Red sea rules

Silene's cruising log
Jørn and Eli Nygaard
Fri 3 Apr 2009 17:31
25:32.282N 034:38.283E

We learn every day (or you can say that we never learn....). What we've learned today about cruising in the Red Sea is following: 1) Don't make plans (and if you absolutely have to, make sure you have a plan B, plan C, ............plan H -at least). Weather does not work according to our plans..... Second rule: never celebrate your arrival before you've actually made it there. We were so happy during the night as we though we would make it all the way to Hurghada -in our minds we were already celebreating, dreaming of sivilization, restaurants, hot showers, laundry etc. Although we were going pretty well during the night, all hell broke loose this morning as the wind and the seas picked up. We were slamming down the waves and it sounded like the boat was going to break. One big wave crushed the dodger and a few hundred liters came in -everywhere. Suddenly the engine stopped....... When trying to find the cause, Jorn found that the engine mounting has broken again (sadly enough the mounting on the engine itself -not fixable). So Jorn took a seasickness tablett, found his tools, and spend the morning head down in the engine trying to get it started again. I sailed towards Port Ghalib in case we needed to go into harbour (could not anchor anywhere either because the windlass was still in pieces). Jorn finally got the engine going. Actually, when sailing, the weather wasn't too bad and we were still considering to keep going. After a few more hours we realized that although it was doable, getting to Hurghada would take us several days in the weather we were having (actually quite stupid even thinking of it with a loose engine -and tired skipper and exhausted crew). So we turned around -and are now safely tied up to the immigration dock monitoring VHF as the norwegian yacht Xanadu is trying to make it in here without an engine (it is about to get dark and there is a tricky reef entrance). Guess we were lucky after all. We'll have to stay here a few days now as paperwork (check-in) cannot be done in weekends. There is a pizza restaurant nearby and we can take hot showers -and get laundry done -so very happy!

Nowegians: you'll have to do with the english today -too tired :)