Another downwind sail for 30 miles saw us moving over the water at anything from five to seven knots. The approaching anchorage, our first in the Red Sea, was the first location that Liz and I have had to contend with a number of hazards and a leading line for the entrance (this is where the approach to the anchorage is achieved by entering at a certain angle). This was due to the spit that surrounds a large part of the entrance. Check out these two images, one taken from our chart plotter (you can see our track in red) and the other from Google Earth.
On this trip we learned a very important lesson: that the best bit of equipment on the boat is ones eyes. Twice we were passed by local fishing vessels that did not appear on the AIS system, something we had started taking for granted. Whilst they passed we were also navigating our way past coral on our starboard side (we were sailing in just 10m of water) and oil platforms on our port… and this was just a taster of what was to come. I’ve just planned our passage for tomorrow and it takes us into an oilfield. This oilfield…
So here we are: our first anchorage in the Red Sea and the sail clearly took it out of us because as soon as we dropped anchor we treated ourselves to an afternoon nap. Got a couple of nice snaps of the lunar landscape though. I’m so happy to be at anchor once more that I went for a dip!
If you like our content and would like to support us, we will give you ad-free access to our videos before they go live to the public, discounts in our shop, access to Jamie’s iconic full-res photographs, and supporter-only blog posts. Click our ugly mugs for more info!
