Tom Cunliffe introduces this extract from Sailing Suleika, the tale of Dennis Krebs taking a steel ketch through the Red SeaSailing Suleika by Dennis Krebs is a long sea-mile from a typical description of an extended cruise. Dennis met up with the 43ft steel ketch and her redoubtable skipper, Sally, when he was stationed on an island half-way between New Zealand and Fiji. Sally and Suleika were on their way around the world from Shoreham in Sussex, UK. Dennis signed on and sailed, as \u2018bosun, musician, chef and first engineer\u2019.
\nIt turns out that Dennis\u2019s talents do not end with the engine room and the galley. His writing is fast, pithy and often extremely funny. It has always been the mark of the true sailor that he makes light of his troubles. The extract below takes us with him and his skipper on the first part of their passage north up the Red Sea where troubles come thick and fast. Join them as we contemplate the aptly named \u2018Gate of Sorrows\u2019 together.
\nApproaching the Straits of Bab el Mandeb \u2013 the Gates of Sorrow, named for reasons we hoped never to encounter \u2013 there remained 1,200 miles to the Gulf of Suez. Then another 150 miles to Port Suez and the start of the Suez Canal, leading to the Mediterranean Sea. There are yachting tales concerning travels up this sea which run from the delightful \u2013 10 days of a southerly taking them all the way non-stop \u2013 to those which have taken three to four months, to those who never made it at all, and worse, those who have disappeared without trace.
\nSailing Suleika by Dennis Krebs
\nCome 1100 on the morning of 4 March, the wind whispered then strengthened from a southerly direction. We hauled up the anchor, and before long were sailing in 20 knots making good progress towards the straits.
\n\u201cOh, wouldn\u2019t it be wonderful if it stayed like this for five or six days and got us halfway up in one shot?\u201d said Skip, looking forward to the challenge.
\n\u201cIt sure would,\u201d I replied, fingers crossed.
\nAt this point she went forward to tighten the main halyard.
\nPutting the winch handle into the winch she laid into it with all her weight.
\n\u201cYow! Ow Ow Ow!\u201d While dancing around the foredeck holding her hand, the mainsail dropped. I guided Sally back to the cockpit to check it out.
\n\u201cWhat happened and how does it feel?\u201d
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve broken anything. Maybe I dislocated my thumb and it\u2019s popped back in, whatever it\u2019s bloody painful.\u201d
\nCome evening it had not improved so I put her arm in a sling. Night had fallen and it was pitch black. The wind had risen to 30 knots and the seas were short and pitching 2m. For another hour we endured rough conditions before heading inshore to anchor while still off the coast of South Yemen and relatively friendly people.
\nStart to the Red Sea
\nGuided by the radar we closed to a depth of 30m, dropped the hook, wrapped the Skip\u2019s hand in a crepe bandage and poured two large glasses of medicine before getting some sleep.
\n\u201cWhat manner of place is this?\u201d I asked, seeing our anchorage for the first time in daylight. A desolate spot. The wind was blowing 30 to 40 knots, the mast and halyards on the windward side turning brown with desert dust. Ashore there were three shanty houses with shuttered windows and what looked like boat shelters nearby, covered with rotting sacking blowing in the howling wind, adding an atmosphere of decay to the grey, inhospitable landscape.
\nNow that we could see where we were, I suggested we re-anchor and get a little closer than three-quarters of a mile off shore. It was blowing a steady 40 knots which made for some interesting moments but I managed to drop the hook a quarter mile off in the forlorn hope we might be more sheltered and less likely to be run down by a ship wandering off course.
\nAfter four days of eating, reading, watching videos and sleeping, we raised the anchor on a dying southerly breeze and left, heading for the Gates of Sorrow.
\n\u201cLet the fun begin,\u201d I thought.
\nThere were no gates, just an island and steep cliffs, although I half expected to see a sign saying \u2018Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here.\u2019 There were also no big seas, no tide race, and no 40 knots of wind, all of which we had been told to expect. As we passed through and into the Red Sea proper, I was disappointed to see the water was still blue.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
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A course was set that would take us close to the Hanish Islands where we could take shelter if needed. It would mean arriving after dark and would require a radar approach. The evening became stressful, with rocks, islands, and shipping to avoid; and then the wind began to howl. Putting a third reef in the main we radar-ed our way through this obstacle course and pinged up the north-west side of Great Hanish Island. Once there, Skip negotiated a half mile wide channel between it and Peaky Island, a little rock 170 feet high.
\nThe wind had risen now to a steady 45 knots and it was black as pitch with the seas crashing into the boat and washing aboard. We remained below, eyes glued to the chart and radar till we were through the gap. I had to drop the sail before we could enter the cove to anchor. The Skip tried to keep the boat in position from below while I went on deck to swear at things.
\nIn the cove there was another yacht with her anchor light on so we crept up leaving a respectable amount of room and dropped the hook.
\nInspection by unmarked aircraft
\nSuleika immediately turned broadside to the screaming wind, dropped back and dragged.
\nTake two. First, I got the anchor back up again which was managed without incident. Gently we manoeuvred back in and dropped it again, this time with more chain, in fact all the chain. Sixty metres of heavy chain. The boat turned sideways. The wind sent us on our way and we dragged. Whang, and the chain jumped off the front roller catching on the bulwark.
\nCommunication with the Skip at the helm was impossible. I made trips back and forth to the hatch above the helm station to inform her of progress and courses of action. Next, I was hanging over the bow trying to lift 50m of chain in one hand, taking the slack in the other till I had enough to pop back over the bow roller. Drenched and with my back feeling broken, eyes full of desert grit, it was achieved, and we retrieved the anchor for attempt three.
\n\u201cI think we\u2019re holding at last,\u201d the Skip yelled.
\nHer words were whipped away by the wind and heard only by a tribesman in Eritrea.
\nMight is right in Suez
\nNothing appeared to be moving. We were hooked to the bottom. It was 0300 and we were both exhausted.
\n\u201cWhat do you reckon, Skip? Not a bad assault on the Red Sea. I think we\u2019ll have it licked in eight months or so at this rate?\u201d
\nOur first day and already we\u2019d been hammered. We collapsed into bed only to be woken after two hours, dragging out to sea.
\nThe cove was divided into two bays. The other, although larger, had three dhows at anchor with unknown inhabitants. They weren\u2019t dragging. We shifted and, having found space, I went forward to eyeball the water and find a sandy or suitable patch to drop, instructing Sal to keep bringing the boat forward. She had other ideas.
\n\u201cLet go here.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat? I can\u2019t even see the bottom.\u201c \u201cLet go here.\u201d
\n\u201cOkay! Anchors away.\u201d
\nWe dragged. I had had enough of this.
\n\u201cThis is easily sorted,\u201d she said, \u201cI won\u2019t pull back on it too hard and maybe we\u2019ll hold long enough to have breakfast before putting to sea.\u201d
\nVisitors at the Hanish Islands
\nWhat a Godforsaken place this was. Even without the wind, it was a moonscape of grey, black, and brown stone with not a thing growing. The only bright spot was a solitary pink flamingo.
\nThe three dhows moved off with their human cargo, and shared a friendly wave. Suleika seemed to be staying in one place and the coffee smelled good.
\n\u201cOkay, breakfast is ready.\u201d
\nI let 50m of chain out. The anchor dug in and held and the day mellowed. We caught up on sleep, lunch, siesta, sundowners, dinner and a night at the movies on the big 12in screen.
\nThe wind blew a continuous 40 knots all the next day. It\u2019s as though the needle was stuck on the gauge. Three more yachts arrived and there we all sat, pawns to the wind.
\nAt 0900 the following morning it eased. Two yachts left and we followed suit. Twenty miles out, the wind died completely.
\nWe did our watches and motored on. By 0530 next morning we were tacking back and forth across our track into a 16-knot headwind. Half an hour after going off watch, an ant woke me up by chewing into a vein on my arm. Then the Skip started yelling at boobies trying to land on the anemometer atop the mast. Sleep? Forget it. I got up, made coffee, and sat silent in the cockpit.
\nRural dwellings in the Gulf of Aden
\nIt was not long till we reached Zubair Islands, catching a fish on the way in. There were dolphins all around the boat while boobies swooped and dived to the backdrop of another incredible moonscape, this one more dramatic than Hanish. A conical volcano about 500ft lifted from the water on the southern side. To the north, another appeared as molten dripping rock, frozen in time.
\nThe yachts anchored between these two, while a ship and a large salvage tug were anchored at the foot of the volcano.
\nIt was to be four days before the wind allowed us to leave. So after two weeks, our assault on the Red Sea had progressed by 120 miles, a distance we would normally cover in a single day. We spent the days at Zubair exploring volcanic craters, watching large flocks of flamingos at a freshwater lagoon with sea eagles soaring above the cliffs and dolphins dancing in the bay. We dined on succulent fresh fish prepared in a different manner by those aboard different boats.
\nGrey desert landscape in Egypt gets some sunset colour
\nThe sea was slight when we went back to sea.
\n\u201cHey! Look there\u2019s something in the water.\u201d \u201cLooks like a bale of hay.\u201d
\nThey were dead sheep. There must have been 30 in all and it gave us the shudders. We left the area wondering what fate had befallen them. We were later to learn that live sheep transporters throw the dead overboard before reaching port.
\nThe weather forecast was for northerlies so we turned and headed for Sudan. To our dismay we must have had an adverse current for our speed under motor was down to four and a half knots when it was usually six. Motorsailing for the rest of the day, we arrived at the Khor Narwarat, on the coast of Sudan in the early evening. Heading into a setting sun trying to see the reef was almost impossible. I climbed the mast, getting covered in desert dust. With Polaroid sunglasses on I could see the reefs and advise the Skip which way to helm. As an exercise, we came in on the GPS coordinates to see how good they were. Rubbish, is how they were.
\nAshore, the land was low scrub with the occasional head popping up to take a look at us. Everything was brown. The land, the low bushes, the distant hills, and the sand- and dust-laden wind that never ceased.<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/p>\n
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The post Great Seamanship: sailing through desert storms in the Suez Canal appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom Cunliffe introduces this extract from Sailing Suleika, the tale of Dennis Krebs taking a steel ketch through the Red SeaSailing Suleika by Dennis Krebs is a long sea-mile from a typical description of an extended cruise. Dennis met up … <\/p>\n