Sailing with Moondance : Short Story Long. 2018 Adventure begins

A short story long

On the Sunday morning before we were due to leave, Raewyn woke to a lump on the side of her face. A trip to White Cross determined that it was a swelling of the Parotid gland. Nothing further could be done without being seen by her Doctor. A trip to the Doctor on Monday only confirmed what White Cross had diagnosed, and an appointment was made with a radiologist and specialist. Another trip, another consultation and an appointment made for a needle insertion to obtain sample cells was made. A course of prednisone and augmentin was prescribed. Another trip to another radiologist and the cell sample was taken. The results of the cell sample were inconclusive and advised to Raewyn by the specialist over the phone 5pm Friday. The specialist suggested an operation to remove the cyst be made for late July. Brilliant.

Fortunately the prescribed treatment appears to be working. Best case scenario is that the lump will reduce to normal and surgery can be delayed. Please pray for me that it does diminish as the alternative is a complete change of plans that have been years in the making. The thought of a return to NZ in July is beyond comprehension.

We are now in Corfu. The swelling has gone down and is back to normal. There is a God.

The 2018 adventure begins

The Emirates flight from Auckland to Dubai was pretty much on time departing and arriving. As Raewyn was travelling business class we were picked up from home by taxi and taken to the airport 3 hours before our departure time. I had no shame in tail coating priority check in, riding the golf cart and use of the Emirates lounge as “invalid support person”

18 hours flying time saw us arrive in Dubai, and again arranging complimentary taxi transfer to the port was no problem.

We boarded Mariner of the Seas and located our cabin. No balcony, but a stateroom at the front of the boat. Larger than the balcony rooms and with an adjoining bunk room used as luggage storage we felt we had been offered a better deal than a balcony. Certainly larger and with great forward views.

As we neared Muscat early in the cruise there was a medivac. It took 4.5 hours from the time the ship was stopped until the helicopter arrived to transfer the patient to shore. Preparation of the area involved removing seats and lowering railing including the forward flag and radar mount. We have an excellent view of the helipad, but had tired of watching the pad being prepared and waiting for the helicopter. We were at dinner at the aft of the ship when the helicopter came.

It is now day 4 of the cruise. A large pod of dolphins played close by as we passed at 20knots. We are entering the Gulf of Aden and pirate lookouts are posted at intervals around the outer decks. There are also snipers on board. External lights are turned off at night to improve night vision and we have had “safe haven” drill where no one is allowed on the outside decks.

The rest of the days are spent walking, (I even made the gym), in the pool, watching tv or in the restaurants. We did get a magic show last night which was entertaining.

The restaurants are something else. 24 hour gluttony. The food is excellent from the café to fine dining and available in some form 24 hours a day. The choice is amazing – unbelievable.

Large people moving plates loaded with food . A sight that has to be seen to be believed.

Guests on board are mainly elderly and there are more mobility scooters here than you would see in St Heliers on an average day.

As soon as we left the area of Yemen’s borders, the snipers were transferred off the boat. I guess to pick up another vessel heading the other way.

Navigation through the arm of the Red Sea to head for Aqaba was interesting. A very narrow passage with a shipwreck on one side and coral shelf on the other. Another medical emergency saw us dock at Aqaba at midnight -7 hours early.

Ashdod

We opted not to go to Petra or Wadi Rum and instead spent a leisurely day in the city. McDonalds provided clean toilets and free wi-fi. A short walk around the area we were dropped off from the shuttle bus was all we accomplished.

Suez Canal

The ship backtracked down the arm of the Red Sea from Ashdod and entered the Gulf of Suez. Anchoring for the night at Suez, the anchors were raised at 3.30am for the Canal transit. Being near the front of the ship, the noise awoke us. It was an early start and the transit began at daybreak.

We are unsure of the Geographical borders of the canal, but it seemed that in part at least, Jordan was on the East bank, with Egypt on the West. There were many “lookout posts” opposing each other on the banks of the canal. The topography was mostly low lying desert.

Israel

The transit was uneventful and we arrived at Ashdod ,Israel in the evening, in preparation for our tour of Jerusalem the next day.

Clearing customs/immigration (the only place we have had to have our passports) we climbed aboard a 40 seater bus for the 1.5hour ride from the port to Jerusalem. The guide gave us a summary of the ancient and modern history of the state of Israel together with a summary of what we would be seeing.

Our first stop was overlooking the old city, then we went to the Mount of Olives and Garden of Gethsemene. This was the full extent of our tour outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. The old city is an area of less than 1 mile square. It is divided in to 4 quarters. Jewish, Arab, Armenian and I guess Christian.

Entering the city through Zion Gate we commenced a 5 hour walking tour of the old city of Jerusalem, starting with King David’s Tomb and the room of the Last Supper. We walked on through the Jewish Quarter where we had lunch, then continued to the Wailing Wall (split in to male and female areas) to the Arab Quarter where we visited some of the stations of the Cross – the path Jesus took carrying the cross of his Crucifixion. This ended at the Church of the Holy Sepulchure, erected over the area where Jesus died.

Whilst the city is an important area of religion for Christianity, the effect of the crowds of people, and changes made to the sites detracted from the religious experience. For example the room of the Last Supper had been converted in to a church of sorts, then a mosque, then back to generally, just a room.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchure, managed by Orthodox Greeks, had the most effect, but the queue’s to view the place of the death of Jesus (tomb of Christ) – touch a stone and view the tomb were long and impossible. Parts of this church is controlled by different Christian denominations: Catholic, Armenian, Greek Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian as well as Muslim.

Politics

We did get information on politics of the area as mentioned earlier, but our observation (starting with an Israeli fighter aircraft flying low over the bus as it landed) It was obvious that old Jerusalem is an area of many different denominations living and working together peacefully. It did seem there was an increased Israeli police presence in the Arab Quarter. This is not the place to comment further on the politics of the area, but suffice to say that it has been ruled by at least, the Greek, Roman, Ottoman and British Empires with differing amounts of persecution.

The recent politics since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 are just as complicated and interesting. And it has all been in our lifetime.

Crete

The feeling of being back in Greece was noticeable. Our Tour took us to lake Kournas (the only one in Crete), then on to the Holy Monastery of Arkadi with 1000;s of years of interesting history. Finally a stop at a delightful town – Rethymno where we called in to Vodafone and topped up our wi-fi modem. We seem to spend quite a bit of time looking for Vodafone shops. We had enough time for a gelato on our way back to the bus.

Again we were on a bus with 40 other people. At the monastery there were at least 10 buses. This is not our usual style of travel or exploration and comes with its frustrations and challenges. It does however get you to places in a sanitary manner with the advantage of an informed commentary.

Barcelona

Our final destination. We took the ships bus to the centre of town and hired a taxi for the final trip. The taxi driver had no idea and charged 10E to get us “near” Thankfully a Dutch cyclo loaded google maps and our luggage. We followed at a trot. The cyclo phoned our hosts number who waved from a nearby window. Wrong street, right number. Who knows the difference between Corders and Carders early on Monday morning. They are part of the same street in the same straight line. Hauled our luggage up many narrow flights of steps to an adequate 3 room apartment.

We are in the “Gothic” area of the central city. Narrow winding busy streets. We had a look around – found some amazing places but I started to doubt my ability to find the very small door to the apartment ever again and suffered separation from luggage anxiety.

Today we took one of the open topped city bus tours. Bought our tickets from a “hole in the wall” Spanish only speaking young lady so were not hopeful of a good outcome. 4 hours touring 2 routes, so it was the best value we have had of this type of tour.

Barcelona is full of architectural surprises. The buildings are beautiful and the city is surprisingly small and easy to get around for the bus driver, who was as expert as a motorcycle rider in navigating the busy streets.

Being in Barcelona for a final evening, we went to a Flamenco show. Very very physical and I had great concerns for the knees of the male dancer. The dancing was flamboyant, tap dancing very loud and accompanying music sounded very Turkish/Arabic. Quite a surprise.

So ends our Barcelona sojourn. An early morning start will see us in Athens then Corfu tomorrow.