Captain’s Log (Well, not really but “Passenger’s Log” just doesn’t sound right)

Prolog:
It all started about a couple of months ago. After staring at the Word document on my computer screen for over an hour, adding no more than one or two software requirements (which will most probably make no sense after the product is developed), I once again found myself surfing the Net (and I wonder why I go home late every day!!) .
After verifying that nothing had changed on Ynet, Hotmail or Facebook in the last 5 minutes (come on, you didn’t honestly believe I was working for a full straight hour did you?) I checked out what was going on in the Kite surfing forum. That’s where I saw it…
Someone had uploaded the new Nobile (Kite Equipment Company) promotional movie. What I saw was the Nobile team boarding a yacht and surfing in what looked like a dessert paradise and turned out to be a Kite surfing safari to deserted island spots in the Red Sea (and I mean the “other” Red Sea, the one with Egypt on both sides of it).
The first thing that came to mind was “I want to go to there!!!” (am I the only one who watches “30 Rock” and gets that reference??). Two months, several investigations and research, numerous phone calls, and three near cancellations later, 9 guys (and one brave gal) met up at the Hashalom junction at 2am ( well actually, four of use met at the designated 1am and the rest are “surprisingly” late!!). We began heading south. The All-Israeli Kite surfing Safari was underway.

Day One:
We reached the border at around 6am and removed our gear from the car. Amazing how much redundant kiting gear you can drag along for a week when there is no baggage weight limit. We entered the border crossing and were happy to realize that not many tourists go into Egypt from Israel these days (surprising). Seeing as we were the only ones there, it would be a quick crossing. One hour later we were in Egypt. We had arranged our transportation in advance and two buses were in fact waiting for us. We all got on the bus and waited for our driver to step out of the huddle he had been in together with the local security officers (at least that’s what we thought they were. With all the uniform colors mixed in with civilian clothed officers, they might as well have been the waiters from the Hilton Taba) , deep in a serious discussion. We finally headed out and that is when we realized that all the discussion had been regarding our security, seeing as we had two security officers on the buses with us all the way to Sharm El Sheik. (Although I really would have liked to see what two security officers with no guns would do if attacked by Al Keida… or Hezbollah… or a fly.)
The trip down to Sharm went smoothly. It’s the first time the gang passed the 40km mark (our usual spot) going South in Sinai and when we reached Sharm and saw how beautiful the place is, we wondered why we had never been there before (ah yes, it’s all those terrorists trying to kill us!). We reached our first stop, the Kite Junkies kite club on the beach of Sharm. The plan was to spend the day surfing there until the afternoon when we would head out to Hurghada where our boat was waiting. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the wind was down. So instead, we had a Winch Wakeboarding session which was a barrel of laughs.
At 3pm we were all back in the bus on our way to the Port of Sharm, where we hopped on to a speed ferry to Hurghada (the originally planned departure from Sharm will have to wait for the next trip) that took us across the Suez Canal (Arik would be proud!). After another half hour of deliberations with the authorities (we were probably the first Israelis they had seen coming off that ferry in say…. Ever!!) we met our hosts who took us over to our yacht, the Sea King.
We started planning this trip a couple of months ago. Two months, 4 hours through the Negev, 3 hours through Sinai, and 3 hours on a ferry later, the fun begins!!

Day 2:
There is not much to say about the first night on the boat. We were so tired from the trip that most of us went straight to bed (great rooms by the way). When we woke up the next morning, it seemed as if we were in a totally different world.
The first sign of morning came at around 5am, just as the yacht’s engines started and we headed out of the Hurghada marina on our way to the islands. Needless to say, everybody continued to sleep. Though with the boat racing forward it felt like sleeping on a rollercoaster ride. At around 9am we all got up , went out to the deck, and realized we were smack in the middle of paradise. Various shades of blue waters around us, small islands on either side of the boat, and it seemed we were not the only surfers around as we had a family of dolphins surfing with us at the front of the boat!!!
Trying to describe the surf spots and surroundings will most probably not do them justice. Pictures can tell the story much better. We surfed the spot the whole day. The crew set up a seafood lunch for us on the beach (all that was missing was some “Agadoo doo doo” music and we were practically in Club Med!). We returned to the boat near sunset. A quick yoga and stretching session on the roof of the yacht, dinner, some hands of Texas Hold’em and off to bed.

Day 3:
Though we planned on a “Sunrise surfing session”, nobody woke up before 9am. After a quick breakfast the dingy took us back out to the beach where our gear was waiting for us where we left it the night before (did I mention we were on totally deserted islands?). We started the day with a morning session after which it was time to head out to our next spot. And what better way to do it than by escorting our yacht on an hour long downwind ride, navigating between the reefs and offshore drilling stations. We reached our next spot and though we planned on taking it easy the first couple of days, we surfed strait until sunset.
That evening, our “Club Med” crew set up a BBQ for us on the beach. It had been only 3 days (2 if you don’t count our arrival) out of a seven day trip and already it was hard to think of any other vacation that measured up. It seemed that this was as good as it gets!!!

Day 4:
Guess what? It got better!! The rumble of the King’s engines at 5:30am signaled that we would once again wake up on a brand new spot. When we headed out to the deck we discovered that we were at the southern point of two strings of islands, with shallow reefs in between. As ships cannot navigate between these islands due to the shallow waters, we were in virgin territory not yet explored by kitesurfers (or anyone else for that matter). So for the day we put aside the mega kiteloops, handle passes and KGBs of the freestyle world (which none of us was even near hitting anyway) and set out on a kiting expedition.
The length of the island was about 7 kilometers. With the wind blowing around 25 knots from North to South(!!), we were off on our first upwind trip. The ride was amazing in ways that are hard to describe. Riding back and forth on an upwind path we surfed over reefs with no more than 10cm of water above them (well, when I say we I mean the crazy ones, the sane people kept in the deeper water area J). Every time we got near the islands nature surprised us with bird nests, we were followed by jumping fish (I think one of them managed a backloop 360), rode over Manta Rays and played around with the reef break on the edges. Our final destination was what seemed to be a lagoon enclosed within the Northern-most island. When we finally made it to the top (around an hour after we started) we saw the narrow entrance to the island, edged hard over the shallow reef that covered the path and then the view opened up to an amazing shallow water lagoon, as if taken directly from the movie “The Beach”. We started out ten, but only three of us managed to reach the lagoon. With no one around, we put down our kites and took a well deserved break.
We headed back south on a downwind path. With the distance up and down the island and all the zigzagging back and forth we covered around 50km altogether, cruising along the way without a single jump. One of the best (and first for most of us) kite expeditions ever!!!

Day 5:
By the fifth morning we all started to feel the strain of so much surfing. With the wind blowing all day, we had grabbed every second of surfing time that we could during the first days and the effects and tiredness started to kick in. That of course didn’t stop any of us from setting up our gear and heading off on what would be an epic downwind to the next (and last but by no means least) spot. It was amazing to see everyone walking around half crippled but the moment they hooked up their kites, adrenalin kicked in and everyone looked as fresh as on the first day.
On our first downwind, we basically surfed down the island shores from one spot to the other. This time we headed out into the open sea, targeting a hidden beach on an island we could only see far in the distance when we headed out. The waters soon turned from flat to wavy, which gave us a chance to play around with some waves and kickers. With the boat picking up the rear, we kited down south for around 1.5-2 hours, until we reached the Eastern shores of our target island. At this point we still hadn’t spotted our final destination. It was only after we turned the south east corner of the island that we saw it. A wide open sandy beach running around 500 meters across, knee high waters and an endless array of blue and turquoise colors with absolutely no one around (still hard to get used to J)welcomed us.
After a lunch break and some rest and relaxation, we hit the beach for a couple of more sessions before sundown. After visiting four different spots in four days, we decided we would surf the week out on our new bay which was no less than a kite surfing paradise.

Day 6-7:
With each of us feeling pain in different parts of our bodies, it would only be natural to think we took it easy our last two days. But every time we looked at the beach and the water we just couldn’t help ourselves and went out for another session.
The waters were so shallow people took turns holding the camera in the middle of the spot while the rest of us jumped all around, producing in total over 2500 (!!!) pictures throughout the week. With time on our hands, we choreographed some synchronized surfing pics, with all of us holding the kites up, thus producing magazine quality photos. Another guy decided to go extreme and took off from the roof of the boat. And one more guy pulled a bit too hard and too fast on his bar and was sent flying with the birds to mark the best hang time (and most spectacular boardless crash) of the trip.
When night came we headed to the back of the boat and finally understood where the fresh fish and seafood we were served daily came from. With a strong light from the boat hitting the water behind the boat, you could see schools of fish and calamari swimming around the back of the boat just waiting to be caught (literally, the water was so clear you could see them with your naked eyes!!), which is exactly what the crew of the boat did.
The next morning nature had another surprise for us. We were woken up by shouting from the deck. After clearing my head I deciphered the shouts as saying “Dolphins, dolphins!!” I quickly ran out, grabbing my waterproof helmet camera on the way and jumped into the dingy to join the guys who were already there. We met with what seemed to be a group of 20+ dolphins swimming around the boat. We jumped into the water to swim alongside them, and the camera produced footage that until then we had seen only on National Geographic. The experience was incredible!!!
A couple of lazy (photo) sessions marked the end of our surfing experience. We headed back to Hurghada after lunch arriving at the marina in the evening. We unanimously agreed this was the best surfing trip we’ve ever been on (actually managing to dethrone Brazil as the best surf vacation ever!!!). The next morning we left the boat and our paradise islands behind and headed back home…