Onward

May/June 1984

It was time to head west but first a little more easting.  We decided to visit Israel since it was only a day's sail away, well maybe a bit more, but what the heck, you only pass this way once.  We set off and during the night we were hailed on the VHF by the Israeli navy requesting information on us.  This we gave and merrily continued on our way.  Suddenly in the pitch dark the whole place lit up, a huge searchlight was turned on us, and that certainly got the old heart pumping.  An Israeli gun boat had crept up on us in the dark, we were sailing and it was so quiet but we had heard nothing.  There was no question of sleeping on watch after that.  We made landfall at Haifa and after a rather long ride with some officials who did not speak or answer questions, we did the formalities and were deposited back at the marina.  After that we sailed across the bay to Acre which is an Arab town and protected by a crusader castle.  Such a differenc from the busy port of Haifa.
We did the usual touristy things - Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Sea of Galilee, Masada, Jaffa plus a lot I cannot remember.  We also paid a visit to our friends Dina and Boaz who were so kind and took us to a kibbutz where we harvisted sacks of avacados.  There was far more than we could eat and rather than have them spoil, distributed them around the marina when back in Cyprus.  Everyone was grateful for the fresh veggies, too bad we hadn't learned to make guacamole back then!