Yesterday we enjoyed watching Miriam Fares Live in concert right here in the marina. Miriam Fares is an internationally known Lebanese pop singer. We had not heard any of her songs but liked the up-beat music. The crowd loved her!

 

Yesterday and today we were visited by Tom and Christina. Tom is the younger brother of Johan, one of Per’s high school friends. We had a nice time with them shopping and eating in the local Thai restaurant. They brought with them a Swedish bottle of glogg which tasted fantastic!
Thanks for passing by!

This week we have been getting ready for Christmas, putting up our decorations. Per has been working on our generator which has started to make strange noises and produces lots and lots of black soot. He has had help from Tony and Ted, each coming with their bits of advice. He has had the injectors professionally serviced and has changed bits that needed changing. Unfortunately it is still rattling, although less than before so it still needs work done to it. I can hear him huff and puff from down below in the engine room as he is trying new things every day that don’t seem to make any difference. The last I heard is that he is rebuilding the casing so he can get to areas that he can’t get to now.

We have spend a day in Hurghada catching up with Jean-Claude and Patricia on Tololea. They prefer to stay in Hurghada Marina to spend the winter so we will have to go there more often to see them. They are together with another French boat Galacsea but apart from them there don’t seem to be any other live-aboards spending the winter there.

I have been immobilized by an un-cooperative nerve in my upper leg and buttock. It is a real pain in the back side but it will surely pass soon.

After only one night in Hurghada, we left for Abu Tig Marina in  El Gouna, our home for the winter. We spent last winter here so know what to expect. El Gouna is a purpose built tourist resort with western standards. The environment is clean and safe, a little Disney Land, but pleasant.

Since we have been here we have re-acquainted ourselves with the town. We were delighted to see the boat Kari here with Philleda, Ted, Ush, Cian and Surecha moored here. Like us, they were here last winter and are fun to have around. We have met the other boats that are wintering here as well and it looks like we will have a nice winter with them all.
We took the dinghy and showed Joep the waterways of El Gouna. It is fun to zip around in the dinghy especially as some of the canals are not made to pass through and the bridges are so low, we have to lie down in the dinghy to pass under!

 

On his last night, Joep took us out for dinner which turned into a really nice evening.
Sadly yesterday Joep left us to go skiing in Austria after 8 weeks, almost a 1000 sea miles, 3 continents (Europe, Africa & Asia), 3 countries (Cyprus, Egypt & Jordan) and lots of good times! Joep a heartfelt thanks from us both. We enjoyed having you on board. We learned a lot from you and hope to have you as crew again!

We left the anchorage, our home of several days. With it we left the rally. It was sad to say farewell to all our new friends. They will continue to India and we wish them all a safe and fantastic trip!

We had a good trip to Hurghada in spite of the strong wind against us. Once there, we quickly organized the boat and did some groceries. We were having guests for dinner: Thomas, Laila, Christopher, Sebastian and Michaela from Sweden. They kindly brought us our mail without even knowing us! They also brought us a bag full of Swedish candy from our good friends and former Sybaris crew Jan and Bridget. Thank you all for your kindness!

We will be settled here for a few months. You can send mail to the following address:

Abu Tig Marina
Attention Per & Elly Kjellqvist S/Y
Sybaris
El Gouna
Red Sea
Egypt

Only send cards or flat envelopes. Packages have little chance of arriving unless send by a courier such as DHL. We look forward to hearing from you!

From Hurghada we sailed down to Ras Abu Soma, a very large bay in which Safaga is situated. We have anchored in 2 different areas, both nice and both well protected. Most of the rally boats are here which has been really fun. We have been quite busy socializing and have managed to visit with some of the boats. We have even managed to play a game of dominos with Dionysus which was fun specially as I won.We visited Alondra this morning to wish Edith a happy birthday. She turned 32 again! 

   

Several times this last days, we took Sybaris to Sandy Beach, a little island in the bay for snorkeling and diving. There is a large reef along the beach full of fish of all sizes and different corals. The reef is just below the surface but the bottom gets deeper and deeper making it a perfect spot for both diving and snorkeling.

To protect the reefs, anchoring is prohibited but we managed to find a mooring rope to tie on to. One day Tony took his boat along as well and he tied up to us with a long line while we tied up to a mooring line.

One day Rien from Marvin and his daughter Loes came along and they were lucky enough to encounter dolphins during their dive. The dolphins then continued to circle around Sybaris where several snorkelers had the chance to see them from up close. I had stayed on board so got to see them too from the boat. It was fantastic to watch them while they were taking it easy. Until now we have only met them out in the open sea swimming at a fast speed so it was great to see them swim slowly and gracefully.

Frank from Sepia also joined us and he has a great housing for his digital camera. He took many photos during his weeks here in the Red Sea. Soon I shall share them here on the blog so keep a look out!

Today Per went aboard Marvin to a dive site just at the edge of the bay where there are 4 large natural pillars which are covered in fish and corals and had another fantastic dive.

We have been busy re-organizing all our lockers, since we emptied them all and packed our things in bags while we had the rat on board. The wrong time of year for a spring clean but it does feel good that all has been soaped down and tidied.
Hurghada, once a small fishing village, is now a modern tourist resort with some less modern back streets and sometimes the differences can be striking.

  

We have enjoyed being here but plan to continue tomorrow. This is the last port where we are together with the Vasco da Gama rally. We will stay in Egypt while they will continue to India.
We decided to host a fare well party on the pontoon and invited all the yachties for mulled wine and cinnamon cake late afternoon. We will miss being part of the rally. It has been real fun spending time with them.

Lo, the Vasco da Gama Rally organizer, asked me to write a little about our trip to Aqaba for the web site and I submitted the following:

We deviated from the planned rally route and with two other boats we sailed up the Gulf of Aqaba to Jordan. Motor yacht Lady Coppelia with Tony on board and sailing yacht Alondra with Rene, Edith and Nadia onboard joined us on this adventure.

We left just before sun up from Port Suez and between the three boats we could pin point all the buoys we had to follow to make our way out of the port area. We sailed down wind towards our anchorage for the night, Marsa Thelamet. Tony caught the first dinner, a nice tuna, which we ate together for dinner.

Early the next morning we sailed downwind again towards Ras Gharib. The wind was strong and the sea was rough. Luckily we were sailing downwind and were not much affected by the large waves. Once we reached Ras Gharib, which was described as a safe anchorage in our pilot book, we realised it was no place to stay at all. We decided to continue and found the only anchorages we would be able to reach in several hours were on the Sinai side of the Gulf of Suez. We had a bumpy ride crossing over to the Sinai shore and anchored up in Port Sheik Riyah in the dark.

On the way Tony caught another fish. This time a 1.5 meter wahoo. We were too tired to prepare it for dinner and decided to inspect it the next morning. What a surprise, it was enormous! It was clearly too large for us and thought it was better to take it ashore and trade it for something more manageable with one of the fishing boats that were anchored along the beach. We took the dinghy in and the local police came and helped us haul it on the beach. They had been admiring Tony’s fish from afar and were excited to see it close up. They immediately started cutting the fish into pieces and gave us a large slab to take back to the boat. They then proceeded to fry up some of the fish and served it to us piping hot. It  was delicious!

After two days of rest in this beautiful anchorage we set sail again, planning to stop at Tiran island at the mouth of the Tiran Straight. We passed Ras Mohammed, one of the world’s best dive sites in the early morning, in time to see the many dive boats arrive. Just here, Per caught today’s dinner, a delicious mahi mahi.

Once we reached Tiran island at lunch time we decided to continue while the weather and winds were favourable. We reached Dahab at the end of the afternoon. The local authorities visited us soon after and invited us to go ashore and visit Dahab if we wanted which was unexpected. Normally you cannot land anywhere in Egypt unless you have a cruising permit. That evening we were too tired to take up their offer and went to bed after eating the tasty catch of the day. The next day, however, we did and what a fantastic day we had zipping around the desert with Achmed, a local only too happy to show us around!

We could have stayed forever but had to move on. Next stop Taba Heights, a resort marina close to the Israeli border. We needed to stop there to arrange the official paperwork to leave Egypt. The captains stayed up late dealing with the authorities so that we could leave early the next day to reach our goal: Aqaba in Jordan.

Aqaba was so much nicer than we expected! Compared to Egypt, Jordan is clean, quiet, and organized. Dealing with the authorities and arranging all the paperwork was a breeze.

During our week in Jordan, we visited the breathtakingly beautiful desert of Wadi Rum and spend a wonderful but cold night sleeping under the stars. We also walked until we dropped in Petra, an ancient site, now  voted as one of the ‘new’ ancient wonders of the world. And a wonder it was! Just walking up to the famous Treasury through the Siq was amazing and that was only the beginning. We saw it all and even took a ride on a camel and a donkey!

We had plenty of time to explore Aqaba and get the feel of Jordanian life. We ate some fantastic meals out in town and were all sad to leave Jordan so soon.

Alondra left a few days before us to deliver one of its crew to the airport in time, and we followed in their footsteps. We sailed back to Taba Heights, did the necessary paperwork and this time got a cruising permit allowing us to sail the Egyptian Red Sea. We returned to Dahab and from there made a trip to visit the St Catherine’s Monastery and climb Mt Sinai. Another fantastic day we will never forget!

We continued and this time we did spend the night at Tiran island. Snorkelling at the reefs there was spectacular, so many fish and colourful corals!

Next stop was Hurghada where we caught up with the rally again.

Being part of the Vasco da Gama rally has been a wonderful experience. We started in Kekova in Turkey the last day of September and after almost 2.5 months together we are sad to leave the rally as it continues to India.

Together we have travelled the beautiful south coast of Turkey to Mersin, continued on to Cyprus for a fantastic week of food and culture, then Egypt and the adventures on the Suez Canal.

Being part of the Vasco da Gama rally has been a fantastic experience. A live aboard life can be a lonely one and being able to sail together with so many other like minded companions for a longer period has been fun and educational.

Thank you Lo for organizing the rally and making our experience a special one!

Per has been changing our website. Check it out here!

In the middle of the night I heard a strange noise I did not recognize. I figured it must be the rat trying to scratch his way out of a cage. I was too scared to go look myself so I woke Per who confirmed what I thought: we finally caught the rat! And to top it all we caught it in the trap with the sunflower seeds.
He was not as scary nor big as we thought and we could not believe that the little thing was the object of our worries and annoyances for such a long time. We packed the cage in a large container and closed the lid and put it on shore. What a relief to get the thing of the boat!

In the morning our rat got a lot of attention from all the other boaters and especially from Padde, the cat of Roterik. A little later our rat catcher came and destroyed the rat and packed up all his traps. We, as well as most of the other rally boats, put in an order for one or more traps which were delivered a little later.

   

We spent the day cleaning out all storage areas and putting things back into their places. How nice to have the boat back to normal again.