Day 479 (Saturday)

As usual on a Friday evening we walked down to the old town last night to meet Pat and Dee at Beth’s and had a beer for happy hour before going up to Le Phare. We were very surprised to see that none of the usual suspects were there other than Aussie John, Irish Harry and Christian’s parents who are here visiting him. We soon learned that there was a fundraising event up in the church square in which they are raising money to restore the washhouse in the old town. We went to this event last year and I can’t believe it’s been a year!

While we were in Le Phare my student Sabrina arrived and joined us and I was really impressed that she could follow most of the conversation because she was talking to five strongly accented Irish people. We decided to join the others and walked up to the church. It was packed and there was a live band there playing just French music and lots of people were dancing and singing alone, there was a great atmosphere.

 

I queued for some Asian food while Huw queued for some wine. By the time I’d got to the front of the queue I watched the last of the beef dish and the spring rolls being handed over and Huw also came back empty handed – they only had white wine left, so Sabrina had a white and we settled for beer. We stayed for quite a while and it was great to be with Sabrina socially instead of as her teacher.

We didn’t do anything touristy today because Huw is making a very spicy Indian curry for Pat and Dee. I don’t like really spicy food (I got very sick in India and it put me off for life) so Huw took Kisbee to Beaulieu to get me a tandoori chicken

It was 36 degrees in the sun this morning and 28 in the shade and it’s almost October – long may it last. Two cruise ships in the bay again today and the badly named beautiful yacht Baboon is still in the bay and it reminds me of the very first yacht I worked on in Eilat, Israel.

This is Baboon

And this is the Orionia

Yeah, yeah I know one has two masts and the other has three but you can see the resemblance.

I worked on the Orionia for about four months doing two, sometimes three cruises a day and I had to prepare 90 plates of chicken schnitzel, rice and salad for each cruise seven days a week. I was in my early 20s at the time so I had no problem and a great deal of fun and very little sleep. On one occasion our yacht drifted into Egyptian waters and a gunboat was bearing down on us – they were so close that you could see the whites of the gunmen’s eyes. My first reaction was to run down to my cabin and take photos of them, which I did. I was almost sacked for this because my first reaction should have been to protect the passengers not take photos. The skipper asked me for the photos when I had them developed and one of them ended up in the Jerusalem Post!

In 2010 Huw and I did a wonderful trip to Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt and I was delighted to see that the Orionia is still going strong. She was pretty old when I worked on her and it was rumoured that she was stolen from somewhere in Australia and ended up in Eilat.

I Googled her today and found this…

Orionia Eilat is one of the most beautiful ships in Israel. This is a Spanish wooden sailboat that was built in the late twenties and was rebuilt again in the nineties, with the best materials, while maintaining the authentic design of the special boat. Orionia Eilat's magical cruises take about four hours, during which you can relax at the shaded decks and enjoy the soft music, good food, exciting tour guiding from the skipper, and of course, the changing scenery of Eilat and its beaches. When Orionia Eilat stops and anchors, you can swim, go snorkelling and admire the underwater life of the Gulf of Eilat.

Up to here it was pretty much the same although I wouldn’t have described the food I prepared as good! But the rest is all new and sounds wonderful.

Additionally, Orionia Eilat offers vacationers in Eilat sunset cruises, cruises to the coral island, private cruises, family celebrations and corporate events. Orionia Eilat's crew are open to the client's suggestions. You can enrich the cruise with a variety of fun activities, such as massages, therapies, workshops and more.

While we were in Eilat I found my old skipper Shimshon who I hadn’t seen since the late 80s and he is still a skipper and a real old seadog – a hell of a character. He let us sleep on his yacht, which was going through a bit of a refit so it wasn’t so comfortable but it was free and the following day we went and did a ‘chicken charter’ (as we’d nicknamed them) with him and his crew.

Anyway – back to today Pat and Dee arrived along with the gorgeous Phoebe and Huw’s curry was a resounding success, even the naan bread was home made.

Phoebe made herself right at home on the sofa

 

After they left we had yet another free firework display to round off a lovely day and a fun evening.