Day 24: Head winds
In case you carefully tracked our position, you surely noticed that we already passed Massawa, our initial destination. We didn’t skip Massawa for touristic reasons, the city actually has a dense and interesting history, we continued sailing once again for the weather.
Generally, the macro weather situation in the Red Sea is predictable. During the winter in the southern part southerly winds are prevailing, whereas in the northern part winds are mainly blowing from the north. In between, approximately at the boarder of Eritrea and Sudan, winds are converging resulting in any kind of weather. During the summer, in the whole Red Sea northerly winds are prevailing. In other words head winds if one is traveling northbound. Additionally, a number of local less foreseeable effects are common: the Khamsin is occurring in the northern part and is carrying dust and sand from the Sahara; the Belat is a phenomenon of the southern part, blowing in up to gale force from the arabic peninsula resulting in big seas; the Haboob, a gale force wind, occuring at the Sudanese coast; and the Kharif a northerly wind originating in Somalia. Mildly speaking, the weather in the Red Sea is a real challenge.
Therefore, we are currently trying to make use of the last bits of northerly winds, avoiding the head winds as long as possible. Yesterday, northerly winds were predicted for tomorrow, which is for this longitude and time of the year rather unusual. Thus, we decided to straight head for Suakin in Sudan accepting the downside to cope with our empty pantry. Today, it is rather unclear whether the northerly winds will indeed reach us.
We already sailed to the island of Harmil, seeking for shelter against northerly winds and swells. Our hook barely touched the water surface when a little boat rushed to us. Three man were on board asking for our papers. Apparently, the situation was new to them and they were uncertain what to do with us. Finally, the went away with our documents promising to return. I was a little wary about that from the start, the captain however absolutely relaxed from hair to toe. Just before sunset they finally returned making us move. Harmil is supposed to be a military restricted area, but we were welcome to anchor on the neighbour island Entaasnu, where we are currently located, not so well protected against winds and swell.