By midnight last night, the wind was back up to 25 30 and we were being brutally bounced around. We had to slow down even more because we were getting beaten up too much at the higher speeds. We were hobby horsing like crazy, with the occasional wave making such a hard smack that you wince and wonder how much more the boat can take.
It seemed to us that since the gulf was small, it couldn’t be much longer before the fetch from the seas died off. We were Continue reading
Yesterday, we had breakfast with our French friends at the hotel, then quickly got Kosmos ready to go to sea. We headed over to the other side of the complex, where we pulled into the fuel dock near the harbor master’s office. Like everything in Port Ghalib, the fuel dock is new and modern. Fuel cost $1.15 a liter, which is pretty high, compared to other ports in Egypt, but overall a pretty good deal considering rising fuel costs. We don’t like leaving without polishing the fuel first, but we think it will be pretty good considering the amount of fuel the dive boats must go through. We’ll see how clean the filters are after we start running.
The attendant started fueling us up, and Eric went over to the harbor master and got us all checked out while the fueling was going on. Eric tried to tip the marina staff, and to our shock, they wouldn’t take the money. They said they weren’t allowed. This was very odd for Egypt, where tipping is always expected for everything.
We pulled out of Port Ghalib around noon. The weather forecast said conditions were going to be pretty good. The conditions were slightly worse than forecast, but overall not too bad. The wind was around 15 knots apparent, with small, but rapid interval head seas that had us bouncing. That night, the moon was full and bright, offering a lot of light, and the night visibility was excellent.
After 12 hours at sea, conditions drastically worsened. The wind Continue reading
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
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
Yesterday morning, we saw a pod of dolphins playing at the bow. There were only 5 or 6 and they didn’t stay long, just a couple of minutes. They were tiny little guys, the smallest dolphins we have ever seen.
The waves were mildly uncomfortable in the early hours of the morning, and as the day progressed, the waves got bigger and bigger. By the afternoon it was definitely well into the “uncomfortable” category, not quite at “miserable”, but close. Eric got sick. His body just doesn’t do well in the lurching head seas. We had to lower the RPMs by 200 because we were just hitting the waves too hard at the higher speed. We were only doing 4.8 knots, abysmally slow for 1700 RPM.
Today the ride started off just a touch better than yesterday. In the afternoon, the sea Continue reading