Fethiye ~ Turkey.

Current Position at anchor: North 36*37'434 East 029*05'764

Well we made it to Turkey arriving yesterday afternoon in Fethiye harbour on the south western coast and are really loving it! We can't believe what the landscape looks like - high mountains all around (even some with snow on the caps)and pine trees covering the hills - the smell is wonderful - we both thought we lost our noses in the desert so it's a treat for the senses and so beautiful. Blue Moon is happily sat at anchor in 40 feet of water, Fethiye is a natural enclosed harbour so it feels like we're on a lake high up in the mountains!

We spent today walking around the town getting our bearings, it's a pretty big place with lots of great Cafes and Restaurants and little back alleys of shops to get lost in. The people are really nice and very laid back and it's great not to get hassled to buy things at every turn! The temperature here is a lot colder than we've had for a long time so we're getting used to wearing long trousers and fleeces again. The good thing is summer is coming so it's just going to get warmer each month but to be honest it's quite lovely to wrap up for a change! We plan to stay here for a week or so and then hop along the coast to the bigger town of Marmaris to the west, our visa lasts for three months and if our first stop is anything to go by we'll probably stay and cruise the coast for the duration.

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Suez transit complete ~ We're in the Med!

Current Position @ 13:00 GMT: North 31*23'486 East 032*19'428

We have just completed our transit of the second half of the Suez canal and are now very happy to say that we are officially in the Mediterranean Sea! We left Ismailia Marina at 5am this morning and we were lucky to get another really nice pilot so easy going the whole way. It's now 3pm and we are making our way through the shipping anchorage just outside the canal entrance with 352 miles to go to Fethiye on the south western side of Turkey. We're in company with one other yacht called 'Equinox' from Scotland who are heading West of our destination to Rhodes in Greece. The weather looks pretty good although it's hard to get a good prediction in the Med but fingers crossed we will finally be able to switch of the engine and just sail (hopefully we haven't forgotten how to do this as it's been so long!).

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Suez Canal, Ismailia - Egypt

We're currently tied up to the Ismailia Marina half way through the Suez canal and waiting for good weather in the Med to keep going. Our trip up to Port Suez was pretty eventful with oil rigs and heavy shipping to contend with along with 25 knots of wind right on our nose. On arrival at the Port Suez yacht club we were met by our agent from Felix Maratime and the measurer was scheduled for the same afternoon. All went very smoothly until the question of fees arose and then as always in Egypt everything became very difficult.

Baksheesh is a way of life here and everyone is constantly asking us for money, whether it's buying groceries at the supermarket or catching a bus 'everyone' wants a tip. However they also try to sneak in extra costs when they think you don't realise and this is what happened with out canal transit fees. Jimmy had already worked out with the measurer how much the cost would be but when Felix came back with the bill an exta $50 had been added on out of nowhere. After a lot of arguing and many comments about how they didn't like Americans the agents finally agreed to the correct price and we made our transit the following day.

Our pilot was a really nice guy and we actually enjoyed the first half of the canal with a relaxing atmosphere. Arriving at the Ismalia marina however, he did ask for extra money of which we expected and so we gave him $10 and he left with a lot more ease than other pilots!

Jimmy's birthday was on the 20th so we took a trip into Cairo to see the Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum. We spent two nights in a great hotel called 'City View' overlooking the museum and enjoyed wandering the busy streets of Cairo and generally taking a break from the boat. We had a really nice taxi driver from Ismalia 'Mohammed Imbaby' come and pick us up on our last day and take us to the Pyramids and then back to the marina. Now we're waiting for the weather to calm down so we can make our transit through the second part of the canal and then on to Fetiye in Turkey some 375 miles away.

Hurghada Marina to Port Suez.

Current Position @ 15:20 GMT: North 27*58'809 East 033*36'973

We've spent the last five days moored up in Hurghada Marina, Hurghada is a large tourist town full of shops selling every kind of Egyptian souvenirs that you could possibly imagine! Despite the constant hassle we got from people trying to sell us miniature sphinxes and Mummy figurines we really enjoyed being back in civilization and being able to restock on fresh food at the local markets and cheap food in the restaurants. Hurghada is a Mecca for Russian package holidays which makes for an interesting mix of people but not necessarily in a good way. Egypt has one of the more reserved Muslim populations we've seen so far and drunken scantily clad Russians just don't seem to blend in so well!

Early this morning we dropped our lines and left the marina and are now underway to Port Suez where we'll begin the procedures to transit the Suez canal. We're sailing in company with one other yacht 'Wild Card' with Carolyn and Fatty Goodlander on board and hope to arrive in two days time. We have very little wind and are currently weaving our way through the fields of oil platforms that litter this area.

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Port Ghalib ~ Checked into Egypt

Current Position @ 17:00 GMT: North 25*31'719 East 034*38'146

After a pretty rough trip over night last night we are now moored up in a four star resort complex in the middle of the desert and are checked into Egypt... 'wow' from one extreme to another. We arrived at 3pm and pulled up to the customs dock where the check in process took roughly an hour and cost $100 US, very smooth and easy. Now we are med moored inside a really nice complex which seems a million miles away from the isolation we just came from. We have to check weather in the morning to figure out when the next window is to leave but it looks like we'll be enjoying the facilities for the next couple of days at least!

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Swimming with Dolphins at Dolphin Reef!

Current Position @ 16:00 GMT on 4/4/2010: North 24*24'790 East 035*32'745

Today we had a very special easter as it was spent swimming with a pod of dolphins at Dolphin Reef off the coast of Egypt. We arrived at 9am and wound our way through the mine field of coral heads to anchor in 30 feet of crystal clear water. Just over an hour later we were in the water with a large pod of bottle nose dolphins who appear to just hang out inside the reef. They seemed quite happy to be accompanied by human swimmers and even came up close to have a better look...magical!

Unfortunately we'd made the tough decision to head back out to sea and sail further up the coast for another over night to Port Ghalib just spending 7 hours at the reef. We're currently motoring into northerly winds and choppy seas wondering why we didn't stop for a couple of days and make the most of the opportunity. The hard part of sailing up the Red Sea is to know when to stop and when to keep going on a good weather window but this time we think we've probably made the wrong decision as we sit and relive the days events!

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Crossing Foul Bay ~ Great Sail!

Current Position: North 23*04'061 East 036*21'191

Yesterday we made a short hop 10 miles up to Marsa Umbeila a beautiful anchorage but didn't enjoy it for long as at 3am this morning we were up and back underway. The winds have turned to the east at 15 knots and we're now having one of our best sails ~ averaging around 7 knots with calm seas and a beam reach. We didn't expect to get these kind of conditions this far north in the Red Sea but we're certainly not complaining. At this rate we'll have to reef down overnight to go a little slower allowing us to arrive at Dolphin Reef with enough light in the early morning. Fingers crossed Dolphin reef holds up to it's name and we get to swim Dolphins for the first time!

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Marsa El Marob ~ Sudanese Coast

Current Position: North 21*50'192 East 36*51'527

The winds have filled in stronger from the north so we've been forced to pull into a 'Marsa' which is basically an inlet in the desert that opens into a protected bay through a long winding channel. It's pretty strange to be anchored in the Nubian desert with camels walking by and high mountains in the distance shrouded by a dusty haze from all the sand that's blown around. Today we took the dinghy ashore to climb the dunes and enjoyed the beautiful views of the nothingness that seems to go on forever. The coral reef in the pass is some of the best we've seen in a very long time but the water is starting to get much colder the further north we head so it's finally time to pull out the wet suites.

We had some excitement later today when a military boat (with machine gun mounted on the front deck and men in plain clothes) arrived out of nowhere and instead of informing us of it's presence attempted to pull alongside in 30 knots of winds and almost ripped out the side of Blue Moon with it's bow. Luckily Jimmy noticed them just in time to fend off which resulted in one of our metal stanchions being completely bent back. However, they didn't learn the first time and thus came around the other side and tried the same thing, it took five of us to fend off and eventually with a lot of shouting (from our side) we managed to convince them this wasn't a good idea! All the time we were wondering who these guys were and why are they trying to board us. Luckily a small fishing boat was nearby and it was called upon to pick up and deliver the 'officials'. They turned out to be really nice guys who are part of the Sudanese border security force and just wanted to see our paperwork but who obviously don't get much practice in boat maneuvering or international relations!!

Tomorrow the weather forecast is a lot more promising so we plan to head back out and make a jump 30 miles further north to another Marsa and then an overnight passage the following day across Foul Bay to Dolphin Reef...weather permitting!

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