Thursday 8^th July

No rest for the wicked as we now needed to get ready to set off sailing for Malta tomorrow. The process for leaving Israel is as complicated as arriving with the additional annoyance that you have to pay (around £20 per person) to leave. This is not the end of the world, but Border Control are not based here and only come on certain days (which seem to change on a whim). You can only leave by checking out through Border Control, who cancel your visa and then they need to see you depart. This is of course policed by the navy who handily have a gunboat stationed at the entrance to the marina in case, like the Aussies on ‘Ednball’, you forget to do some of the paperwork.....

Our plans were disrupted when it transpired that the Border Control lady was not coming tomorrow and although we could leave on Saturday, the cost doubles for that day only! We swallowed this bitter pill and along with Scott Free made plans to stay here on Friday and leave on Saturday regardless of the extra charge (less than staying another night). So instead of a busy day getting provisioned and ready, we took things a little slower although Sarah remained busy regardless and then at 4.30 pm the Border Control announced that they could pop in at 8.00 am tomorrow if we wanted as a special favour. We then had to backtrack as there was no way we could be ready now and we did not want to rush off to sea knowing that we have a 7 or 8 days and nights before we reach Malta without proper preparations.

Early supper and then we had Steve and Chris round for a few drinks and very long game of Mexican Train. They had an interesting rule that we have not seen before that allowed players to create branch lines from doubles placed in their own personal lines. Does anyone out there know about this rule?