Category Archives: Asia

Oman to Egypt – Days 7 & 8

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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 →

Oman to Egypt – Days 5 & 6

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We have a confession to make. As you all know, when we crossed the Pacific Ocean on our 21 day passage from San Diego to Nuka Hiva, the blog postings were in real time. We didn’t want anyone to worry about us, so we seriously downplayed how miserable we were during that passage. Now that the blogs are no longer in real time, we feel no need to underreport. By the time an entry gets posted about ugly seas, we are already safely in a port, so no one needs to worry.

A secondary reason we downplayed our misery on that first passage was because we were novice blue water travelers, and we didn’t want to sound whiny. We figured that Continue reading →

Transiting From the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea – Days 3 & 4

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Yesterday morning we rolled up 3,000 hours on the engine. That is 125 days of sea time. 89% of those hours have been put on the engine since leaving for this around the world journey. We calculated the fuel burn so far on this passage. We are getting the worst fuel burn we have ever gotten at 1.7 miles to the gallon. That is what happens when you run consistently at 1900 RPM. We feel moving fast through the dangerous area is worth the cost of the fuel.

We heard on the BBC that the French Navy has been following the captured yacht for 600 kilometers, and that the crew and yacht all seem to be safe. Eric did the unthinkable and talked on the VHF to another yacht. The other guy was a part of the radio net, but we were never able to contact him on the SSB. Eric heard him talking on the VHF, so Eric hailed him, inquiring about what to expect ahead of us, since he was already in the Red Sea. We were already out Continue reading →

Leaving Oman

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The first priority of the day was to get checked out. Muhommed had to go out of town on an overnight trip, so we would be doing check out on our own. We went to the office. No immigration or customs officers were there. We waited, along with a group of other people. We talked to ex-pats who have been living there a while, as well as an Omani guy who is also an agent, waiting to do a check in on an American freighter ship.

After an hour, an officer arrived, the same one who had checked us in. The group mobbed him. Eric tried to get his attention, but he basically ignored us. He helped everyone around us, and then Continue reading →