Soon after midnight, while on Roy’s watch, we were able to turn off the engines. It was wonderful to be sailing again, listening to all the usual creaks and groans that Paw Paw makes under sail, instead of the constant drone of the engines in the background. In fact, it took Elaine some time to actually fall asleep, since her ears had to tune to those old familiar sounds again before she could drift off.
When Elaine came on watch, the westerly winds had picked up again and we were flying along at 8 kts. However, within seconds we were, once again, crawling along at 4.5 Kts ; the dreaded current had raised it’s ugly head again, compounded by the winds veering to the northwest.
Our passage ended the way it had started, but with a twist; bouncing over short, step waves generated by the winds from the northwest and rocking side to side from the residual swell from the west. It was a simultaneous movement of porpoising and rolling; definitely a new movement for Paw Paw and everyone on her.
However, by 0730, we were approaching Port Suez and had received our clearance to enter the port with instructions to proceed to anchorage W2, when Roy popped out with the following comment, much to Elaine’s astonishment: “Well, if we had any balls about us, we’d just turn around now and head to Cape Town!”. Although she burst out laughing, he certainly came very close to being tossed overboard! She couldn’t begin to imagine repeating this passage in either direction!
By 0900 we’d received authorisation to proceed to the Port Suez Yacht Club and by 1200, we were on our mooring, tied bow and stern, all the officialdom paperwork had been completed, we’d placed our order for some fresh produce and paid the fees, to be adjusted once Paw Paw had been measured.
By now we were both exhausted and needed our naps, but we’d no sooner climbed into bed, when someone arrived to “check fire extinguishers” and wanted $20USD baksheesh, literally for being onboard for two minutes. Next was the Port official to take Paw Paw’s measurements and another $20USD was handed out as baksheesh. While he was onboard, the Immigration official did a dinghy “drive by” to check our faces against our passport photographs, which was followed by our fresh produce being delivered, requiring a further baksheesh of $10USD on top of the $40USD charged for some apples, oranges, bananas, potatoes, onions, Egyptian bread and two tins of hummus. Then, tonight, at 2030, we were having to sit up and wait for a visit from the Egyptian navy, to do who knows what in the middle of the night, when we both needed our sleep after an exhausting few weeks. Needless to say, Elaine was already in her pyjamas and in bed and that’s how they were going to find her. She wasn’t waiting up for anyone who had the audacity to arrive at such a ridiculous hour of the night to conduct business! She didn’t care who they were! By 0845 we switched off the lights. Given that Elaine had already told the marina “manager” late this afternoon that there would be no more baksheesh from us for anyone, we weren’t surprised they didn’t show up!
On a lighter note, although we’d decided to postpone the celebration of our safe arrival to tomorrow night, given the planned intrusion and how tired we both were, we, nonetheless, enjoyed a favourite meal tonight as a precursor; bangers and mash! Also, we were surprised to see just how narrow the Suez Canal actually is and it was fascinating to be moored so close to these large ships passing through that completely dwarfed everything, as well as to see the completely different architecture of the beautiful mosque we passed en route to the yacht club.
