Maintenance day

I trotted off to my 09:00 appointment with the marina manager with a wad of paperwork, maps and questions. The fella rocked up just before 10:00 and we worked through the queries. All positive answers but most actions were going to fall on me. He explained that the electrician was booked for 11:00 and he showed me some dirty old fuel drums that I could have for EGP150 each. While I waited for the electrician I e-mailed Port Ghalib marina, near Marsa Alam and outlined our request for tomorrow night. At 12:00, still waiting for the electrician, I went downtown to try to source the makings of a fuel siphon. Come back at 13:30 was the result. At 13:20 the electrician finally arrived. He spoke little english but the conclusion seemed to be that the 6 domestic batteries are knackered. I agree, so he removed them and took them away with a promise to return in 2 hours. I hoped he'd return with new batteries but the detail was lost in the language barrier. It's now gone 4 hours and he still hasn't returned.

The 13:30 meeting downtown proved less that fruitful. The shop manager insisted on inspecting the boat but he spoke no english so everything was done by drawing. That didn't help because he then spent the next hour or two trying to sell me wholly inappropriate and expensive bits. I finally settled on 12 metres of pipe, a tap and a tired looking hand pump. The tap has been beautifully connected but the hand pump is a bit of an afterthought.

I chased the fuel drums with the marina manager at 14:30 and again at 16:00. I'm still waiting.... I'd really like to get them before it gets too dark so we can lash them to the deck. I had also arranged a refuel at 15:00 but that too hasn't happened and it's now been pushed to the morning. It's been a day of egyptian timing.

We need to get away early tomorrow to get to Port Ghalib in sufficient time to complete exit paperwork, refuel and get set up for an early start on Tuesday for the 30ish hour trip to Jeddah. In order to go I need batteries (old or new), oil drums, the laundry back and, ideally, a refuel. Having set this as today's target I'm feeling disappointed to be watching the sunset knowing that the only real result so far has been the siphon kit. Nevertheless, it's a great place to watch the sunset.