Eclipse 2006 Trip

Day 7 - At Sea and at Tobruk, Libya late

We left Alexandria, Egypt late Monday evening (nearly midnight) and sailed all night, through the morning and afternoon to Tobruq, Libya. I'm sure that the captain wanted to arrive there well before dark, primarily because this ship had never called on Tobruq before. In fact this cruise line had never had any ship call there. Prior to arriving at the port land was visible for several hours off our port (left) side. The coast of Libya was all shades of brown and tan. No green in sight. It remained that way even in port. And this was their rainy season. It had rained the week before but no green in sight.

We entered the harbor and the pier came into view. A pilot boat, tug boat combination came along side and then circled us. The men on board waved and smiled in our first Libyan welcome. On the pier were dignitaries, military and political, to further welcome us. Having a ship the size of the Sinfonia was a big deal. After tying up and getting legal matters settled, 63 people from our group set out for an overnight camp in the Sahara near our eclipse viewing site for tomorrow. They stayed in 2 man tents and were fed a Libyan feast. We stayed on board for the night, making sure all our gear was ready for the morning ride to our viewing site inland.

The Libyan coast east of Tobruq.
Near Tobruq.	photo by Eve Johnston
Tobruq is a busy port.
The pilot/tug along side the ship.	photo by Eve Johnston
Al Mukhtar
Crew of the tug up close.
The Tobruq harbor.
The pier.
Welcomers by the gangway.
Quite a bouquet!
Look at all that brass!