Advertisement
Published: November 9th 2009
After a long delay we are now back on the Blog, safe and sound.
The voyage from Safaga to Goa harbour took us a total of 14 days, which is certainly a long time but on the other hand, one of our lives' most interesting fortnights. In the last hour before departure from Safaga all passengers were briefed on the security threats facing the ship in the Gulf of Aden and give the opportunity of leaving then, and the option of rejoining in Goa for the rest of the crossing to Phuket. No-one took these options but it did leave us intrigued and unsettled. While we were in Luxor the crew had skirted the ship with razor wire and a 2000V electric fence. During the first 2 days of the voyage other measures were temporarily enacted including restricting where the boat passengers could go on-board, wooden shielding for the stern deck, serious weapons on-board and the recruitment of a security 'tender'. Delta Mike was a 22m ex-Swedish navy patrol boat, complete with 5 crew (ex-British Royal Marines), three machine guns and a rocket launcher. This beast cruised with us from day 2 out of Safaga to within 2 days of
Goa. The security officer, Nigel, explained the pirate situation, the first and second level emergency procedures and what "positive assets" we might draw upon if it became "a bad day at the office". When travelling within the Coalition Security Corridor we would need to react within a minute to an approaching speed boat, and withstand a serious attack for 20 minutes until Coalition assets could reach us. All taken very seriously by passengers and crew.
The first day or so saw us running down the Red Sea under square sails and forestaysails. Cargo ships raced past us in both directions down the main channel. We were essentially becalmed in the middle of the Sea, which the crew took to be an ominous sign. Closer to the Bab El Mandeb we were hit on the nose by a force 9 storm (Beaufort scale and = over 45 knots of wind). Not a storm as we know it in the tropics but dry, hot and very strong wind. The rigging sang and the prop cavitated through the short, steep waves. Luckily because it is an essentially land-locked stretch of water, the waves grew to a maximum of approximately 4 meters, which
is a lot less than expected - thankfully. We punched into this storm, slowly moderating, for two days sometimes making little more than 1.5 kts headway. The good news was that it was too rough for pirate attacks. We simply hunkered down, but the guys on Delta Mike had a very uncomfortable passage: steel planing hull; spartan accommodation; sun canopy blown off; leaky hatches; and no end in sight. We finally cleared "the Bab" without incident but we had lost three days from the cruise schedule.
The weather turned less malicious and we enjoyed close-hauled sailing and a moderate swell most of the way to Goa. It was impossible to make up for this lost time, so the Omani port visit (Salalah) had to be cancelled. From a point south of the Yemeni eastern border we then headed east across the Arabian Sea. Delta Mike finally left us at about 14 deg 57 min N; 66 deg 13 min E. Some passengers (Greg of course leapt at the chance) enjoyed a short poke around the PT boat confirming the descriptions above but adding "stinking hot" and "with a strong diesel bouquet".
Such a long passage has an interesting
effect on such a small group of passengers (~60). The group included Aussies (us plus 6 others), Americans, Poms, Germans, Swiss, French, Spaniards and assorted others, and of course the crew was a true league of nations. It sounds like popularist pap, but the challenges of the voyage really melded the group and some strong friendships were made. The time was filled with activities both formally and informally organised. We learnt the Tango on the heeling deck as part of the former, and we Aussies organised a Melbourne Cup party as an example of the latter. As the Cruise Director Peter said, "One settles into the rhythm of the ship, passengers and crew become a team and the days pass all too rapidly".
Passengers and crew collaborated in the running of a non-denominational religious observance on the second Sunday at sea. We of course heard the Navy hymn and Christian sentiments, but the event was richer because of Balinese Hindu chants, Muslim and Jewish prayers. Having many Philippinos and Goans aboard meant the singing was strong and harmonious. A truly rare experience.
One day we were enjoying the sunset breeze in th bowsprit nets when a pod of
about 15 dolphins joined us to surf the bowwave below. We have also seen a couple of whales, lots of flying fish but few sea birds.
The final farewell to Delta Mike was an event of great interest. At about 730am on the last day, she motored about 1 nmile away. At 8am sharp she turned back towards us and flew past at 15 kts with flares burning and machine guns blasting (away from us of course). Our ship responded with rifle fire (where did those guns come from?), horn blasts and cheers. She headed back towards Dijbouti about 5 days motoring to the west.
On the second last day out, we sent messages in bottles to the world outside our isolated ship. Contact details were provided but over the years, despite the Clippers always doing this, few such bottles make it back to the Star Clipper company.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0813s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
