Red Sea

First anchorage since leaving Aden - Anfile Bay, Eritrea, an exciting 350 mile two night passage. We left Aden at noon and headed for the Straits of Bab El Mandeb (Veil of tears, in Arabic). Shipping traffic from the Red Sea, Europe, the Arabian Sea and Indian ocean pass thru the Straits. There is an Island toward one side of the strait, so we headed thru the small strait, about one mile across while the major shipping goes thru the large strait. It was still dark as we approached the small strait with the wind at our back. We did not want to go thru in the dark, so we kept rolling in sail until we were bare poles and still making 5 knots, so we towed 3 warps to slow the boat. We safely went thru the strait at 6 AM in the dim daylight. We turned and went down the strait and so did the wind, and it built and it built. We were soon surfing waves in 35 knots of wind with triple reefed main and Genoa. A real Disneyland E-ticket ride. Before long we had to cross the shipping lanes at a right angle. That means wind on the side at 35 knots, not a comfortable ride.

The bay where we were planning to anchor for the night was also at right angles to the wind, so we wisely decided to head down wind and spend another night at sea. We were moving and shaking, but heck the wind was going the same way we wanted to, so hang on! The wind and waves very slowly decreased during the night, then stopped entirely, soon to be replaced by a wind on the nose. Sailing sure is easy! We ended up squeezing a meagre 5 knots out of full sails by noon the next day when we slowly sailed into Anfile Bay. Not a lot here sand, rock and more sand.

The Red Sea is not as easy as sailing across an ocean. The Red Seas has lots and lots of small islands and reefs, often where you least expect them. You can be sailing along, way out from shore, and off to one side, we hope! is a rock or island about the size of a house. One needs to look carefully at the charts. Some of those small specks can really mess up your day. We hardly ever touch the steering wheel, the autopilot does it all. We input waypoints into either the GPS or the computer navigation program and the instruments take you from point to point, beeping as it passes a point. Neither the navigation program or the GPS knows, or cares, if there is something hard between the wayboints. Last night, there was an ever so small slice of moon and it was really dark as we were surfing along. The three people trying to sleep below are counting on you to have done your homework. We take 3 hour turns on watch, but when you are on the E-ticket ride, you better have it right. The person on watch is, only on watch and does not usually change sails or go out of the cockpit without others being up. If you slip or fall off the boat, the autopilot goes goes on and on steering.

Spent a restful night anchored at Anfile bay. 14deg 46min N & 40 deg 49min E. Now headed for Hawakil Bay in light winds.