Living the Work-Life Balance

I left Dahab today for Nuweiba and eventually Petra by way of Aqaba. I heard from a 3 different people to never take the slow ferry. Even if I'm told that the fast ferry isn't running, I should just wait and not get on the slow ferry. One person I met waited on the slow ferry for 9 hours before it left. They wouldn't let him off and meanwhile, the fast ferry left, returned, and left again.
When I got to the ticket window, I asked for fast boat ticket. Not running, the sour Egyptian guy told me. I asked again. Same response. So I made him promise that it wasn't actually running. He said definitely not, only tomorrow. So I bought a ticket for the slow boat. I went to a cafe and saw a big group of elderly American-looking people. They were definitely not going to take the slow boat. So I asked them, and that had tickets to the fast boat!
So I went back to the ticket office and the same guy told me to buy the ticket on the fast boat. No apologies. While waiting for the boat, I met this Argentinian guy who was also going to change his ticket on the fast boat. After a few hours of waiting, we were told we could board the boat. The Argentinian guy asked a non-English speaking ticketer about the boat and started running towards the boat. He go on, I waited for the big American tour group.
He got on the slow boat. I saw him in Petra. I got to Aqaba at 6:00pm and Petra at 8:15pm. He got to Aqaba at 12:30am.
Never take the slow boat.