The EMYR Tour to Egypt

Traveling in Egypt turned out to be very different in several ways. Instead of waiting outside the new harbor to be called on one boat at a time, this time we had a specific arrival time. At 0630 we were all to meet outside the Suez Canal. Then we would sort ourselves out by groups, form a circle and then proceed into the Suez Canal with our presentation flags up. It was a great concept but, after an all night sail, trying to get 47 yachts sorted out and into a line in a specific order with only 2 boat lengths apart, it was something akin to trying to herd “cats.” Our group leader had a problem with their boat’s engine so, to add to the confusion, their boat had to be towed into the harbor. We were told we would be moored in the “Armory.” We actually hadn’t given it much thought, but it turned out to be an Egyptian military port.

That set the tone for Egypt. We were anchored inside this military base and had to show our passports to get in and get out whenever we walked into town. The first day we were free to wander the town of Port Said so the three of us headed out, after passing through the security checkpoint. People on the street were always asking where we were from. If they guessed “England,” we usually agreed. Or maybe Canada, eh? Steve told one guy we were from America. He immediately accused Steve of lying because “no Americans ever come to Port Said.” Interesting.

That night at 7 pm they had buses scheduled to take us to an Egyptian dance presentation. As we loaded the buses we noticed armed guards in civilian attire with broken down machine guns subtly hidden under their sports coats. Talk about being subtle! When the procession of buses headed out of the armed gates, we had 2 motorcyclists and a car of armed soldiers with bullet proof vests on, and they had their sirens going the entire way to the dance. The dancing was in the center of town in a plaza that was build around many high rise condos. As we watched the dancing, I noticed guards on the roofs of several of the condo buildings. If we weren’t worried before, now we were. Egypt has a big number of “tourist police.” That’s actually the name on their badges of their uniforms. I guess a few years ago they had some trouble so now they want to make sure tourists don’t have any trouble. Tourism is apparently the number two biggest industry in Egypt.

After the dancing we again loaded back into our armed buses and headed back for the boats. I forgot to mention that because we are in this military armory, we have sailors standing guard over our boats so nothing happens while we are gone. Again, we had the sirens and flashing lights announcing our departure from the dancing and our journey back to the marina. Seems if there was trouble, you wouldn’t want to go to such efforts to announce our whereabouts. Anyway, we got back safe and sound.

Cairo

The next morning at 6 am we headed out for our 2 day tour of Cairo. Before we could load our luggage onto the bus, we first had to take our luggage to a special building and have it scanned for weapons like at the airport. Then, as we got on the bus, we noticed there were 2 civilian dressed men with machine guns for each of the 4 buses. It’s amazing to believe, but the Egyptian military had soldier/policeman at EVERY street corner stopping traffic (and terrorists) for about 100 miles. That had to cost someone a lot of money. We don’t exactly have any high up diplomats in our group of yachties that need the extra protection, so apparently this is the norm for all tourists. I talked with another yachtie who had toured Luxor 3 years ago, and she said her experience was exactly the same!

Anyway, when we got to Cairo Friday morning, the traffic was very light because it was their Sabbath day. We visited the mosque for several hours then headed over to the Cairo Museum. We drove near the US Embassy but it was behind so many cement walls that we never really saw it. Our guides told us not to take our cameras into the museum, but, I didn’t want to leave it just sitting on the bus, so zipped it into a special compartment of my purse. Wrong! The airport X-ray scanner guy saw it right off and grabbed me and said I had to take the camera outside the museum to check it. Then I had to go through the scanners again to prove I didn’t have any contraband. Don’t know why cameras are considered such a big deal in the museum but when the Egyptians make up rules, you have to follow them.

We saw some great things and were really impressed to see the full King Tutankhamun exhibition. A smaller collection had come to Seattle a few years ago, but didn’t hold a candle to what was on display in Cairo. We were very impressed.

After the museum, we were dropped off at the souk to spend 3 hours on our own wandering around small alleyways and streets. You could tell that really made our armed guards nervous, but off we all went.

They sell everything there but you have to barter and barter. Usually it’s about 30 to 40% off the original starting amount. We were tired and hungry so decided to have lunch (the Rally always eats lunch late – it was 3 pm). After 20 minutes in the first restaurant, they came back to say they didn’t have any chicken. We decided we were in a bad restaurant so left in search of another restaurant. After several tries, we finally got a good one. All the bartering was wearing us down. Nothing is priced so sometimes you just want to know what something costs before deciding if you might want it. But, if you ask, they figure you dearly love it and will hound you until you get discouraged and just leave the shop. Sometimes they will follow you down the street and continue asking how much you will pay. Some street vendors will actually follow you to the bus and watch where you sit and come up to the window to try to sell you those wooden camels that you thought were kind of cute.

After 3 hours in the souk, we headed back to the bus. Steve and I had almost bought a rug wall hanging, and as we were relaying the story on the bus, we realized that the difference in price of what we wanted to spend and what they wanted to sell it for was ten dollars. Now that the bus wasn’t quite ready to leave, we decided I’d run back and get it. Besides, there were still 5 people missing from our bus. So, off I went, armed with 2 five dollar bills hoping to get the price down from the ten dollar difference. However, when they saw me come back, they knew I REALLY wanted it so they tried to raise the price. I held firm and we agreed on the “old” final price. I was getting nervous because the bus was definitely ready to go. However, once I got back, the five people were still missing and our armed guards were getting agitated. These five people were the type that usually got back to the bus early so many of the yachties were also worried. It was now about 20 minutes after our departure time. “Do you think they remember where we are staying tonight and will take a cab there? “ No. “Maybe they changed buses and forgot to tell us?” No – they left their bags on this bus. Finally, they wandered out of the souk. They had gotten very lost in there and decided to take a cab to where the “English speaking tour buses are.” Unfortunately the cabbie didn’t know where the English speaking tour buses were. Then they told him to take them to the “mosque,” but there are many, many mosques in Cairo. These five tourists had a “life experience” trying to get back to the bus and “civilization.”

All of us were relieved as we loaded them onto the bus and headed for our last stop of the day, a ride on the Nile in tourist sailboats. Our armed guards also came along on each sail boat and we had 2 armed Egyptian navy guys in a power boat to support the flotilla. It was really nice that they supplied us with beer and wine to enjoy during our cruise of the Nile. (Egyptians don’t drink). The only problem was that our boat didn’t have a cork screw so we had to have the Egyptian navy guys ferry the bottle opener between the different tour sailboats. They were very gracious about it.

Next we headed for our hotel in Cairo (the Meridian – a 5 star hotel for tourists.) Again, the hotel had a security area you had to walk through but it beeped when each person walked through it and no one seemed to care so we just kept walking. So much for security at the Meridian. We had a fabulous view of the pyramids from our room and from the swimming pool. We had one more police escorted bus ride to and from dinner that night.

I am writing this on the way back to our boats after leaving Cairo. We are merging onto another road and as I look out the window there is a van with 4 guys in the back with machine guns and bullet proof vests. I waved, they waved back. I notice that each intersection does not have the guard blocking the traffic as we leave Cairo so I guess we are a bit exposed right now.

Our tour of the 3 pyramids outside of Cairo was fun. It’s hard to imagine how they could have moved so many rocks so long ago to build these pyramids. Another amazing thing about the pyramids is the number of people hitting on you to buy this, buy that! We were warmly greeted by two “tourist police” who told us it was OK to touch the pyramids. Then they offered to take pictures of us visiting the Pyramids. We took pictures of them as well but didn’t get a good shot of their guns. When we were ready to move on, they said we now needed to pay them money for the pictures they took. Wow, we were shocked! Ok, we pulled out some money and gave it to them. Then, they said it wasn’t enough money! So, now we were really ready to move on. We give them some more money, smile and LEAVE.

The camel guys are another story. If you want a photo of their camel, that costs money. If you want to ride the camel, that’s more money. Anyway, it’s their livelihood.

Getting back to writing this while en route back to our boats in Port Said: That truck with the four soldiers with machine guns and bullet proof vests – they are now directly in front of our bus so I guess they are part of our convoy. At times I can almost read the patches on their uniforms and I’m half way back on the bus. They stay real close to us. Steve and I pass the camera back and forth as we drive back. I just took a photo of a truck full of goats. Now he’s pointed out that, “over there, in the desert there are about 20 to 30 armored tanks moving through the desert.”

We just went through a toll plaza (we didn’t have to pay) and our guys with the guns all took off their bullet proof vests? Steve says that’s because “they are done. We have been handed off to someone new.” So, now I’m searching for our new protection. As we went through the tollbooth, in the lane next to us was a truck filled with sinks, a layer of hay, more sinks, more hay, more sinks, more hay. Sure beats non-biodegradable Styrofoam

We’re now the third bus back in the procession so I can’t easily see our escort. Now we are trying to pass the other 2 buses on the inside lane so maybe we will see them soon. I definitely see the shadow of the escort car.

They have a lot of palm date trees here in Egypt. Sometimes they irrigate the center between the two lanes of highway and they plant pretty flowering bushes. Otherwise were talking “the desert look.”

Interesting comments heard along the way

We made it back from our hectic two day tour of Egypt. Originally we were going to leave the tour here and do some more touring of Egypt on our own afterwards. However, in view of all the security issues, when the fleet “up-anchored” and formed the flotilla in reverse going up the Suez Canal, we were the second boat after our group leader. We had seen enough of Egypt for one trip.

We had a wonderful sail back to Israel. (Israel Navy – this is Sugilite. Remember us, we want gas!”) Anyway, we got back to Israel and met up with all those yachts that had mistakenly thought sailing to Egypt would be too much effort based on the short time we were there. It was definitely a memorable two days.

The End of the Rally

We get to Herzylia, Israel and meet up again with Stephanie. As soon as we get to Israel, however, we get reports from the San Diego contingent that it’s time for Steve to be with his mom. The end is somewhat near. The next morning he is jetting away and I am looking at what lies ahead. It’s taken us 6 weeks to get to Egypt and Israel and now it’s over. We have the final farewell ceremonies that night with our buddies and the final dinner. Reality sets in and Lee, Stephanie and I plan how we can get back to Turkey. How many hours of motoring will it take to shoot across the Med from Israel to Turkey? We had done our own tour of Jerusalem which let’s us leave a day earlier than the rest of the rally group. It turned out to be a long three day slog back to Finike (with an unscheduled stop in Greek Cyprus to get more diesel.) Stephanie wanted to meet up with her Viking in Eastern Turkey so she bailed out when we landed in Finike. Lee and I head off to Fethiye where Lee heads for the Dalaman airport. So, if you’re counting, that leaves just me. I’m still on the boat in Fethiye.

So, tomorrow at maybe 5 am I will do my first solo sail. It will take 9 hours or so and once I get there, the boat boys at Marmaris will help me land the boat so it’s OK with only one person on board. I spend today getting a new Turkish Transit Log for the boat. Because that took so much time, I decided to stay another day here and leave first thing in the morning. I’m OK with the 9 hours sailing (motoring) by myself but feel this whole summer has not turned out the way we thought it would.

OK, one more change of plans. There’s a little bar at the end of the marina dock that has happy hour each night. As I sat on the boat getting ready for the 9 hour solo sail/motor to Marmaris, I realized I would miss my beer and nuts the next evening. It’s a real deal – a large Efes beer and salted nuts for 3 lyra, which is a little more than $.50. Brian is due in on Thursday, so if I just hang out here for 2 more happy hours’, then I don’t have to go to Marmaris and pick up Brian and Gretchen. They can meet me in Happy Hour town! They will be baby-sitting the boat while I go to China next week.

Several years ago I started painting pictures of the places we visit on the boat. This year, the mood hasn’t been right so I haven’t painted anything. I’ve been looking at my book from the prior years and feeling sad that there are no new additions from the EMYR year. So, now that I’m alone in Fethiye, I decided it was time to paint. After the first day alone on the boat, I’ve painted 2 pictures. I had bought this really neat purse in Alanya that had a camel on it. I wanted to paint that picture first. Then I painted a picture we had taken at the Giza Pyramids in Cairo.

I’m definitely getting burned out on sailing (motoring) without Steve and can’t wait to get back to a more normal life. Each day in the boat’s log, I write the happenings of the day, putting stars on all the little stuff things that break on the boat. I am making a log of “How to Solve This Problem” each time something gets fixed. For some reason, we seem to lose our GPS fix periodically. Then nothing works on the boat. But, rather than panic, the solution is “to get out of the car and start over again.” So far, I have been able to get the GPS working again. The first day I was alone on the boat without Steve, I got out the hand held GPS (which we never used), put fresh batteries into it and convinced myself that if the “other GPS” went south, this handheld GPS would work fine. So, with that level of comfort, I’ve been able to deal with all these other small irritations.

I fly to China in a week to begin worry about Screamer problems again. That seems like a world so far removed I’m having trouble relating to it. Tonight I’m going down to the mini souk in this town and see if there is anything there just waiting to jump on board Sugilite.

So, if I can get on the internet tonight, I will send this. But, so far, my luck hasn’t been too good. I’m at the local bar for happy hour and the waiter got me connected immediately when I ordered a beer. Unfortunately, almost as soon as he left, I lost the connection. Guess I will ask him the password again when I pay the bill.

Turns out that there is some setting on my computer that is set wrong so everyone else seems to get on the computer but I can’t. I can get Goggle but that is it! I can’t get into email. Oh well, maybe the next port I will figure this out.