Today was a peaceful day onboard, primarily because we were able to sail again, after the southerly winds, forecast for days, eventually arrived. It was simply wonderful not to listen to the drone of the engines! The added bonus of a pod of dolphins coming to frolic in Paw Paw’s bows, definitely put a smile on our faces and helped us forget just how tired we are. Thankfully, tonight, under another very dark starry night, we are on the final approach into Suakin, Sudan, where we’ll stop for weather, enjoy a rest and fill up on fuel again before the last big push to the Suez Canal; something that still feels rather surreal.
Before sunset, though, we got the opportunity to sing Happy Birthday to our beautiful granddaughter who became a teenager today. I think she was somewhat surprised, since we called her just before school started. It’s not often we find her speechless! Guess there aren’t too many 13 year olds whose grandparents call on a satellite phone from the Red Sea! Regardless, we wish her a very Happy Birthday and hope she gets spoilt rotten!
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!
Last night, while we continued to pound to weather for most of the night, we enjoyed another moonless, starry night which gave way to another overcast, gloomy morning and a washed out sunrise. In fact, even the colour of the sky and the sea are washed out with the constant haze. Fortunately, though, the wind died down, which quietened the swell somewhat, although we had to slow down and do a bit of zigzagging to get the best angle to the swell in order to run the watermaker. Sadly, our tactics were in vain, since the watermaker still sucked in air with all the bouncing around.
Regardless, while we still had our cruising friends for company, we’ve also had dolphins and it’s been lovely to see so much birdlife again, including the most beautiful bird we had as a hitchhiker for most of yesterday.
Today we continued our slow crawl towards Suakin and slow it is for a number of reasons, but primarily because the distance to this destination is an awkward one; we have no choice, but to spend an extra night at sea in order to transit the last 30NM through the numerous outer reefs around the entrance to Suakin during daylight hours. This means getting to Owen Reef and the northerly lighthouse north of Suakin at sunrise, before turning to port and heading back in a southwesterly direction to weave through the reefs in the deeper water. The alternative was to take the inside channel, but we’ve received reports of navy patrols harassing cruisers at anchor, who’ve had no choice but to stop overnight on this route due to all the reefs.
This afternoon Roy set about filling our diesel tanks, given that we hadn’t sailed since our initial sail across the bay on departing Djibouti and with that another slow, tedious passage continued, or so we thought.
Just before the evening net, the wind picked up slightly out of the northeast, providing a decent angle to sail or at least motor-sail. However, ourselves and Talulah Ruby III first had to deal with a few fishing boats behaving in a rather suspicious manner, but, after a prolonged net to ensure none of the yachts encountered any precarious situations, we raised the mainsail, unfurled the headsail and looked forward to a lovely night of sailing. That was until we found ourselves in the middle of “navy warship operations”, per the reference on the VHF radio, directing us to alter course and ensure a 3NM CPA (Closest Point of Contact) to a stationary ship we could see ahead of us. We thought we were inconvenienced, but Golden Spirit was given a diversion of 6NM in the opposite direction. What a carry-on which lasted until 2100, resulting in Elaine not getting a wink of sleep during her off shift with all the radio chatter and the strong smell of oil burning as we approached the stationary ship. It was at this point Paw Paw started to vibrate uncharacteristically. Giving up on sleep altogether and charging up to the cockpit just as Roy put the starboard engine into idle, the preliminary investigations suggested the propeller had caught something, but nothing a reverse thrust couldn’t solve, thankfully. By then, being wide awake, Elaine decided to come on watch an hour earlier so that Roy could, at least, get some rest, but we’d also given up on a sail too, so down came the sails. Thinking that was the end of this little saga, the diversion unfortunately put us in the middle of a cargo ship anchorage, which occupied Elaine for the next few hours as she weaved Paw Paw through the maze! What a night!
Leaving Djibouti yesterday felt like a flotilla or rally departing, given that there were five yachts that weighed anchor within minutes of each other and all enjoying a nice sail, albeit short-lived, across the bay before we turned to port to continue through the Gulf of Aden.
In the wee small hours of the morning, we transited Bab el Mandeb and entered the Red Sea en route to Port Suez. We’re expecting to stop in Suakin depending on the weather, but we’re yet to get an accurate forecast, which seems to change with every update.
What they got right this morning though, which, of course, was not forecast when we first picked our departure date, was calm, flat seas with an afternoon breeze from the north. Translated; we were motoring into the wind, waves and current for most of the afternoon.
However, we did enjoy a magnificent moonless, starry night, although we woke to overcast skies. By this afternoon, though, the sun was shining again through the haze of dust.
Similar to yesterday’s blog, we also wanted to take the opportunity of mentioning the strategy we took for our passage to Djibouti, since this was not mentioned previously either.
Before making this difficult decision, we monitored the website of the UKMTO (United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organisation) for the positions of all the incidents and warnings reported in the last year and plotted these on our chartplotter. We also checked Marine Traffic and plotted the positions of the mass fishing activities to avoid fishing ships, boats, nets, pods, etc. Next, we plotted the coordinates that specified the borders of the HRA (High Risk Area). Our final plot was a rhumbline from Uligamu Island, Maldives to the IRTC (Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor), then ensured we always stayed above this line once we departed Uligamu, no matter what.
Departing Uligamu, we remained on our rhumbline for the first 150NM in order to get west of any Indian fishing activities, then kept our COG (Course Over Ground) such that we ended up 30NM east of it when we were abeam of Socotra, to ensure some extra distance from that island.
Once we entered the HRA, we changed our Yellowbrick tracker to update every hour, as apposed to our usual every three hours and 100NM southeast of Socotra Island we only put our navigation lights on at night when we could identify a vessel that would pass within 5NM of us, using only our lower navigation lights so as to reduce our visibility. If we saw radar targets that didn’t match an AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal, we altered course to give them a wide berth.
Finally, we maintained radio silence, monitored VHF channels 16 & 74 when we were in the corridor and provided daily position reports to the UKMTO and the MSCHOA (Maritime Security Centre - Horn of Africa), to whom we were very grateful for the service they offered.
Tonight we continued northwards in the company of Talulah Ruby III, Golden Spirit and Sans Peur; Kandiba was nowhere to be found on the AIS after they took off, under motor, like a bat out of hell. During our evening net on the SSB/HF radio we learnt they were some distance ahead of the rest of the fleet pounding to weather like the rest of us.
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!
The past few days have primarily been spent getting ready for our departure from Djibouti.
On Wednesday morning, ourselves and Golden Spirit (Caroline and Michael) dinghied over to Talulah Ruby III for morning coffee and to discuss route options and strategies for the next leg of our passage to Port Suez. With a number of questions outstanding regarding official procedures for the various countries, associated costs and the possibility of purchasing diesel en route, it was agreed that Elaine would make contact with the respective agents and report back to the group. Having received the feedback needed, after a lot of “pulling teeth” to get accurate costs and the information we needed, she decided the easiest way to convey the information was to collate a Summary Sheet of all the pertinent details, including weather and provisioning requirements, which was subsequently distributed to Talulah Ruby III and Golden Spirit during sundowners that evening on Golden Spirit. Of course, with our newfound knowledge, our strategy changed significantly, resulting in Roy and Elaine sitting up to the wee small hours to create suitable options, which changed again following the perusal of the latest weather forecasts. Regardless, the decisions had been made on our departure date and the agent was notified accordingly.
Top-up provisioning began in earnest with Roy making two trips to the supermarket, while Elaine remained onboard to collate our departure To Dos List, get all the paperwork in order for each of the agents along the route and sanitise everything returning from the shops.
Working through the To Dos yesterday, Elaine spent the morning stowing our latest purchases and submitted all the clearance documentation to the various agents, while Roy cooked the passage meals, fixed the water leak in the starboard hot water heater and checked the steering chain, using Elaine’s help as needed. By the afternoon we both needed a wee nap.
Today we divided to conquer again. While Roy collected Caroline so they could make one last trip to the grocery store together, allowing Michael to finish some maintenance tasks on Golden Spirit, Elaine completed our Floatplan, following separate conversations with Keenan and Justine and informed the family of our intended departure, before Paul, off Talulah Ruby III, arrived to collect our passports and our outstanding payment due to the agent for his fees, the PCR tests, the visas and the port dues, in order to process our clearance documentation for our departure, following which she backed up all our photographs to be catalogued at a later date.
Roy returned at lunchtime bearing gifts again, a freshly baked baguette, which we enjoyed with cheese and paté, as well as more fresh fruit and vegetables and, of course, the all important French pastries, including “chasson pomme”, Elaine’s favourite.
By then we both needed another afternoon nap, before Roy collect one of the crew members off Talulah Ruby III and headed to the mall to get the last of the USD we needed.
In between all this activity he prepared our contributions to the potluck dinner on Talulah Ruby this evening; a curry. Needless to say, another fun evening, with lots of laughter, was had by all.
While Elaine enjoyed a little sleep-in this morning, Roy was up early to get started with his tasks for the day. First priority was starting the watermaker, then fixing the website, which developed an error after Roy had undertaken a software upgrade just before we left the Maldives; definitely not good timing!
Other activities included stowing our gennaker and “chicken chute” plus all the rigging, since we’re not expecting to use these sails again anytime soon. That was followed by the daily check of the engines and generator, starting all of them to ensure they were running as expected, before one of the crew members off Talulah Ruby III arrived with the staff from the “marina” to collect our empty diesel jerry cans, following which Roy collected Andy and Paul for the day’s shopping expedition, more specifically, in the search of alcohol! Unfortunately Roy didn’t make it to Talulah Ruby III before an altercation took place with the agent, who expressed his dissatisfaction about us arranging our shore access and fuel directly with the “marina”. It was definitely the wrong thing to say to Roy this morning after the palaver yesterday and the agent received more feedback than he had expected regarding the fact that we had been yacht bound for four days since our arrival waiting on arrangements to be made on our behalf, exacerbated by the delay in arranging our PCR tests for the morning after our arrival, with promises that our results would be returned that afternoon. This delay then impacted the officialdom process and, with the days marching on, left us with no alternative but to negotiate with the “marina” directly for both shore access and fuel, so as not to delay our departure.
In an attempt to ensure we didn’t encounter any retribution moving forward, Elaine sent a reconciliatory note, but she’s not sure this was received in the light intended. She had barely finished washing Roy’s duvet cover, after hauling it out of storage, given that the nights were certainly getting cooler, when the agent arrived with the Djibouti Coast Guard to inspect Paw Paw, less than an hour after Roy’s departure with Andy and Paul and with only a two minute warning via a WhatsApp message, indicating that Elaine needed to be ready. While the agent indicated this was standard procedure, Elaine didn’t see any other yachts visited, except Sea You when the captain was collected for Immigration processing. The timing and the fact that this undertaking had never been mentioned previously, alarmed Elaine to some degree, especially since she was onboard alone. Regardless, before the guards were allowed to board, Elaine handed them masks to wear and antiseptic wipes for their hands, much to their surprise.
Soon after the Coast Guard departed, our diesel was delivered. A big THANK YOU to the help Elaine received from the crew member of Talulah Ruby III. This was greatly appreciated, especially since Roy was still ashore.
Roy returned around lunchtime, having driven in the worst taxi every, but bearing gifts that made our world right again; French pastries, French Cheese, Paté and a freshly baked baguette. Guess what we had for lunch!
Unfortunately lunch was interrupted with the “marina” staff bringing us the invoice for the diesel, which Roy had prepaid and, although the quoted price included delivery, they had added an additional charge for “unloading”. It’s endless!
Our day ended with the discovery that there were yet more fees to pay before we get our clearance to depart Djibouti; this time for Port Duties.
Our afternoon seemed to slip by, though, including a dinghy visit from Caroline and Michael off Golden Spirit, joined later by Paul off Talulah Ruby III, as we all regaled the events of the day, again dismayed by what we were experiencing.
With that, another day in Djibouti came to a close, although, by now, we were definitely counting down the days to our departure.
