Egypt

En route from Sudan to Egypt, we stopped to dive in waters as clear as mountain air. We gaped in pure delight at the delightful butterfly fish, little gobies, large clams and vibrant corals. It's been a very long time since we'd seen such pretty waters - since the South Pacific! Water temperatures were warm, and the sandstorms quit blowing enough to allow us a quiet dive in a secluded anchorage out on the reef, where we dropped the hook in soft sand. We would have lingered, but being exposed to prevailing winds, we could only stop for the afternoon to explore the reef and walk the sand bar with Bella.

Departing from Sudan, we motor-sailed inside the reef, as winds had picked up out the northeast. By 2pm, the early morning northwest wind would clock around to the northeast, due to warm air rising from the hot desert sands. Large flocks of beautiful flamingos on spindly legs were natural residents of the marsas offshore.

When the reef marsas ran out, we exited towards open water and ran right over submerged, unmarked reef, a frightening experience out in the middle of nowhere while sailing without other sailboats or fishermen nearby. From then on, we elected to transit north in deeper waters - the shipping lanes. With our AIS (Automatic ID System), we were alerted to big ships transiting north and south.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is more than 4000 years old, and is the most famous emblem of ancient Egypt. Sphinxes were statues representing deities, and the Great Sphinx of Giza, dates back to 2500 BC. In Greek mythology, she was a monster with the head of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird. Lying crouched on a rock, she accosted all who were about to enter the city of Thebes by asking them a riddle, “What is it that has four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?” If they could not solve the riddle, she killed them. When the hero Oedipus solved the riddle by answering, “Man, who crawls on four limbs as a baby, walks upright on two as an adult, and walks with the aid of a stick in old age,” the sphinx killed herself. For ridding them of this terrible monster, the Thebans made Oedipus their king.

The pyramids at Giza are among the best-known pieces of architecture in the world, and stand 446 ft high - nearly 50 stories high. Built as the final resting place for god-like pharaohs, some required 20 years to complete, and required 100,000 men, who were brought from distant villages as a young teens.

To construct a pyramid, exterior blocks had to be carefully cut, and transported by river barge up the Nile to Giza. All exterior blocks had to be equal in height and width, to ensure that the pyramid remained symmetrical. Workers marked them to indicate the angle of the pyramid wall, and trimmed the surfaces carefully, so that the blocks fit together. As the Great Pyramid rose, the workers built large ramps to drag their materials up the sides of the structure, which were dismantled upon completion.

All pyramids were aligned to the cardinal directions and rose from desert plateaus on the west bank of the Nile River, behind which the sun set. The Egyptians believed that a dead monarch’s spirit left the body and traveled through the sky with the sun each day. When the sun set in the west, the royal spirits settled into their pyramid tombs to renew themselves.

After our passage in gusty winds from Safalga, Egypt, we arrived at the Suez Canal Yacht Club at night, picked up a mooring, and collapsed. Heavy sand, mixed with sea spray, still blanketed the boat – Scud definitely needed a bubble bath! From here, we staged our activities ashore: A full day was spent touring the spectacular pyramids, our canal transit was organized, and Adam flew out from Cairo en route to Paris to meet a pleasure yacht in the Caribbean, serving as 1st Mate to cross the Atlantic. It was a sad goodbye, but we knew we’d see him and Warren in the Med for summer cruises - yeah!

The day of our scheduled transit, a US Warship was making its way down, so we were unable to enter, due to security measures. Our agent informed us that during the 9/11 attack in the US, a motor-vessel had sped towards the Canal, seeking to schedule a transit simultaneously with an American warship. When Egyptian Police searched the boat, explosives were found aboard, and the occupants turned out to be wanted terrorists. Today, arranging transit of sailboats takes days to process, to allow time for effective security checks.

Once our papers were in order, we set off with our pilot onboard acting as guide. Halfway through the Canal, we stopped at the old city of Ismailiya overnight, expecting to carry on the next day, but a gusty sandstorm had started to blow from the Sahara, and the Canal was forced to close for 24 hours. It was 3 days before we were off again. Bumper-to-bumper shipping traffic passed alongside us - some ships were 900’ long! They were so close, I could see tiny fish caught in their bow wake.

Scenery shifted from the ghostly sands of the Sinai Peninsula and Arabian Desert, to quaint colonial architecture, and the stately mosques of the old cities with their pretty minarets that stabbed the red sky.