Monday 28^th June

Last day of the rally and most of the crews are busy making arrangements for whatever they are doing next, which ranges from folks like us heading west for the Atlantic and others flying home tomorrow morning to get back to work!

Poor Sarah was no better at all and so the next step was to move her onto a stronger medication which she took around 1.00 pm. In the meantime she had simply been unable to leave her bed other than to take the two steps into the heads. (that’s the toilet to non sailors!!) After two days of just water she is certainly looking very weary. In the afternoon, Ellen from ‘Ko Ko’ came round to explain that she is a fully trained and practising acupuncturist and offered her services to Sarah, which she gratefully accepted and so in the late afternoon Sarah was laid out looking for all the world like a pin cushion. I had succumbed to the problem briefly in the night and so spent the day on a diet of water and the odd breadstick, but actually did not feel too bad at all.

Trevor and Lesley started their packing as they are transferring onto Kiwi Volant in the morning and I think they surprised themselves by how much stuff they had brought with them. Good job they are not having to fly home at this stage.

It seemed that T & L had also got ahead of the tummy bugs that they had, but both were nominally taking things easy today as they have the start of their overland trip to Jordan starting tomorrow as well. There was much discussion had on board Serafina as to how to deal with the health issues as there appear to be a number of remedies on offer but a shortage of informed advice.

In the evening we had the last of the rally events which was a final presentation evening, plus dinner and dance hosted by the city of Herzliya and held in the boatyard adjoining the marina complex. Sarah of course was unable to attend at all which was very sad and I spent most of the day and evening fielding endless kind enquiries as to her progress, or lack of it.

The event turned out to be the biggest bash yet and apart from the 200 invited Israeli guests there was the mayor of Herzliya and a host of representatives from a dozen different embassies based in Tel Aviv. The bar which was serving absolutely every conceivable drink or cocktail was totally free and most people took full advantage of this facility and more than a few needed quite a bit of help on the walk home around midnight. There were the usual slightly political speeches but in reply Dave put his point across very clearly and as usual Hassan ‘shot from the hip’ in his speech making his views on matters very plain indeed and both received great applause for their efforts.

The dancing was sparked off by a performance by a dazzling Israeli band ‘Sensation’ who were very good indeed and the disco that followed up was good, but the food was a little curious in that we were only served with plates of barbequed meat, which was excellent, but the absence of anything else was a little curious, especially as any number of us were desperately trying to eat sensibly and red meat alone did not fit the bill! It was a little disappointing in a way that the rally ended in such a way as we had rather hoped that we would all be together for this last night and able to chat and say our goodbyes. (Quite a few boats had left the fleet over a week ago and stayed in Ashkelon in southern Israel, not making the final legs to Egypt and back up to Herzliya. The crews had all been brought up however in a coach for the evening by the committee, but it was all a bit chaotic saying our hurried farewells.)

We returned to Serafina around midnight to find Sarah looking a good deal more cheerful and sure that she had turned the corner, all of which she reckoned was down to the acupuncture which she hopes to repeat tomorrow.