Hurghada Marina

Med Moored at the Hurghada Marina
Hurghada
Egypt
Africa
27'13.5N/33'50.4E

172 Miles to the Suez Canal!!!
0 fish caught...

We Made It!! We got an early start at sunrise and broke free from were we had been anchored motor sailing straight into the wind/seas making it into Hurghada Marina yesterday at 3pm. Wow! What a contrast Hurghada is from the rest of Africa we have experienced so far! Major building all along the coast line, with new hotels and resorts everywhere we looked. We passed dive charter boats at all the reefs we passed. Hurghada boasts having over 1200 dive boats. We also passed many tour boats, glass bottom boats, and other boats all over the place. We even had large airplanes overhead coming in for a landing at the airport and bringing in plane loads of more tourists. We have not seen a commercial airliner since being in Thailand. We are now back in civilization.

As soon as we arrived outside Hurghada Marina we were met by their dinghy that escorted us in to where we are presently Med moored, with Sandpiper's bow against the dock. There are many other boats here that we know who are all northbound for the Suez.

As soon as we got checked into the marina we got Sandpiper plugged into power. That is also something we have not done for a long time, since Malaysia last December... So Sandpiper is pretty happy here in calm waters, securely moored, and her batteries are fully topped off. We can turn on everything we want, all at once, without having to worry about how many amps everything is drawing down. Even better the marina has free WiFi that has the fastest connection we have ever had on the boat. Check out our photos and videos as they are now all caught up.

We went into town this evening for dinner with the crews from S/V Shiraz and S/V My Chance. We had a really great seafood dinner where all the fresh fish is on ice in the front of the restaurant. We just pointed to what we wanted them to cook up, and minutes later it was on our table, and quite cheap!

There are tourists all over the world here, and shops all over the place selling stuff for them to lug home. Most the tourists are from Russia and Europe, but mostly Russia, with the Russian ladies wearing all kinds of gaudy freaky gear. We are most likely the only Americans in town as talking to the store owners they say very few Americans come to Egypt.

Hurghada is our base of operations for at least the next week or more as S/V Shiraz, S/V My Chance, and S/V Sandpiper are all traveling inland for 4 days to take a river boat trip up the Nile with lots of stops along the way. We will report all about it when we get back!! While we are here look for us on Skype at "sandpipertomandamy". Or better yet call us on our cell phone, as we just got an Egyptian SIM card: +20-16-978-2082.

For an extra reading assignment check out our article in the new issue [PDF] of The Porthole. The Porthole is the newsletter from our yacht club, the Presidio Yacht Club under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The Porthole is published quarterly and this is a continuation of articles that we have been writing for them.

More later from mummy land,

Tom and Amy