Feb 1

Feb 1 Finally arrived in Suez

Dear Friends, after 39 Days of sailing Lifgun arrived finally in Suez. The red Sea was difficult becaus of the oil and gas riggs, because of the traffic, because of 35 knots of headwind for more then 12 hours. That Lifgun was survive is amazing, she was fighting like a lion. Me too. There was literally no sleep, and tacking every couple of miles. The storm jib was working perfect - but Lifgun is limping. A first conclusion after crossing the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea is as follows : 1. I'm the first sailing boat in 2018 here in Suez 2. I didn't saw any signs of piracy 3. The qualition forces are working outstanding 4. You need to know the difference between fishermens and pirates ( I only saw fishermens) 5. I will post my experiences also in noonsite a bit later 6. People here are outstanding nice. Right now I'm working in the office of the CEO and owner of Sunrise Tours a country wide touristic company.... awesome. The paperwork is outstanding and needs a lot of time - but my agent Abdo (from Felix Agents) are doing a really good job. Yesterday the officals were messuring Lifgun to calculate the transit fee... 2 hours of work. The harbour is secured by the Egypt Army, so every time you go out or in you need to show your passport, and they will check your visa very precise. Nobody speaks english, which makes every taxi ride complicated. We have now cleaned Lifgun and tried to fix the main issues. The forestay is definitly damaged, hopefully he will work until Turkey...The sails were suffering too, I'm rigged this morning the self tacking jib and will use that sail for the last leg. The passage trough the Suez channel will take 2 days, I'll start on Sunday, which means on Tuesday I'll leave Egypt.