Egypt - Sailing Up the Nile

[KIWI]

HI all,

This is something that has interested both my wife and myself as we spent 3 months there 2 years ago , We were a month in Cairo and same in Luxor and Aswan and loved it and as a builder they leave us for dead as there attention to detail is second to none.
We have been looking at the possibility when I retire at the end of this year buying a boat in the Med and spending the next 10 years sailing it home,, BUT, Sailing up the Nile if it's possible would be amazing as we have found the people the friendliest of any of the country's we have been to except maybe Greece and we have both traveled the world but now would like to do it at a slower pace.
Any info would be helpful as it could determine the type of boat we would buy.

Thanks

Graham

[captain58sailin]

I think a Faering, would be appropriate. One should be very careful in that neighborhood, I have only seen Cairo at peak rush hour which is an experience unto itself. I have spent time in Alexandria, have made several Suez passages, from where I was in that area, it wasn't somewhere I would think, that I would want to risk, my people or my vessel. The thing that struck me about that area was the abject poverty, and I would think that a yacht would be a terrible temptation to those who have nothing. Having said that, I have never sailed up the Nile, and know nothing of the river itself.

[KIWI]

You speak of someone unsure of the Muslim/Arab culture, They are not what you think, They are friendly helpful and as a New Zealander who spent three months there I can not say enough good about them , I have a brother who lives in the US and he is scared shirtless about going there because of the way the US treats the Arab's in general but as a KIWi we were treated like kings

[captain58sailin]

I have spent a lot of time in the middle east, and have truly enjoyed the experience. What I am speaking has nothing to do with the religious or cultural aspects, only with the poverty; what a yacht represents to the poor is more than several lifetimes of income in one place at one time.
Fair winds, and pleasant voyage.

[maxingout]

I lived for sixteen years in Arabia, sailed up the Red Sea, and I have visited most of the countries in the Middle East. The six weeks that we spent in Egypt were enjoyable and affordable. We also did a Nile River cruise on one of the riverboats. I speak passable Arabic, and I am relatively fearless about traveling in Arabic speaking countries.

I think a trip up the Nile would be possible, but I suspect that you would sail through miles of red tape during the trip. Officialdom would not know what to do with you as you proceeded on your voyage because you would fall between the cracks in their bureaucracy. It could go very well or extremely poorly. When we entered Egypt on Exit Only, we paid someone to fill out 40 pages of documents just to enter the country on a yacht. It was actually easy, because someone knew what papers needed to be completed, and we gratefully paid them for their services. That was a best case scenario.

Along the Egyptian coast, there are many restrictions on where you can anchor your yacht, and they send officials out to tell you to move if you are anchored in the wrong place. The problem is that you don't know if they really are officials or not.

99.9% of the Egyptians are wonderful people, but they are also very poor. Whenever you stopped the boat, you would be quickly swamped by dozens of people wanting to sell things to you.

For you to make this type of trip, I would recommend taking on an Egyptian crew member for the duration of the voyage up the Nile. His job would be to translate, ward off unwanted boarders and sellers of merchandise, do your paperwork, and watch your boat when you were not on board. There isn't going to be much in the way of marinas on the Nile, and an Egyptian national would be of assistance when when dealing with petty officials and others who tell you everything that you cannot do.

It would be a fun trip to make if you had the right crew member, especially if he was connected to someone in the government.

[maxingout]

We enjoyed our trip up the Red Sea,and our travels in Egypt and the Suez Canal. We even made a DVD of our adventure called: Maxing Out: The Red Sea Chronicles. http://www.maxingout.com/red_sea_chronicles_DVD.htm
Check out some of the videos of the trip on our website or on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=maxingout&aq=f

[KIWI]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply, We knew there would be a lot of red tape involved and we have Friends in Cairo that we stay with and our Friends wife is Egyptian and live in the very affluent suburb of Mirage city so while we were in Cairo nothing was a problem.

We have done the Nile cruise thing, Stayed in the west bank of Luxor in a apartment for three weeks great way to mix with the locals, We are going back next year with the idea to buy a boat and take the slow boat home but the idea of sailing up the Nile really excites me, We know the the mast would have to come down to get under the bridges in Cairo and it would have to be a cat not too big 38-45' range.

They say when you get to 65 and retire you get to the silly season and you may only have only maybe 10-15 active life left before you really start to slow down so it's time to do the things you always have dreamed of.

Graham

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by KIWI

Hi Dave,
They say when you get to 65 and retire you get to the silly season and you may only have only maybe 10-15 active life left before you really start to slow down so it's time to do the things you always have dreamed of.
Graham

Long live the silly season, and the sooner, the better.

One of the things I like about Kiwis and Ozzies is that most of them don't wait eternally to live their dreams. Most of them that I know get the best out of life even when they aren't out there sailing on the seven seas. They always have a shrimp on the barbie.

Everyone knows that it's not safe to drive overland from Capetown to Cairo. Everyone except the Ozzies. When I was in Egypt, I met two Ozzies in their late sixties who had just driven in a Toyota troopie from Cairo to Capetown without a problem. When I was in Turkey, I met a couple of other Ozzies who had driven a 1965 VW combie from Capetown to Istanbul without a problem. What are all these crazy people doing out there risking their lives living their dreams? Such audacity is almost intolerable.

A trip up the Nile river is audacious from start to finish. It's obviously impossible for the majority of humanity. But put an Ozzie or a Kiwi in the cockpit, and they will make it all the way to Aswan.

[Steve Pope]

Irving Johnson sailed "Yankee" up the nile, she was 50" steel centreboarder, google Irving Johnson and you will tap into a lot of info about him and his wife and their cruising on "Yankee"

[JamesANGreen]

I'm also interested in sailing up the Nile. Most sensible suggestion here seems to be taking on a local as a guide and seeking official sanction. If anyone has actually done this (other than Irving Johnson) I'd love to hear from them.