We woke up this morning anxious about whether we would be able to get everything done in time. We immediately Continue reading
Driving to Cairo… And Living to Tell About It
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Monthly Archives: June 2008
Welcome to Port Ghalib, Marsa Alam, Egypt
We approached the channel entrance at 0000 (midnight). The prudent thing to do would be to do circles until dawn. Since this is a brand new development, we didn’t have charts. The main channel buoy light was out. But there were additional channel markers that were visible, with an entrance buoy and red and green flashing lights. The whole development is well lit, and the ambient light made it bright enough to see well. The wind was still and the sea completely flat, helping with visibility. We decided Continue reading
About The Republic of Egypt
Egypt is located in the northeastern corner of the African continent, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea and Israel to the East, Libya to the west and Sudan to the south. The country consists of 400,000 square miles of desert, bisected by the Nile River. Along the Nile is a narrow, fertile river valley, where 90% of the country’s 80 million population resides. Cairo is, of course, situated along the Nile, and 25% of Egyptians live in Cairo. Cairo is the pretty much the most densely packed city in the world. The land on the west side of the Nile is part of the greater Sahara desert.
Historians believe that the whole of Egypt was occupied since before 25,000 BC, when North Africa was a grassy savannah with abundant wildlife and lakes. When the climate changed to a desert, people migrated to the water. Settlements have been found that date back to 5,000 BC, and it is believed that their hieroglyphic writing begin about this time. Little is known about the people of that era, except that they lived on fishing and agriculture, and made pottery and woven material. Artifacts indicate that Egypt became unified under King Narmer around 3,100 BC, believed to be the first in a royal bloodline that lasted 3,000 years. Egyptian history is grouped into three major periods Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, each separated by periods of decline known as Intermediate Periods.
The Old Kingdom reigned from Memphis, which is in the northern portion of the country, just south of Cairo. The first pyramids were Continue reading
Oman to Egypt – Day 10
Around 2300 last night, the wind calmed to about 20 knots. Within a couple of hours, seas were a little better, but by a little we mean that conditions have gone from “absolutely miserable” to “miserable”. We were not consistently pounding as hard into the waves, but were still periodically getting pelted by some very hard waves. Speeds were holding steady in low 5’s. Sigh.
By noon, the winds had picked back up to 25 and the seas continued to get worse and worse, going right back to “absolutely miserable” again. Speeds worsened to the high 3’s/low 4’s at 1600 RPM.
Around 1630 (4:30 pm), we turned Continue reading
Oman to Egypt – Day 9
11:00 — Yesterday afternoon the seas calmed down to where it wasn’t too bad. In the night it calmed down so much that the ride wasn’t bad at all. The wind died to practically nothing for a while. When the wind died, speed really picked up. But this morning, the wind returned with a vengeance. Wind was in the low 20’s, on the nose, and waves were angry and brutal. We slowed down to 1800 to reduce bashing. We are probably going to need to slow down even more. It is definitely in the miserable category right now. It is rocking so much that Christi’s tea splashed out of her cup and all over her while she was holding the cup steadily upright.
In good news, our 24 hour average was 7 knots, thanks to good speeds yesterday. We also crossed the Tropic of Cancer line a couple hours ago, so we are officially out of the tropics. In bad news, Continue reading