Captain Scott ~ September 26th, 2007

On the 21st we powered up the last few miles of the Gulf of Aqaba to theRoyal Yacht Club of Jordan. Now 115,645 nm under the keel and Jordan is the113th country collected. We circle a small island on the way that is covered with a Crusaders castle.

The Israeli make us backtrack and go 5 miles out of our way so as to not touch any of their water. The Jordanians on the other hand give us a warm welcome. We are in Aqaba and the Israeli town of Eilat is just a mile away. We travel inland for 5 days to visit Petra and WadiRum. Near Petra we stay at the Sofitel Taybet Zaman witch is a reconstructed old Ottoman stone village. They literally bought an entire village and remade each stone house into a luxury hotel room. Petra itself is hewn fromor into multicolored sandstone cliffs that line a narrow canyon. We walked (12 miles one day alone), climbed, and explored for 3 days. And one night we walked down the ravine to the Treasury in silence by candlelight. Thousands of candles lit up the canyon. Bedouin music was the played on original instruments.

Yesterday we drove around and camped out in Wadi Rum. This is the desert area where Lawrence of Arabia hung out and from where he launched his attack on Aqaba in WW1 its home only to the Bedouin and to stay you must camp out--as in tents. High sheer cliffs jut out of the desert. The desert at night was magic.

Today the 26th of Sept we are back on the boat but we can not move on. We must wait on water maker parts that are on their way--somewhere

Jeff’s Log ~September 22nd, 2007 Position: 29 31.71 N 34 59.90 E

Today is Saturday, and we are now in Aqaba, Jordan at the Royal Jordanian Yacht Club. Don’t let the name fool you. It’s really just a little marina, although there is a fancy restaurant and a pool with lounge chairs and nice showers upstairs from the pool. Everyone has left the boat to go inland and tour Petra, so I am alone on the boat for a change. Again, I have some projects to do, the most important being resealing the top plates of the fuel tanks. They have been oozing fuel, so that there is a fuel odor, but not really enough to show as a liquid.


I did screw up pretty badly in Abu Tig. I had too much of the boat apart and did not have the boat back together when the boss and his guests arrived. I thought they were due to return later than they did (at least they know I was working) I think now that they have gotten over it. But believe me; I won’t let that happen again! The refrigeration has been working ok. Now the water maker has gone and broken. I’m trying to find a qualified guy to look at it, but it seems like I’m more qualified than the technicians are.

The trip here was mostly motor sailing because wind and waves were right on the nose the whole trip. The night before last, we spent in Taba Heights Marina, which is a small 20 boat marina built by the same people that built Abu Tig. The military guys stationed there were all anxious to talk and see photos of family, and shared their cold water very generously. While taking care of customs business, anyone that walked by the office would stop and shake hands and welcome. Because of Ramadan, dinner at the restaurant had to be ordered in advance, so Kendra and Scott’s wife Gill, ordered for everybody when they went to shower. The food was very good with excellent fresh tomatoes.

The most interesting part of the trip was a fort built on an island during the crusades. We circled it and I took some pictures. Shortly after that, on our way to Jordan, we entered Israeli waters. Shortly there after, a call came on the radio for us to turn 180 degrees and leave. We turned around and began trying to change course to cut the corner to Jordanian water, but the nasty little Israelis would have none of that, so we had to cross their southern border, and then go to Jordanian water.

As we were approaching Jordan, we realized that this is possibly the only place in the world where four countries can be seen at one time. You can see Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all at the same time. Aqaba is very clean and compact. The business district is about a five minute walk from the marina. There is a McDonalds just to the left of the gate along with a Quizno’s. I saw a wonderful open fruit and vegetable market and will try to shop tomorrow. I was driving with the shore agent when I went by. I did notice some great looking peaches as we passed.

We are med moored next to a local dive boat. The water at the quay is too shallow for our 2.5 meter rudder, so we cannot use our gangway to go to shore because we’re too far from the quay. We rigged a line to the neighbor’s boat and took it to our jib winch. Now when anyone wants to leave, or return to the boat, it can just simply be winched close. Unfortunately, they went out this afternoon, and I was left stranded on the boat. Needless to say, I did get a bunch of work done, so it was a blessing in disguise. Internet has to be purchased from the Swedish hotel called movin pick, so I’ll just have to wait till I can get there to send this. Tomorrow, hopefully the neighbors will stay in. Their engineer is coming to look at water maker in the am.
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