Captain Scott ~ October 3rd, 2007

October 1st:
While waiting on DHL we bled the hydrolic lines on the autopilot and the unit seemed to work at the dock. To test it outside the marina the Jordian Navy required us to leave our passports and restricted where we could go. The autopilot did not work but this time we got a rudder responce alarm. This allowed us to find the problem and fix it. My dive trip was at a nearby marine park. There was a sunken 300ft freighter on its side. Max depth possible was 100 ft and the upper side was about 40 ft under the surface. The coral reefs here are all young. I have never seen such brillent colored coral and almost all of it alive. Late sunday afternoon we got our packages from DHL. They have been in Jordan for 8 days. Insult to inury--we were charged 300 dollors for handling fees. Pipe Dream covered only 330nm in the first 2 days after leaving Jordan. This was due to running under engine only at low rpm in flat calm. We never saw another ship during the first night in the Gulf of Aqaba but saw plenty the second night in the Red Sea. The mirror like water reflected starlight and we were visited by several pods of dolphins.

We left Aqaba monday morning bound for Massawa in Eritria 1000 miles away. I wanted to touch Saudi Arabia to collect another new country. As we got close in we were stopped by 3 patrol boats. The crew all agreed that if we were thrown out of the place, we must have been there. So I'm counting it #114. Now powering down the Gulf ofAqaba in flat calm. At dawn on the 3rd of Oct we picked up our first breeze and are now running wing and wing toward the Sudan boarder. It’s hard to imagine being more tranquil on a sailboat. We are now south of Miami’s latitude and hope to see the Southern Cross by tomorrow night. NATO warships are conducting exercises in the area. We have yet to see them but have heard an American carrier on the radio. A Yemen volcanic island was shaken by quakes and volcanic eruption on Sunday. Of the 7 soldiers on the island there is only 1 survivor. The Island is in the middle of the Red Sea near Massawas latitude. So we are going there to see for ourselves.