Salaam Alekhum from Lebanon

Rupe is now a graduate of the Beirut Driving Academy - we hired a car and drove over the mountains to the Bekaah valley, a very fertile part of Lebanon which is effectively the headquarters of the Hisbollah....they try to sell t shirts to tourists with the design of the upraised fist with a machine gun - perfect garment to win friends and influence people! We went to Baalbek - a wonderful ancient site, in some ways even more magnificent than wonderful Palmyra. ON the way back ( a very long way back!) we went across the mountains past the ski resort of Becharre and through the cedar forests - and on the crest of the mountain ranges there was snow! Then today we travelled up the coast and back in time to Tripoli ( not the one in Libya, the one in Lebanon) and went to an amazing old market in the shadow of a huge crusader castle - if you have ever wondered where your remote control or old clothes, furniture and electrical gadgets ended up, this is the place. Lovely vegetable stalls, although we gave everything a jolly good wash when we got it back to the boat. Departure for Israel tomorrow, looking forward to a smooth sail and to the Bycrofts joining us.

We are in very hot sunny Syria  - we sailed here from Turkey having bypassed the port of Iskendurun because of PKK Kurdish independence separatists attacking the Turkish Navy. So we skipped that port! All peaceful here though.
Not entirely sure what will happen in Israel as they recently attacked a Gaza aid convoy and there are some tensions but we will find out when we get there.

There are three NZ boats and one from South Africa ( a couple from Capetown) in our rally fleet of 70. All really nice people.

Even just to use the internet in a little side street cafe like this one we needed to provide our passports so they can record our details. Some of the kiwis went off on their own with a group of Aussies and they didn't take their passports yesterday. They spent a few hours this morning in prison!!!

Today we decided to skip the organised tours and came on our own to the city of Tartus in Southern Syria - off shore there is the only island in Syria, where the locals go for day trips. Lovely narrow windy alleyways, kids everywhere, rubbish everywhere! a traditional boatbuilding yard and an ancient castle.

A couple of days ago we went inland in Turkey and went on a balloon trip over the amazing landscape in Cappadocia. We stayed in a rock cave hotel; rooms carved out of the rock - beautifully cool all year round. We hired a car and drove there; on the way we saw a donkey on the road with its saddle slipped under its belly and hobbling its back legs, so we stopped and took its saddle off - not sure what the owner will think (he was nowhere to be seen) but the donkey was delighted - cantered off to the roadside gravel and had a luxurious roll with all four legs in the air!

Pictures won't load here, maybe for the same reason that Facebook is inaccessible in this country! I will try again, sometime soon..........

Stıll ın Mersın ınstead of on our way to Iskendurun

We were plannıng to saıl wıth the rally to Iskendurun but that ıs sadly the locatıon of a PKK separıtıst group attack on the Turkısh navy on the same day as the Israelı attack on the Gaza relıef expedıtıon so rally plans have been altered and we are on our way to Lattakıa ın Syrıa tonıght....photos of Cappadocıa trıp to come when wıreless permıts ( not so easy rıght now)  !!

Photos from Turkish North Cyprus

Photos from a day tour to the Eastern panhandle of the ısland of Cyprus - the Roman cıty ıs called Salamıs..... the mosque was rather blatantly converted from a church ( one of 365 churches around the area ın the Venetıan tımes) to a mosque by demolıshıng the steeple and buıldıng a mınaret ınstead - sımple!!

paıntıng the lıfeboats


Salamıs, named by Solomon after hıs wıfe

Kekova vıllage, Kekova Roads


Here also are some earlıer photos of the Gılberts on Rumpus ın Kekova Roads

Murray checkıng the moorıng lınes on Rumpus

Andy Gılbert

Rumpus ın Turkısh North Cyprus

Here we are ın Turkısh North Cyprus,beautıful weather and some very ınterestıng people. A drınks do last nıght ın an old castle.... today lots of chores on the boat ( the down sıde of the lıfestyle. I suppose...

Rumpus flyıng the flags....

Sayıng good bye to Murray and Andy Gılbert

Below...the boats all moored up bow to bow

Where the Emyr rally is sailing

Rumpus is presently in Kekova roads where there are sunken towns and sarcophagi in the shallows. All well on board. Skippers report follows....

Managed to sort all the lockers today so things are a little more ship shape as we used to have them

Goodalls arrived today though I haven't seen them yet ( Pam and Keith Goodall on Savarna - their blog here)

lots of french on the rally and 2 extreme characters- 1 french - 1 owns a 44.7 but only sails on the jib much to the frustration of his crew

all seem very nice and it is great fun to be part of it all again"

May 2010 - a while since the last update!

Rumpus: Adventures in Turkey.....


Rupe has relaunched Rumpus, after two years' separation and lots of surgery and recovery ( and fortunately, recently sailing in the Hauraki Gulf.) Rupe has rejoined the Eastern Mediterranean Rally, and is on his way to the gulf of Gocek.. last heard en route to Gounos with Murray and Andrea Gilbert on board.

We did the rally in 2008 and had such a wonderful time that we are doing it again.

We are yacht 1031 in the rally, colloquially known at the EMYR - this is the twenty first year that the rally has travelled, with its fleet of brave and crazy souls, from Turkey to Egypt and all places in between. Here is the rally website: http://www.emyr.org/

To see where we are going, look here

This year we have fewer Americans and more French and British people in the rally, and a smattering of New Zealanders; ourselves, a boat called Kiwi Volant, and Keith and Pam Goodall on Savarna. Now of course this is a rally not a race, but try telling that to the boys....

I will be travelling over in a week, joining Murray, Andrea and Rupert in Alanya. Internet access is patchy, so we will see how we go with the blog!!


Gabe trying to steer High Octane on the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland April 2010

Gabe on the sand dunes, where the pied stilts live, West Coast, New Zealand Jan 2010

Our beautiful cat Mars who sadly was killed last Saturday; his nine lives were short and full of adventure, cuddles and love.