HF Sked 04/05/2020 @ 1500UTC

The usual suspects on the net tonight: Paul on Arbutus hosted the net again. Arbutus is about 40nm north of us on their way to Silya Island on the Egypt/Sudan border. Joanna and Libert‚, who left Suakin just behind us this morning, are now 15 and 20nm respectively south of us. They will anchor at Kor Shinab tomorrow, about 40nm south of Khor El Mar’ob where we will anchor for the next week while the northerlies blow. Also on the Sked was Bird O’Passage, on their way from Djibouti to Massawa. Sounds like they are around Bab El Mandeb as they have 3 days to go to Suakin, bypassing Massawa.

Position 20° 03.846′ N 37° 35.936′ E
COG 346T
SOG 4.1kt

Lat 20.064100: Lon 37.598933

En Route, NE Sha’ab Rumi

A weak sea breeze out of the NNE has given us a break from the continuous motoring. We are sailing close-hauled in 7 to 10 knots, making 4.5 to 5 knots. It’s been a day of little to do other than keep an eye out. There’s hardly any traffic other than ships either anchored at Port Sudan or over the horizon in the ship channel to the east. We had a line out all day but caught nothing.

Position 19° 58.717′ N 37° 36.778′ E
COG 351T
SOG 5.1kt

Lat 19.978617: Lon 37.612967

DEPARTURE: Suakin for Kor El Mar’ob

We were up at 5:30am local time and it was already light, so weighed anchor at 6 and followed our inbound track out. It is calm with flat seas and we are motoring NE to get outside all the reefs before turning north for our destination, a Marsa 185nm north of Suakin. The plan is to stay there and wait for the next break in the northerlies. At the moment it looks like we could be there for a week.

Position 19° 08.787′ N 37° 22.463′ E
COG 068T
SOG 5.9kt
Log 10,636 nm
Engine 305.5 h

Lat 19.146450: Lon 37.374383