Hello from Djibouti.

Our port engine is still leaking oil. We had a bolt delivered to a Yanmar engine mechanic to see if they could find an identical one to replace our missing bolt. It took six hours to deliver the bolt to the mechanic and another 22 hours to have three (two of which were the right size) delivered back to our boat.

Unfortunately, adding the missing bolt did not resolve the problem.

A mechanic was supposed to look at the engine yesterday but there was apparently a pressing need from another boat so we never saw the mechanic. Yet another mechanic is supposed to come to the boat this morning. It is 10:08 a.m. as I write this sentence. We think the engine might need to be pulled from the engine compartment before it can be repaired. That gets much more complicated because they have to figure out if they can work on it on our sugar scoop (very little room) or have to take it to land. I have a feeling we are looking at several more days in Djibouti.

Which leads me to my next tale – that of filling our tanks with water. I want to compare two experiences, as it is of interest to me and hopefully to you.

When we were in Oman, you will recall that we were in berth 26, which meant that we were tied to a cement wall. When we needed water, we simply notified our agent, who arranged to have a hose brought to the water spigot located right by our boat. We turned on the spigot, filled our tanks, and washed our boat. The cost was $20 (maybe $30?) USD. We could use the spigot for small amounts of water at other times as well, such as to fill a bucket or two. Easy peasy. Oh, and we could do so during the daytime.

In Djibouti, we again reached out to our agent, who told us we could go to the dock at 1800 hours. For those who don’t know, 1800 hours is 6:00 p.m. For those who also don’t know, it is dark at 1800 hours, or shortly thereafter, in Djibouti which meant that we would be pulling up anchor and traveling to the dock under the cover of night. That is the first difference.

The second difference is that we needed to wait for a spot to open on the dock. Thankfully, two very large ships that were rafted up offered to let us go ahead of them. I cannot imagine how long it would have taken them to fill up with water, so we were and are eternally grateful. In any event, we had to wait for them to back up so we could access the dock.

A third difference: While we were waiting to get to the dock, a Coast Guard boat came by to check on us. Boats cannot come to the dock without permission and they can only come to the dock at 1800 hours. Our agent convinced them that we were legit, so they left.

The fourth difference was the docking experience. I had already tied our four fenders and two dock lines to the port side, so we just needed to get near enough to the dock to toss the lines to the guys on the dock and adjust the fenders as needed to protect the boat. The wind blew us to the dock and all seemed to be going well. That is when we saw the very large cylinder-shaped cement – I am just going to call it a monstrosity – located just off the surface of the water near our stern. Thankfully one fender was just low enough to “fend it off” and we quickly moved the other fender next to it and lowered both to better protect the boat. The bow end of the boat was a completely different story. At that end, there were no cement structures near the water. The only part of the dock that could damage the boat was higher up. Luckily, one of the fenders I had placed near the bow protected it.

Fifth difference: Once we were safely secured to the dock, Michael and Ahssan (our agent) had to take our documents to the port authority because they require paper documents, not electronic. That took about 15 minutes. I stayed on the boat and played Sudoku while sitting on the trampoline. One of the men who stayed near the boat tried to make conversation with me but we quickly realized that we did not speak the same language. Several other men smiled and waved as they walked by. The dock was rather busy. I have yet to see a female on a dock in either Oman or Djibouti.

Okay, so they came back to the boat. We then waited approximately 30 more minutes (I don’t really know how long each gap was as I wasn’t timing) for someone to bring the hose that would deliver the water. I made our dinner while we were waiting since it was clear that we were going to get back to our anchorage well after dinner time. (The entire experience from pulling up anchor to anchoring again was about two hours.)

Once the hose was hooked up, filling the tanks took a matter of minutes. Michael also hosed off the top of the boat for good measure in an attempt to rid it of some of the bird poop.

Here’s the most exciting part of the story and the sixth difference: leaving the dock. Remember that we have one working engine and it is on the starboard side, not in the middle. Monohulls also have only one engine but it is in the middle. So, we were handicapped by having only one off-center engine . . . with prop walk. In addition, we had a very big boat behind us now and a very sturdy and very hard dock to the left of us and another very sturdy and hard side of the dock about 8-10 meters in front of us. We also had a boat to our starboard side, perpendicular to our boat. In short, a very tight spot.

Thankfully, Ahssan and I were on the boat with fenders and our arms and legs. There were also three men on the dock to assist. We started off okay by pushing away from the dock but immediately realized that our maneuverability was perhaps even worse than expected. Also, the wind wanted to push us back to the dock (cement, hard, big, etc.), and the prop walk assisted the wind. In short, getting away from the dock proved to be problematic. Somehow, with enough pushing, motoring, and steering, we made some progress, but the main progress was forward motion with just a tad to starboard. Michael was trying everything possible to get the boat to move the way he wanted it to move. Forwards, backwards, rev the engine, put it in neutral, move the wheel, etc. At one point, the stern almost ran into the part of the dock that had originally been in front of us. Again, bodies, fenders, pushing, etc. As the boat finally agreed to turn to starboard away from the dock we ran the risk of running into the boat that had been perpendicular to us at the intersecting dock. We missed it by about a foot.

Once truly clear of the dock(s), we motored between both moving and anchored boats back to our anchorage. Michael had placed a waypoint on our chart (a VERY good idea) to help us find it in the dark. We made it safely, of course, or I wouldn’t be writing this.

The other thing of mild interest was the condition of our anchor chain as we raised the anchor to go to the dock. The seabed here is clearly very muddy, and much of the mud decided to adhere to the anchor rode.

So that is pretty much yesterday’s exciting story. Pictures here:

We are in Djibouti. At anchor. With no dinghy. = stuck on ⛵. (😜)

We have a bit of cabin fever at this point. We haven’t been off the boat to do anything fun since we left the Seychelles on Sept. 14. ☹️☹️ This is definitely the boring part of our travels!

So we have new house batteries and run the generator much much much less than we did before. This is very good.

As for the engine, Michael and I have done what we can to try to find the source of the oil leak. It is pretty tricky since it only leaks when we run the engines at a “cruising” speed (it isn’t in gear – we just run up the rpms) and even then we can’t tell where the leak is.

We found a spot missing a bolt and one missing a screw on the engine. Hmmm. . . We are wondering if this particular missing screw and this particular missing bolt might be causing the problem. A guy who supposedly knows his way around Yanmar engines is going to look at it. We sure hope: 1) he comes tomorrow, and 2) he can fix the problem.

We’ve done some laundry and continued to embrace our regular “hobbies” to pass the time. I personally find reading on the trampoline after the sun sets to be the most enjoyable. It is cool, there is always a breeze, and it is most pleasant.

On our list before we leave:

1. Fill the tanks and jerry cans (and buy more of them) with diesel
2. Fill the water tanks
3. Buy a cooler to store food while we defrost the heavily-encrusted-with-ice freezer
4. Provision (buy food and potable beverages)
5. Buy engine fluids
6. Get rid of our trash/garbage
7. Consume more adult beverages 🍷🍺🥂🥃🍸🍹 (our first opportunity since we left the Seychelles)

But first, the engine. . . 🤞🤞🤞🤞

We will post again when we know something.

We arrived in Djibouti just after sunrise. We were met by two members of the coast guard who did not speak English (not surprised). We used hand signals to communicate. It seemed that they were trying to tell us where to anchor so we did what they “said.”

We then contacted our agent. He turned out to be a very young man. He is amazing! He tried to help us find a dinghy (to no avail) and he found a guy who can sell us the three house batteries we need. We ended up buying batteries, but they are the wrong batteries for the boat. They are a temporary solution until we can buy the correct batteries. Still hoping the agent (Ahssan) can put us in touch with a Yanmar diesel engine repair dude.

But this is what sold me on Ahssan: While we were riding in the car with one of many of his friends who was happy to drive us where we needed to go, he asked if we wanted a cold beer. YES!! was our reply. (Okay, maybe the enthusiasm came from me.) We also purchased two bottles of wine and one of vodka. It might be said that we were thirsty. Okay, Cindy was thirsty. 😆

We do not know how long we will be here. We will have new house batteries but the port engine needs some serious TLC. The guy who provided the batteries is also going to look at the fridge/freezer.

We met three guys from another boat while we were waiting for our visas. Well, two guys from the boat and a guy who is going to hitch a ride with them part of the way up the Red Sea. The “hitch a ride” guy has been in Djibouti three months waiting to find a boat heading in his direction. We only talked with him for a short time but we learned that he is an amazing adventurer! He started in South Africa and (I think) hiked his way up the continent. At some point he found himself in Djibouti. He is going to sail with two guys from the Netherlands (at least one of whom thinks he is a bit daft) and be let off somewhere in the Red Sea (I don’t recall where). He then plans to buy a kayak and kayak to the continent and buy a camel to take him on the next leg of his journey.

Anywho, this is part of what I love about our retirement plans: Meeting interesting people and having new and interesting (although not always pleasant) experiences.

Never look back. Well, I mean, unless you want to learn from it.  Then look back.

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My note about this passage being uneventful was premature. Two days ago, in midafternoon, the oil light for the port motor started beeping. Having checked the oil that morning, this seemed odd. We turned off the engine and looked inside the engine compartment.

What we saw was lots and lots of oil. Sprayed, on the floor, in the bilge, all over. So that was the end of the port engine for this passage.

You might also remember my having mentioned that Michael and I thought we had filled the starboard engine’s fuel tank but it was showing 3/4 full the last time we looked at it. (I don’t even remember why we checked it.) Well, when we started the starboard engine (after a brief funeral for the port engine), we saw that the fuel tank was only *half* full.

Now this made no sense at all because we hadn’t had leakage problems before. It also made us feel horrible about dumping that much fuel into the water. In any event, we did a couple of things and decided to motor until the starboard tank was pretty low. If the leak seemed to continue at the same rate we were going to revert to the jerry can with two hoses method we had perfected during our first passage. 👍

What we did must have made an impact because the leak appears to have stopped. We decided it was safe to add three jerry cans of diesel to the tank yesterday. We will likely add more to get us to Djibouti.

We are happy that we are toting a lot of diesel.

Anywho . . . Michael and I spent a fair amount of time pumping the liquid out of the engine compartment. I went down into the engine compartment with the fluid extractor and Michael pumped the handle. We collected *five liters* of liquid. It appears that the engine is completely dry of oil. One of our contacts suspects a blown gasket.

What’s worse (?!) is that I made the mistake of wearing one of my favorite pairs of athletic shorts into the compartment. I clearly was NOT thinking! They now have an oil stain covering the entire right side on the back. 😭😭. I will still wear them. They are too cool to toss.

As of now, we are about 84 nm away from Djibouti. We might have to cut back our speed so we arrive after the sun rises. We already have the coordinates for the anchorage and have been in contact with our agent for about a week. We hope to find a slip in a marina cuz we still don’t have a dinghy. (Also 😭😭.).

We also hope to buy three new house batteries and get the engine looked at (again) and the leak. We might end up buying a new port engine.

We are going to need to buy a new refrigerator/freezer unit as well. In my opinion that cannot happen soon enough.

We would love to be able to find a used dinghy in Djibouti, but our hopes are not high.
So, we have a lot to do in Djibouti. I would love to go scuba diving and do some sightseeing.

In the meantime, we continued to motor in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (until recently – we have now exited it). There must be some currents because we were changing our heading from 233° to 255° and all things in between overnight. The wind never changed directions and the seas were pretty steady.

At about noon today a military plane flew overhead. They hailed us on channel 16 and asked us to identify ourselves. We did (boat and Captain’s name). That was that.
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We have been motoring for three full days now. This is due primarily to a lack of wind (although initially it was because the wind was on our nose). At one time on last night’s watch the apparent wind speed (AWS) was *zero*. The arrow on the AWS dial was spinning slowly, looking for guidance.

We continue to follow our six-hour night watches. I read that another couple tried this and stopped after two nights. I like it and Michael told me that he likes anything that makes me happy. What a good husband. I trained him well. JK!

For those who know me, I am an early to bed and late to rise kind of a person. It likely surprises you – as it did me! – that I like the 2:00-8:00 a.m. shift. I get to see both sunsets and sunrises. I can count the number of times I typically see a sunrise in a year on one hand. 👍😀

This passage has been completely uneventful, for which we are grateful. It is a nice change from the 1,500 mile passage from the Seychelles to Oman, during which lots of stuff broke.

We have just over a quarter of a tank of diesel in the port engine tank. We have just been running the port engine on this passage thus far since it has fewer hours on it. For reasons we don’t recall, there is only 3/4 of a tank of fuel for the starboard engine. We thought we’d filled it. In any event, we have enough fuel to motor all the way to Djibouti if we have to . . . but we hope to sail at least a little bit. Since the engines charge the batteries we haven’t run the generator at all.

We are not fishing because the freezer is full and we want to empty it as much as possible so we can defrost it in Djibouti. You may recall that it doesn’t work well. There is so much ice build up on it that it looks like a scene from an ice storm. 🙄

TTFN!
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We left Salalah, Oman at 11:20 a.m. local time yesterday. We have been motoring the entire time since the wind is on our nose. We dodged numerous fishing nets as we crossed the waters outside of Oman.

Yesterday’s ride was a serious rocking horse. Both the wind and the seas were coming towards us. Michael sat at the helm station and I stayed inside where it was more comfortable.

Our night watch schedule was this: Michael from 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. Cindy from 2:00 to 8:00 a.m. We are both happy with our shifts. I read a book on most of my watch which made it go by quickly.

We are sailing “dark” since we are somewhat close to Yemen. Our AIS is on silent mode, which means that we can see other boats on our Raymarine display (MFD) but they can’t see us. We also left the navigation lights off last night. Might be overly cautious, but that is okay with us. 👍

We are now about 39 nm from the entrance to the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) in the Gulf of Aden. We will follow it for most of our time in the Gulf. We expect to be motoring most of it. Good thing we fixed the engines!

Nothing much else to report. We’ve eaten four of the six ice cream treats we bought. The freezer is so sad right now; the ice cream was just short of melting. 🤔 We have barely touched our snacks. We feel that it is important to keep you updated on our snacks. 😆

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Jason left yesterday. It felt weird at first. The three of us had been together 24/7 for almost 3.5 weeks and we had developed a little family. Michael and Jason had worked together to solve many problems. Bye bye, Jason! Safe travels! Have a rum and Coke for each of us.

So, it is just the two of us. Michael spent some time installing the new battery for the generator today. We are going to go with the two house batteries rather than three because we haven’t heard that our agent can find three batteries and we want to leave tomorrow.

Here are a few sites from the berth today. Two ships (I think both from Somalia – one for sure) docked behind us for a bit. One of them stayed for only a short time. There must have been some interesting smells emanating from it because the birds were highly interested. We know for a fact that the one nearer the dock is unloading goats and cattle today.

Seeing these animals coming off boats made me curious to know the main source of meat eaten in Oman. I asked one of the guys who has delivered diesel to us before and did again today. He told me that camels are the main source of meat. I didn’t even know that people ate camel meat. Of course, I Googled it. The countries with the highest levels of camel meat per capita consumption in 2018 (a bit old) were the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman (the last at 3,319 kg per 1000 persons).

We did a bit more provisioning today (many frozen ice cream treats!!) and had five more cans filled with diesel. Now we just need to wait for our agent to make arrangements to clear us out of here.

Many of our friends are not sailors so I thought you might be interested to know about the storage space for our clothes. This is where we keep our warm weather clothes – one drawer per person:

And this is the closet we use for warm weather clothes that we prefer not be wrinkled:

Those are in our cabin. We are using the forward starboard cabin to store our cooler weather clothes (again, one drawer per person) and our foulies (foul weather gear worn by sailors) and other outerwear:

If you visit us on our boat, please do not pack the contents of your walk-in closet. Hee hee.

Michael and I decided to be a bit lazy for dinner last night. We made a big ol’ salad and nothing else.

We hope to get underway before noon tomorrow. This will be our first passage with just two people. We’ll see how our night watch schedule works. . .

We started smelling a bad odor a couple hours ago. It was clearly coming from our boat because we didn’t smell it outside.

After flushing the heads a lot (even though they didn’t seem to smell), we thought the odor might possibly be coming from the sink in the galley. But it didn’t really stink either.

Several hours went by and Michael mentioned the smell again. I then realized that it smelled like sulfur. That led us to look at the house batteries. (We had been trying to figure out for some time why we had to run the generator so much to maintain a charge but hadn’t found the source of the problem.). Turns out one of the three house batteries had failed.

Our theory is that because the battery charger had been removed from the boat the voltage was drained down too much when the boat was in the Seychelles. It was just a matter of time.

We disconnected the battery cables from the battery terminals. We are now using just two house batteries. The voltage already looks better than it has.

We made it into the port! We were surprised to hear from our agent on Saturday, as it was the weekend. We were able to go to berth 26 in the port in mid-afternoon. We stayed on the boat the rest of the day as customs and the police didn’t board Seahike to obtain our documents until the evening. They were very nice.
We learned that we would not be able to go ashore but that the grocery vendor would pick us up from the boat and drive us to the store to buy groceries (and deliver to us those they don’t have in the port store). We were also able to fill our water tanks from a hydrant right by our boat. We also used the water to give Seahike’s exterior a needed bath.

In addition, another person took our jerry cans (the diesel from which we had emptied into our fuel tanks) and filled them for us.
You will be relieved to hear that I finally washed my hair and showered again. As did Michael and Jason.

So, we are sitting pretty. Well, we still need to find out if there is a laundromat. If not, we will hand wash some items.
We are currently waiting for Jason’s visa to be issued. Michael and I think we will be leaving for Djibouti on Thursday.

A few port stories:

1. We were all craving ice cream. We were delighted to purchase ice cream here. We might subsist on ice cream today. 😉
2. The berth is actually a spot by a wall. This is not surprising since this is 100 percent a commercial port. Berth 26 is the sole berth they offer to sailboats (typically sailboats in trouble).
3. All of the fees charged are based on the rates commercial ships are charged. For example, the cost to anchor is $130/day. Yep. You read that right. We were at anchor Monday-Saturday. We are paying a small fortune here. It is what it is. The berth is free. Ha! The price of groceries and diesel is quite reasonable.
4. Everyone we have dealt with at the port is *very* friendly.
5. Two boats down from ours turned out to be a boat from Somalia that was delivering goats to Oman. We are not exaggerating when we estimate that they unloaded 1000 goats. We wondered what the interior of that boat looked and smelled like – but we didn’t wonder enough to ask for a tour.
6. Men are supposed to wear a minimum of short sleeves and shorts. Women are supposed to wear baggy clothing, a minimum of short sleeves and pants or skirts that fall below the knee. While on the boat I continue to wear my shorts.  Having said all of this, we were talking to two (somewhat high up) port employees yesterday, and one of them said that Westerners dress in shorts. So I guess there is the rule and the practice.
7. There is some type of gull here that has the most adorable song. I hope to catch it on video so we can share it with you.
8. Finally, if you ever find yourself on a boat in Oman, be sure to check out with the harbormaster, customs, and the police. Just sayin’.