Sundancer II – Aden to Suez Canal, 2006

by Ian and Helen Potter, Sundancer II on 22 Jun 2006 Last month Australians Ian and Helen Potter reported to us as they transited the 'Pirate Zone in the Gulf of Aden. Now they have finished the journey in company with the other boats of the season, and here is their account of the journey, including some interesting current prices. The diesel prices are particularly interesting, ranging from a low 17 cents(Australian) in Ismailia to a reported $1.61 in Cyprus.

Sundancer takes up the story:

We departed Aden with a good breeze and made the Strait of Bab el Mandeb and into the Red Sea by daybreak. We had 25+ from behind so we decided to bypass Assab and stopped at Ras Terma for the night. It was a mediocre anchorage but reasonable shelter and our first look at Eritrea.

With a good South Easterly we thought Mersa Dudo would be a good next stop but one hour before anchoring the breeze went North West so we stopped at Great Abeilat Island for the night along with a local trading boat. We left the next day for an overnighter to Massawa. It was a good sail with wind NE-SE - anything from 3 to 28 knots.

We anchored in the harbour in the port of Masawa amongst bombed out buildings that haven't been restored since the end of the 25 year war which ended about 8 years ago. People were very poor, living in the ground floors of beautiful old buildings that are slowly decaying.

We took a trip inland to the capital, Asmara, a strange town. It was 4 hours in a totally packed bus through the desert then up into the mountains. Eritrea belonged to the Italians until the end of World War II and some of the people there still speak Italian, the restaurants sell pasta and there are people sitting in cafes, al fresco, all day, drinking cappuccinos. Old men, very black, but wearing Italian suits and hats, strolling with walking sticks and the young people very hip in designer looking jeans etc. Strange, strange place. Strange also because it is mainly Christian instead of Moslem. Still everyone greets us with smiles.

Back in Massawa, Michael in a restaurant by the wharf was self appointed agent who organised laundry, fuel and helped change US dollars.

Next stop was the Sudan. We stayed at Khor Nawarat behind Shatira Islet for a couple of days and were met by the Sudan military. They were very friendly and bored as they have 6 months posting on these remote islands. They are desperate for talk and wanted country & western CD’s.

Then it was on to Suakin (easy entry but some old beacons are a bit distracting).

What a place! Very very poor people! Desert and not a blade of grass to be seen. Not even running water in their shacks, which have goat pens attached – the water is delivered by donkey cart.

The restaurant closed at 6pm when electricity went off – Old Suakin, on an island near the ‘new’ town, was a slave trading port until the end of the 2nd world war! It was one of the oldest and the last one in existence, providing slaves for Arab countries and now is just a ruin. One whole section where the houses were built of coral has crumbled into ruin and looks amazing.
The people there, although friendly, didn't like being photographed. Almost the only transport is by donkey cart. We would have liked to have gone to Khartoum but it was a 14 hour bus ride which would have been an ordeal.

We were helped in Suakin by Mohammed. He was very friendly and helpful - arranged all paper work and changed money for us. There are definitely no ATMs here! Other boats made a short bus trip to Port Sudan which was very interesting and where the population was in a high state of excitement having the first cruise ship visiting in about 20 years.

Weather looked good so we decided on a non-stop 400+ mile trip to Port Ghalib, Egypt. We got as close as 50 miles but then ran back to Sharm Luli, for a couple of days as it had good protection from prevailing winds. We were forced to do this due to much breeze on the nose and bad seaway.
The local Egyptian military were very friendly at Sharm Luli, and we spent a few hours sharing water pipes and discussing meaning of life. But even here the backshish mentality of the Egyptian showed, and this was to drive us crazy all the way through the country.

We arrived at Port Ghalib Egypt,(or Marsa Allam/Marsa Mubarak - a place of many names) We tied up in a brand new marina in front of a 5 star hotel in the middle of the desert! Nothing around except several other half completed 5 star hotels and dirt. Lots of divers come here because the Red Sea has some of the best diving in the world. It's strange after the very poor third world places we've been in for the last 10 months to be tied up right next to a fantastic sparkling swimming pool and to sit in the bar and have a drink and eat in a restaurant serving western food.

After the last port, Suakin, this place is luxury, which is great after anchoring in bays and getting ashore in the dinghy since Sri Lanka, months ago now.
This is also a first port of entry to Egypt, and a much cheaper and simplified check in procedure.

Next stop was Abu Tig marina (El Gouna) with many shops & restaurants. We took a side trip to Aswan, Luxor & Abu Simbal, with a four day trip down the Nile (LIKE these cruise boats!)

Then it was a slow trip up gulf of Suez. We travelled only 12 miles the first day, stopping at South Qeisum to wait for supposed weather window that turned out to be only partly correct. It seems you multiply the wind strength by at least 2 to get a realistic wind speed.

Come 10pm and we have a horrendous sea. The wind was ok to handle but the sea was about every two seconds. The waves really stopped the boat. We ended up at Marsa Thelemet while three or four other yachts picked the east side anchorage of Ras Abu Zenima.

By the time they left that port they were black from top of rig to deck with soot from nearby factory producing carbon. It took days of cleaning later on.

Finally we have arrived in Port Suez and have been measured by the Suez Canal people to find out how much they will charge to go through the Canal. There are ten other boats here who will go through tomorrow as well, trailing after all big ships. We have to have a pilot onboard for the trip and Helen has just been shopping to buy suitable Arabic type food to feed him during the day as it takes eight hours to get to Ismailia, about half-way through. We will stop there for a week or so while we go to Cairo to see the pyramids etc. After Ismailia we'll take on another pilot for the rest of the Canal and drop him off in Port Said then head for Cyprus.
It will be good to get out of Egypt. We’re getting tired of the haggling and I’m starting to shout good Australian words at boats who come up begging for cigarettes, alcohol etc and almost running into us.

Fees charged to Sundancer II in 2005/6, in Aus Dollars
Country	Diesel		Agent/Port Fees
Indonesia	$0.40		$40.00
Singapore	$0.96		$37.00
Malaysia	$0.49		$30.00
Phuket	$0.80		$10.00
Sri Lanka	$0.73		$160.00
Maldives (Ulugan)	$1.10		$5.00
Oman(Salalah)	$0.61		$67.00
Yemen(Aden)	$0.68		$67.00
Eritria(Massawa)	$1.33		-
Sudan(Suakin)	$0.67		$160.00
Port Ghalib	$0.75		$27.00
Abu Tig(Egypt)	$0.29
Port Suez(Egypt)	$0.67		$160.00
Ismailia(Egypt)	$0.17		?
Cyprus	$1.61		?
Canal fees for the Suez			$256.00

There are more pictures on the web site http://homepage.mac.com/ianpotter