Ali Baba and his forty thieves have competition.

Ali Baba was from Baghdad, we all know that, but he has competition.

 

His competition is the Thief of El Gouna, or specifically the Thief of El Tig Marina.

 

We thought that his theft from the boat was only a Leatherman multi tool, the keys for the fuel and water tanks and the navigation chip from the Raytheon Navigation system containing all the charts for our route. We thought that he had stolen some bedding and maybe some food supplies, but none of the stored stores of alcohol, nor any clothing. It wouldn’t do perhaps, for him to steal clothing that had been used by pig eaters like us?

 

What he did steal as well as the above items was to have a profound impact on our voyage and was to endanger our lives to a serious degree, but more of that later. We did an inventory of what we thought he might have stolen, but he out-foxed us.

 

Now that we are safely away from Egypt I am able to record what really happened when I reported this theft.

 

Tony wanted me to ‘leave it’, but I wanted to report the theft because the safety implications of stealing charts from a system that might only be discovered when it was too late. This was particularly important in such a dangerous navigational area, and could be of danger to others who might be less vigilant.

 

Tony had decided to leave the key of the boat with the Harbourmaster before our departure last August, which is a normal procedure for an unoccupied boat in a secure trustworthy place.

 

Of course we had checked the navigation instruments and equipment as part of recommissioning the boat after a layoff period, but it was only when we were planning our departure that we saw all the fine detail charts had been stolen.

 

I organised a meeting with the marina manager, and he called the Harbourmaster, who is also the Head of Security, to attend. This Head of Security had found that we had organised a driver to buy some fuel for the boat. This is a normal procedure at all the other ports on Egypt and one that we had used in Port Said and in Port Suez. The only other way to get fuel at El Tig marina is to order a bowser from thirty kilometres away to deliver it, and that they are not eager to do, for an amount of 100 litres.

 

So the Security Chief had confiscated our fuel and drums, and had closed the marina because of “wind” for three days. This was an undisguised attempt to stop us from leaving, as we were the only boat in the marina that was a cruising yacht. All the others boats there are owned as Tax Havens or as money laundering organisations posing as charter operators.

 

Meeting the Harbourmaster for the first time Face to Face, I realised that HE held all the cards and that I had to be very careful. He seemed to me to be a thug, and he made me think that he had probably been fired from the Egyptian military for killing too many civilians. I was very conciliatory with the marina manager and I said that I was only recording the theft of the navigation chip because of the safety considerations.

 

We were allowed to leave the next day, and I recorded some of the difficulties we encountered in the previous blog.

 

We did manage to get the Crossbows from the Customs on our departure from Hurghada as reported before, and we set course down the southern departure route, through the coral reefs and then out to sea.

 

What a relief to get away from land.

 

Our destination was the port of Suakin which is a little bay about thirty nautical miles south of Port Sudan on the Western coast of the Red Sea.

 

The reason for choosing Suakin was that were told that we would be able to buy ‘arms’ there, for defence against pirate attack threats in the Gulf of Aden.

 

Once out at sea we had a beautiful following wind and cruised with the genoa while we sorted out and raised the spinnaker. This was a period of tranquillity for us to settle in and get used to the boat and its motion. Marlene felt a little bit queasy with the motion and from working in the galley with stooping into cupboards to retrieve things, but this soon passed.

 

 

We sailed through the night with the spinnaker up, which is not a normal procedure for me because if you have to ‘drop it’ during the night it means being on the foredeck in the dark, and the risk of falling overboard is greater, and the chance of finding someone who has fallen overboard at night is slim. But the conditions were so stable that I decided to risk it, and it turned out okay.

 

The next day Tony was delighted to catch two small Yellow Fin Tuna, which he filleted with skill and divided into ‘meals for four’ containers and then BBQ’ed the remainder, including the Heads, which he says has the best meat of all.

 

 

Tony BBQing the fish

The next day we had to drop the spinnaker and start beating to windward as the wind had changed to come from the South. Eventually the wind dropped altogether, so we motored on with one engine. We were visited by a few fine-looking dolphins that were coloured with three shades of grey. They looked so colour co-ordinated that I feel tempted to respray my sports car when I get home, as it is sprayed in a metallic sliver grey colour which looks dull in comparison to these beautiful creatures.

 

We were also visited by a Hoepoe, which is a pretty russet coloured bird with black and white markings and an impressive crest. What it was doing out at sea and out of sight of land is a mystery. We also had a little insect eating bird that flew into the saloon and ate the last of the Egyptian flies, which was a service that we appreciated very much.

 

The wind returned from the north, but was light, so we raised the spinnaker again. The spinnaker did a curious thing in the light wind; it got caught in an eddy behind the mainsail and wrapped itself around the forestay several times, very neatly. We had to start the engines and turn the boat around five times to un-twist the spinnaker, so I have resolved not to fly the spinnaker again with the mainsail raised in light winds.

 

We arrived at Suakin and Ian steered the boat into the port, past the ferry quay and to the anchorage for yachts which is south of a small island that is the site of the ‘Ruined City’. This is where the British based some naval ships long ago, before relocating and creating a base at what is now Port Sudan, to the north. The reason for this was because of the complications of the coral reefs off shore and the dangers to shipping that these reefs pose for navigation. Today, with GPS navigation, everything is so much easier, although the accuracy of the charts is sometimes suspect as some of the chart survey areas are over a hundred years old. The coast of the Red Sea is one of the most unexplored in the world. The big ships have no interest in it as they steam up and down the centre of the Sea, and the recreational use by cruising yachts is minimal. A great deal of the survey done by Captain Carless at the beginning of the 1900’s was lost due to the negligence of the bureaus in India where the information was stored.

 

There was only one other boat in the anchorage at Suakin, and the owner, Captain Jack, was shocked to see us.

 

“You are the first boat I have seen here in four years!” he told us.

 

Captain Jack is what I would call the “Ultimate Cruising Sailor”. He has been visiting this port for a dozen years during the northern winter months, and then he sails back to the Mediterranean to be with his family in France during the northern summer months. He seems totally content with his own company, and yet engages with everyone around and is a mine of information regarding weather patterns and local safety issues. His family from France fly out to visit him from time to time, so that they can go diving on the local reefs and to stay with “Grand Papa Bateau”. His boat, which he has owned for thirty years, is an example of a cared for and personally modified cruising boat. He laments that in the past, when cruising in the Red Sea was more popular, the people who cruised up the Red Sea were “so urgent” on their schedules that they did not appreciate the Life that they were living.

 

We are also “urgent” to get to the south, and I know that he is right. We are missing the inner peace that comes from “taking time to travel”. My excuse is that we have to catch the winds in the Northern Indian Ocean before they fade and reverse, if we are to get to the Seychelles before mid April.

 

Our agent at Suakin was Mohamed Abubaker. He is a tall elegant Sudanese who Tony said must have a Royal Blood connection. He was organised and efficient and we had clearances from the port control and fuel delivered to the boat in double quick time.

 

We invited Captain Jack over for an evening meal, which was an opportunity for us to learn about cruising in the Red Sea and the history of the yachtsmen who had passed through. He told us about one who got shot while diving on a reef in Eritrea near Massawa, but why he was shot was not clear. Perhaps the military there was merely protecting the country resources?

 

The port at Suakin, also sometimes called Sawakin, is an important embarkation point for Muslims who are going to Mecca for the Hajj. The problem, it was revealed, is that they are not allowed to take their sacrificial animals with them on the ferry. Apparently several million animals are sacrificed each year, mainly goats, but some camels too, and they have to be transported by the faithful. So another port is being constructed south of Suakin to transport the animals. How they all recognise each other on the “other side” at Jeddah is a mystery, rather like how the Emperor Penguins recognise each other in the Antarctic after months of separation.

 

It must be tough to be a faithful goat when your master is driven by a desire to sacrifice you.