14th -15th June 2006 - Israel to Egypt
Posted at 4:55 AM, Sunday, June 18, 2006
14th / 15th June – Israel to Egypt
I’ve started typing this up off-line as we bob along midday Israeli time, about 25 miles off the Gaza Strip going suth west towards Egypt. We’ve heard the odd rumble of artillery and rocket fire over the past few days and learnt from Israeli locals there is some cross border exchanges right now – but life in southern Israel seems to just roll on as if everything is normal.
Before leaving Israel we were briefed by both the rally organisers and the Israeli Navy. The Navy directions for exiting their territorial waters meant we had to leave Askelon on a north westerly course, and only turn south west towards Port Said once we’d rounded a circle eight miles outside an Israeli gas platform which is situated some 17 miles off the coast.
This dogleg around the platform has possibly added 9 miles to this leg of the rally – making it the longest leg yet with a total of 128 miles.
The wind is relatively light right now, around 7 knots from the north west. It is sunny but we are comfortable under the bimini where we get the benefit of the cooling breeze. Its hot in the sun.
There is no rush on this leg – we are all (that’s all yachts not just our group) to arrive at Port Said at 0530 tomorrow morning. The Israeli officials started the process of checking out the yachts at 0430 this morning – but only got around to finishing with us and saying we could go around 0700.
We’ve calculated that if we maintain six knots boat speed, we will arrive on time at 0530. At the moment we are making only 5 but if the wind dies later in the day and we are forced to switch on the engine, we’ll make up the shortfall.
Yesterday was a chill day with nothing organised. Sue used it to go into Askelon market and buy up foodstuffs – possibly easier than doing it in Egypt. I fiddled with some small chores on board – and snoozed in the afternoon.
Last night we along with another yacht Grand Jete hosted a cocktail party on Swagman. Everyone brought a plate and or booze – and we think a good time was had by all.
Once we arrive in Port Said things will get interesting again. Here we are entering the Suez Canal.
The berthing area they’ve assigned to us is an Egyptian Navy basin – should be nice and secure when we leave the yachts for a few days up river to Cairo. Here we are parked up in the basin.
I’m now updating the blog in Port Said on their slow but freebie wi-fi. Love the working port / town - it feels like an Arabic Dover.
The last half of our sail over from Israel went quicker than planned. The winds did not die – in fact got up to 20 knots plus – so we rocketed on through the night – dodged the 'fishing boat alley' populated with hundreds of boats for at least 30 miles off the mouth of the canal – and arrived early at 0200. We crossed over the two busy traffic lanes for the Suez Canal and dropped our anchor in only 3 metres of water to grab a short nap before we began entry into the Suez bypass - where our final mooring has been organised.
Awoke at 0500 to dress ship and look around in wonder at the sprawling cranes and docksides that make up this wide gateway to the Suez. There are two entries into the canal direct - plus a bypass through which we will enter. Group entry instructions came by radio at 0600. To berth us down the bypass meant closing it to commercial traffic for the hour or so it took for us all to get in. So following instructions from the committee boats we circled around slowly building a bigger and bigger circle of yachts until all were in their required positions - and all doing the same speed of 3.5 knots. The leader then peeled off into the bypass and we all followed in line to arrive at our berths in the military ‘Arsenal’ basin.
This basin is secured as part of a bigger military compound, and is large enough for us all to moor stern to the stone jetties.
Despite the expected austere nature of a miliary base - the locals had obviously taken some trouble to dress it all up and make it look as good as possible. That included several inflated and animated statues!
The paperwork and entry procedures were as one would expect in Egypt. Lots of visits to lots of different desks and kiosks, each occupied by a white uniformed Omar Shariff look-alike with a rubber stamp. Lots of smiles, plenty of rubber stamping onto triplicate forms - and we were cleared. We were all feeling pretty good when we came out the other end to find a loud Egyptian string and drum band chanting and dancing away as a special welcome us. The rally mob did not hold back - and the dancing at 0900 in the morning was filmed faithfully by at least four TV companies!
The welcome given by the Egyptians felt real. The party atmosphere created was great. A breakfast bar had been set up just for us alongside the band, and bankers arrived to exchange $ and Euros to Egyptian Pounds. The Port Said Authority had guides drifting around handing out flowers to the ladies and welcome packs to the guys. All very good.
By midday, we slid away from the party and left the compound to have a quick look at Port Said. Lots of armed guards at the gates - passports needed out and back. The regular people adjacent to the compund appear to be desperately poor. Most of the buildings look like slums – but the smiles were wide and open.
Early arvo we napped, and later were lucky enough to find directly opposite the compound, a tiny canvas worker who in 90 minutes – and for one quarter of the quote we got in the UK - made up a beige canvas foredeck awning!
Brilliant job. It works well to keep off the sun and allow us to have all foredeck hatches wide open.
The evening saw the official reception on the quay inside the compound. They had a bigger band, singers, a light show, and three dancing troupes to entertain us all with nibbles. No alcohol – but the boat stocks were only yards away.
From the colourful dresses, style of music and dance, one can easily ecognise the connection with modern 'gypsies'.
Even the whirling dervish type dancers were more colourful than we'd seen before in Syria - Egypt really is a bit different from the other Arab countries we've seen so far.
The day after we left the boats under guard as we took a coach for a couple of days in Cairo – but like Jerusalem - that visit merits a separate blog entry.
Cheers
JOHN
