All Over Now
32:09.7N 34:47.6E Sunday 27th June Well the rally hasn’t quite finished, but England lost
to Germany in their World Cup game today and worse still we have a few German
crews on the rally. The only recent consolation has been discussing with
the Aussies the merits of their first ever woman Prime Minister. The fact that
she is also married to a hairdresser has only deepened their pain. We motored through the night, but it was a long and
uncomfortable one for most of the crew and their plight was not helped by a
very large swell that was running and with no wind to steady the yacht, we
rolled badly for several hours. At 5.00 am we had our first visit from the Israeli navy
which was a little exciting for me alone in the cockpit. I saw the gunboat
approaching at speed by the light of the full moon, but as they neared
Serafina, they turned on a hugely powerful searchlight which bathed us in
bright light but equally blinded me and ruined my night sight, which presumably
is part of the idea. After circling twice they called on channel 16 to know the
name of the boat and the EMYR rally number. I gave them this info and they
thanked me and welcomed us to Israel and hoped we had an enjoyable stay! They
then roared off at full speed leaving us rolling in their wake. But they had
not gone far when the radio came to life again and a different voice called
Serafina by name and demanded we alter course immediately for a more northerly
heading to avoid getting within 9 miles of a sensitive gas installation. This
was a case of mistaken identity by the shore radar station as we were nowhere
near where they thought, but I acknowledged the instruction and they were
satisfied. At this point the gunboat returned and again circled us twice but
this time said nothing. Eventually they asked me to tell me who we were and
when I repeated the information they did not reply, but headed off again. One
hour later, in full daylight a second armed patrol vessel approached and
circled us, but this time seemed satisfied to just read the information off the
back of the boat! As we approached Herliya black clouds formed and as we came
in and docked around 9.00 am, we did so in pouring rain which was as much a
surprise to the locals as us. We were as usual here, met on the pontoon by
customs and immigration etc. They wanted to see all the crew on deck but I
explained that Sarah was not well enough to do this. I explained that she had
seasickness and a poorly stomach as we did not want to have issues with the
health department! They came aboard and conducted a brief search, apologising
to Sarah as she lay there. Next we were required to all take our passports to
the Immigration office to have visas stamped and inserted and again I explained
about the problem with Sarah. The officer went off and told the three of us to
come to the office as instructed and he would see if they would send someone to
identify Sarah to save her coming too. In the event, we were halfway to the
office when we met a senior officer coming the other way. He turned out to be
the head of immigration here and was personally coming to check Sarah out of
sympathy for her plight. He was very cheerful and apologised to Sarah for
having to come aboard to see her and overall the entire team here including
customs were extremely helpful and pleasant. Some of the other boats had
sniffer dogs put on board, but this was more about training the dogs than a
genuine search for contraband. First impressions of this marina are very favourable and we
are already reconsidering our original decision to head south back to Ashkelon
Marina in a few days time and base our travelling to Jordon from here instead. Lesley, despite still feeling pretty rough, washed
Serafina’s decks and between us we sorted out all the deck gear and put
up the flags etc. Meagan from ‘Kiwi Volant’ is a nurse and she
popped round to see Sarah and administer some pills to help her situation which
had all the signs of being full blown dysentery. It transpired that a good many
crews have been suffering the same or similar symptoms and the general feeling
is that I will succumb at some stage, but hopefully not when we start our
overland travel to Jordan and Jerusalem. Trevor and Lesley have also been given
various medications and hopefully they will avoid the temptation to start
eating and drinking again too soon, but it is not easy as there is a real end
of term spirit developing here. |