During Koopmans' three-year circumnavigation aboard Zeepaard, he and everyone on board were held hostage for three days while anchored off a town near Alexandria. “That was the end of our tour in Egypt,” he says matter-of-factly. “I decided there and then never to return.”
Perkins also remembers his time spent in Egypt with some negativity: “I have transited the Suez Canal only once and will never do so again.”