October 7, 2003

Arriving in Egypt

	A haven in the desert - El Gouna.

Though we were in no hurry to leave the remarkable anchorages of Sudan, we still had some distance to go before reaching Suez so it seemed foolish to miss any good weather forecasts. When we finally received a 36 hour forecast for southerly winds we reluctantly set off on the penultimate leg of our Red Sea passage, 200 miles across the aptly named Foul Bay (thousands of reefs, hardly any accurately charted) and over the border into Egypt.

Once again, our Buoyweather forecasts worked extremely well, predicting the northerly change to within a few hours of its arrival, fortunately when we were right alongside one of few suitable marsas on this coast. So we scurried in there and spent a couple of days with the catamaran Sanyasa, celebrating a birthday and sitting out a sandstorm.

A day north, the Egyptian clearing port of Hurghada has only a poor yacht anchorage but 20 miles farther north is the holiday resort and marina of El Gouna. But first there is the Egyptian bureaucracy to get through in Hurghada. The only way to accomplish this and keep your sanity is to employ an agent, and if previously booked into the marina, they will provide one. To attempt to find and negotiate with all the different offices yourself would take days instead of hours, and by the time you have paid baksheesh (a polite word for a tip, which should more accurately be described as a bribe, or even theft) to each official you would not be any better off than paying an agent.

Sitting out the sandstorm with Sanyasa.

Thankfully we also used the agent to organise fuel, as instead of delivering 1000 litres as requested we got 750 litres. Our gauges are accurate to within a few litres so we knew exactly how much we had received. Clearly everyone recognised it as a scam and the agent ensured we only paid for what we said we have received. Around the world having accurate fuel gauges has identified shortfalls on a number of occasions, though never quite as extreme as this. We had been to Egypt several times in the past, though never on our own boat before, and were well used to the many devious ways of removing money from our wallets.

Any bad impressions of Egypt from our experiences in Hurghada quickly dissipated when we arrived in El Gouna and found a modern marina surrounded by restaurants and bars. After many months and thousands of miles across the Indian Ocean and Red Sea we fell into a French patisserie and bought more almond croissants than we could reasonably eat. El Gouna has been created from nothing over the last few years, and is designed as a westernised resort complex that it succeeds at well, so is devoid of any local Egyptian areas. Whether this is seen as an advantage or disadvantage depends upon taste, but as we said before, having had no western luxuries for several months we were prepared to wallow for a while.

A definite advantage of El Gouna is that it is a safe place to leave the boat in order to travel inland to the Nile, and Luxor is just a few hours away. In a three or four day trip you can see the Valley of the Kings and Queens, the temples at Luxor (Thebes), and numerous other antiquarian delights. And because we arrived in this area in April traveling avoids suffering the blistering heat of the summer months.

Beware though, that being the only safe marina on this stretch of coast it fills rapidly, and booking in advance is essential. Also beware that importing equipment into Egypt is prohibitively expensive and unlikely to succeed - either due to customs 'delays' or downright theft - so don't plan on having stuff sent here unless absolutely essential.

Arriving in Egypt is a watershed and it is easy to feel that you've made it up the Red Sea but the next 200 miles up to Suez can be the most arduous. There are few safe anchorages, especially if you are fortunate to have southerlies as none are protected from this direction, but the northerlies along this stretch are particularly fierce as they funnel down the Red Sea, a huge channel between mountain ranges. Sailing at night is hazardous because of oil rigs and associated traffic and many potential anchorages are out of bounds due to military activity in Sinai.

We spent one night anchored off El Tur on the Sinai coast, and were visited by a very pleasant coast guard officer who took copies of our documentation - see below - and gave us permission to stay the night. At about 2300 however, a very officious military officer arrived on the harbour tug and insisted the captain went ashore with them to check paperwork. Seeing this as yet another scam to get us ashore and then charge for the trip back we said we had permission from coast guard, refused to let them on board, handed over copies of documents and said we would come over next morning. Finally they went away - indicative it was a scam, if it were real they would have boarded anyway - and we left early the next morning.

Many yachts experienced 40 plus knots in this section and some reported it as the worst conditions they had encountered in their circumnavigation. So the real sense of achievement came as we arrived in Port Suez, unfortunately just as it got dark so dodging dozens of ships waiting for their transit gave us a more exciting arrival than we would have liked. But we'd made it, safely and relatively unscathed. There was just the matter of the Canal to tackle.

Documentation in Egypt

Around the world, we have often encountered officials who demand copies of every piece of documentation imaginable. The pinnacle of this is Egypt. Before arriving there, we made many copies of every piece of documentation we had - passports, crew lists, boat registration papers, equipment lists, etc. This avoids handing over the originals except when absolutely necessary, for example when clearing, and then only to the agent. Handing over your passport to anyone else will almost certainly require a fee for its return.

That said it is relatively easy to fob most officials off with copies, particularly if covered with as many boat stamps as you can muster to make them look official. Everyone seems to recognise it as a scam, and they don't press too hard if confronted. However harbour officials and soldiers 'guarding' bays and anchorages are required to obtain some paperwork, so the copies keep everyone happy.

The Red Sea pilot has an excellent form in Arabic that can be copied and used as an official document.