Graptolite - Trooping of the Colours

Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Thu 30 Apr 2009 15:55
21:21.06N 037:00.53E Khor Shinab, Sudan, Thursday 30th April PM

The last couple of anchorages have been on some more isolated reefs off the
Sudan coast.

Tuesday night was on Sanganeb Reef. The snorkelling was some of the best
I've seen. The coral has survived much of the bleaching that we saw in the
Pacific atolls and on the Great Barrier Reef recently (what a poseur!).
'Unbleached' coral is very colourful stuff. The reef fish were also
plentiful and in sparkling form. I particularly liked the clouds of tiny
mixed gold and iridescent green fish hanging around the bommies.

Wednesday morning was at Shab Rumi which also has very nice coral and also
the remains of some of Jacques Cousteau's undersea habitat experiments from
the 1970's. Also, apparently, the remains of one of his diving team but I
never saw that.

We had an overnight passage last night up to Khor Shinab. We are currently
anchored in a spectacular big sea-inlet right into the heart of the
mountainous Nubian Desert. The desert colours change with the angle of the
sun but are mostly yellows, reds and purples. I can see only one solitary
tree in the landscape and there are no people anywhere. Apart from 'Silver
Heels' who are still travelling with us.

M