Ko-Ko 20th June

The sailing from Haifa to Ashkelon never became sailing. We had just about enough wind to beat for a couple of hours but then the wind died out and we had to use the engine for the rest of the way.

It is only 90nm from Haifa to Ashkelon so we had plenty of time to reach our ETA at 1300. Ashkelon is the marina closest to Gaza so they are used to hear shooting from time to time. We never heard any of that and we felt safe all the time.

The trip from Ashkelon went first to Masada. Masada is a rock 300 m above the Dead Sea shore. It has been called the most spectacular archaeological site in Israel. In 43 BC Herod the Great had this enormous fortress built and it is still impressive to visit.

After that we went to the Dead Sea to be covered in mud and have a swim in the salty water. What a nice feeling!! You don`t have to move at all –you are just floating around

Ashkelon, Israel to Port Said, Egypt.

When leaving Ashkelon at 8.30 in the morning we first had a waypoint a bit NW of Ashkelon to avoid to go to close to Gaza. And here we saw an oil platform. On our way we where called by the Israel Navy to confirm that we really where Ko-Ko. For the first hours we had good sailing wind 10 knots and Ko-Ko made 6 knots with main and Genoa. After 3 hours we changed course and went for WP 2. Still 10 knots wind and we made 7 knots speed. Lovely.

In the afternoon the wind died and we where able to stop the boat and have a nice swim in the sea. Around midnight the sails went up again and we had nice sailing for about 4 hours. During this time we passed another oil platform and suddenly we saw some “shadows”. Looked like small boats with no lights on. Later we heard that it was big buoys for the supply ships. One of the boats in the EMYR hit one of this buoys and had a big damage in the bow.

Coming to Port Said in the early morning we had to anchor close to the Suez channel to wait for all the boats to arrive there. Crossing the entrance to Suez in the early morning while it still was dark was almost too exciting. Never seen so many moving lights in our hole life’s. But we made it! When all the boats had arrived we went into Suez in a long line. It was not very easy because we now had 28 knots of wind to fight against. But coming into the channel and reaching the Arsenal Basin, a military area, everything was ok. The boats had to anchor with stern to the quay. Log: 135nm

Egypt

Very dirty, very noisy, very smelly. It is rubbish everywhere. And it is people everywhere. This country has 80 mil. people, 20 mil only in Cairo. We had a nice welcoming in Port Said but a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork. We had armed guards all around us and we had to show passport every time we went in and out of the gate.

The next morning we went for a bus trip to Cairo. There was a police motorbike with bluelights in front of the busses, a car with armed guards in front of and at the end of the busses, one guard in each bus with a machine gun. For our security!!! In Cairo we went to the Egyptian Museum. The Tut– ankh-Amon tresures was fabulous.

Then we went to the Citadel of Salah Al-Din and the big Husain mosque. 2 hours in Khan-el-Khalili bazaar was more than enough and it was nice finally to get to our hotel near the pyramids.

The next day we went to see the pyramids, the Sphinx and the boat museum. Incredible! The sights in Egypt are impressive.

On our way back to Port Said we had a stop in Ismailiya Marina, midway in the Suez channel. Here we saw the triamaran to Ellen MacArthur. We left Port Said on the 26th of June and we have to say it was a relief to leave the harbour.