Ras Baniyas... still here

Team Sandpiper Update 3 May 2008

Still Anchored Ras Baniyas
Egypt
Africa
23'53.6N/35'46.8E

397 Miles to the Suez Canal...

Day 7. Can you believe it? I know I can't! I keep reminding myself that people pay a lot of money to sit around for 7 days and watch movies, eat, bake, read, fish, play scrabble and enjoy daily sun-downers, but I'm ready to move on.

Surprisingly the days have gone by rather fast. Yesterday was my first day ashore. The first time to feel Egyptian sand in my toes and score some decent Egyptian seashells. Each morning we tune into a frequency on our single sideband radio, and we cross our fingers and hope to hear good news about the weather.

This morning was the most promising forecast yet. Sounds like the winds should let up tomorrow for a brief period. Today they are averaging around 20 knots and still from the north. Keep your fingers crossed that we wake up tomorrow with only 10 knots or less blowing from the northeast. We have all the anchorages marked on our electronic charts all the way up the coast, so we are prepared to pull in at anytime. I'm hoping we can go the 100 miles to Port Ghalib, an official point-of-entry in Egypt.

The provisions are getting low and the laundry in staking up. A few days in a new marina or port is just what we need. If you don't hear from us tomorrow it means we have broke free. Then we will check back in ASAP.

More Later,
Amy