It's time to take stock of an incredible journey. Where to begin? It was an experience as emotionally intense as it was beautiful, a real adventure, a slice of life as a sailor, a traveler, and the feeling of being a bit of a modern-day adventurer.
October 15: Leaving Montenegro before the sun has completely set, hoisting the sails and setting off on a route that no racing boat would normally take. Let the sails fill and enter the coordinates for Port Said in Egypt into the GPS. You know that the route is going to be complex in terms of weather, that you will have to manage both the people and the boat, with a total lack of knowledge of the navigation areas we are going to cross.
To start with, a very active system, with heavy seas, very short swells, and so high! The boat sailing close-hauled, tacking under storm jib, feeling the hull lift completely out of the water before crashing down with all its weight into the next wave. The equipment is suffering, and so are the sailors. The crew had their heads in buckets, exhausted from not being able to keep anything down, with nothing left in their stomachs to regurgitate. Forty-eight hours in solo mode and a bad fall by Jessica, who injured her chin, to deal with. We had to act quickly to secure the wound so that it wouldn't get worse or become infected. I had never applied a Steristrip® in 40-knot winds before!
Fortunately, conditions clearly improve behind us, with smooth seas, 10 knots of wind, and the boat gliding over a mirror. As always: the calm before the storm, then the return to calm after the storm.
October 21: A few days later, the outline of an unknown coastline appears before us. Egypt, and Port Said. Hundreds of boats clustered together and the local authorities calling us on VHF on a single channel. It feels like we have to take a ticket to be able to speak! This is the moment when we no longer have much control, we'll have to be patient and let ourselves be guided. “Follow the cargo ship in front of you and slip into the east channel.” Okay, boss!
Suddenly, three pilot boats come to meet us, full of smiles on board and eyes that light up as if they've never seen a sailboat in their lives. Well, not one like this, all black with stuff sticking out everywhere and a 30-meter-high mast. We are quickly taken to a small dock where a 1960s pilot boat with a tractor engine takes us in tow to begin our descent of the Suez Canal. Off we go for the first part, accompanied by dolphins, towed at high speed (9 knots).
At that precise moment, you realize how lucky you are to have this job, and you enjoy this moment that you may only experience once in your lifetime. The surroundings of the canal resemble the scenery of Mad Max: an arid sandy desert with military buildings here and there, removable floating bridges, ancient sculptures... And in the middle of it all, fishermen rowing their boats, and you feeling very small in the face of so much history.
After a few hours of towing, we moored at Ismailia, a port of call between Port Said and Suez, where we would spend the night. Our first steps ashore since our departure, and our first contact with the local culture. An incredible getaway, a fabulous dinner, and a short night's sleep before setting off again at dawn the next day for the second part of the canal! October 22: Wake up at 3:30 a.m., quick shower, and at 5 a.m. we are back on board for the last leg of the canal. We thought we had already seen it all the day before, but we hadn't seen anything yet. Crazy colors, the sun rising over the dunes, local fishing boats bustling about in the middle of a crowded lake... Tears welled up in our eyes, so intense were our emotions, and our memory box filled up constantly.
In the early afternoon, the pilot boat dropped us off and we set sail again in the Gulf of Suez. It was a fairly narrow stretch of water, where we chose to sail downwind, sails set in a scissor configuration, to avoid getting caught between the gas platforms and the maritime traffic separation scheme. And all the fishing boats without AIS or navigation lights, whether they are 3 or 30 meters long. Not very relaxing, but luckily we had our nautical charts and the experience was crazy, once again.
October 24: We leave the gulf after two nights that were as slow as they were beautiful, and the clock is ticking if we want to be on time to complete our customs formalities and avoid having to wait another 24 hours. So we push on, sails and engine, a little blindly in an area where this time there are no nautical charts. We trust our software to guide us and arrive just in time to complete our paperwork and set off again, just long enough to obtain a final sailing permit.
October 25: Permit received, three minutes later we set sail for AMAALA. A magical night to end this magnificent voyage on a high note. Fairy lights, the boat sailing at 20 knots, happiness on earth. The heat is overwhelming, the desire to arrive is growing more and more urgent, and as we set foot on land, the crew takes stock of this incredible adventure.
A 360° view from the deck of our beautiful IMOCA was enough to realize how far we had come and the scale of the monumental project that is AMAALA. The change of scenery was total, the panorama absolutely magnificent, we felt so small, breathless. We secured the boat, protected the equipment from the sand, and it was time to say, “See you in a month.”
October 26: We enjoy two days in another resort developed by Red Sea Global, on an island powered 100% by renewable energy. It's an opportunity to spend time with people and enjoy the turquoise waters of the Red Sea.
What is happening in this country is quite incredible; I think you have to see it to believe it. I'm already looking forward to going back to discover even more, and I can't wait to see a fleet of IMOCAs there in two years' time for the arrival of The Ocean Race in 2027!
Picture © Pierre Bouras / Team AMAALA