Position 35:12.77N 26:16.26E

The rest of the Suez Canal transit went to plan and we arrived at Port Said around 3pm with dinner prepared and sandwiches in the fridge

One small glitch, the Suez authorities were insistent that we stop to be checked before leaving. We explained that we were officially checked out of Egypt and we needed to keep going because of the weather, their response was…

 ‘If you do not stop we will prevent you from leaving, you are not authorised to proceed’

Another scam to impose more charges for an inspection, to be sure.

After much negotiation over the radio with the help of our pilot, a ship was sent out to collect him after all and he told us we could continue. Of course he explained that this was a big favour and so he would need a much larger tip. The pilot boat also asked for tips even after giving Blue Magic a hefty whack when it came alongside.

Mark was furious by this stage and told them where to go for their tip !

It was a big relief to be leaving behind the red tape and corruption of Egypt.

Now we had 51 hrs to cover 375 Miles to arrive at Crete in daylight and to stay ahead of the high winds.

We motor sailed a lot of the trip and maintained our speed at 8.5 knots, although at some points we were surfing off the waves at 11.5 knots, winds continued to increase to over 30 knots with some stronger gusts and the seas continued to build.

The last day was a very long one !

It was lovely to have experienced crew with us to share the decisions and the watches and it made the whole trip much more fun, thank you to Derry, Pete and Paul for all their help. It was also lovely to sail in company with Sol Maria, we have covered a lot of miles together since Fiji !

We caught a very large yellow fin tuna which must have been very fit to take our line as we whizzed along at 8.5 kts.

What a team !

We arrived safely at the anchorage at dusk and breathed a sigh of relief !

Spaghetti bolognaise and a glass of wine and then time to catch up on some sleep.

The wind howled all night and the forecast showed even higher winds filling in, so next morning we decided to make a dash for Sitia, a small harbour just 23 miles around the first headland.

We were pushed around by huge rolling waves on the beam which slammed into the side of the boat depositing large amounts of water all over us.  

We are now moored alongside the harbour wall with Sol Maria.

What a breath of fresh air when we took our documents to the Harbour office, smiling officials stamped our existing cruising permit and didn’t ask for even one euro from us !

They could not believe that we had just arrived from Port Said in this weather !

Sitia is a pretty, bustling Greek town, with restaurants nestled all around the harbour…we have already sampled the pork souvlaki, veal stiffado, baked aubergines, tzaziki, saganaki and greek salad, along with too much ouzo and raki  !

Its so good to be back in Greece.

We will stay here until Thursday when the winds decrease before venturing out again around the next headland to the marina at Agios Nikolaus.