Well, we’re starting to feel like a stuck gramophone in reporting the howling winds, but, yesterday and today, was no different to any other day; it has continued to blow and much stronger than any forecast indicated, getting up to 32 Kts overnight and 29 Kts today.
Chatting to the cruisers on Sans Peur yesterday morning, after their late night arrival here in El Tor from Port Ghalib on Friday, revealed that they had a terrible passage, the worst in their eight years of bluewater sailing. We’ve also received news from the other yachts we sailed with from the Maldives, Morgane and Sea You, who indicated they’d had a terrible passage from Djibouti to Suakin, Sudan, with strong southerly winds, which created huge following seas, swamping both yachts and, unfortunately, they are still in various anchorages along the Sudanese coast, unable to get any further north with the current weather conditions.
The worrying aspect is that our detailed analysis of the various forecasts over the past few days, reveals that the forecast are consistently inaccurate even at 48 hours out, which is making the task of finding a reliable weather window dubious at best.
Regardless, the most important thing right now is that we’re safe and comfortable in this very protected anchorage and trying to use our time as productively as possible, although we’re both in desperate need of a walk to stretch our legs and get some exercise; something that will just have to wait, since we’re not allowed off the yacht.
Yesterday Roy decided he couldn’t stand looking at the dirt all over Paw Paw’s decks any longer, so he gave her a quick saltwater rinse; not ideal, but better than nothing, and then gave the cockpit cushions a freshwater rinse after starting the watermaker. Today he cleaned the depth sensor, following which he had the task of removing the resultant water from the bilge. This was the alternative to getting into the freezing water and cleaning it from the outside. His final task of the day was to bake another tasty loaf of bread.
Elaine has spent her time working on our latest videos. Yesterday she finished the video covering our Indian Ocean crossing from Thailand to the Maldives and today she completed the one of our passage from the Maldives to Djibouti, as well as started the video covering our Red Sea passage.
Lunches and dinners are also getting down to the creative stages, given that we’ve basically run out of fresh fruit and vegetables, except for a red cabbage and some carrots. As a result, yesterday’s lunch was a tuna wrap, using chopped Kalamata olives, capers, sundried tomatoes, a spoon of mustard and, of course, a tin of tuna and some mayonnaise. Dinner was mac & cheese. Lunch today was rhubarb pie and custard, the latter made from scratch, while dinner was a Roy a la jambalaya, all very tasty for “armageddon meals”; everything out of a tin, jar or packet. Our poor bodies will be going into revolt mode soon!
Besides our daily chats to Kandiba and Sans Peur, our evening entertainment has continued to be movies. While we thought we had scrapped the bottom of the barrel with all the movies we watched in Thailand, we’ve actually reached a whole new low! A weather window better open up soon!
