Red Sea, April 22, Time: 06:30 UTC, Position: N16.41, E040.53 We are rolling along the main shipping route, wind over the port stern quarter. We left Djibouti 2 days ago, in the middle of the night. When re-fueling along the seawall of the harbor, we noticed a fellow, who seemed to be quite interested in NOMAD and crew. He asked a lot of questions about our speed, range, destination. Maybe he was genuinely interested in NOMAD, but a local guy who had helped us, warned us to be careful and never give anybody any detailed information about boat and crew -- too many transients from Somalia and other countries use Djibouti as a place to hop on a ship illegally, or worse. Djibouti, although run down and very poor is not such a bad place after all. We met a few very friendly people, eager to help. Of course we met some bad ones too, like the taxi driver, who took DFr 2000 from me for a DFr 500 ride and threatened me -- I was alone in the car. The Harbor Master ( Name: Aden ) was very helpful and friendly. Provisioning is easy in the supermarkets, but expensive -- which has never stopped my crew! Fuel consumption calculates to be about 1 Ltr/Mile under mild to moderate sea conditions. (Ed's note: 1 liter per mile is 3.8 miles per gallon or a remarkable 1.84 gallons per hour. Mind you, Nomad always is run under 7 knots.) As long as the weather is good we don't plan to stop until we get to Suez. We left Phuket, Thailand on March 16, and have been "eating miles" since: 9 days to Male', Maldives, about 1560 miles. 9 day layover, waiting for better weather. 13 days and 2000 miles straight to Djibouti. by-passing Oman because of piracy concerns, passing through the "piracy gauntlets" around Socotra Island, the Gulf of Aden and Somalia. 4 days in Djibouti for some provisioning and re-fueling. Now, the Red Sea, about 1200 miles, followed by the Suez canal and, hopefully, some rest in Cyprus. Many thanks to Stella for sending the insurance papers, which I received on the day of my departure from Yacht Haven Marina. I enjoyed taking to Bill on the HF radio! All the best! Jurgen, Del and Fel Jurgen Seebacher Nomad Diesel Duck 44 #03 Ed's note: Jurgen Seebacher emigrated to the U.S. from his native Germany as a child. He plans to eventually bring Nomad home to Florida but the short-term plan is to spend a year, or two, in the Med. Jurgen is a retired medical doctor voyaging with two retired Philippine nurses as crew. Nomad is a George Buehler design built by Bill Kimley at Seahorse Marine in Zhuhai, China.