2nd May Travelling up the Red Sea

12 noon

We’ve left.

I had to tear myself away from friends, a sense of community and familiarity. It took a week to say goodbye. It always does for me. It was the same in Barcelona. When I finally admit to myself it’s time to go, I buy lots of food for the trip and then concentrate on having a party, seeing people and having (a few) final coffees in my favourite coffee shop. Fortunately Tedd concentrates on fueling the boat, sorting out charts, checking weather and paying the marina and those details that mean we actually can go.

The party was great. 33 people on board Kari at one time. The boat was listing a bit to port there were so many people on that side.

Oisin decorated Kari with all our flags. The little girls played with the doll’s houses and ate pizza so thoughtfully provided by Vicky. Fueled by Rachel’s wonderful Pina Colada’s we belly dancer students did an impromptu show on the dock. I loved it.

Today as we motor up the Red Sea I keep finding sequins on the deck that fell off our belly dancing belts at the party. I hope they stay on the deck for ages.

3pm.

I am trying to get some good photos of the kids to send with an article I’m writing about home schooling on a boat. I took a lot of photos today of Soracha sorting out the kids massive collection of Beany Babies into categories according to what they eat.

Vegetarian or carnivore animals. It took a while; she was very cooperative. She looks gorgeous.

But when I check the photos I notice she’s only wearing a top and knickers. Normal for boat school. But not for a magazine. This is going to be harder than I thought.

4pm

We are on a passage from El Gouna near Hurguada on the Red Sea in Egypt  to Kemer in Turkey. Some 600 nautical miles or over 1000 kilometres.  We will stop on the way in Suez and Ismalia half way through the Suez Canal, then Port Said and maybe Cyprus to indulge ourselves in a Greek supermarket. We expect the trip to take at least a week.

Late in the afternoon on the first day out, I found Soracha lying on her bed.  “Are you ok?” I asked her.  “What are you doing?”

“I’m just waiting for myself to be in Turkey,” she replied.

5pm

Poppy, our 10 year old springer spaniel, has diarrhoea. She is mortified. Tedd mops it off the deck with lots of empty orange halves and chucks them into the sea. He washes the decks down with water from our strong sturdy bucket. Poor dog, I say. Poor dog? mutters Tedd.

1st May…Just do it!

 Red Sea, Egypt  1st May 2007 

I want to write a blog. I am a bit scared. Does this mean everyone can get into your life..life on a boat has little enough space without people being able to get into my head as well…there’s no room in there!
But I do want to share my days with people..my family and friends who have no idea where I am, what country even half the time…so I guess I better just get on with it.
I want to keep a record of my time on the boat too, and my diary gets very boring and navel gazing….dull.  Can’t do that in public!I think perhaps the trick is not to think too much about it and just get on with it..maybe that’s what blog means..it’s certainly won’t be in the dictionary.Today we leave the port where we have been based in Egypt on the Red Sea for the last 5 months.  It’s easy…we just have to let off the ropes that tie our yacht home Kari to the dock..but sometimes that’s the hardest part.
I’m not good at this leaving thing…..I hate it.
I feel torn, wanting to stay, not wanting to leave a place where I feel so secure and safe and not wanting to leave the friends that I have made here…  friends and the kids friends… whose parents are my friends too.
I have loved our 5 months here in Egypt and feel so at home. Some yachties say blithely, “Ah that’s the cruising life, meeting people and moving on.”
I don’t see it that way at times like this….I feel connected to here and want to feel connected to here.  I like connections. I love connecting with people. That’s why I like to stay in a place for a few months regularly….but then that’s why I feel sad and torn at leaving.

We are moving on to other exciting adventures but today I don’t see it that way.

Now I will go for a walk with my 6 year old daughter and have a coffee and cake at the restaurant on the beach. They have fabulous white wicker couches with sun shades hoods over them. I tried sitting in one last night, I felt like I was back in a pram with a hood…very comforting, hugely stylish and cool. My daughter is sad at leaving Egypt too. “I will miss my friends. I don’t want to go to Turkey..there are wasps in Turkey.”
She got stung on the foot in Turkey last year.She looks up at me from Children’s BBC .   “There are no wasps in Balamory. Or flies either.”