Shab El Hasa to Marsa Thelemet
Gaviota
Sat 23 May 2020 11:06
29:03.67N 32:38.23E
Thursday, 21st
May another 5.00 am start and more motoring on glassy sea and back across the shipping
lanes, playing chicken with the huge tankers again. We were joined by a pod of dolphins who played around the bow, why did'nt they appear at Shab el Erg, I would have joined them!
Marsa Thelemet was
our last sheltered anchorage before Port Suez and one we knew we
would have to spend about a week in waiting for the Canal to re-open
plus Cyprus to open it’s Ports. Arriving here also coincided with
the change in the weather according to the forecast but as we motored
in and dropped the anchor it did seem hard to imagine it changing
from this calm peaceful anchorage surrounded by desert. But once
again the forecast was right, the North wind started in the night and
by early morning it was blasting 30+ knots.
Marsa Thelemet was the scene of big battle between the Israeli Navy and Egyptian Navy on October 7th 1973 during the early stages of the Yom Kippur War. It is a rather bleak looking place surrounded by a lot of desert.
Luckily it is well protected and having re-set our anchor after a first attempt we were well dug into the clay, sandy bottom and tucked in behind a long sandspit that would keep us pretty safe from any wind direction other than South. But once the prevailing North, Northwest wind kicks in it blows from this direction most of the time and it is strong.
Weather forecast was absolutely spot on middle of the night the wind started blowing from the North 30+ knots, glassy seas and windless anchorages became a distant memory as we set to to sit out the next week being battered by the wind and sea.
