Arwad in August 2008. They passed through
the Suez Canal, and entered the Red Sea to
begin their re-enactment of the epic voyage.
There would be many challenges to face along
the way, including the danger of attack by
pirates, who were known to be active off the
coast of Somalia. The crew had to be
especially vigilant while navigating these
pirate-infested waters. They relied on
intelligence reports to avoid the most
dangerous areas. At one stage they were
followed by a suspicious boat, which only
vanished when a container ship passed by.
Later they came near to a pirate mother-ship,
which had made an attack only a few days
before. They diverted course to avoid it. The
following week they heard that the pirate
vessel had hijacked three other ships in the
same waters.
Having sailed down the east coast of
Africa, the next challenge was to round the
notorious Cape of Good Hope. The stormy
seas of the Cape have long been a terror for
sailors, and accounted for many wrecks. Here
the Phoenicia met with seven metre waves
and gale force winds that tore the mainsail in
two. The crew made repairs, and continued
their voyage around the Cape.
Having succeeded in overcoming this
great challenge, the small wooden ship
followed a course along the west coast of
Africa. There were not only storms to face,
Launching the ship
but days of adverse winds that caused long