March 25, 2007
We’ve yet to see any dodgy characters out here, nor any of the 15 to 20 knots of wind forecast for the Gulf of Aden. So far it’s been 5-8 knots of breeze from well behind the beam, and we’ve been motor sailing since we departed Salalah. The good news is that we’ve had a half- to one-knot push from the current as we’ve been cruising off the coast of Yemen. Our first 24-hour run was 216 nautical miles.
Other than the usual shipping traffic running along parallel courses, we spotted two pods of humpback whales yesterday morning, and a large pod of dolphins played and sang around the boat this morning.
Last night the cell phone went off as we caught reception from Yemen. It’s sort of strange to be out in the middle of nowhere, out of sight of land, and be able to send text messages to mates here and there.
We’re hoping that the breeze fills in and we can conserve our fuel. If so, we may give Aden a miss and press on into the Red Sea and make landfall in Eritrea, roughly eighteen hours further down the track. We’ll make the call tomorrow sometime.
March 26
After 41 hours of motorsailing in light airs, we finally hooked into some breeze late last night. We are now sailing fast in a northeasterly breeze in the low 20s. Unfortunately this is right along the rhumb line, so we are now gybing across the northern half of the Gulf of Aden, favoring the Yemeni coast with its positive current.
There has been plenty of shipping traffic to keep us on our toes. We almost always have at least one or two large ships in sight. We’ve also seen a couple of traditional fishing dhows and a couple of small open boats, none of which has diverted course to come say hello (i.e. ask for booze and cigarettes) so far.
The only close encounters we’ve had have been with a sailfish that surfaced, with its large dorsal fin fully exposed, just a few feet off Moonshadow’s port side. We also were entertained for awhile yesterday morning by a large pod (at least 50) of black spinner dolphins. They seem to be more acrobatic than other species, and a couple of babies were doing some high jumps.
Our 24-hour run from yesterday was 205 miles, and we’ve got just a few more hours before we’re out of what is known as “Pirate Alley”. We’ve got plenty of company out here, and with a short steep seaway, it’s no place for a small speedboat such as the type pirates might use.
Since we have good breeze and plenty of fuel, we’ve decided to bypass Aden and head straight through the Gates of Sorrow into the Red Sea, to make our first landfall in Eritrea near the town of Assab. If the breeze holds, we should make it by tomorrow evening for a late happy hour.
March 27
“Pirate Alley” is now behind us (big sigh of relief!) and the Red Sea is just ahead.
The wind has still been blowing very steadily down the course line at 16-23 knots, which means that we’ve had to gybe five times to make our way to the next waypoint. We’ve made good 165 miles in the last 24 hours, although we’ve probably sailed at least 200 miles over the water. We’re happy to have wind instead of engine noise!
Weaving our way through the large volume of shipping traffic has been our greatest challenge, and we’ve yet to have any sort of small craft come close or change direction towards us.
On one occasion last night we were headed towards a fleet of five small fishing boats all showing small red flashing strobes, similar to the type that was commonly used in Asia. We gybed away before ever actually seeing any of them.
As of this writing, we have roughly 100 nautical miles to the Gates of Sorrow, the entrance to the Red Sea. We hope to be anchored in Eritrea sometime early tomorrow morning.
March 28
On our fourth day out, we enjoyed a nice day of sailing as we passed the port of Aden. Reports from cruising friends who had called in there were that it was dirty, difficult and unless one wanted to travel inland to the capital of San’A', it should be given a miss.
Other than a case of DDW syndrome, meaning that our mark was dead-down-wind of our position, we enjoyed a nice day of sailing. When the winds dropped below the 20-knot mark, we put up the spinnaker for a few hours. Unfortunately, we weren’t making the sort of forward progress we had hoped for as we were gybing across the course line, and we would have missed passing through the Gates of Sorrow in daylight.
We decided to take a break and took anchorage for the night at a small Yemeni fishing village called Ra’S Al’Arah about 30 nm from the Gates, to proceed again at first light in the morning.
Shortly after we anchored, we were approached by a long open fishing vessel with about ten Yemeni men aboard. They were very warm and friendly. I gave them a few packs of cigarettes, which they immediately began to enjoy. While they were mostly in traditional dress, two of the men indicated that they were military. They asked for our papers, so I gave them a letter of introduction (in Arabic) and copies of our passports and ship’s documentation. They were very polite and asked if they could keep the paperwork, which I agreed to. They also asked if we needed any services from their village. I explained that we just wanted to rest there for the night and would move on in the morning. We said our goodbye, and they moved on.
After a very restful night, we got under way at 0600 this morning for the last leg of our trip to Assab Bay in Eritrea, about 75 miles to the northwest.
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