Hurghada to Port Ghalib

Today has been the way I'd hoped every day might be, well almost. The refuel was prompt by Hurghada standards. The marina office was locked 20 minutes after they said it would open but I found a fella asleep in the refuel office, woke him, explained that I wasn't willing to wait, had him phone the marina manager and by 07:45 we were motoring across to the refuel quay. By 08:45 we were away, only 45 minutes late on my aspirations. The sea was a millpond. With full tanks and a relatively short 115 NM we were able to push the speed up and the GPS plotter estimated an arrival at 15:30.

Julie and I each got an hour or 2 of sleep while Gordy manned the helm. Perhaps because of the smooth sea, it was easy to spot large game fish jumping in the distance and on 4 occasions we had dolphins swimming alongside. On one particularly special occasion a single dolphin surfed under the bow for about 5 minutes.

Port Ghalib have been impeccable; we called up on the radio 20 minutes out and they were expecting us. They accepted our request to go straight to the fuel quay. Modern pumps and clean facilities, equal to Hurghada and better than anywhere between Marmaris (all those years ago, it seems) and Hurghada. Unfortunately our facilities didn't live up to their standards. The right tank spilt about 5 litres through an overflow into their previously perfectly clear water. Worse was to come when they filled the 4th barrel on the bow; there was a pin sized hole about 1/3 down that jetted out a constant stream of diesel. Gordy and I lashed up the siphon kit and hand pump only to discover how bad the hand pump is. Over the next 30 minutes we pumped 1/3 of the fuel out of the offending tank and into the others. All in all, very unpleasant, embarrassing and it leaves us 70 litres short of planned. Obviously the boat smells like a fuel refinery once again.

We've now finished the refuel, re-positioned to a spot in front of the shops/restaurants, topped off the water, washed down the foredeck and plugged in shore power (with another plug change) - all before 19:00 so I'm pretty happy. The only slight failing is that I couldn't crack the admin of the exit formalities. The fellas were happy to do it this evening but we would have to move to a controlled area and Gordy couldn't come with us. The alternative is to wait till they come in at an Egyptian 09:00 tomorrow and wait an estimated Egyptian 90 minutes to complete paperwork. It's not ideal because it will probably lead to an afternoon arrival in Jeddah but at least we'll get another good night's sleep. Net result will be insufficient time to complete Saudi immigration formalities before the start of their weekend, so the boat will likely be impounded in the commercial dock for the weekend.

Tomorrow sees us lose Gordy which will be another really sad moment. We could never have got this far without his help. He's got stuck into things every day and always remains positive no matter how tired he is or how nasty the job. We're really going to miss his company, his stories and his help.

The leg to Jeddah is by far and away our longest (370NM against a previous longest of 210 NM to Port Said) and we're down to just Julie and I. The forecast looks good and I'm hoping that we'll get a repeat of today's gentle chop. I'm a bit daunted at the thought of running the engines non-stop for 25-30 hours, though they've not missed a beat so far. I'm also concerned about staying awake for 2 days but we're stocked up on coffee and red bull. The refuel is my last worry but if the sea is calm it should be possible to safely siphon in each drum on the move. The plan will be to refuel as soon as there's space in the boat's tanks; three refuels of 2 barrels each time.

Time for some dinner and, hopefully, a good night's sleep.