Overnight the wind became more favourable to motor-sail, which definitely improved our VMG (Velocity Made Good), enjoying an average SOG (Speed Over Ground) of 6.7 Kts. Additionally, with the wind speed having dropped to around 8 to 10 Kts, making the seastate far more comfortable, the conditions of this passage had certainly improved.

A clear, moonless, starry night gave way to a bright, sunny day and, fortunately, after a pitch black night, dawn broke early at around 0500. At least we could then see what was in front of us without having to constantly check the radar; always a tad disconcerting, never mind the fact that, being our first night at sea again, we both struggled through our watches. Needless to say, most of the day was spent catching up on lost sleep.

Feeling a bit more refreshed after her morning nap, Elaine hand-washed a few items, since doing laundry in Suakin would have resulted in a rather muddy mess, given the amount of dust that had landed on Paw Paw. It is absolutely everywhere, even in the bilges and it’s caked on to every leading edge on her; hatches, stanchions, halyards, sheets, portholes, windows, nets, etc. It’s going to take a month of Sundays to clean Paw Paw; the joys of sailing through deserts!

As we progressed northwards, we started to hear the cargo ships on the VHF radio again before we started to see them; not surprising, though, given our course. What was a surprise was seeing a yacht sailing passed us, heading south.

As the day progressed, the winds turned more southerly and increased in strength, affording us the opportunity to enjoy a SOG in excess of 7 Kts for the afternoon and well into the night. Tonight we also crossed into Egypt, evident, not only by our position, but by the incessant chatter in Arabic on Channel 16, the general hauling and emergency channel on the VHF radio.

We also received lovely news from “home”. Congratulations to our eldest grandson, William, on his academic award for exceptional grades. The apple indeed doesn’t fall far from the tree!