15 April 2009

The Red Sea

Early Monday morning we entered the Red Sea, which would take us about three and half days to traverse. The weather was warmer but not unbearable with the breeze. The seawater in the Red Sea is some of the hottest in the world and the ship's gauges registered temperatures of 27 degrees C.


For the most part we saw very little ship traffic despite this being one of the world's busiest waterways. We did see the occasional yacht in the distance and several smaller freighters moving up and down the Arabian coast. We have heard that ship traffic through the Suez Canal is down significantly due to the combined effects of the overall economic slowdown and the pirate threat in the Gulf of Aden. In the latter case, many ships are opting to avoid the area entirely and are making the longer journey around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope.


On the 7th we stopped in the early afternoon and drifted for about twelve hours. The Captain opted to do this so as to align our arrival at the beginning of the safety corridor in the Gulf of Aden with the start time for ships traveling at 18 knots. The safety corridor is part of the worldwide response to the pirate threat in the Gulf of Aden. The coalition has established a recommended pathway for ships passing through the area and while there are not actual convoys in the traditional sense, there are groups of ships that are loosely organized based on their sailing speeds.

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