The wind finally eased on the morning of Tuesday the 31st.  We shook out a reef but a couple of hours later the wind again increased to over 20kts and we put it back in (the main has 2 deep reefs only, the second reef taking you to a trysail size).

At the top of the gulf, converging with the shipping lanes and also seeing in the distance many ships anchored.

Manoeuvring down the channel and heading up the start of the canal and turning sharp left to moor at the port Suez yacht club.

A couple of days recovering!  Planning our transit and also looking at the Mediterranean weather which looked poor but an opportunity existed for a 2 day dash to Cyprus.

Unfortunately the wind was strong on the 1 Feb and the canal was closed for all vessels.  On the 2 feb we were not allowed to transit as no small ships allowed; priority to large ships only.

We left port Suez on the morning of the 3rd at 7am.  Travelling half way and stopping as required at Ismailia.  

Our plan to keep an eye of the forecast and move as soon as possible.  (Once leaving Ismailia there is no stopping until Cyprus as we have already stamped out of Egypt.)

The forecast has got worse and we have a few more days here, probably leaving on Wednesday morning and planning to arrive in Cyprus around Friday noon.

We are using the time to be nice to the boat, continuing to have a generator problem and trying to repair, some waterproofing.  Pleased the diesel heater is working as cold here through the night.

Thanks to Vlad for the great sailing, difficult to wait so long with us and with only a short 2 day dash to Cyprus he headed home last night.

We have been on the boat a Month now and wow the time has flown.  So far it has been a lot of fun and the adventure we were looking for.  

Excited to about to be sailing in the Mediterranean and a glimpse of our plan this year to do a lot of cruising.