Passage from Herzliya to Kemer Feb 22-24, 2011

Preparations before leaving Herzliya - repair work.

Alexanders and Elrons - Our Farewell Night
From left to right back:  Matt, Ross, Amir, Yael, Marina, Itai
Left to right in front:  Noam, Jessie and Gaya

After staying another couple of days in Israel, and saying our goodbyes a couple more times, it was the day to get going. It started with Marina and I returning the rental car and searching for the Post Office to pay a parking ticket we got in Elat a week before (grrr). We then walked back to the mall at the marina and were about to get a coffee and have a chat when the Customs Agent called asking where we were.

Customs Dock - Checking Out

So, divide and conquer – Marina went to the grocery store, I went back to the boat and woke up the kids and took it to the Customs dock. The kids got up (reluctantly) and we shipped the electrical cables, took the springs out of the mooring lines, got temporary mooring lines affixed to the boat, checked engine fluids, started the engine and pulled out of the slip and proceeded to the Customs dock. Marina met us there and we proceeded to pay our bills, exit fees (116 New Israeli Scheckels or about $30 each) and by 10am we were on our way.

No wind, lumpy seas could generally describe the first day. So, put on the motor and point it Northwest … we have 325-350 miles to go. I generally take it easy in the afternoon (Otto – the autopilot steers, and we all take turns putting position checks in) and am more responsible in the middle of the night. Marina and Jess took the 10-12am shift, Ross and I took the 12am-4am shift – though Ross actually took the 12am-01:30 shift then started sleeping, and I carried on until around 05:00 when Marina relieved me for a few hours. When I came up on deck for my morning shift Marina had stopped the motor and pulled out the sails. I was reflecting with Marina that we’re getting better at the crossings and that it’s quite peaceful and really not that hard to do ….. maybe we could cross the Atlantic – “angels fear to tread where fools rush in” comes to mind.

About 10am we saw Cyprus which is an enormous island. So you think you’re half-way when you get to Cyprus and 8 hours later you can still see it …. It seems to be taking much longer. At about 15:00 we rounded the west side of Cyprus and encountered 25-30 knots of wind and 4-5 meter steep and close together seas. The wind was supposed to be out of the South East, shifting to the South West force 4 (11-16) to Force 5 (16-23) with moderate seas. What we had was Northeast winds force 6 or 7 and rough seas. We radioed Cyprus and they told us the weather forecast hadn’t changed. At one point we decided to bail out and spend the night in Cyprus and go another day. Then we took another look at the chart and we are advised by the Pilot book not to enter Paphos at night (which we would have to now that it is 4pm and Paphos is 16 miles away) and the wind had dropped to the low 20’s so we decided to strike off anyway.

We had hoped the wind and seas would abate to their predicted but alas, they did not until late in the night. I took the first shift at the helm with Marina and Ross with me, Jessie grabbing some shut-eye. I quit at 6 giving it to Marina and Ross and went to get some sleep. I woke up at 9pm and started steering by hand giving Marina until 12:00am off. At 11pm I was completely zonked. When steering for a long time you (or at least I do) hallucinate every once in a while.  I remember seeing a number of things such as WW2 airplanes, and then a baby carriage that was in the water close to us. I knew they weren’t real but I also knew I was getting really tired and needed to be spelled off. I woke Marina at 11pm (she wasn’t really very impressed being awoken early I can tell you that) and she sucked it up and went on deck. I lay down in the bunk and was out like a lite within about 3 breaths. Marina and Ross carried on until around 01:00 when I came up on deck with Jessie. During that shift I needed to hand-steer for two hours, then the wind dropped and I was able to put the autopilot on. It is truly amazing how much even an hour or two of sleep can do for your ability to function. Anyway, Jessie and I carried on until about 4:30, and then we handed it off to Marina and Ross again. Not quite as tired this time, it took 5 minutes to fall asleep.

During the night we were motor-sailing. We put the engine on at low RPM – 1300-1400 and that did a couple of things for us. When you are driving at night it can be easy to get off track. You think you’re going right and you’re going left. Without a compass you’re absolutely unable (or at least I am) to hold a course without some type of visual reference. The challenge in big waves is that if you get too far into the wind, the boat will stall, or worse tack and back the jib, and that causes all sorts of problems. That’s bad enough on a 24 footer like our race-boat Scarlet – but the loads on a 50 footer are huge and just getting the jib-sheet off the winch would be a dangerous thing to do if you weren’t careful. Having the engine going gave us the power to bring the boat back if we got off track, gave us the ability to hand-steer – because the autopilot was unable to cope as well with the big waves. The other two reasons for running the engine are that it keeps the power up in the boat and that’s good for our lights, our radar and other electronic equipment. Finally, there was lightning (did I mention I hate lightning) and we were the tallest thing on the ocean for 50 square miles – so if we did get hit by lightning it’s quite probable that the electronics might be damaged … making it impossible to start the engine. Being a diesel however, once it’s started it doesn’t need electronics – so it will keep running. And then there’s the 4^th reason, because it made us feel more confident – and who cares if I’m a sissy ….

From about 01:45 to 03:45 a squall blew through, so Jess and I worked together and shortened sail. The electric winch we have really makes a small person powerful. We were getting 26-28 knots on the beam in 3-4 meter seas and were charging along at between 7 and 8 knots. I got into a bit of a groove and steered until around 4:30 when Marina popped her head up and wondered how things were going. We thought about pulling out more sail area as the wind was down, waited for 5 minutes and the squall hit again … so at 05:00 I went off to bed and slept until 08:00. We traded again for the last time, and Jessie woke up to accompany me at around 9:30. Unfortunately the wind shifted against us and we needed to tack up the shore.

By noon we realized that was pointless so we pulled in the sails, started up the motor and pointed the bow directly upwind. We arrived very tired at Kemer at 13:30 and were greeted with smiles from the staff that welcomed us back. And we were happy to be back too, a little worse for wear but still intact.