25:32.001N 34:38.707E
Its been 3+ long
weeks since we arrived in Port Ghalib, Egypt and we have watched the
place empty as tourists have left on the only available flights out,
hotels, restaurants and shops have closed and locals left to be with their
families mainly in Luxor or Cairo. Now we are in a ghost town along
with the locals who live here and about 8 yachts that have people of
a variety of nationalities stranded here.
Our initial plan had
been to leave the boat here and travel around Egypt to see the sites
which we were very much looking forward to, now all the sites are
closed, Port Ghalib is surrounded by road blocks and the whole area
including the Port is closed.
We feel very lucky
that we got in here when we did as other yachts have been less lucky
and are currently having to continue sailing in all weather
conditions some without food and water as Ports are refusing them
entry. The Suez Canal is still open – at this time – but Pilots
are beginning to refuse taking pleasure yachts through. Everyone is
scared. Plus once out the other side all the Ports in the Med are
also closed!
On the plus side, we
are safe, we have plenty of food – there are 3 small supermarkets
within walking distance which stock most things, there are still 2
restaurants semi open mainly for take away, there is a huge desert to isolate and run in and I
am swimming in the clean, clear sea every day though the strong
Northerly wind makes it pretty cold coming out. The sun shines every
day and temperatures are beginning to warm up now. Plus the wildlife and fishlife here are thriving, really good to see.
Port Ghalib was built by a Kuwaiti billionaire and was his dream, it was a pretty remarkable project building a whole new community in the desert, he first built the Airport - Marsa Alam then started building what was to be the largest Marina in the Red Sea plus a whole Town where I guess he hoped foreigners and wealthy locals would want to live. He built a state of the art Hospital, Schools and Mosques. Sadly he died half way through the project and his family did not see his vision so the place remains partly finished and parts of it have a run down air to them now. The main tourist activity here is diving so the huge 1000 berth Marina houses about 20 large liveaboard dive boats, there are 3 enormous resort Hotels on the Coast' beaches and sheltered sun bathing areas were cut into the reef which surrounds the whole of the coastline and these beaches are owned by the Hotels they cannot be accessed by anyone not staying in these Hotels. The Hotels now are empty but the beaches are still closed, you cannot even walk along by the sea as guards patrol. Road blocks have been put in place around Port Ghalib since the Coronavirus panic and now after over 21 days the whole Town is just about as safe a place in the World as you could find.
On the down side the strong winds which blow here most days mainly from the North have been cold (Ug boots have been worn most nights!), if the winds blow off the desert they are full of sand which covers the exterior and interior of the boat with a fine layer which is pretty impossible to do anything about other than clean every day. Breathing this sand in is another issue and doing any form of exercise while these sand filled winds are blowing is a serious health hazard. We are plagued by flies, strange as there is little vegetation around but locals say this is normal when the temperatures start rising before the punishing Summer temperatures begin and a fly swatting frenzy is a normal daily activity! My swimming has been prevented on several occasions by swarms of purple jellyfish which I have been told by one of the divers here do not sting (they all dive in thick wetsuits so not sure I believe them!)
The ‘Marina’ - I
put this in quotes as it has absolutely no facilities. We were told
when we arrived that we could use all the facilities of the nearby
Marina Lodge Hotel – problem was they did not tell the Manager who
refuses anyone off yachts to go anywhere near the place! The only
showers available are in the Dive Centre below the Hotel and they are
filthy and do not have hot water. Add to that the ladies showers are
locked so only the men are allowed to wash! There is no laundry either.
Marina staff are completely useless and Syd had a pretty violent row
with one particular individual who told us to put up our yellow Q
flag when we had already cleared Quarantine and been in the Marina
for over 2 weeks.
Now the Port is
closed and there is a night curfew between 7.00pm and 6.00am which is
absolutely no problem as there is nothing to do at night and during
the day we are more or less allowed to do what we want solitarily other than
leave as there are road blocks in place.
On a good note, Syd
has had fun taking the generator to pieces in the hope that we can
get up to Hurghada and get it repaired, he has tackled several other
smaller jobs plus repaired a hole in the dinghy and replaced the
outboard clamping plate. There are always jobs, at present he is upended in the bilge cleaning! The interior of the boat has reverted to a workshop once more.
Our current
unplanned plan is to check if Hurghada Port is still open and if it
is to leave here after our month is up and sail up there and
hopefully get the generator fixed and get to look at a different
view! This may or not happen!
