Sea Child in the Red Sea: Arriving in Sudan

Old Port Suakin at Dawn 

Our departure from Massawa, Eritrea for Suakin, Sudan began early on Wednesday, April 6, 2016.  The 0500 alarm rang into the darkness, the dim lights of the nearby commercial docks illuminating our stateroom.  We stumbled into the galley, brewed the sweet aromas of coffee, and untied Sea Child for our next destination, Suakin, Sudan, 278.5NM to our NNW.  We sailed past the docks and noticed the freighters that were being loaded up with the dozens of containers that had arrived just the day before.  We had watched those containers zip through the dusty Massawa streets, the only vehicles on the desolate roads.  Truck after truck waited to enter the secure Port of Massawa and while we were bound to Sea Child after the confiscation of our shore passes, the friendly Port Authority official told us the contents of the containers.  They contained gold and ore and copper to be shipped to far away countries like China and beyond.  They glistened in the fragments of sunrise, each awaiting their respective journey to faraway lands.

The sunrise illuminated our path to the northwest, with a flat, calm sea welcoming us as we hoisted a full main and rolled out the screecher.  The winds were light and steady during our sail to Sudan, on overnight journey, and the one knot current we fought up to Suakin was consistent with the same current we fought up the entire Red Sea coast, from Eritrea and Sudan and up through Egypt to the top of the Gulf of Suez.  The AIS was lit up with targets all over the Red Sea, commercial vessels sailing to and from distant shores, up to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean or to the south to Pakistan or China or Penang.  So many foreign vessels to keep us company at night and making our watch to Sudan as pleasant as possible.

Sea Child at Port Suakin

We averaged 7.9 knots boat speed during the 35 hour passage to Suakin, and with one not so small incident of avoiding a collision with an unmarked reef, we set anchor in Suakin, Sudan at 1700 on Thursday, April 7, 2016.  We had arrived into a new country, another African nation, a whole new world.  All I knew of Sudan was from what I had seen and heard via American media channels.  From Darfur to Khartoum, it seemed to me that this country was one of strife and war and unrest.  To say that I was nervous about our time there is a gross understatement.  I felt scared, unsure, possibly unwelcome as white Americans in a foreign African landscape.  Our adrenaline was peaked, again, at our arrival into such a distant, remote panorama.  The sights and smells of Suakin were overpowering and irresistible, like nothing we’ve ever imagined.

Sudanese Currency

Prior to the succession of South Sudan in 2011, Sudan was the largest country in all of Africa.  Bordered by Eritrea on its southern Red Sea border and Egypt on its northern.  It remains a visual testament to the diversity of the continent.  According to our Sudan: Brandt Travel Guide, “if you cross Sudan, you will see all of African in one country”.  Our focus of Sudan was the Red Sea Coast, a territory of Sudan separated by the spine of the Red Sea Hills from the rest of the country.  The heat of the Red Sea can reach upwards of 122 degrees F in summer.  Sea Child arrived in Sudan in early April, yet the assault of the heat was only tempered by a moving breeze floating off the Red Sea itself.

New Mosque in old Port Suakin

Preparing for a visit to Sudan on Sea Child was no easy task.  Information is not readily available, though noonsite.com provides general information as does the Red Sea Pilot, both of which we had onboard.  We also stocked up on various travel guides, Brandt in particular is a good source for off the beaten patch countries like Sudan.  We consumed as much information as possible to prepare ourselves for our short visit to Suakin and the Red Sea Coast of Sudan.

As prepared as we thought we were, arriving in Suakin, Sudan was an experience like no other.  The sights and smells of Suakin were both recognizable yet foreign in their combinations.  The colors of the late afternoon sun reflected orange and yellow and ochre on the rocky, sandy shores of Port Suakin.  The winds carried the scents of donkeys, dirt and trash towards us, as droplets of red grit covered the decks of Sea Child.

Cinnamon Bark

Sudanese sellers

Suakin was once a major port for Sudan and remains the oldest port in the country.  The port is significant due to its trade in both pilgrims to Mecca as well as slaves to Egypt, Sauda Arabia and beyond.  Controlled by the Ottoman Sultans who ruled Suakin from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during the peak of the Red Sea trade, the port was ultimately annexed to Egypt in 1865.  By the end of the 20th century, the main port of Sudan was moved to Port Sudan, 30NM to the north of Suakin.  This move helped to accommodate the more modern ships being built at the time and brought a rapid decline to the once thriving little port of Suakin.  The once ornate buildings surrounding the anchorage had crumbled into ruins.  While the slave trade is now but a bitter memory, the ferries to Mecca and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia continue to thrive, bringing pilgrims from all over Africa to the holiest shrines in all of Islam.

Sudanese Children

We called the Suakin Port Authority prior to our entry into the anchorage area, who in turn must have phoned the local agent of our arrival.  We had read in our Red Sea Pilot that the agent, Mohammed, would greet all arriving yachts into Suakin.  He was there to meet Sea Child, too.  As we droped our anchor we noticed a man waving to us from shore and before the sun set, Eric dropped the dinghy and brought a tall, stately, elegant Sudanese man to Sea Child.  Mohammed was dressed in all white.  A long robe with a neat, white skull cap against his perfect ebony skin.  His bright white smile and kind demeanor immediately put us at ease as he welcomed us to Sudan.  He explained in perfect English that his primary job is immigration for the country, assisting pilgrims during the annual hajj to Saudi Arabia.  His “other” job is to assist visiting yachts such as Sea Child and to obtain temporary shore permits, fuel, laundry and provisions all with his kind assistance.

Mohammed and the diesel delivery

Compared to other countries we had visited, entry to Sudan was quite simple.  Mohammed needed two copies of our passports, one set of passport photos, one copy of our ships papers, all stated in the Red Sea Pilot.  Unlike the Maldives, where we had to forward several documents via email (crew lists, ship stores, ammunition lists if any, etc) Sudan was efficient in the paperwork requests.  Mohammed took our documents with him to shore, as well as our bags of dirty laundry and our 4 empty jerry jugs for diesel.  The day was getting late, and he would return in the morning with our shore passes and filled diesel jugs.

Mohammed’s early departure was a blessing in disguise, as we had an early dinner, shower and bed for a  wonderful night sleep.  The fatigue of our journey was compounded by our impressions of Sudan and our bodies cried out for rest.  At 0900 the next morning, Eric picked Mohammed again on shore with our filled diesel jugs and shore passes.  He arrived with a friend this time, who hauled up large, blue plastic diesel drums and sucked the diesel out of a hose to get the syphon flowing into our diesel tanks.  I’m sorry not to have remembered the name of Mohammed’s friend, but it did interest me that he was one of the few Sudanese men who did not wear the traditional white robes and skull caps. They both worked side by side on the transom of Sea Child, filling diesel with bright smiles in the morning heat.

Eric & the tea seller

Mohammed also helped us provision Sea Child by driving us around in his neat, late model Mercedes Benz, also known as his “memorial car” as Mohammed referred to his black 4-door sedan complete with missing hub cap.  He drove us past the crumbled ruins of the old port and into the more modern buildings of Suakin, past donkey carts filled with the bales of hay and past rickety lean-tos of past and present homes.  We first visited a fruit market.  A covered open air building with several stalls filled with a variety of fruits of vegetables.  Each stall was manned by Sudanese men; each stall offering the same vegetables.

Appropriately covered for the market

I was covered appropriately in head scarf, long skirt and long sleeve shirt and felt comfortable with Mohammed as my guide through the fruit market. He knew all the vendors and took us to the freshest stands.  Yet tugging at the back of my mind was the fact that in stall after stall no women were to be found.  It was as if this particular market was run by men only.  I was the only female around, yet I felt completely at ease in selecting the delectable fresh foods.  Outside the market, we bought tea from a local man who setup shop on the steps of the market.  He squatted on bent knees over a wood fire covered with a metal plate.  He brewed his tea in a smoldered kettle and we were served in smudged glasses.  Though this may bring on a future stomach ailment, we enjoyed a few minutes of sitting in the shade of the market and observing the area around us.  We saw boxes of cigarettes awaiting individual sale, a lonely tuk-tuk parked behind a neat stump of wood.  Individual stores lined the market with arabic writing in a tight red script alongside scattered boxes filled with the exotic aromas of cinnamon bark.  When we drove back to the rocky anchorage, Mohammed stopped by a bread seller, an antiquated drive-up building that housed a cotton-lined shelf covered in a dusty flour.  We grabbed a few bags of delicious Sudanese pita, soft, warm and for some mysterious reason a bit crunchy, must have had something to do with all the red dirt blowing around.

The selection was amazing!

We were able to find yellow pumpkin, green watermelon, kale-type leafy greens, sweet onions and red peppers, ensuring delicious Red Sea meals onboard Sea Child.  Observing the men and women of Suakin, we noticed that almost every man was dressed in all white like Mohammed.  Yet when I finally spotted the women, they moved gracefully across the dusty paths to their lean-to homes and they were dressed in the most brilliant red and yellow local gowns with twisted headscarves.  Their regal stature balanced the baskets on their heads and their beauty radiated in the surroundings.  It was so difficult to grab a picture of the women, but their presence in Suakin was a treat for us to see.

Mohammed and his "memorial car"

Mohammed took us to a “duty free” store where we were able to find Diet Coke.  A treat on Sea Child, Diet Coke has been unavailable to us since we sailed from Thailand over two months ago.  Even in the Maldives, we were unable to spot anything relating to diet anything.  Coke was found everywhere, but to see Diet Coke in Sudan was a great find.  And at the end of a full day with Mohammed, he took us to a local diner, a Lebanese Chicken restaurant that only had one item on its menu:  Chicken BBQ with puffy pita, sweet onions, greens and fuul (a type of fava bean smashed like hummus).  The meal was so delicious we bought another set of meals to take back to Sea Child to enjoy at a later time.

Dinner house

Duty free store

What a donkey!

Our final day in Suakin was spent walking around the ruins near the anchorage.  Crumbled rocks were everywhere.  Men on donkeys passed us with bales of hay stacked high or on carts filled with pipes.  Young men would watch us walk by and pose for pictures.  One man actually came up to us and showed us a dagger he had tucked into his waist belt.  We weren’t really sure what he was trying to tell us.  Did we want to buy it? Did he want to show us what he made?  Was he trying to threaten us?  He did motion for us to follow him to his bakery and given its dusty nature we decided to pass on buying any of his bread.  We did hope to receive our passports back from Mohammed this day, but he called and explained that since it was a Friday, the afternoon prayer service would not finish in time for him to return our passports and departure papers to us till late afternoon.  This would delay our departure until early the next morning, which was fine since we could take the tme to explore more and meet new yachties arriving in the anchorage.

Suakin tourists

One of the greatest things about sailing new areas is meeting new people, hearing their tales of adventures and learning their stories.  We met the most interesting European during our visit to Suakin, and while I will not print his name to protect his privacy, I can tell you that he was a former UN Peacekeeper in Syria 10 years ago.  He told us that he saw first hand of CNN reporters paid $1000 USD to Syrians to hold signs that would make the news.  In his opinion, CNN actually ignited the start of the Syrian conflict, turning a beautiful country into a terrible war and humanitarian crisis.  He told us how Assad Basheer was a dentist who came back to Syria to build roads and schools afer his father, the previous president of Syria, died.  According to our European friend, the 3-way fight between Saudi Arabia, the US and Russia has torn Syria apart, while the refugee crisis is destroying Europe.  He was animated and intense in his descriptive analsysis of the Syrian crisis, and while we had no opinion on his remarks, we did find his conversation interesting.  Many cruisers share their experiences with new friends and we were intrigued at his comments about the current Syrian situation.

Ferry to Suakin from Saudi Arabia

Before sunrise, after the muezzin call to prayer, we bid farewell to Suakin. The north winds had backed down enough to give us safe passage out the 2.3NM, narrow waterway to the Red Sea.  The images, experiences, friendships and memories of Suakin paint a pleasant picture of Sudan.  While in no means a wealthy country, the vibrancy of life is evident everywhere.  Children ran near their parents, adults worked at their respective trades, and while news may have us believe that Sudan is to be avoided, we do not share this perspective.  We were thankful for Mohammed, a true gentleman and friend who went out of his way to open up Sudan to Sea Child.  As we ventured into the waters around Sudan, we felt prepared with our Sim card and provisions from Suakin.  Halfway up the Red Sea and now we were about to embark of our true passion, the waters of the Red Sea and all the treasures we could find beneath them.

Sea Child half way up Red Sea; Delorme InReach Map

Note Regarding Diesel Consumption:

We actually did quite well on our fuel consumption since sailing from the Maldives with full water, fuel and jerry jugs.  Sea Child holds 159 gallons of diesel and we carry another 20 gallons in 4 jerry jugs.  Upon arrival in Socotra, Yemen, we refilled the 20 gallons in the jerry jugs and continued on to Eritrea and Suakin.  We used 80 gallons of diesel on the 2,500 NM sail from Uligan to Suakin.  Average boat speed during the passage was 8.7 knots with just the two of us on board.

To be continued on our next blog:  Sea Child in Sudan:  Diving and Snorkeling the Red Sea and Sanganeb Reef