Israel

Here's a map minus the Negev portion to the south. The yellow line in the upper right is the de-facto border with Syria. We apologize for the labeling; We are still learning to use the mapping program, which is written in German. Should be easy for the Captain!

If arriving by boat, this is your first sight of Israel: a small, very fast and heavily armed patrol boat. We expected this, especially since Ashkelon is so close to Gaza. We were questioned carefully but otherwise they were very welcoming and check-in was a breeze compared to say, Australia.

Here we are at the Customs dock after braving the very narrow entrance to the marina, which has to be almost continually dredged - that's the dredge behind Amante.

You can see the breakwater as you look north from the original site of Ashkelon, a relatively young city, established in 1900BC and Goliath's hometown. There are no natural harbors on the coast and we're not sure how the Phoenicians used it. The weather in the Eastern Med is quite variable and it's hard to imagine sailing here. We found old pottery shards underneath the crumbling ancient walls which fare down to the beach. Capt Hub said they might have come from Wall Mart.

Here's the admiral standing in the moat of the original Canaanite city wall. It doesn't look like much but the wall on the right is about 3,000 years old.

We didn't know what to expect in the way of countryside, having just seen stuff around Jerusalem in news programs. Here it's pretty verdant and agriculture is intensive.

Of course, it has its dry areas too, with attendant hazards.

Here are some of the hazards now, on the hoof or whatever their feet are called. Believe the white one in the middle is called 'Wildfire".

Or even more remarkable, a herd of camels grazing in a wheat field near Beersheba.

OK, we're starting to show stuff from the road trip, so it's probably time to start doing things like visiting Jerusalem or join us on our Road Trip, or even better, our flaming finale called Jerusalem Too!

This is a shot we meant to put in Road Trip and missed in our haste to get something published. The above is a common sight: a banana plantation overlooking the Sea of Galilee. We have never wondered whether Jesus ate bananas, frankly, and suspect this is a new addition to Israel's amazing agriculture. We can report that Israeli bananas are outstanding and comparable to what you'd find in a US grocery store (believe us, most "naners" in the world don't measure up). Mazel Tov, Israel!

This is back in Ashlekon, a wall on the beach with large granite columns sticking out. We would suspect this was built after the Muslim conquest.

And finally, a big "toda reba" (thank you very much) to Hillel, the marina manager, who kicked butt all over the world when we needed butts kicked. In may ways he, and his lovely assistant Michal, made our stay possible and pleasurable. Toda Shuv! (Thanks again).

In some ways we didn't want to leave Ashlekon, but we'd been there a month and a big, 50 boat, rally was expected to sail in and we hate crowds. It's too bad more yachts don't stop by Israel as it's fascinating and full of friendly people who like Americans. We'd happily drop by again but doubt if we'll ever return to the Med. This is not to say this is not a great cruising ground, it's just we're not inclined to do another circumnavigation.

Anyway, if you're reading this it means we've sailed on so join us in our next stop, Turkey!

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