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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