Woke up to NW winds of about 10 knots and a forecast for lighter winds all day until about midnight. It means motoring, but we will put 46 miles in the bank by going to Gez Wadi Gimal today while conditions allow. Missed out on snorkelling Dolphin Reef unfortunately.
Position 24° 09.478′ N 35° 42.451′ E
COG 042T
SOG 0.0kt
Log 11,051 nm
Engine 360.9 h
Anchored in 11m over sand. Put out 70m of chain. It is still blowing 20-25 knots from the NNE but it is very flat here in the lagoon. We will probably stay here a day or two and go snorkelling. We went for a drink on Arial1, a Morgan 60 with three Aussies and a South African on board. Laughed till our sides hurt!
Position 24° 09.474′ N 35° 42.446′ E
COG 061T
SOG 0.0kt
Log 11,051 nm
Engine 360.3 h
Made 147nm for the 24 hours, not bad given we were thrashing ourselves into wind, sea and current. Winds dropped to below 10 knots at midnight and went dead on the nose. We are still motoring under triple-reefed main. We are heading for Dolphin reef, 45nm to go. Should be there by 4pm. At our current rate of progress we’ve done about 1,000nm per month since leaving Sydney on 28 April last year!
Position 23° 32.897′ N 36° 28.757′ E
COG 327T
SOG 6.2kt
Log 11,001 nm
Engine 353.1 h
The latest GRIB weather looks much less attractive (or maybe I’m just reading the, through the eyes of someone who’s beaten to windward all day!). Consistent northerlies are forecast for at least the next week, with some periods of fairly strong wind on Wednesday. We may have to re-group to Plan B and day sail up the Egyptian coast until we see a decent window of calm or more favourable wind.
Position 23° 05.625′ N 36° 48.846′ E
COG 327T
SOG 5.1kt