It’s hard to believe the first two months of 2022 are behind us and we’ve spent most of that time sailing, just for a change; more than 3800NM to date, almost more than our yearly average prior to the pandemic and we’ve still got a thousand more to go before we reach Port Suez.
We did have a reality check last night, though, regarding the area we are sailing through. First was the “navy warship operations” which were certainly no military exercise and secondly, hearing conversations on the VHF radio of southbound cargo ships stopping at one of the anchored ships to collect their armed guards.
It was no surprise then, after our encounter with the fishing boats yesterday evening, that Talulah Ruby III and ourselves decided to stay close to each other for the night and have continued to do so today, sighting Golden Spirit to our starboard side this afternoon, after they were given a significant detour by the “navy warship operations” last night.
Kantiba, who is a considerable distance ahead of us, revealed during the morning net that there was another cargo shop anchorage which they had passed. Our change of course should hopefully prevent another night of weaving between ships, both anchored and underway.
Today seemed to give way to less haze and brighter skies, with the seas turning to a beautiful deep blue as we continued north. Elaine also witnessed a strange sight during her afternoon watch; a possible mating ritual between two dolphins, spotted about 10 metres apart and moving straight up and down vertically in the water, but with only their tail fins visible. This action was repeated a few times as we sailed passed, before the dolphins disappeared. In awe of what she was looking at, Elaine completely forgot to take a photograph or a video! Welcome to Spring, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway!
The evening net revealed that Kandiba was experiencing engine problems and were drifting. Unfortunately because they were more than 50NM ahead of us, it is going to take most of the night to get close to them and possibly render assistance. We have a spare fuel lift pump, but we’re hoping they manage to get the engine going before we have to work out an exchange at sea. Guess we’ll know soon enough!
In the interim, under yet another beautiful starry night, in the company of Talulah Ruby III and Golden Spirit, we are motor-sailing again, thankfully!
