Nobel prize-winner and avid sailor Eugene O’Neill liked to declare that the only place we were every truly free was at sea. And we experienced a moment of pure freedom when the Katharina Maha, a luxurious 36 meters schooner, cast off from the port of Salif on the Yemeni coast. Just a few miles separated us from Bab Elmandeb, the strait at the southern end of the red sea.

Skipper-owner Maurizio Pazzelli set a course for Kamaran, the Island of the two Moons, which gives the archipelago its name. But this was just the first leg of a cruise that would bring us as far as the most remote of the Zubayr Islands. It felt like we were sailing through the secret waters of the Queen of Sheba. his was a voyage of sand, blue sky, blue water, sun and silence. The kind of journey that only people who enjoy discovering long lost Eldorados should contemplate.

There are no VIPs to spot here; just herons, seagulls, peregrine falcons, pelicans, gannets and sea seagulls.There are no trendy nightclubs either, though we did do some dancing on the schooner’s teak deck under the spectacular starry night sky. Pazzelli explained how a paradise like this had so far managed to escape the clutches of mass tourism. These islands have always been of enormous strategic importance and the Yemeni government protects them with a strict no-go policy, also preserving the delicate ecosystem.

Apart from Kamaran, with a population of just 3,000 people, the rest of the islands are deserted. The pristine sands of Uqban and the Zubayr group, for instance, only receive occasional Western visitors, because no private yacht other than the Katharina Maha has the permission to visit them.

As we neared the deserted shore of the flat Kamaran, we glimpsed a sambuco, a typical fishing boat, crewed by three men. They were heading for a group of straw huts on the beach where they live during their fishing expeditions. Gigantic white conches marked out the perimeter of a makeshift mosque. Captain Maurizio is popular here because he is known to have come the rescue of people who found themselves at sea with no water, food or fuel. We were invited into a hut for cardamom tea and we listened to stories of men and fish, invisible sandbanks, killer storms. The fishermen often go all the way to the Hanish islands further to the south off Mocha, where they fish for sharks which are used to make medicinal oils and whose fins sell for high prices on the Chinese market. The main village on Kamaran is on the other side of the island located at an amazing lagoon, surrounded by mangrove trees, and with an immaculate mosque.

The next day we sailed for Uqban and anchored off a pink beach. There was no one else around. It was all ours. Later we made our way to Six Foot Rock where there is an underwater forest of coral. The water is crystal clear and we are awed by the psychedelic colors of the teeming fish. At dawn the following morning, the wind filled the schooner’s sails and pushed her south to Zubayr Islands. Within a few hours, we are dropping anchor at Zubayr whose outline is dominated by three peaks. The eight Islands of the chain are home to a collection of coal black volcanoes. Powdered coral makes a stunning beach on the western shore of Zubayr but we tried to scale the volcano on the nearby islands of Saba before relaxing out there. This yielded a view over Zubayr, Central Peak Island and the coral that separates the sapphire blue of the open sea from the turquoise of the lagoon. Our next dive was at Middle Reef. There, at just 10 meters below the surface, we were surrounded by all the stars of the Red Sea: turtles, sharks, barracudas, spotted rays, tropical umbrinas.

Later on, on the eastern side of Zubayr, the cooling lava created an incredible array of black rocky fjords, sea bridges, caverns and inlets. Our tour of the islands endsedat Bay Client where we swim in warm thermal water. Then it was off to the other islands ,including Connected Islands and Central Peak Islands. But before our return to Sana’a, our Captain decided to take us a little further north to Al Luhayyah, a mangrove-surrounded town on the Yemeni coast. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, it was one of the Red Sea’s most crucial ports but now lies gently crumbling. The people there still live as they always have; the children play in the streets, and the men chew qat, a plant with mild stimulant qualities, as the carpenters hammer planking to the hulls of fishing boats.

A melancholy mood accompanies us as we embark on our return trip home.