We are officially out of the Middle East. We left Suez at about 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 5 and arrived at Ayia Napa Marina, Cyprus at about 5:00 p.m. on Dec. 7. This post contains information about our Suez Canal transit as well as our arrival in Cyprus.

When transiting the Suez Canal, vessels are required to have a pilot on board. Our pilot was scheduled to arrive at 5:00 a.m. on Dec. 5. He arrived at about 7:00 a.m. We had gotten up at 4:30 a.m., largely to give me time to take the dinghy out to the buoy and remove our line (by the way, the dinghy floats! <smile>) and give us time to eat breakfast. Michael actually went back to bed because he hadn’t gotten much sleep. Anyway, the pilot eventually arrived and we left.

I found some interesting factoids about the Suez Canal, just three quick screenshots. In short, the Suez Canal is a critical waterway for the Planet. It is extremely busy, which we can attest to from our experience. We were the only cruising yacht on the entire canal.

Ships leave in convoys. They either leave from Suez going northbound or from Port Said going southbound. The schedule is strict and only a certain number of ships can leave with each convoy. They are expected to travel at a specific rate of speed to remain spaced. Little craft such as ours are given times of day when we can begin our journey so as not to interrupt a convoy. The cool thing for us is that we got to be passed (either coming or going) by numerous ships in each convoy throughout the two-day transit. We yachties are not allowed to sail, must go at least five knots, and cannot travel overnight. Hence, nearly all yachts (except those that are really fast) take two days to transit the Canal, stopping halfway at Ismailia.

Some of the gulf is two-way traffic and some is one-way. Oddly enough, whenever it was one-way, our pilot told us to hug the port side going the wrong way on the one-way lane. The advantage to this, I suppose, is that the ships passed us much faster. When they were going the same direction it took them some time to pass us since they weren’t going all that much faster than we were (well, when we were at our fastest). Actually, our speed varied from just over five knots to eight knots, depending on the current. We continue to have one working engine so we could only go as fast as that one engine could drive us!

As I mentioned, we had been in the Middle East for some time – a bit over two months. That meant that we had been in predominantly Muslim countries. That is completely cool, I am not suggesting otherwise. But I think it led to my surprise at seeing a Christmas Tree, red and green lights, and other Christmas decorations upon arrival at the marina. I simply was not expecting them. I stayed with the boat for a couple of hours while Michael signed a boatload of papers. I then joined him while we paid for the marina and were introduced to its amenities. We then followed a dinghy to our berth. It was completely dark save for the artificial lighting. It was light enough to see the dock. We expected Med mooring here, but they have slips just as we do in the US. Two very friendly gentlemen assisted us and got us hooked up to shore power. We were home! Before I share some pictures of the marina on our first night, I will share the requisite sunrise and sunset pictures from our transit.

Ayia Napa Marina just opened six months ago. It isn’t even done with construction and not all of the restaurants are open. There is a coffee shop, however, and I plan to go there! There are quite a few boats here, but many empty berths. As a catamaran, we typically have to pay 1.5 the normal fee for staying in a marina because we take up two slips. It is off-season here, so the price isn’t too bad. We took a walk around yesterday and purchased some stuff in the chandlery and supermarket. We are in “housekeeping” mode: we will wash the outside of the boat today, get some euros from the ATM and do laundry, etc. Pictures from the evening of our arrival:

A word about the chandlery. I almost gasped (I might have, actually) when we stepped into the chandlery. We had been trying for weeks to find a stern navigation light to replace the one that burned out when we were at Port Ghalib. We had also hoped to buy at least one of those big bulbous fenders, and we needed a filter wrench to accommodate a rather small filter as we had not been able to change the oil filter on our starboard engine the last two oil changes. As wonderful as our agent Marwan was, he was not able to find what we needed; I am quite certain it is because it simply wasn’t available.

All of this is to say that when we walked into the chandlery we saw fenders, lines, hoses, chains, tools, navigation lights (!) of all colors, glue, anchors, engine liquids, parts upon parts, even a filter wrench the size we needed. If they don’t have something, they will order it and it will arrive in a few days. I guess we are enjoying the perks of being in Europe.

I want to mention one other thing before closing this today. We haven’t met a lot of sailors on this trip because there simply haven’t been many to meet. That said, we met the most wonderful group of guys in Djibouti and a lovely couple in Port Ghalib. We are already feeling the love of our little sailing community. Ken and Zivile were so kind to us when our time overlapped in Port Ghalib (just a few days). They gave us some of their food when they went on a short trip, gave us an LED lamp for our stern navigation light, shared a ride and the cost with us to Hurghada, and answered roughly 186 of our questions. Ken is an electrical engineer and Michael is an electrician, so I only understood about 25 percent of what they were saying when they talked shop, but I could tell that Ken was providing very useful information. We’ve continued to stay in touch with them over WhatsApp and plan to continue to do so. We are sharing information to help each other – we have only been able to provide information about the El Tor anchorage and transiting the Suez Canal, but at least we offered something. 🙂

And then there are Alejandro and Memo, two of the three guys on our sister catamaran in Djibouti. (I feel bad that I cannot remember the other person’s name.) You will recall that Alejandro helped Michael clean the nasty black stain off of our boat and provided transportation for us in their dinghy. We, in turn, have been able to provide contact information for Egyption agents and exiting Egypt.

We trust that we will remain in contact with these folks for years to come. We look forward to hearing about their experiences and hope to see them again. The sailing community is small and one feels an immediate affinity with those who share their passion. There is always more to learn and who better to learn from than those who have gone before you?