1. Port Said to Ismalia 45nm
We had hoped we would have a similar early start as the first group, but at 9am there was no sign of anyone. We knew nothing was imminent as we still had not paid our fees and costs to Felix. Saeed, their guy appointed to look after us said that the chances of us going today were about 50/50, but he was keen no-one should leave in case we did get the green light. it was frustrating having to wait around, just in case. Amazingly, at 12.45 we were told we were going and by 13.30 the pilot was on board and we were picking up the anchor.
There
isn't much to see really, other than other ships and some small fishing
boats, you can see that the local fishermen are very resourceful - even
using a plastic sheet used as a sail!
a pilot is virtually compulsory for every boat on the canal. Abdul was ours for the first section. he seemed a nice enough chap but noticed that his instructions were very vague. The sun set just before 5pm so it was dark at 5.30 so we had to do the rest of the trip in the dark. About half way down we were told that the northbound convoy had finished and then the canal split into 2 sections, on the vhf, we heard that other yachts behind us were choosing to go down the east channel which was slightly shorter, our pilot had us go down the west side. all of a sudden Abdul decided that we should go with the others and so we did a U turn! Very disconcerting. By 9.15pm we were tied up at the Ismailia Yacht club.
The
town of Ismailia provided all we needed, including a bar. As you can imagine
they are few and far between, but George's is a famous spot with dark
interior and a bar that probably hasn't changed since the early 60's. The
nearby Metro supermarket has a good range of very well priced groceries,
including some irish cheddar cheese - things are looking up!
From Ismailia we arranged our trip into Cairo. We had been given a contact
by a friend of friend, but everyone was using him, so Debbie organised a
driver via George's bar. We left at 7am and by 9, we were firmly stuck in
traffic. on a good day it takes about 2 hours to get to Giza - it took us
3.5hours. The pyramids are of course a must-see; the last remaining of the 7
Wonders of the Ancient World and they don't disappoint, We liked the way the
site is run too - no Disney-esque theme park, just a sandy, dusty plain with
3 great pyramids and a Sphinx with some guys on camels and horses trying to
get you to take a ride! no
burger joints, no ice cream stands.
After a very dusty morning at Giza our driver took us into the centre of
Cairo. We had intended to go to the Egyptian Museum, but we needed something
to eat first. Nigel had been going on and on about the international
buffet
lunch at the Inter-Continental hotel over-looking the Nile, so we treated
ourselves to excellent suishi, curry, roast meat and pasta, followed by more
suishi. the Museum will have to wait for another time. Good choice for
lunch, Nigel!
2. Ismailia to Port Suez.
this time the luck was with us somewhat. the first group to leave were delayed until 11.30, despite being assured they would be leaving at 6am. The next morning the pilot was knocking on the boat at 0530 and we were away by 6. Again, an uneventful day looking at huge ships passing us wondering how much their canal fees are. there was also a super-yacht called 'Tatoosh' with a helicopter on board - covered in its own custom made canvas cover. I later found out that Tatoosh is one of 3 yachts owned by Paul Allen, Microsoft's co-founder. The trip was marred by a strong counter current which made it hard going - with our speed dropping to 4kts and then 2 as it was sapped by passing ships. But the pilot was understanding and did not ask us to try to go faster (which, as it turned out, was a very good job)
The Suez Canal Yacht Club lies in a leafy part of Port Tewfig next to the large town of Port Suez. We took a trip into Port Suez to the market to get supplies. The range of fresh produce is wide and plentiful, but so are the flies and rubbish. We tried to be selective about where we bought items and washed everything thoroughly before taking it on board.
3 Friday 20 November. Dep Port Suez
Yes, thats a picture of us getting a tow. Oh dear. We had just left Port Suez to head out into the Red Sea when we noticed that we were not pumping any water to cool the engine. Fortunately we had not gone far and managed to limp back, getting a tow for the last bit.
We spent the rest of the day trying to fix the problem, the impeller in the water pump had been chewed to bits and more worryingly most of the broken bits were missing - they are probably blocking the water pipes, oil cooler and heat exchanger. Werner from Medea kindly offered to help.
After 2 days of hard slog, the boys managed to get the pipe off that was causing the problems- which of course was about the most difficult thing to get to. But when they got off the pipe to the oil cooler they were rewarded with a fine blockage!
Once that was cleared and the oil cooler flushed, all put back together we
found we were still not sucking water into the system, we found that we must
have a leak at the water intake strainer, so glued that up and then we
finally, finally were happy with the rate of water and cooling.
Thank you Werner from Swiss sy Medea for all your help. We still can't quite believe that you worked in a white shirt and managed to say that you enjoyed the experience!
