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.