Days 98, 99 and 100 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 5th, 6th and 7th March – Ashdod, Israel to Alexandria, Egypt and at sea to southern Italy

We arrived in Alexandria after we had gone to sleep last night. We awoke early and breakfasted so that we could make a day of it in the town. Unlike most ports this one is in the centre. From the vantage point of the ship’s top deck we have an excellent view in every direction. There were buildings of all types, lovely looking ex colonial looking palaces and mosques and the inevitable reflecting glass modern structures. Most were however tumbledown high rises which look in the binoculars too dangerous to live in.

Apart from our steward who served us breakfast the ship was amazingly quiet. When the ship arrives late the crew work through the night unloading cargo. We eventually managed to find Michele, the third officer who looks about fifteen and is responsible for passenger relations. He went off to find the agent to get us a shore pass. A few minutes later he came back to say that landing is not possible at this port……. We reconciled ourselves to sitting on the top deck watching all the goings on.

It was a pleasant sunny day and although disappointed about not going ashore we had plenty to see. Ships here were being unloaded much as they would have been in the UK fifty years ago. Right on our stern several dockers were in the hold of a large coaster sending up bags by crane. Idling away the time we decided to see with the binoculars whether there were any women on the street. Much to our surprise we did eventually see a group of about six, all together and of course all wearing scarves. We saw the most amazing site of a mobile crane, similar to the one we use to launch Hobnob, driving along the main street and into the docks with its jib fully extended. They live dangerously here.

The management decided that he would try independent navigation of the Grande Ellade to Salerno, our next port of call. He programmed half a dozen waypoints into the GPS and calculated his estimated time of arrival at each point. Unlike the crew he was not prepared to stay up all night to see how his navigation progressed. We did however go on deck to watch our departure at about 10pm and see the lights of Alexandria recede into the distance.

We spent Thursday at sea. It was another sunny day and the ship headed north west towards Sicily. We had an easterly wind which was throwing up large white tops even downwind. The management was concerned because we were getting to his waypoints sooner than expected. He went to the very stern of the ship, faced into the wind and estimated he could feel about 10 knots on his face. The ship was doing just under 20 knots so we had a good force 6 blowing us along. It seemed a great shame to the management that we had to run the engines at all. With the wind on the starboard quarter the great flat topsides five storeys high from sea level should give us at least 10 knots and no fuel would be used.

The master decided to keep the crew on their toes by having a bomb scare exercise. Passengers were excluded from playing which was a shame because it would have been fun to search the ship. It only affected us by causing our dinner to be late. We then watched a film before turning in for the night. The master is only about 15 miles off the management’s course. The management puts this down to the master having a bigger computer.

Friday was spent at sea. The ship’s clock went back an hour last night to Italian time and amusingly the clock in our cabin suddenly started running slowly backwards till the new time was reached. We were invited to Frank’s cabin to play Scrabble. Frank is a 75 year old New Yorker doing the whole round voyage of over a month. He lives in the owner’s cabin and rates his ability at Scrabble. The stoker is herself a very able player and together with the management we are a formidable team. That is so long as the management plays before the stoker. Being dyslexic he is very happy if he can put his letters together to make any acceptable words at all. When he manages it he leaves so many openings for the literate stoker that she accumulated a huge number of points.

During the evening we passed between Sicily and the foot of Italy. We watched the pilot come aboard and steer the ship through the narrow straits busy with shipping. It was all the more impressive in the dark of the stormy night with lightning in the background and the lights on Mount Etna high above us.

Days 101, 102 and 103 Saturday, Sunday and Monday 8th, 9th and 10th March Salerno to Savona

We awoke on Saturday anchored off Salerno waiting for a pilot. The management was delighted that his estimated times of arrival at every waypoint along the route from Alexandria had been within 30 minutes of the actual times. Soon after breakfast we were able to go ashore. It poured with rain all day but we walked a long way, needing the exercise after six days onboard. It was fun to be back in the town from which we started cycling three months ago. It is a lovely place which would benefit from another visit in better weather.

We put to sea again well after dark and when we awoke the sea had calmed but it was not warm enough to bask in the sun. We followed the coast some way off and occasionally passed some of the attractive islands which dot the sea hereabouts. Just as we were thinking about lunch George, the second mate, warned us that there would be a safety drill.

When the bell went off we were consigned to the care of Boc the steward. We were slightly handicapped because although we had two lifejackets we only had one hard hat and one immersion suit between us. The stoker volunteered to wear her cycle helmet and, subject to it being large enough, we are still friendly enough to share a survival suit. But as you would expect on such a well run ship the missing items appeared.

We went on deck with the rest of the crew. We had not looked out on the port side for some time but we were met with a wonderful view. Corsica with its long spine of snow covered mountains surprised us even though we had experienced its verticality in 2000. Sardinia off the stern was nice and flat and Elba to starboard steep and rocky. The islands took our minds off the drill in hand.

It seemed that the master had smuggled an inspector of safety procedures onboard. The passengers had come up to standard and were dismissed. The crew then swung out and partially lowered a lifeboat and had great fun shooting water up into the air with the fire hoses. We were very gratified that unlike on the Titanic the lifeboat and the other equipment worked fine. Lunch which followed had something of a party atmosphere about it. A home made lemon liqueur was produced by a member of the crew who had visited home in Salerno. Everybody’s health was drunk and the master seemed pleased with the way the inspection had gone.

It was too late to go ashore at Savona when we arrived on Sunday evening. We decided to have an earlier breakfast than usual and planned a cycle ride for Monday. When we awoke it was raining heavily and at first we changed our plan and settled down for a day onboard. The rain however cleared a little but it was still unsettled so we walked into town.

Savona is a pleasant place with shopping streets and a nice marina full of yachts to admire. We ambled along covered walkways intended to provide shade on a sunny day and in our case shelter from the odd rain drop. It was market day and we dodged the drips and the eye poking umbrellas to wander round the colourful stalls. Because all the panniers are full we have a rule that new things can only be bought if something old is sacrificed. Neither of us spent any money. We returned to the ship, enjoyed our lunch onboard then sailed heading south west at 3pm.