Israel

We left Jounieh, Lebanon for an overnight passage to Haifa. I’m not sure I mentioned this before, but after we left the Jounieh Marina, we really missed their Olympic sized swimming pool and resort-like atmosphere. It was the first and last marina in the Rally that had such wonderful amenities. We kept our boat in Marmaris Yacht Marina this past winter. Their marina is also wonderful, but the pool is not an Olympic size and there isn’t the quantity of fabulous fancy cars and beautiful people.

As we left the Jounieh harbor, we thought we saw dolphins so we were actively looking for them to jump or come play in the bow. After watching a few potential dolphins, we decided it was a larger fish under water that was causing a fishing frenzy on the surface with lots of smaller fish breaking the surface.

The water was glassy calm as we motored from Jounieh towards Beirut. I finally realized that the boat was going much slower that it should for such calm conditions based on the engine’s rpm’s. So, we stopped the boat, turned off the engine and I got out the snorkel mask and fins and Lee and I developed a plan for “diving the prop.” Because we had seen so many plastic bags in the water, we were pretty sure we had some wrapped around the propeller shaft. One of the other Rally boats saw us turn away from the fleet’s direction and came over to see what our problem was. They asked if we wanted them to stand by while we did this, but, because it was daylight and glassy calm, we told them it wasn’t needed. We would radio to them if we had a problem.

We tied a line from the boat so I could keep connected to the boat during the dive. After the first try it became obvious that I needed the scuba diving weights so I would not be so buoyant. Unfortunately, our scuba BCD’s have pockets that the weights go into and the BCDs are kept under the V berth so that was becoming a project to get them out. I finally settled on wearing some shorts with big cargo pockets stuffed full of diving weights. Then I was able to get down quickly to the prop. I couldn’t find the scuba knife so, armed with a steak knife; I headed down to look at the prop. Sure enough, we had a several black trash bag remnants and a bit of fishing net and line wrapped on the shaft. After 3 dives, it was all cut away and we were ready to proceed towards Beirut and Israel.

The fish were still jumping so we put out our fishing line to see if we could get a big tuna. We kept that line out the entire night and until we got to Haifa, but no luck. All the other Rally boats had their lines in the water as well, and we never heard anyone lucky enough to land a fish or even lose their gear!

The weather was unsettled and had made lot of swells so the trip was uncomfortable. Because of low winds, we again had to use the engine most of the way. In our briefing prior to leaving for Israel, we had been told to report in to the Israel Navy when we were close to the Israel border. We had to say: “Israel Navy, this is sailing vessel Sugilite and we are now entering Israel waters at 34 degrees  XX.X   North and 33 XX.X degrees East. We are EMYR yacht #936 and have 3 people on board.” We were told not to expect a response at that time. They had told us that if someone boarded our boat or if we had a terrorist on board, we were to call them on channel 16 and say “Israel Navy, this is EMYR sailing vessel #936 – Sugilite. We request permission to refuel at Acco Harbor” Then we would get lots of response. It was not clear what the response would be and whether we would survive their “help.” Anyway, we didn’t see any terrorists during the night. As we approached Haifa, we did get a lot of attention from the Israel Navy. They quizzed us on our crew list over the radio then a very big, heavily armed gun boat came and did circles around us about 5 am then left again. That boat had a strange sounding engine and was extremely maneuverable. We were told that their warships would not show up on our radar and true enough, we never saw them on radar. As we came closer to the harbor, we saw another gunboat that looked like a remote controlled boat. We had arrived a bit too early so had to circle around the outer harbor before it was our approved time to come in. We were again visited by the Israel Navy. This time they came along side and wanted us to hand over our passports. They had a long fishing net on a stick so they came close enough so we could put the passports into the pouch so they could review them on their boat. They called in all the information on each passport and took about five minutes looking them over. Then they passed them back in the pouch. Now the guy wanted to know who the skipper was and how long I had owned the boat. He wanted to know why Stellen, (Stephanie’s boyfriend) was not on the boat. We told him Stellen had gotten sick in Turkey and could not come. Then he wanted to know why Stephen Burkholder was not on the boat. We explained the story about his mother in San Diego and that he was going to now fly into Israel and meet us today. They really wanted him on the boat right now like the original paperwork said he would be. Sorry about that. Pretty soon they accepted our crew list and the gunboat went away.

Things were a bit hectic in landing the EMYR Fleet. We are now down to 57 yachts, but they had a really small amount of space to dock us in at Haifa. We spent almost 2 hours circling the harbor waiting to be called in. When it was our turn, we found out we would be the fifteenth boat rafted together, meaning we would have to climb over 14 other boats to get to shore. There were 4 more boats beyond us so that was some kind of a record – 19 boats rafted together. Again, if the winds came up, that would be a bit of a problem untangling all the boats. Rafting that many boats together actually turned out to be somewhat of a problem, especially if you had groceries or garbage or anything in your hands while trying to climb from boat to boat. Because the proper thing to do is not wear shoes on someone else’s boat, we nearly burned the bottoms of our feet climbing over all these boats barefooted. Some boats have very hot decks. One boat told us it was OK to wear our sandals crossing their boat as they knew their boat was extremely hot. True enough!

As we were in the middle of landing the boat, Steve called on the cell phone to say he had arrived but his taxi driver was lost and needed help in finding the marina. We gave him the cell number of the marina manager so his taxi driver could get directions in Hebrew. By the time we had finalized our rafting, Steve was walking the docks looking for us. We got a joker boat to ferry him and his 2 suitcases out to our boat.

We were low on brownie mix, oatmeal, cheddar cheese, dried fruit and maple syrup so Steve had made a Costco run before coming. He also went to Goodwill and bought a rolling suitcase for $5 for all the food and spare boat parts. We left that empty suitcase on the docks of Haifa.

There was suppose to be an informal barbecue the night we arrived, but we’ve learned to not really believe things till we see them. That night apparently a guy had one barbecue about the size we have back in Seattle and was doing an “informal barbecue” but we never really had any to eat.

The next day we had a great tour around the Sea of Galilee, visiting Nazareth, the Golan Heights and the Jordan River. The Sea of Galilee is a fresh water lake 21 km from north to south and 12 km wide. It still contains 22 species of fish and fishing is still as important an industry as it was in the time of Jesus. This is where Jesus performed the miracle of “calming the seas.” We saw the place where the Jordan River comes into the Sea of Galilee and visited a place where many people are baptized. They have a beautiful setting there where you can go down to the Jordan River and walk into the holy waters. It’s also a great birding spot. We saw several varieties of belted kingfishers there, some we have never seen before.

For lunch we visited a kibbutz and ate in their dining hall. They offer this visit as a way to raise money for the kibbutz and its great for the tour bus companies as there are not many places in that area that can feed tour bus loads of people quickly. The food was very much like a college dorm – nice and basic. Many of the people in our group have been ill from the food. It might be as much as 60% of the people. In our boat, only Lee has been sick from the food. I tend to not eat any of the meat or anything with mayonnaise – like sauces in it or anything that has flies on it. I know that’s a bit picky, but it’s working.

During the tour we also drove around the Sea of Galilee and looked at the Golan Heights. From the bus I took pictures of the areas we came upon that said “explosives – do not photograph.” They have barbed wire fences with mine fields still separating the 2 areas. It’s sad to see how small these countries are and how much energy they spend on fighting each other.

We also saw Nazareth, the area where Joseph and Mary lived before going to Bethlehem and the Mount of the Beatitudes, where Jesus delivered his “Sermon on the Mount.” We’ve been amazed at visiting the places that are in the stories we’ve heard for so many years from the Bible.

That night we had an opportunity to go have dinner with an Israel family. Seems that last year it didn’t work so well so this year there were way more yachties signed up to go then there were host families so they asked for volunteers not to go. Stephanie went on this outing and said it was interesting but there were 9 yachties with the one family she visited. We made brownies as a gift to the family, but, much to her dismay, the family didn’t offer the brownies during the meal.

Acco (or Acre) World Heritage Site

The next day there was a tour of ancient port city of Acco (ancient name is Acre) – the marina where we were to ask the Israel Navy to let us stop at if we had terrorists on board. It was at Acco that Napoleon Bonaparte was on the losing side and it has one of the few remaining castles from the Crusaders intact. Acco is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and addition information can be had here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acre,_Israel  or http://www.jewishmag.com/30MAG/acco/acco.htm. The tour atmosphere was a bit much so Steve, Stephanie and I left the tour mid-day. The mayor of Acco offered to show us around town and took us to a new hotel that had been built into the original fortified wall of the city. It has about 16 rooms and has cost the developer millions of dollars to carve rooms out of the thick fortification walls. The hotel is due to open in a few weeks, so, next time you visit Acco, be sure to stay there. The mayor also helped us arrange a taxi to take us back to our marina after our visit to the souks so that worked out well.

That night was another awards ceremony dinner with the Carmel Yacht Club and the dignitaries of Haifa. It was held under the 5 ton boat lift in the marina so was quite festive. They even had a live orchestra and several young singers. Later that night we talked with the young girl who sang during the show. Her goal was to come to America and be on the American Idol TV show. She’s pretty darn good and we think she could give the contestants a run for their money. It is amazing how small the world is – that this young girl knows all about American TV shows and how to make it big!

Masada and the Dead Sea

The next day we sailed south to another Israel port, Ashkelon. We were told the TV cameras would record our arrival so “look good and don’t hang any laundry from the life lines on the boats.” After being in the raft of 18 boats, it was nice to moor the boat next to a dock. The trick in this marina was that each slip had two metal pilings so you had to get the boat into the slip without touching the pilings. Steve wanted me to try and back into the slip, but I went for the sure thing, which was going in forward.

Masada is a fortress built high into a mountain peak. When the Romans were there, it apparently housed the last stronghold of Jewish resistance. As the story goes, the Jews fought off the Romans for days, and then it became inevitable that the next day the Romans would storm the walls of Masada and everyone would be killed or taken in slavery. The people decided rather than be taken by the Romans; they would kill their own families, and then kill each other so that no one alive remained when the Romans arrived. The story is apparently true and the site is now listed as one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada for additional information.)

It’s an amazing feat to be able to build a castle that high up on the mountains. We took a cable car to get there but the Romans were able to build a ramp up the lower wall of the walled complex.

The highlight of the tour was the swim in the Dead Sea. It’s so salty that it’s almost impossible to swim. Everyone took lots of photos of each other floating. What was interesting was that some of the Muslim women wore their long fully covered gowns into the Dead Sea. There are showers at the beach where you can wash the salt off before going back to the place to change. These Muslim women were taking a long time trying to get the salt out of their very long, multi-layer dresses. The rest of us were in bikinis.