Logbooks 2009
1. Action stations
We were beginning to think that all our plans and preparation for heading to
India this winter would be thwarted as I still wasn't getting around as
easily as we'd hoped. Terry was obviously very disappointed that 2009 was
going to be a complete wash out and we began to think of things that he
could do over the winter to make up for it. Maybe he could go on a trip
somewhere; go home and spend some time with his mates and family; crew for
another boat on the Vasco da Gama Rally or crew for someone going west
perhaps even across the Atlantic.
Then it stuck us that perhaps what we needed was crew to help us for the first month or so, even just get us to Egypt. This would at least buy us more time. The rally's agenda has us leaving Hurghada, a Red Sea diving resort at the north end of the Red Sea at the start of January, so it would give us another 2 months to make sure I am up to the trip. If it turns out that I'm not ready, then we'll make another plan; perhaps spend the year in the Red Sea and wait for the next southbound group next winter - including good friends Brian and Debs on Chinook of Canada, if not then perhaps go back up the Suez canal and head west. One thing, if we get to Hurghada in time, we'll be able to make use of the flights we booked back to the UK!
So, who could crew - initially I thought of John and Vanessa on Meand'er who have done many trips as crew all over the world before getting their own boat, but we knew they were heading for a back-packing trip to Thailand over the winter. Then someone suggested Nigel and Debs from Destiny - they had done the trip to Hurghada last year with Graham on his lovely big ketch Eeyore (i know, a rotten name for such an elegant thing as a yacht). We popped the question to them out of the blue via text message - they had only just started their autumn cruise having been sorting their land-based life out in north Wales all summer. Luckily they didn't say no. We chatted a couple of days later via Skype and it turned out that Graham had asked them to crew for him on Eeyore again from Hurghada to India and they were wondering how they could get to Egypt - and here we were offering them a lift! It seemed to good and opportunity, so they came back to Marmaris a week later to put Destiny back to bed for the winter while we swung into action to get Roam II really ready for the off.
We had lots of little jobs, especially safety related ones that we had put off for one reason or another - like putting non-slip tape on the companionway steps, fitting a bum-strap in the galley, making a fire extinguisher hole for the engine room, making lee cloths for the saloon bunks; but now we would be responsible for others on board they became more important.
Along with the other rally boats still in Marmaris - Esper (Jamie and Liz),
Storm Dodger (Roger, Astrid, Leah and Jordan) and Rhumb Do (Ian), we had a
leaving party in the bar at Yacht Marine. Thomas of Viva Solo did the
karaoke and we all had a great time with hangovers the next morning!
We estimated that we should leave Marmaris around the end of October, head to Rhodes for a couple of days for provisions and fuel and then depart for the 4 day/3 night passage to Port Said around the 1st or 2nd November to join up with the rally that was due to arrive the 5th November. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. On what was planned to be our departure day, the wind turned southerly and major amounts of rain fell - not good sailing weather. then the wind dropped but the rain continued. Luckily the rally boats were also being hampered by the weather and were being delayed. We also realised that we would have to miss out the Rhodes stop so we should make sure we got all our provisions in Marmaris, which is no problem, only the wine and beer are significantly cheaper in Rhodes. We also hit on the idea of pre-preparing meals to freeze ahead of time, only we don't have a freezer. Luckily we were able to borrow some space in mv Victoria (thank you Simon).
The only thing left to do was get Nigel and Debs on board with all their luggage - that potentially would have to last them through till next April if they did decide to go with Graham - and wait for the weather.
We'd been getting weather information mostly from Ugrib (GFS forecast). These had shown continuous low pressure systems sweeping from the western Med bring strong southerlies and inches of rain. these would be interspersed with gale force northerlies. There were 4 boats waiting in Marmaris to head south for the rally and it felt good to have the input of several minds when trying to work out what to do. Eventually we could see a window, it wouldn't be great, but better than anything we'd seen for more than 2 weeks. the gale force northerlies were again replaced by a brief southerly blow with attendant rain followed by a lull that would let us escape Marmaris. Another southerly blow was forecast, but we should be south of it before it hit. For us the forecast had little wind initially, going light east and south-east (on the nose) ending with some westerly at the Egyptian coast. The further out a forecast goes, the less and less reliable it is, really anything beyond 48 hours is little more than guess work. BUT, the forecasts we looked out had remained consistent and all the weather sources we checked agreed. It wasn't the best forecast for us, but looked like the best we were going to get.
We re-fuelled by using Jerry cans filled at a petrol station so we didn't have to stop at Netsel marina fuel dock on the way out of the bay.
So, the night of Wednesday 4th November, Nigel and Debs moved on board and we prepared to depart in the morning of the Thursday 5th November. We ate Chicken curry and did last minute jobs.
