Log Extract 2005

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Last day's run was 201nm
Wind is E 21knots
ETA - today approx 1700hrs Local = 1500 GMT = 1600 BST

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Distance to run = 252 n miles
Distance covered in last period = 168 n miles
Weather conditions = wind ENE 15 knots
ETA Crete = Thursday 7 April approx 1800 hrs local time

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The voyage up the Gulf of Suez was mostly in good weather but with occasional heavy rain, some 'blows' and also very calm conditions.  The crew and the boat are in good shape and looking forward now to the passage through the Suez Canal and being moored in Crete sometime next week.

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(Djibouti time UTC+3).

At 10:00 on Sun 20th Feb we were at N25 52   E35 00 that's 110 miles to
go to Hurghada.   The daily run was 169 miles.  We're sailing slowly at
the moment in order to arrive at about 07:00 tomorrow.  

Regards, David.

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(Djibouti time UTC+3).

At 10:00 on Sat 19th Feb we were at N23 32   E36 43 that's 279 miles to go to Hurghada.   The daily run was 172 miles.  We're motoring with the wind at 3 knots from the ESE.   We will slow down to arrive on Monday morning early.  

Safari is about 19 hours ahead of us heading for Eilat.   I heard Aragorn on the net but had poor copy.

By using the following waypoints we seemed to have kept most of the passing traffic on our stbd side and very rarely had to alter course for any ship.   We've had many ships pass in either direction on our stbd side at distances of 4 miles or more.   It's possible that they saw us first and altered course to avoid us.

17°56.9 N 039°51.5 E
22°33.6 N 037°15.5 E
24°56.1 N 035°39.3 E

Regards, David.

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(Djibouti time UTC+3).

At 10:00 on Fri 18th Feb we were at N20 56   E38 10 that's 451 miles to
go to Abu Tig marina.   The daily run was 165 miles.  We're motoring
with the wind at 5 knots from the SSE.   We have enough fuel to motor
all the way and should still arrive on Monday.  

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(Djibouti time UTC+3).

At 10:00 on Thu 17th Feb we were at N18 29 E39 32 that's 616 miles to go
to Abu Tig marina.   The daily run was 191 miles.  We're still
motor sailing with the wind at 9 knots from the ESE.   We should arrive
on Monday.  

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(Djibouti time UTC+3).

At 10:00 on Wed 16th Feb we were at N16 07 E41.07 that's 807 miles to go
to Abu Tig marina.   The daily run was 164 miles.  The wind stayed with
us or most of the day but died out last night.   The wind is now back up
to 13 knots from the SE and the current is about 0.4 in our favour.
We're motor sailing hoping to reach Hurghada on the 21st Feb and Abu Tig
that afternoon.
Since clearing the narrow Traffic separation zones we have seen much less
traffic.

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Condor left Djibouti at 12:05 on Mon 14th Feb 2005 (Djibouti time
UTC+3).

At 10:00 on Tue 13th we were at N13 46 E42.34 that's 164.6 from Djibouti
and 971 miles to go to Abu Tig marina.   We've averaged 7.5 knots which
is much faster than expected.

Since Bab El Mandeb the wind has been 20-25knots from the SSE.

We left Mayan Island to Starboard with the traffic separation scheme on
our port side.   I can't recommend doing this in the middle of the night
and we felt a little squashed between the two.   There was lot of
traffic in both directions to deal with.   The Western Fl(4) light on
Mayan is working but we did not see the Eastern light.

I think Safari's plan to pass between the traffic separation system and
the Djibouti coast might have worked better.

After Bab El Mandeb we had to jibe otherwise as we were heading for
Yemen.   This morning we passed through the traffic separation system
South West of Hanish al Kabir island.   I wouldn't recommend doing this
at night either.

We now have open water ahead of us for the rest of the trip so should be
able to stay away from the traffic.

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THESE ENTRIES WERE KEPT SECRET UNTIL THE VOYAGE TO DJIBOUTI WAS COMPLETED AND ALL OF THE BLUE WATER RALLY YACHTS HAD ARRIVED SAFELY, AND UPDATED AND UPLOADED LATER. IT MUST BE NOTED THAT ALL LAT/LON DATA HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THE ENTRIES IN ORDER NOT TO COMPROMISE THE SAFETY OF FUTURE SAILORS IN THIS REGION.

Condor has arrived Djibouti and is moored.
All is well on board

There follows a précis of the various emails/phone calls transmitted during the voyage :

Current 310M 0.9 Wind 7 NE Daily Run 157.8 ETA Djibouti Fri AM
As per convention current is reported in direction TO and wind in direction FROM. I have no idea why this is so. I don't understand why it was with us all day Mon, against us Tue and now with us again, but I think I'm accurate.
Because of our location in Alligator Corner Condor will not be on the Net Today Wed 1000 or 1800 except in an emergency. We will listen in in case of that.
At 08:00 this morning, at Nxxx Exxx, we saw two small boats apparently fishing. We initially altered to Stbd but then decided they were traveling to Stbd so altered course to Port to give them a wide berth. We eventually passed them about a mile away from us. At no point did we think that they were trying to follow us. They looked like ship's lifeboats one was completely dayglo orange and the other was white with a dayglo orange bow section and transom.
We've seen a warship traveling at a speed of about 10 knots two nights running. It was possibly the same ship on both nights. We're worried about the fuel status of Group2 and Group1 although there is at least a little wind today. Would Rally Control investigate the possibility and costs of re-supplying them out of Oman, Aden or
Djibouti? We're confident that our Group has enough fuel to reach Djibouti.
We motor/sailed last night with no lights. We have 3 good radar sets and keeping station was no problem even though most of the time we had no sight of each over. We turned on the lights to avoid a lighted fishing boat and the warship mentioned earlier. I'm not sure I recommend this as we were constantly worried about running into some other boat, who might also not have lights. We'll probably use lights tonight. 

####################################################################
Group3 Thu Feb10 10:00 xxxx Data removed for security reasons.
Current 280M 1.5 Wind light SE Run 174 ETA Djibouti Fri 06:00
GRIB files forecast 10-15 ENE for Fri/Sat but no wind for today
VHF72 is in use by the military (I think, French) to converse with and check details of other vessels. We have not been contacted. Groups might want to consider changing from VHF72.
We heard on VHF16 that the French Navy will be conducting "extensive exercises in the Gulf of Aden over the next 24 hours".
Tahlequah (280 miles from WpC) has offered to put in to Aden and bring back 400L fuel to Group1 at an agreed RV provided they pick up all costs. Group1 are thinking about the option and will get back to him
at 12:00 today.
Group1 is 354 miles from WpC but heading for WpB
Group2 is 396 miles at xxx degrees from WpC and heading direct.
Valtair came up but with poor copy. They have still not reached Oman but did promise to try to get fuel for Group2 when they do. I'm not sure of their location or ETA in Oman. We understood from Valtair that they had enough fuel to reach Oman when they left Group3 but this was obviously not the case. I've no idea what their fuel problem was. 
If the Tahlequah and Valtair rescues do not pan out then I think the best option would be for Group1 and Group2 to put into Aden or Mukalla whichever they can reach. Group2 is 276 from Aden and 95 from Mukalla. 
Group1 is 240 from Aden and 111 from Mukalla). Both ports seem to be as safe as Djibouti according to the Red Sea Pilot and it's 2003 update. 
From Mukalla boats would need to head well out to sea before turning for
Djibouti. 
###########################################################
Group3 arrived in Djibouti at 06:43 on Fri 11 Feb 2005

Sorry for the delay, but my email wasn't working for a while.
The approach at night was straight forward and it was daylight before we entered the harbour. We passed to the north of the Iles Musha and picked up the range lights to travel south to the harbour. The CMAP and Maxsea raster charts coincided exactly with the GPS to the extent I could tell. 

Passing south of Iles of Iles Moucha would probably be OK.

The major lights were operating but the smaller harbour buoys were not. The range markers were difficult to see, the rear one was only slightly above the front and both were not very bright. The front light was sectored such that when you were lined up then it became much brighter. The ground track aLon the range was 183M not 184M. 

We initially anchored 100 yds from the YC pontoons but were told to move back to about 200 yds. Do not anchor south of the line from the YC dock as there is a fishing pier there and apparently people have been
known to swim out to boats from there to steal stuff.

There is non potable water available at the fuel dock which should be
suitable for boat cleaning.

Safari and Condor are planning to leave at about noon on Monday. Condor is going direct to Al Gouna and Safari to xxx.

R, David.

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THESE ENTRIES WERE KEPT SECRET UNTIL THE VOYAGE TO DJIBOUTI WAS COMPLETED AND ALL OF THE BLUE WATER RALLY YACHTS HAD ARRIVED SAFELY, AND UPDATED AND UPLOADED LATER.

Condor has set sail from Male for destination Djibouti - distance approx 1200 n miles.
There will be no reporting until the entire flotilla is safe.
All is well on board

MAP

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Condor has arrived safely at MALE in Maldives and will remain moored here for a little while.

All is well on board

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Condor on passage as planned 
Wind 15 knots E
Distance to run to Male = 169 n miles    
ETA Sun 23rd Noon (local) = 0500 GMT.

All is well on board

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Condor on passage as planned 
Wind 8 knots SE
Distance to run to Male = 326 n miles    ETA Sun 23rd A.M.

All is well on board

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Condor on passage as planned 
Wind 7 knots S
Distance to run to Male = 486 n miles    ETA Mon 24th

All is well on board

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Condor on passage
Wind 9 knots WSW
Distance to run to = 605 n miles    ETA Mon 24th

All is well on board

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Condor on passage (Revised destination due to storm) 

Transcript from David.....
Sorry about yesterday's position report here's the correct one aLon with today's. I told you we were getting tired of doing 100 mile days so we decided to do 80 miles instead.  Going the south side of the storm was the safest option but it will likely add 3-4 days to the trip.

Wind 15 knots WSW
Distance to run = 736 n miles    ETA Mon 24th

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Condor on passage  Corrected Position 1730GMT Jan 17

Transcript from David.....
We're tired of doing 100 mile days and are now heading direct for Male.
Grib files for 3 days out might indicate that Cochin is a better choice.
We'll decide then.

Regards,  David.

Wind 16 knots SSE
Distance to run = 820 N MILES

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Condor on passage

Transcript from David.....
After some gung-ho thoughts about sleigh rides to the north, discretion
has prevailed and we have decided to head south of the Storm.   We're moving well at the moment but should experience light head winds in a few days so I'm not sure of our ETA there.   Safari is there and will organize an agent for us for customs etc.

Wind 15 knots SSW
Distance to run = Not set as yet

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Condor on passage

Wind 14 knots E

Distance to run = 1155 n miles

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Condor on passage

Wind 7 knots SE

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Condor set sail for Western India. 

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Condor is moored at Phuket in preparation for departure for South Western India.

The crew and the craft survived the tsunami unharmed