We have given up on repairing the port engine in Djibouti.

We will leave tomorrow for Suokin, Sudan (or Suakin, depending on where you are from). We might also – or alternately – stop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where they have Yanmar technicians. In any event, we will need to stop somewhere for diesel and water. We will likely need to wait for a weather window to go up the northern half of the Red Sea as well. We expect we will motor the entire way.

In the meantime, we are changing oil, stocking up on diesel, provisioning, defrosting the freezer, etc. Oddly enough, the most elusive item to find has been engine coolant. We have gone to at least six stores. We should have talked to our neighbor first, because he knows exactly where we can buy it.

Speaking of our neighbor, Alejandro is one of three members of the team on the catamaran anchored next to us. He is from Chile. He stopped by our boat in their dinghy a week ago, offering to take us to shore. Each subsequent time he came by we were expecting our agent so we had to decline, until yesterday. He took us to shore yesterday and we realized how much money we have thrown away by not having a dinghy. 

We look forward to not being rookies. . . and most especially to having a dinghy. (Looks like we will be able to buy one in Israel.) We will save money and be more independent.

Alejandro also offered his dinghy and elbow grease to help us clean the exterior of our boat where the tire (serving as a fender) by berth 26 in Oman left a HUGE black mark on our boat. Alejandro is so very kind and generous. ❤️❤️

We learned today that the Seychelles has the worst reputation for charter boat maintenance *in the world.* So, yeah, that might explain all of our problems. We sent an email to our broker asking if he could help us get reimbursed for some of our expenses (due *100 percent* to Sunsail/Moorings Seychelles’ negligence).

So, let us move on since I don’t want this post to be a downer.

You know where we ate yesterday? Burger King! They have a Burger King and a Pizza Hut in a nearby mall. We were hungry and Burger King sounded delicious. I guess that tells you how much we wanted to eat out and ingest some familiar junk food. Alejandro was with us and we had a nice time chatting and learning more about each other’s cultures.

The part of Djibouti that we see is poor and filthy. We know that there are nice areas but – other than the mall – we have not seen them. Many of the folks we encounter chew khat, a leaf that acts like an upper.

We saw a few US Navy sailors leaving the marina (I am using that term loosely) in some kind of small craft yesterday. It was kind of fun seeing them even though all we could do was wave at them.

Seahike is wired for 240 volt outlets so we can’t charge some of our appliances. Michael and Jason installed a 120 volt power inverter that we can turn on when we want to, say, charge our electric toothbrushes. It is very handy. See pics. I know, very exciting. 👍

It is super hot here. I have been using the hair thing I bought at the Renaissance Festival in MN many years ago to keep my hair up. It helps a lot.

Both Michael and I have developed some sort of very itchy rash. We don’t know if it is due to the sun, heat, bugs, or what. We are ready to move on outta here.

We will check in when we are en route up the Red Sea.