Image by asterix77777

ANTARES – Geocache of the Week

Traditional
GC2MFZN
by omabande
Difficulty:
1
Terrain:
1
Location:
Egypt
N 25° 31.868 E 034° 38.471

Every hundred years (give or take a decade), a message in a bottle washes ashore from the sea, its origin often mysterious and the contents weathered. It is rare that such a vessel takes the form of a curiously vacant yacht marooned for years. This led a resourceful cache owner to place a container within, creating a bottle big enough to search inside for this Geocache of the Week!

Image by gecko1971

Just steps off the coast of the Red Sea in Egypt, rests the ANTARES, a leisure yacht that wrecked its hull after the captain miscalculated the height of the Red Sea reefs. This was a common occurrence after the opening of the Suez Canal, which expedited the shipping route between Europe and Asia, where an unknown number of vessels sunk due to the reefs and shoals. Fortunately the ANTARES didn’t meet the same demise as its sunken predecessors and ended up on the white, sandy beaches (a T1 instead of a T5) where it has remained ever since.

Image by pdc2008

Since 2011, the ANTARES has offered visitors something special to discover: a geocache within its hull following the namesake of its host. Those who wish to seek this cache and adventure can reach it by water taxi, diving, or even camel! For everyone else, the cache is a short walk from Port Ghalib Marina, Egypt’s first private seaport.

Image by GeckoJJ

The owner of this Traditional Cache, omabande, preserves the thrill of the hunt with only a brief descriptor on the cache page’s hint [spoiler!]: “Inside.” Cachers are then led to explore the nooks, crannies, and crevices of the weathered vessel for the small container aboard. Although the boat is only 30 ft (9 m) deck bow to stern, there are still many hiding places to be discovered.

Image by Crunchy34

Those that venture in can enjoy life on the starboard side, as this yacht can only make right turns without its rudder (and the water to maneuver through). It still has some of its interior intact, including the remains of its galley (kitchen), bulkhead (dividing wall), and cleats (anchoring tie-offs).

Image by CacheMichl

Continue to explore some of the most amazing geocaches around the world.
Check out all of the Geocaches of the Week on the Geocaching blog. If you would like to nominate a Geocache of the Week, fill out this form.

Delanie is a Content Strategist at Geocaching HQ. In her free time, she is most likely to be knitting, pining after Mt. Rainier, or trying to revive her over-watered succulents.