Famagusta to Haifa

The Diary of Sonsy Lass
Alex & June Laidlaw
Fri 15 Jun 2012 08:06
32:48.29N 35:01.82E Our last day in Famagusta was a bit flat. We did some
boat jobs, sorted out our spinnaker pole and jibe preventer, just in case we had any downwind sailing, installed our lazy jacks and finally checked out the dingy engine by taking a trip across the harbour to the dingy dock. This was right under the bows of two very large Turkish naval ships. Undaunted, we docked the tender and took a walk up through the old town. Our lunch was a bit disappointing but the cool beers went down a treat as the temperature was well into the 90's. The early evening was spent in group meetings to discuss the rather complicated entry procedure into Israel. Then back to Sonsy Lass for supper, a few glasses of wine and an early night ready for our 30 hour trip to Haifa. Wednesday, 12th June, we left at 0700 hours as the rally had an entry gate 25 miles off the Israeli coast which we had to
be at 0800 hours on the 13th. We sailed as a group to ensure we all arrived together. The wind direction was good but at the beginning not strong enough to put the engine off. Eventually it did get up to a more respectable blow, so it was off the engine and we had a great sail most of the day and night. Too good in fact, as we were warned not to arrive at the check point early and gauge our speed to arrive spot on time, which is difficult to control
when sailing. This meant we had to constantly hold the boat back. when we
had a flyer. At the goal line the boats and crews were all checked out by the Israeli Navy, then eventually they let us proceed to the next checkpoint. Once again we were approached by the authorities, this time the police, who took our passports onto their boat using a fishing net. This
was a heart stopping moment as we could envisage them ending up in the drink. Haifa is Israel's main port and the route into the marina was challenging, to say the least, with container ships dodging around like minis and it was our luck to hit rush hour. So we had to duck and dive and
on a couple of occasions had give it full 'welly' to get clear. We have a very old ex-merchant navy friend and we can imagine him shaking his head in disgust at our antics. With all the formalities we didn't actually berth until 1500 hours, and we had thought we were nearly there at the first 0800 check in! In the evening we hosted a couple of curries, but we ate them on a
very large catamaran , lots more room, with of course the compulsory wine.
Despite the lack of sleep from our overnight passage we still managed to
stay up to the wee small hours. We have booked for a whole lot of trips from
here and are so looking forward to seeing Israel. As we write this, the temperature at 1800 hours is 34 degrees!