Tuesday 29^th June & Wednesday 30^th June

Well the important news is that Sarah is on the mend at last and of course she immediately tried to overdo things, but after two days without food, she did not last long!

These two days have been spend doing the washing and clearing up the boat from ‘rally mode’ and getting everything sorted and back into its usual places now that we have a bit more room again.

Trevor and Lesley got off first thing on Tuesday, moving their luggage onto Kiwi Volant before setting off in a taxi to Tel Aviv for a few days travelling in Jordan. We immediately discovered that they had left their life jackets behind and I rushed round to their new mooring, but in vain as they had already left. So we have left them with another boat crew who plan to be here when they return.

Sarah had another session of the acupuncture on Tuesday and over the two days gradually returned to health, but had to go very slowly with food but has decided that she is feeling strong enough for us to join Scott Free on a trip to Jordan which will take us away for around 6 to 7 days.

Lots of farewells over the past few days, but thanks to the wonder that is email I am sure that we will be able to stay in touch with a lot of new friends wherever they are around the world.

We had to move all the boats from the pontoon we were on to new moorings during Wednesday and so we and Scott Free helped each other. I was on board Scott Free and we called in at the fuel dock to top up their tanks and found ourselves moored along with one of the navy gunboats, whose crew were sitting under parasols on the fuel dock having their lunch. The crew all looked impossibly young and their attitude was very relaxed. There was loud rock music blaring from their PA system and they had a big banner fixed on the side of the superstructure which showed a picture of a similar vessel at high speed with its searchlight probing ahead and the prominent strap line ‘ Smoke on the water – Fire in the sky’. Dave tells me that last year there was one with ‘Bad Boys’ written on it!

I suppose at some stage we will need to sit back and reflect on the rally and the highs and lows, but if I was asked today by someone interested in taking part next year I would thoroughly recommend it along with most of the caveats that we received when we asked. It is hard work as the pace is fairly unrelenting, in terms of sailing and travelling as well as the social side. We were incredibly lucky to have had such a good ‘crew’ in Trevor and Lesley and recognise that this makes a huge difference. We have heard so many tales of crews that have fallen out during the trip, often quite spectacularly that I would urge anyone else to think very carefully before inviting anyone along. The downside of not having extra hands along is that the sailing side of things become more onerous so as in everything else with sailing, it is all a compromise.

As I have indicated above we are now away for 7 days and so there will be no blog posted until we return. I sure most of you could do with the break too!

Don’t forget the photos at www.rhbell.com