Israel and Jordan

August 20, 2007

Arrived Askelon, Israel at 1215 hours. Position N 31 40.1' E 034 33.3'
All well on board.

later that day.....

At 1000 hours we had passed Israel's offshore oil rig at the required security distance and turned on a direct course for the marina. About an hour later a fast Israeli patrol vessel circled us closely and trained their guns on 

us, as we repeated all of the information we had already given them. How exciting! Apparently satisfied, they welcomed us to Israel and zoomed off into the distance. Where were you guys last night when we needed you?
At 1215 hours we entered the Ashkelon Marina and moored to the dock. Thirty minutes later we were inspected by a very polite security team. They too left and we walked over to the marina office to see the immigration officer. Again polite, helpful and welcoming. The marina manager's office was next door and he efficiently checked us into the marina and loaned us cash, so that we could eat lunch at the marina cafe and hit the ATM tomorrow. We are here!

August 21, 2007

This morning we had a huge "todo" list. We first moved DoodleBug from the arrival dock into a berth, with just a few knots of wind to contend with. Next we hiked to a nearby shopping center to find an ATM. The walk took us through some parkland where we watched people walking happy, prancing dogs on leashes and we also saw dozens

of "grass-peckers". These are obviously a variety of wood-pecker with a crested head. They were pecking the grass however with their long pointed insect eating beaks. We found the ATM's and at the third bank we tried, the machine reluctantly began to dispense cash to us at US150 per transaction. We now have Shekels! Since we had made the transition from cash bumming boat people to wealthy Americans, we took a cab back to the marina. Actually Annette had worn new shoes and now had a blister. The cabbies at the rank selected one individual to talk to us and he only spoke French. Israel has received an influx of a million immigrants from the former Soviet Union and these folks speak some Hebrew plus Russian. Many of these people have settled in Ashkelon, increasing the town's population to around 150,000.

Back at the marina, we repaid our debt to the marina manager and asked him about finding a doctor for me - the Gippy tummy was now into day five, plus a dentist for Annette. The incredibly helpful and friendly manager, "Hillel" had a dentist appointment for Annette within minutes and also a doctor's appointment for me. The next thing we knew, he was heading for the door with his car keys to drive us to my appointment. I told him not to wait for us at the doctor's office but he said that the doctor did not speak English and he had been asked to translate. The lady doctor checked me over and announced I probably had an infection and gave me a prescription. She was very pleasant and efficient. When she took my blood pressure I asked, "Horosho?" (not really spelled that way) and she answered me with a Russian "Horosho" (good). US$35 for the visit. Hillel escorted me directly to the pharmacy where my prescription was filled at US$4 for a week's worth of antibiotics. Meanwhile Annette had already hit the book store and was disappointed to find the only bird identification book was in Hebrew.

Later that afternoon we made a visit to the dentist for Annette. The dentist and receptionist spoke French but no English. The dentist offered to pull Annette's tooth and since that was not what we needed, having just spent an absolute fortune having a root canal put in it, he told us we could wait until we got home to the USA.

August 22, 2007

This morning I (Ed) climbed the mainmast and with Annette's help on the furling controls and after an hour of 

colorful sailor language, we got the shredded remains of the mainsail extracted from inside the mast and bagged on deck. Next task was to rent a car and this accomplished, we celebrated by eating lunch at the McDonalds we had passed. I had a "Big Mac, fries and a coke but they had never heard of a "Quarter Pounder" and did not have a menu equivalent. The counter girl told Annette that it was forbidden to take a picture towards the kitchen "for security reasons". (Annette wanted a picture of the menu in Hebrew) We were delighted when a few minutes later, a group of young Israeli soldiers in uniform came in and ordered food. The McDonalds is right next to the bus station and these young men and woman were

presumably either going to or returning from leave. What delighted us was they were carrying machine guns slung over their shoulders while up at the cash registers. Try that in Houston!

August 23, 2007

Today we had wheels and decided it was time to go into tourist mode. We drove east from Ashkelon to visit the Ben Guvrin-Maresh National Park. The roads were mainly two lane with light traffic and excellent surfacing. Roadsides were remarkably trash-free. Driving times and distances are deceptive and it is easy to forget that the River Jordan in the east is only 40 or 50 miles from the west coast. The terrain was hilly but everything seemed to be under some form of cultivation.

The day was hot and we were appreciative of the fine air-conditioner in our rent car. We arrived at the park after a pleasant forty five minute drive and tried to cram the car under what little shade there was from the few straggly trees. The parking lot had faucets for drinking water placed in several strategic locations but we needed little encouragement to load up with water and headed up the visitors trail to the first of the several caves.

The entrance to the first cave was a "nothing" spot in a hillock of baked soil and rock. There were some steps cut into the rock and these went steeply down into a narrow entrance and a dark hole beyond. What was below was boggling. These caves had been hand carved in soft chalk some 2,400 years ago. The caves were 40 or 50 feet deep and astonishingly cool compared with the furnace at the surface. Some of the caves had been carved with 2000 nesting boxes for raising doves; others were custom carved as olive pressing factories; others were sprawling labyrinths of rooms and still others were catacombs. The town that once stood here is referenced in Joshua 15:44 which would have been 3,000 years ago. This was a great place to explore and we were amazed at how few tourists there were.

On the drive back to Ashkelon we noticed that several of the bus shelters had been temporarily occupied by flower sellers, taking advantage of both the shade and the supply of customers.

August 24, 2007

Another road trip but today our destination was Masada. We followed the map and saw a sign indicating a "mountain road". The scenery was of twisted, multi-hued rocks and we had to keep stopping the car to enjoy the view, as the risk from simply driving over a cliff was considerable. The road followed a mountain ridgeline, plunging

down tight switchbacks to cross the various wadis. There were scattered camel herds, although what they could find to eat was a mystery, the land being almost entirely devoid of vegetation. At one point we drove slowly along a narrow defile trying to pass a small herd of adult and young camels. In the distance we could see the occasional Bedouin encampment and once a flock of sheep. Again, no sign of either water or forage. There was considerable haze to spoil the view but still the blue of the Dead Sea provided a stunning contrast to the desert ochres and tans.

When we arrived at Masada, we were surprised to find that we were the only car in the parking lot. We had thought the park closed. The guide book warns of crowds and long waits for the cable car to the summit. I asked about the cable car and was told it was not working. Oh well! We parked the car in the tiniest patch of shade,

purchased 3 liters (about 6.6 pints) of water and headed up the trail to the summit of Masada. It was HOT! We made the summit and were greeted with the sight of hordes of tourists. Everywhere were tour guides chattering away in English, Japanese, Italian and the like. We crossed the summit of the Masada massif and gazed down at the working cable car, visitor's center and acres of tour buses parked at the "East" entrance.
Masada was built by Herod (37 BCE to 4 BCE) as a hilltop fortress and winter palace. The site itself is a "Mesa" with steep cliffs and to these, Herod added stone walls on all sides. Besides the various palaces, barracks, storage rooms and the like, he also had deep water cisterns carved into the rock so that the occupants of the upper plateau could withstand a prolonged siege.

In 66 CE the Jews rose up against the Romans in revolt. The revolt was suppressed and the survivors fled to Masada in 73CE. The Romans laid siege to the fortress and it took them three years to conquer it. The remains of the Roman camps and their encircling siege wall can clearly be seen from the Masada summit, even two thousand years later. The Romans built an earthen assault ramp from the base of the cliffs to the summit in order to breach the walls. When the 960 defenders realized that the game was up, they chose to commit suicide rather than be captured.

A really interesting site to visit and we felt morally superior to those wimps who had ridden the cable car to the summit, as we hiked back down to our side with it's non-working cable car.

The next stop was lunch and we headed down slope, until we were some 1,312 feet below sea level in the bar of the Sheraton, Dead Sea. The Sheraton was crowded, slightly rundown and a bit seedy but nevertheless lunch in the bar was excellent. Sated we headed down to the beach for the mandatory swim in the Dead Sea. At seven times the salinity of the other oceans, the floating sensation was distinctly weird. For one thing the sea bed was white salt not sand. The water temperature was warm to hot bath temperature and the few items in the water such as a dive platform, had the legs thickly encrusted with salt. Instant tongue burn when tasted. We floated, took the mandatory photographs and showered ourselves thoroughly with fresh water afterwards.

The return drive took us through Sodom, twinned with Las Vegas, Nevada. There was no town there - wiped from 

the face of the earth by the wrath of God.... but there was a sign pointing to Lot's wife. She has put on a bit of weight over the past twenty five hundred years and seems sort of tall. We also saw no sign of volcanoes, fire, brimstone etc. just a salt processing plant.

The return route took us close to Gaza and the countryside on the approach was covered with enclosed green-house type structures to the horizon. Altogether a great day.

August 26, 2007

Today was another "work" day and we headed out in the morning to see if we could buy a cell-phone. We finally tracked down the main office of one of the major cell phone companies here, "Orange". Next we grabbed a numbered ticket and settled in to wait, along with the twenty or thirty or so other folks, also waiting. After one hour, our number finally made it onto the "next" screen and we got to speak with a human. We explained that we wanted to buy a pre-paid phone and within a few minutes had selected a phone. One hour later, the young man was still struggling to get the phone to work. He finally announced that it would come up on their system within twenty minutes. We left the store, discovered that the electronic parts store we needed was right next door to where we had been waiting all morning and had now conveniently closed. Lunch! An hour later the phone still didn't work and back to the phone company we trekked. This time we were in and out in thirty minutes with a different phone and a new number.

The afternoon here is hot! We had "pickled" our water-maker at Port Ghalib in January. That is, we ran a solution of biocide through it to prevent anything from growing on the salt separation membranes during it's months of idleness. The northern half of the Red Sea is too salty to run this type of system without damage and we had waited until we entered the Mediterranean before re-commissioning the unit. The watermaker had fired up normally and after running it without pressure to flush out all of the chemicals, we had then operated it at it's design pressure. It began to work and was producing product at the rate 110 liters of fresh water per hour. After twenty minutes or so, it shut itself down with a fault light. I had since scoured the user's manual and the web-sites for some clue as to the cause but without success. This afternoon I emptied out the side locker and climbed inside to get to the back of the control panel. I checked power supplies, reseated breakers and cables, checked all of the fuses. Everything looks OK except that it doesn't work. This is not super-critical for us, since the distances in the Mediterranean between ports are much shorter than our ocean crossings and we carry 1,000 liters (250 gallons) of fresh water in our main tank. Unless I achieve a breakthrough within the next few days, this will become a "winter" project.

August 27, 2007

This morning we awoke to the alarm clock and at 0600 hours, set off in our rental car to visit the ancient ruins of Petra, across the Jordanian border to the south. Our route took us near Gaza and then through farming country to Be'er Sheva. The drive should have taken us four hours but we were in deep conversation and missed a critical turn, so that we finished up at the Sinai border at Nizzana. The border was locked up tighter than a drum and we reversed our route once we had established where we were. Fortunately, this mishap only cost us forty minutes as this is a "small country". Back on the correct highway and with new resolve to actually look at the map occasionally, we passed the escarpment at Mitzpe Ramon and then across the Negev Desert to Eilat. The desert is astonishingly rugged with dramatic color changes on the sandstones layers. In some respects it reminded us of

Nevada. The roads were well surfaced, two laned and almost devoid of traffic. As we crossed the Negev, we passed through several live firing ranges, where we could see several dozen tanks conducting firing exercises, just a few hundred yards from the highway. As we passed, we looked carefully to see if their guns were pointing the other direction i.e not at us!

At 1040 hours we arrived at the Israel / Jordan border crossing with the town of Eilat on the Israel side and the town of Aqaba on the Jordanian side. We parked our car in the adjacent parking lot and walked through all of the intimidating cages and security barriers. There were perhaps a dozen or so, very friendly and polite security / customs / immigration personnel on the Israel side and we were the only people transiting in either direction. We cleared out of Israel and walked the couple of hundred yards to the Jordan side. Sort of like those cold war movies where they exchange spies at a Berlin border crossing. At the Jordanian side we were politely welcomed and soon found ourselves in a parking lot mirroring the one we had just left in Israel. Here we found a taxi and were soon northbound climbing the steep mountains on the East of the Arava valley. The Arava valley is where the Jordan River would be if it had not emptied itself into the Dead Sea. The view from the mountain highway was similarly breathtaking as we looked out over the Negev Desert to the West with the Gulf of Aqaba behind us. The heat was crushing and the taxi driver fiddled with the air-conditioner controls but it soon became apparent to us that his A/C was broken and the interior temperature was over 90F. As we gained altitude, the temperature began to drop and the ride was much more enjoyable.

Petra was recently named one of the seven wonders of the world. Our taxi driver lives in the nearby town and told us that the town's resident's were so proud that their monument had been chosen as one of the seven, they celebrated day and night for three days. The site dates back more than 2,200 years and was constructed by the Nabataeans, an ancient tribe who came from the Arabian Peninsula. They were traders and had good relations with the neighboring Greek and Roman civilizations. Although they were annexed to the Roman Empire in 106 AD, they do not seem to have been involved in mortal conquest and as a result their cities and monuments have remained relatively undisturbed for thousands of years. Their architectural style is a mixture of Graeco-Roman, Egyptian and Mesopotamian, plus local styling. Of course their most famous monument is the "Treasury", reached after passage through a deep slot canyon and made famous by the Indiana Jones movie, "The Last Crusade". There was even an "Indiana Jones" gift shop near the visitor's center. The tombs and temples were occupied as living space until just a decade ago by the local Bedouin tribes. The Jordanian government ejected them from the site but allowed them the donkey, horse, camel and tacky gift shop concessions as compensation. We walked into the "Indiana Jones" temple (The Treasury) but the Great Seal was missing from the floor and the interior seemed to have survived the destruction of the Temple caused by taking the Holy Grail beyond the "Seal". (If you don't follow this - go rent the movie, Luddite!)

This was an amazing place to visit and by the time we had reached the restaurants at 4 kilometers from the entrance, we were hot, thirsty and hungry and it was late afternoon. The restaurants were closing, so we declined their fare and hired two "black market" donkeys to carry us back to the Treasury building at the entrance to the slot canyon and perhaps two kilometers from the site entrance. The local Bedouin lads rented us the donkeys and explained that they had to leave the main route to avoid the security checkpoints, as they were not "official" donkeys. The donkeys did not seem to care either way and took to their rocky path with sure-footed skill, as though they had done this before.

The walk through the slot canyon was uphill but also mercifully in the shade. Our taxi driver was there to meet us and we headed back across the cool of the mountain roads before plunging into the oven like heat of Aqaba.

In Aqaba we rented a hotel for the night after checking that the room A/C was working. The hotel faced the Gulf of Aqaba with a fabulous view of the Gulf, the beaches and the adjacent "twin" town of Eilat.
Supper was at Ali Baba's Restaurant and perhaps it was partly due to our hunger but the meal was excellent. We had invited our taxi driver, Aref Salamein (+962 777 439678 - mobile -good driver) to join us for supper and had a very pleasant evening.

August 28, 2007

This morning we ate breakfast on the sixth floor of the Hotel, with a picture window view of the Gulf of Aqaba, the downtown area and the marina. We could see that the wind was already beginning to rise and although we had wanted to visit Aqaba by sea, we were very grateful not to have to make the upwind slog. The prevailing wind is typically 25 knots or better, right along the axis of the Gulf.

Our taxi driver, Aref, arrived in front of the hotel as promised and our first destination was to find an ATM. Last night the hotel's credit card phone line was "not working". This morning the machine was "out of paper". Fortunately I had enough cash to settle the bill and now needed taxi fare funds. Next stop was at a souvenir

shop and while I chatted to the lads, Annette did the heavy lifting inside looking for souvenirs. Finally she made her selection and announced the price. Back across the street to the ATM. This time I maxed out what they would allow me to withdraw and I settled the balance of the bill with Israeli Shekels. The taxi driver said, "Where next?". I said, "To the border quickly before she buys anything else!"

The border was as deserted as before and we were shortly back in Israel and loading our loot into the rental car. 

Over the past decades, I have been and worked in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Eritrea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and now finally Jordan. The Jordan visit was by far the most pleasant experience.

The town of Mitzpe-Ramon is described by our guide book as a "one-horse" town but with a fabulous view. The haze was less than yesterday and we enjoyed both the view and lunch at the Mitzpe-Ramon hotel. This was a little confusing at first since the waitress explained that they only had a "milk" menu for lunch. We didn't see any ice cream or milk-shakes around and asked for an explanation. It seems that the biblical law that, "A kid shall not seethe in it's mother's milk", led to the rule that meat and milk should not be mixed. No Quarter Pounder's with cheese on the McDonald's menu! Many orthodox Jews will eat vegetarian food if the kosherness of the menu is suspect and indeed that is what the restaurant served. Lunch was a crusty baguette, spread with sun-dried tomato pesto, plus thinly sliced, grilled eggplant, mint leaves and "Bulgarian" cheese (we would have called the cheese "Feta"). Delicious! Thus fortified we crossed the Negev desert and were soon back in Ashkelon.

That evening there was a huge festival on the beach just north of the marina. There were several thousand people sitting in an amphitheater of blocks of rough stone while the local TV station hosted a show starring local dance talent. We noticed that dancing is really big in Ashkelon; There are lots of pretty girls here; They have lots of energy; They have lots of hair which is swung with neck breaking velocity in time with the dance steps. The festival is to celebrate the end of summer, or as we say in the USA, "Monday, the little darlings go back to school!". At 2200 hours there was a huge and elaborate fireworks display. There were so many explosions and so closely spaced, there was no time to Ooh and Aah at the pretty ones. In the morning, the deck of DoodleBug was liberally coated with charred cardboard and soot, one of the penalties of being directly down wind of the action.

August 29, 2007 through September 1, 2007

We have spent the past four days working on "boat chores" and have stayed busy. We found a tiny store selling electronic components and obtained a replacement switch for one of our dome lights that had given up the ghost. For cost reasons, we were advised not to replace the four "old" house batteries here in Israel. Instead we bought distilled water and treated them to a top-up. They have been performing reasonably well with the "new" batteries we bought in Egypt and should make Turkey with a little TLC. We have also been digging into our water-maker problems. We tested the various performance sensors and found them working. We posted a note to the Amel Owner's web-site and have continued to check components. We're fairly certain that we have had a component level failure on the main control board and have even identified the probable components. Unfortunately we are not likely to find replacements here in any kind of facile manner and have been designing a manual system to override the control panel. Our mainsail and Bimini extension were both repaired by the local sailmaker and have now been re-installed. The ravages of the Red Sea are gradually fading into memory.

On Friday we had enough of laundry and boat stuff and drove to Tel Aviv to visit the Art Museum. This was a good trip to an excellent Museum. The gallery had a sufficient variety of displays to cover all tastes, ranging

from "old masters" to the "stack of bricks in an empty room" type of exhibit that Annette detests. Having received our culture fix, we headed back to the bar in Ashkelon. We have now serviced the engine, checked the condition of the anodes, inspected the propeller, washed the Red Sea sand and salt from the halyards. We are just about ready for sea again!

September 2, 2007

This morning we returned our rental car and got a ride to the main bus station. We then rode the bus to Jerusalem since the consensus of the guide books and other advice we had received, is that parking cars in Jerusalem is a nightmare. We would now pretty much concur with this view.

We sat in the front row of the bus and watched the scenery as well as the more fascinating human interactions as the bus stopped frequently to take on passengers and occasionally to drop one or two off. Most people seemed to be headed for Jerusalem itself and many of the passengers were young men and women in the uniform of the armed forces. The driver was consistently surly with all passengers and growled at the various people who asked where the bus was going. After driving through countryside for an hour, the bus plunged into the crowded city of Jerusalem with its traffic congestion, steep hills and tight turns. We had to pass through security screening including X-raying of our luggage after we got off the bus. Once through the security barrier we were free to catch a taxi to our hotel, located near the "Old City".

The "Old City" of Jerusalem is a walled city perhaps a mile across in both the north-south and east-west directions and contains Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters. The magnificent walls that look two thousand years old, were actually built by "Suleiman the Magnificent" in the 16th century and are thus perhaps 450 years old. The city site had been inhabited since 3,500 BC and the Jewish King David built his capital here around 1,040 BC on a ridge of land with easy access to fresh water that actually lies outside of today's walls. Not a particularly peaceful place to live even then and in 585 BC, the Babylonians razed the city and destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem. This is when the Ark of the Covenant disappeared until re-discovered by Indiana Jones. The Persians took out the Babylonians 40 years later and then the Romans had their turn. In 333 BC Alexander the Great defeated the Persians and for the next 900 years, Israel was part of the Greco-Roman empire. The Jerusalem of Christ was razed by the Romans around 70 AD and the population was driven out. The street plan of the current city is based upon the Roman City of Aelia Capitolina constructed in AD 135. Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in AD 313 and the invasion of Christian pilgrims and their churches began. Jerusalem has since suffered through another couple of thousand years of Moorish and Ottoman occupation, Crusades and the like, with each victor demolishing what was offensive to them at the time and building their own edifice. At the time of Constantine, his Christian convert mother Helena visited Jerusalem (in 326 AD). She selected several sites such as the "authentic location of the crucifixion", "Christ's tomb" and the like. In the 18th century, Franciscans located the sites for the "Stations of the Cross" to satisfy the demands of Pilgrims, although some of these were relocated in the 19th. century. A typical "Holy Land" occurrence was in 1883 when the site of the burial and resurrection of Christ was selected by British General Charles Gordon. One of the several advantages of a military background.

After checking into our hotel, we walked to the nearby walled "Old City" and entered the Moslem quarter through the "Damascus Gate". Our route led through the Arab Souk or marketplace. The "roads" were 6 to 8 feet wide in many places and covered by buildings so that we were walking in a claustrophobic tunnel with crowds of people passing in both directions. The shop owners display their wares with amazing ingenuity and it was necessary to both duck and dodge their wares and at the same time dodge the store keepers who were begging us to come and shop their particular store. Part of our journey through the maze of the Old City took us along the "Via

Dolorosa". This street is claimed to be the very street that Christ carried the cross on his way to Calgary or Golgotha. It was shoulder to shoulder, churches, seminaries, convents and stores selling tacky religious paraphernalia. You could visit many of these establishments with their various claims to holy fame - for a fee, naturally.

Our course was set for the Garden of Gethsemane, just outside the East gate of Jerusalem or "Lions Gate". We 

found a rocky hillside with a few stunted olive trees. The guide book maintained that some of these trees were over two thousand years old. What we saw were unlikely to have been over two hundred. Nearby was a shrine of the "Tomb of the Virgin Mary". This is one of several sites in Israel and other countries where Mary is said to be entombed. There was an impressive doorway dating to Crusader times and just beyond the entrance, the walkway descended fairly steeply underground. It was dark and there were a few ornate lamps hanging from the ceiling. We entered about 10 yards or so before some smelly, Rasputin type, started yelling at us about the shorts we were each wearing. We had covered heads and shoulders with "modest" clothing but never realized that God objected to knees as well. Grumbling we retired to back to the heat and light of the surface. About this time we met a taxi driver who offered us a general tour of the outer city of Jerusalem plus a visit to Bethlehem. This seemed like a reasonable plan and we agreed.

Bethlehem is on the West bank and separated from the rest of Israel by a tall and oppressive looking concrete wall. The wall is covered with political slogans on the Palestinian side and although it seems so forbidding, there is no doubt that it has been successful in excluding the suicide bombers and restoring a semblance of normalcy to the Israelis.

The Bethlehem buildings looked much like the rest of Israel but then you notice the air of decay. Many of the businesses are shuttered and trash forms drifts in the doorways and alleyways. Whereas the rest of Israel's
tourist economy is gradually rebounding, Bethlehem is still burdened with the fall out of Arafat's intefada.
Our destination in Bethlehem was the Church of the Nativity, a 6th century Christian church that Empress Helena had identified as the birthplace of Christ, some four hundred years after the event. The church seemed run

down, medieval and seedy. We were ushered through a tiny doorway into an underground grotto where about forty French pilgrims were singing Christmas carols (in French of course) and swaying. It was extremely hot and claustrophobic, jammed in with all of these people and we did not linger. The poor condition of the church may be explained by the fact that there are Armenian, Catholic and Greek Orthodox monasteries abutting the building and they cannot agree to maintenance or repair. In 1984 Israeli forces had to separate armed Greek and Armenian clergymen who were fighting a fierce battle within. To add to the mayhem, the church was occupied in 2002 by 200 Islamic fundamentalists who were besieged by the Israeli army for 39 days before an armistice was reached. "Oh little town of Bethlehem, How still we see thee lie; Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by...."

September 3, 2007

This morning we headed off to visit the Israel museum. This museum has a great reputation but when we arrived, we were apologetically informed that the major exhibit hall was closed for renovation and would remain so for the next three years. A little disappointed but we visited the "Shrine of Book" where the "Dead Sea Scrolls" are on display. The scrolls are ancient documents dating back to before 100 AD and which were discovered in caves near Qumran on the Dead Sea in the late 1940s and 1950s. The language of the scrolls is Hebrew, with some Aramaic and some Greek. The scrolls contain an almost intact version of the current Jewish Bible, as well as many other documents, perhaps indicating that there was considerable diversity of belief during the era of the "Second Temple" (destroyed by the Romans in AD 70)

The museum also has a model of Jerusalem in AD 66 derived from various documents, accounts and the results from archaeological digs. The model was at a scale of 1 to 50. Since Jerusalem at that time covered 445 acres, this is a BIG model. It was very well executed and we enjoyed an informed lecture on the development and history of the city.

Next task was more formidable and that was to find a store that sold marine quality, stainless steel machine screws. We were mysteriously missing two from a forward locker hinge. I say "mysteriously" because this locker had been closed from inside while DoodleBug was in Egypt. Perhaps someone had thought to unscrew the hinges to gain access. We hired a taxi driver and Annette asked him if he was Palestinian. "No!" he snapped, "I am a Sabra". This means a native born Israeli - A sabra is a prickly pear - prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside.

He was hilarious. He kept up a non-stop critique of the pedestrians and other motorists. He maintained that the Jewish women were beautiful for a maximum of three years ( and they really ARE beautiful!). Then they turn to hyenas (??). "Look how fat and ugly that one is!"

The Orthodox Jews with their black suits, white shirts, sideburn-hair ringlets and hats he referred to as "Mickey Mouse". "They won't fight in the army with us and they don't work!" Everyone got trashed. The Russian Jewish girls were "All prostitutes". When we came up to a hardware store, he followed me into the store and just bulled through the other customers to ask if they had stainless steel screws and if not, where they could be found. He stopped in the middle of the street holding up traffic and yelled at pedestrians for directions. Of course if someone blocked him, he would go into a tirade of yelling and insults. The result was that we very soon obtained both the screws I was seeking and some electronic parts to build a water-maker control board over-ride.

We next visited the Holocaust Museum. A somber visit. I thought the displays were a little more pasteurized than other museums I visited at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Moscow. In the Israeli version, there was more direct criticism of the refusal of Western Countries to accept Jewish refugees in the 1930's, the actions of Pope Pius XII and the alleged refusal of the Allies to bomb the gas chambers. Overall, an intensely emotional experience.

That evening we walked over to the nearby American Colony Hotel for really fine meal. This was the only restaurant we have seen with pork on the menu. In spite of this opportunity we ordered lamb and beef.

September 4, 2007

We began bright and early for a tour of the "Old City" beginning with the "Tower of David", near the "Jaffa" gate of the city. The ancient tower houses the History of Jerusalem Museum and cleverly matched the historical period with that portion of the tower that was extant at the time. The stonework shows three distinct periods of

construction, beginning in Herod's time, followed by Crusader construction and topped by Ottoman works. The ancient basement of the castle was exposed showing pre-history and multiple construction layers. Until the 1967 war, this had been hidden below a tarmaced Jordanian Army parade ground. We had a fabulous view from the upper levels of the tower and wasted enough time that we were able to attach ourselves to a very well done guided tour of the Museum.

After a fine lunch in the Old City, we visited the "Burnt House" followed by the "Herodian Quarters". I mention these now as their importance becomes apparent later. The Jewish Quarter of the city had been devastated during the Moslem occupation from 1948 to 1967, with razing of the synagogues and most residences. After the '67 War, there was a decision to both rebuild the Jewish Quarter and to take the opportunity to examine the archaeological remains of the quarter, before there were buildings in the way again. The "Burnt House" was a 

large private villa that had been owned by Kathros, a high priest mentioned in the Talmud. His home was burned when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Nearby are the Herodian Quarters, a series of fine villas that were similarly destroyed. These were multi-storey residences and so remains have been uncovered of scorched painted walls, mosaics, bathing areas and household implements. These were very interesting to tour and we were the only visitors. The space above the digs has now been reinforced and new construction of museums, restaurants and private homes have been made above the ancient ruins. You just have to get used to tourists in the basement I suppose.

We visited the famous "West Wall" or "Wailing Wall". It is not the west wall of the Temple of Jerusalem as generally supposed. This was destroyed by the Romans two thousand years ago and the Moslems have built the "Dome of the Rock" mosque on the spot. The "West Wall" is the west wall of the huge plinth upon which the temple was constructed. There was lots of high security to access this site with metal detectors and lots of serious looking security people.

This morning we enquired at the tourist information office near the Jaffa gate about a west wall tunnels tour. The lady there informed us that you needed to book three weeks in advance but gave us the phone number anyway. We called on our Israeli cell phone and were asked when we wanted to visit. "Today or tomorrow". "How about tonight at 9.00 p.m.?", "OK".

Evening found us walking back through the Moslem Quarter of the Old City, as the stores were closing and being shuttered. In one spot a kitten fell from some unseen place in the ancient roof and landed on Annette. Both she and the kitten were quite surprised. There was a period while Annette pondered how she was going to save it's life, before the kitten helped everyone out by running away.

Back at the "West Wall" there was a military graduation ceremony going on and the whole area was illuminated picturesquely with different colored flood lights. We passed through the tight security and entered the labyrinth of the West Wall Tunnels. This is an immense archaeological dig. The Herodian walls of the plinth of the Temple Mount were 120 feet tall and 1600 feet long. What is exposed is the top 60 feet of a 110 foot wide section. The Muslims wanted to build in this area so they built huge water cisterns at ground level and built their homes on top of these, thereby raising their homes and simultaneously burying the wall. Over the millennia, the cisterns have filled up with rubble and coke bottles. The Israeli teams have been excavating the cisterns / basements of the homes, shoring them up and have exposed the whole of the Western Wall. The tour took us through these ancient buildings and thence to the end of the wall. It was amazing and humbling to see the arches, ceilings and plastered walls that were thousands of years old.

This was a fantastic, "not to be missed" tour. The tour ends in the Arab Quarter during daylight hours but after dark, for security reasons, the tourists retrace their steps and exit back through the entrance near the "West Wall" in the Jewish Quarter. This we did and then walked back through the Arab Quarter to our hotel. The empty streets were dark and eerie. There were security cameras at the street intersections and occasionally an armed Israeli patrol of soldiers. The catacomb like tunnels are serviced by specially designed "narrow" tractors that collect and haul off the day's trash. We had to slide along the side of these in order to pass. A really great day.

September 5, 2007

This morning we walked back to the Old City to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The church dominates the Christian Quarter and has been fought over for centuries. It has the usual complement of Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics and according to the guide book, even has an Ethiopian monastery on the roof. This is the church that was built upon the site identified by the 4th. century Empress Helena, as the authentic spot where Christ was crucified, laid in his tomb and resurrected - all within the confines of this gloomy and medieval church. There is even a Chapel of Adam here. A 12th. century excavation unearthed a skull that was immediately and confidently identified as that of the first human.

We waited in line with scores of other visitors and visited the various shrines. There was perhaps a thirty minute wait to enter the Shrine of the Sepulcher and as we waited, the clamor of a jackhammer operating somewhere within the church shattered any possible contemplative thoughts. Mark Twain visited this church in 1869 and wrote the following: "When one stands where the Savior was crucified, he finds it all he can do to keep it strictly before his mind that Christ was not crucified in a Catholic Church. He must remind himself that the great event transpired in the open air and not in a gloomy candle lighted cell, upstairs, all bejeweled and bespangled with flashy ornamentation, in execrable taste".

I thought of these words written 140 years ago, as I viewed the incredibly dingy and ripped oil paintings and realized that if anything, the church was perhaps in worse condition than during Twain's visit. I thought that most of the claims of authenticity of the various sites were ludicrous, except for the location of the crucifixion. The execution site used by the Romans was outside of the city walls and well known. It would have remained in memory, long after all eyewitnesses were safely dead. I tried to relate the interior of the church to the summit of a rocky pinnacle in a quarry, used for executions by the Romans. I failed to relate any kind of image. Golgotha was a working quarry, so perhaps the various occupants of the city of Jerusalem continued to extract building stone for the next 400 hundred years until the Empress Helena showed up. What was genuine, authentic and spiritually uplifting was the faith and sincerity of the pilgrims. Perhaps it has always been so.

Our next goal was to walk the city walls from the Jaffa gate to the Lions Gate. This is just about half of the circumference of the city. This was a really great walk and we again mildly surprised to see no other tourists. On
our left was the view over the "New" city of Jerusalem with its hilly vistas, busy streets, hotels, colleges, government and office buildings. The normal views of a bustling city. On our right we looked down upon the backyards and rooftops of the "Old City". We looked down into the yards of pre-schools, high-schools, sports fields and felt like "Peeping Toms" as we saw people sitting in the back yards - some cozy, wooded and landscaped and others filled with decades of trash. We passed "above" both the Christian and Moslem quarters and descended to join the common humanity on the far east side of Jerusalem near the Dome of the Rock and the West Wall.

September 6, 2007

We rode the bus back to Ashkelon this morning and had the bus driver drop us off opposite the car rental agency. This afternoon was our "first pass" at grocery shopping. Annette has been scouring through the DoodleBug food storage lockers and throwing away anything that is "old" or past it's "use by" date. This is pretty much everything. She has a system of stocking in which she dates the various items with their month of purchase and usually their port of purchase. Some of the trashed items have been on the boat for three years. I was mildly disquieted to discover that the duck gizzards are still aboard.

September 7, 2007

In Jerusalem I had purchased a few electronic components and together with some salvage from the marina trash pile, I built a wiring harness and temporary panel to over-ride the watermaker control panel. After installing everything, we tentatively fired the watermaker up and threw the switches. It ran! We ran the unit for thirty minutes and verified that it was producing "fresh" water product. We don't expect to have to run it often for the balance of this season's cruise, if at all. It is comforting to know that we again have this convenience.

We have removed the halyards and soaked them in fresh water to remove some of the salt and sand that have encrusted them. They don't look new but at least they will bend around the winches again. Back to the grocery

store for the second pass of grocery shopping. Our freezer is now stocked with steak, chicken, salamis, bread and ground beef for the first time since Indonesia. The barbeque even came out of it's locker and was fired up this evening for the first time since Darwin.

September 8, 2007

We drove our rental car to Jerusalem this morning. It is Saturday and we had been invited to Shabbat lunch in the Old City by a very nice couple we had met a few days earlier. We had arranged to meet at the "Burnt House" (see diary entry 9/4/2007). The drive was more interesting than previously, since there had been a minor panic among some of the live-aboards at the Ashkelon Marina that the "Syrians are coming". The incidents mentioned in the International media of an alleged incursion by Israeli aircraft over Syrian territory had been hyped up by the local media into a full blown invasion scare.

The drive was pleasant with light traffic - no Syrian tanks blocking the highway. We parked our car near the "Dung" gate and were met inside the Old City right on time by our host, Yossi. Yossi guided us to his nearby home which is built above the "Herodian Quarters". We met Yossi's wife, Mira, at their door just as a second set of guests arrived. The other couple was David and Susan from Ft. Lauderdale. Yossi and Mira are "Orthodox" Jews but as Mira explained to Annette, they are very "tolerant". And they must be to invite a pair of Christian cruisers, clad in the least scruffy clothing we have on board, to their exquisite home for their special celebration meal.

The food was fantastic both in it's quantity and variety and Mira must have been cooking for days in advance. A very generous gift from Yossi and Mira and a very enjoyable and memorable experience for us.

September 9, 2007

Today was a day for the final checkout of boat systems, final loads of laundry, final shopping excursion, topping up of the water-tank, double check of the navigation; another look at the weather forecast, preparation of crew lists for Cyprus and dragging out of the courtesy flags. All the normal tasks of preparing DoodleBug for sea. We had a really great visit here and heartily recommend both the marina at Ashkelon to fellow cruisers and the country of Israel as a tourist destination. The combination of historical sites, beautiful scenery, warm and hospitable people and good food is hard to equal.

September 11, 2007

Position N 34 00 E 033 28 at 0745 hours UTM. 45 miles from Limassol, Cyprus.

Yesterday we cleared out of Ashkelon, Israel and set sail for Cyprus. Israel was a wonderful stop and we are surprised that we were the only cruising vessel at the marina. We were sorry to leave Ashkelon as the people

here have been so friendly and helpful. Annette bought a dog-bone for "Sheva", the live-aboard dog on SV Chambasa. Sheva gingerly picked up the bone, dropped it; it bounced once; cleanly over the side and immediately sank from view. Sort of like giving a double scoop ice-cream cone to a child. Annette determined she had to buy another bone only this time a little more square. The second attempt was more successful.

We left the marina at 1030 hours local time and motored out with a light headwind but a choppy sea. The forecast was for the wind to increase to around 17 knots by 1500 hours. The wind did increase to the 20 knot range and the seas quickly built to 6 to 8 feet and choppy. I began to tack under Genoa and Main when I discovered that the port winch has failed. It is probably clogged with salt and sand from the Red Sea. I partially dismantled it but decided that the risk of losing parts in the bouncy sea-way was just too high. We could starboard tack fine but unfortunately we needed to head to port. At 2200 hours the wind died away and the rising sun this morning was over a calm sea with just residual swells. Hopefully we arrive at Limassol in Cyprus this evening.