who monitor and co-ordinate movements of war ships who react to threats and incidents in High Risk areas.

The reality is that in a small boat we are vulnerable to all sorts of problems.

Not only do we have to contend with the weather, coral reefs and collisions with whales.  Yes I have had that experience. Perhaps I will write about it later.

But also we have to treat all ships as a danger, not only because they can collide with us, but also because the mercenaries they have on board could easily fire upon us in the mistaken idea that we are pirates. These mercenaries have to justify their employment, so I suspect that they are trigger-happy.

The war ships in the area are also sensitive to small boats.

After the suicidal bombing of USS Cole in Aden in 2000 I am sure that the gunners on board would rather risk a court marshal than risk their shipmates’ lives to another attack. And how would they know that our small yacht had not been hi-jacked by terrorists and was being used to mount another attack?

No…. I expect they would fire first and ask questions afterwards.

I would in their position.

So we have to keep clear of warships as well.

In addition to all the above, the procedures for transiting the most dangerous area is to assemble the ships at point ‘A’ or point ‘B’ depending on the direction of transit and then release them with the slowest first and the fastest chasing after them. The result of this is likely to be a flotilla of ships at different speeds all converging on a point in the ocean with us in the middle!

Yes, we are going to have to be vigilant.

 

Is there anyone out there who would like to be an extra watch keeper?

And now it is time for us to leave home

We have had a busy time preparing for our departure, the most pleasant part of which was making a special point of saying goodbye to our friends. We have had the chance to spend quality time with many, but sadly not all, which is rather what life is all about… When one shuffles off from this mortal coil there are always goodbyes that have never been said.

It has been a mild winter in Burgundy compared to the average, so much so, that before we left I re-planted my dahlia tubers on the basis that if they survive being planted early, maybe they will make a display for summer, even if we are not there. Most probably the result will be that the slugs get fatter on dahlia shoots and breed more and put the cherry trees at risk.

There is a significant difference in France between “Au Revoir” and “A Dieu”. The first indicates an intention to return and meet up again, and the second is final and means only a hope to meet again on the other side of the River Styx.

The Headmaster at the school where Marlene works, Sainte Ursule in Dole, is convinced that Marlene will not return to the school to take up again the teaching of 240 pupils every week. But not because she will be in a watery grave, but rather because she will find how wonderful life is, outside the academic maelstrom, that she will not want to return. But the truth is Marlene loves teaching English to these children and has adopted them like a large family of Grandchildren. She knows them all and it has been a big wrench to tear herself away.

Here she is with some of her colleagues on the last day at school.

 

Our friend Christian took us to the station at Seurre where the train for Dijon left exactly on time. I spent many years travelling on the French train system, and I have always been impressed with their punctuality. The TGV (Train Grand Vitesse) whisked us off to Paris in double quick time, where will spend a few days taking in the culture of this magnificent city.

 

Having said that, I am always somewhat uneasy in a large agglomeration, having been brought up alone on a Rhodesian farm. I find this concentration of people so strange, when the animals that I know from Africa all demand their own space and territory, and will not tolerate overcrowding. I have been fortunate, or unfortunate, to have visited cities as far apart as Lima in Peru to Sydney in Oz, from Cape Town to Leningrad and I still wonder at how people coexist in such conditions. It makes us even more grateful to have our home in a small village with a view of a river and forest with no passing traffic. A village of only 600 people, where some of them have never even walked down to the river to see what it looks like!

No wonder they are afraid for us, and concerned about our mental health, for wanting to wander the trackless ocean in search of another horizon.

But back to Paris.

We wandered through a small part of it near the Gare de Lyon, and of course strolled along the wharf of the “Port de Plaisance” where there is a selection of pristine barges and boats that seem to be permanently moored there. Some of them have crew on board whose sole job is to polish the brass and chrome fittings, and I must say they do gleam.

Of course I need to include a picture, for the record, of Notre Dame under a cloudy Parisian sky. Not bad weather for February, compared to what it can be at this time of the year.

 

Then we saw the “Garde Républicaine” whose motto includes the words “Honour, Service, Protocol, Security and Prestige”. They are responsible for the large horse and motorcycle escorts for the President of France and visiting Heads of State. The entrance gate is inlaid with the names of past guards who have lost their lives in different theatres of war over the last two hundred years. Inside the main court there are handsome horses, parked like motorcycles awaiting their next duty.

I can’t help thinking about my little horse Blackie and the freedom we had, growing up and exploring the African bush together. The sort of life that these horses will never know, but perhaps they have a dream of it somewhere in their psyche.

Just like the people here, they are prisoners of cities.

No wonder the call of the open ocean appeals to me.

Today we are meeting up with our friend Jean-Marie who is a doctor from rural France. He is lending us his apartment for a couple of nights, in Paris. He has just returned from a stint in Africa, this time in Burkina Faso. He goes out to different places in Africa at regular intervals to help, aid and operate on young women who have been traumatised and abused, and to teach the local doctors how to take care of these unfortunate victims of circumstance and religious intolerance.

I so admire him, because he could just spend his life in retirement, playing golf and comparing late model cars with other colleagues, but instead he puts his life at risk for the benefit of others.

He is a true generous soul.

 

 

We have just received a message from our agent in Egypt who says he will be at the Hurghada airport to meet us on arrival.

Here is what he wrote:

deer capten tony 

how are you ?

no proplem i orgnizo every thing 

and i wait them at air port 

see you soon 

 

I wish that I could write as well, in Arabic, as he does in English.

 

I am frightened to say “May Allah go with you”, in case I make a mistake and insult someone.