A former South Whidbey resident escaped the turmoil in Egypt on Friday after a knuckle-biting trip from his houseboat on the Nile River to the Cairo airport, his mother said.

“He’s in Dubai,” a relieved Emily Schmidt of Langley said of her son, Zach Van Lue. “He got out of there safe and sound without any problems.”

She said Van Lue, 34, posted a short notice on his Facebook page on Friday about 9 a.m. island time telling friends and family that he had arrived in Dubai to join his wife, Basma.

Schmidt said her son was assisted by his brother-in-law, Khalad Kamal, and Egyptian friends, who escorted him through checkpoints on the way to the airport during morning prayers in the city.

She said Kamal had insisted Van Lue bring his valuables and come to Kamal’s apartment in another part of the city on Thursday after a second day of violence by pro-government mobs that had increasingly focused on journalists and foreigners.

“Khalad told him he had to go whether he wanted to or not,” Schmidt said. “He said not to worry, he’d be safe with them.”

Van Lue, a South End native, had been living and working in Cairo for the past four years. Schmidt said her son had thought about leaving before the protests intensified, but decided instead to stick around to observe history in the making.

Since Jan. 25, increasing numbers of protesters have demanded that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leave the country, and that democratic reforms be put in place.

The peaceful protests involving hundreds of thousands of people grew more intense this week when pro-government counter-protesters turned violent.

“He’s just sitting in his houseboat listening to the chaos around him,” Schmidt said Thursday. “He’s being very careful to stay away himself.”

She said he was counting on holing up with his possessions, figuring the three stray dogs that had adopted him would provide protection and that he had plenty of food and water.

“He was afraid that if he walked away, there would be nothing left when he came back,” Schmidt said.

She said that before he left his houseboat Thursday, he appeared in a Skype interview with a Seattle TV station brandishing a wrench.

“He said he was arming himself in case there was trouble,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said that as tensions mounted, Van Lue kept her informed during frequent telephone calls on his business cellphone and in postings on his Facebook page.

“I could hear the noise outside when I talked to him,” she said.

Van Lue, the middle of five children, was born in a log house along Langley Road, his mother said.

He has had a lifelong interest in music, and performed with his guitar many times on Whidbey. He once spent a year in Spain learning flamenco guitar technique, she said.

Van Lue is a graduate of South Whidbey High School and Western Washington University, and lived in Bellingham before moving to Cairo four years ago, where he planned to study the oud, an Arabic stringed instrument, Schmidt said.

“He’s always been an adventurer, wanting to learn different languages and instruments,” she said.

She said her son also moved to Egypt to be with friends and his future wife. She’s a flight attendant for Emirates Airline, and is based in Dubai, where her father also lives.

She was in Dubai when the protests broke out, and has remained there since, Schmidt said.

“She wanted to come home, but Zach wouldn’t let her,” she said.

Schmidt said her son and his wife were living in a houseboat on the Nile River in a neighborhood of other foreign residents of Cairo.

“It’s not fancy, and not in any fancy neighborhood,” Schmidt said. “It’s a Whidbey Island house floating on a river.”

She said Van Lue had approached an English language radio station in Cairo, Nile FM, looking for any kind job, and was given a music show and a call-in talk show.

“He’s grown quite fond of the people he talks to every day,” Schmidt said. “He loves the Egyptian people.”

As the situation intensified in Cairo, she talked with her son daily, as many times as a connection could be maintained. Van Lue has a premium cellphone through the radio station, but contact still continued to be spotty.

“He never knew when it would shut off,” she said.

Schmidt has remained relatively calm during the strife, “but after about four days, it caught up with me,” she said.

But she has become accustomed to her son’s adventurousness.

“He’s always done what he wanted to do, and has never had any real trouble,” Schmidt said. “He’s pretty centered and smart, and that’s a good thing.”

Schmidt had praise for her son’s brother-in-law and his friends.

“Khamal even promised to feed the dogs while Zach was gone,” she said.