Well, it’s fair to say neither of us were saddened by our departure from Djibouti. In fact, we were elated. It couldn’t have come soon enough! It truly was the worst destination we’ve ever visited and, while Elaine stayed onboard the entire time, with the exception of her first dinghy trip to the docks which was enough, Roy was the one who experienced the worst of this stop having to do the grocery runs; constantly harassed, dealing with rude, aggressive individuals, a constant stream of children and adults begging and permanently feeling unsafe.
That said, though, we decided to provide a bit more information on our passage from the Maldives to Djibouti, given that our blogs deliberately avoided any information that would have divulged our location.
Besides the numerous, absolutely enormous ships of all shapes and sizes, we noticed that most had extra high topsides, surrounded by very high solid railings with only the bridge deck sticking out. It later occurred to us that these were probably the new designs to be more pirate-proof and the seafarers onboard must have thought the cruisers on their yachts were completely insane. They were right!
Although our anxiety levels were higher than what we’ve experienced on other passages, we’d concluded that these were probably no higher than what we would’ve felt doing the Mozambique Channel and the South African coast to Cape Town. However, having to be constantly on the lookout became exhausting and the slightest unusual event increased our adrenaline significantly. This included the fishing boat that had actively pursued us soon after we’d departed the Maldives, putting us on edge for the remainder of the passage. Hearing of Kandiba’s similar encounters with fishing boats while in the IRTC (Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor) didn’t help matters either.
On Valentine’s Day we crossed into the HRA (High Risk Area), but it wasn’t until we entered the Gulf of Aden and the IRTC that we felt a sense of relief. The two days prior to arriving at the start of the corridor and the day after we left the corridor were definitely the most stressful, since we’d definitely gotten used to the various warships and surveillance aircraft contacting us on a regular basis to ensure everything was well onboard. Additionally, we knew all the yachts were constantly “on the radar” of the UKMTO (United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation), since one of the emailed position reports from Talulah Ruby III had failed to transmit and they received a phone call to ensure everything was well onboard. The constant stream of cargo ships also provided a sense of security since, at any given time, there was a ship within 5NM of us. Having a Japanese warship greet us as we entered the corridor was definitely a highlight!
As we progressed further north, we also noticed the change in temperature and for our night watches, we both had to haul out our warmer clothes, items neither of us had worn since leaving Australia in 2019.
On Tuesday, 15th February 2022, around mid-morning, we had officially crossed our second ocean, after rounding the Horn of Africa. While we were both very tired at this stage, we both had a great sense of achievement at crossing our second ocean, against the odds of a pandemic and Elaine’s health issues and we were excited to experience completely different cultures, customs and cuisine, in an area of world we never thought we’d be seeing; while crossing the Indian Ocean was always on our itinerary, sailing in the Arabian Sea towards the Red Sea was never a thought!
