As I neared the end of the Suez Canal, I saw the enticing sprawl of the city of Suez on my port side but I had no intention of stopping.  I could already see that the narrow canal progressively widened and ultimately gave way to the vast Mediterranean - which had been my goal for so long. It had been over two years since NANOU and I had set sail from Sydney.  I was so excited to be leaving this "river" and entering my home sea - one in which I had never sailed!  This was my official return to Europe as I had left Italy at the age of 18 only to return sporadically for brief visits.  Now I was returning bringing my floating home with me!

Soon NANOU had left the murky canal behind and was bucking the tossing Mediterranean waves.  A stiff breeze and the shallow waters gave rise to the familiar steep, short seas - pretty much what I had experienced all the way up the Red Sea. Mildly disappointing to get more of the same at this point!

But, no matter! Israel lay somewhere up ahead, and Egypt grew smaller behind.  I was still solo on the boat and had plenty to do to settle NANOU down for the long, windy night to come.  I brought my thoughts back to the tasks at hand: coiling the ropes, trimming the sails, putting away lose objects before they turned into missiles etc.

Huge tankers were everywhere - . 

This was turning out to be a very fast sail.  Just as well as I was being chased by my Suez Canal Transit Agent!

-- "NANOU, NANOU, NANOU - Do you copy? This is [XYZ] Agent Calling."

-- "Loud and Clear.  Let's Go Channel 68"

-- "NANOU This is Agent [XYZ] Please come back to Port Said - You owe us more money!"

---" I don't think that's possible, I am under sail and several miles downwind. What money do I owe you? Over."

--- " Our agency fees. Over"

-- - "Hmmm... Does this mean that the hundreds of dollars I handed over to your representative did not include that?"

---  "What money to which representative??!!!"

---  "The one that boarded our boat, guided us safely to refueling and handed over to another Pilot."

-- "Oh... "

Anyhow, after a long night I was 24 miles from Israel and, as usual, was sleeping with a kitchen timer next to me.  I set it for 20 minutes; woke up; looked around; set it for another 10 and went back to sleep.  In this way I managed to get about 4-5 hours sleep during the solo over-night coastal hop of about 120 nautical miles (220 Km).  The wind progressively shifted until  NANOU sped along down wind carrying 4 sails  - a poled out 180% genoa, a 110% jib, the stay sail sheeted in tight, and the prevented main sail: we were bucking along at 8 to 10 knots which is a lot for this 40 ton chunk of steel.  

Suddenly my sleep was interrupted - damn! I had at least 4 more minutes to go...

--" Calling The Vessel 24 miles from the Israeli coast - This is the Israeli Navy"

-- "Israeli Navy, this is the Sailing Vessel NANOU. One person on Board destination Ashkelon"

--"Ok. could you please stop sailing East and go West"

--"Uuhhh.. Israel Navy, If I stop sailing East and go West I will be sailing AWAY from Israel..."

--"NANOU, we need you to sail away from the coast as you are in a restricted military area."

What followed was a lengthy negotiation over which compass course I should follow. As I was sailing, I didn't have that much flexibility and ended up convincing them to allow me to sail a reasonably direct route to the Marina. The girl on the radio was friendly and sounded like she was from Denver, Colorado.  Soon after an Israeli pocket destroyer came out to look me over. They asked a few questions - mostly about why I didn't have anyone else on board - and then, apparently satisfied, zoomed off leaving me closing rapidly with the Israeli coast line.

So all was fine UNTIL...

About 2 miles from the Marina, I could see that the breakwater  was taking a real pounding from the 3-4 meter waves that incessantly broke along its entire length.  It occurred to me that this could be an exciting landing...

Uncharacteristically,  I remembered to go forward (as usual on hands and knees) and take down the Egyptian flag replacing it with the Israeli pretty blue stripes and star.  I tried to see something prophetic in this moment, but soon had to desist and take care of all of the other tasks necessary for arrival.  I started the motor allowing it to warm up as it would be needed soon.

The Israeli marina manager came on the VHF to guide me in and I dropped my sails and put the motor into gear. 

NANOU was surfing in with the big waves and with some apprehension, I strained to catch a glimpse of the marina entrance between the waves.  The beach was getting pretty close so it had to be there... Ok. there it was.  Big menacing breakers were guarding it, NANOU would have to do well not to be taken by a wave and smashed against the far wall of the breakwater - I would have to try to arrive between waves.   However, my trusty motor has a lot of reserve power and I thought I would nimbly dodge my way in...

On final approach - 30 meters from the hellish entrance and 100 meters from the beach (which today was a surfers dream) - - I suddenly realized that my engine had betrayed me. It was running smoothly with a nice sound = BUT THE PROPELLER WAS NOT TURNING.  In fact, I was out of control and in the clutches of the big waves! The beach was coming towards me very fast!

I had a few seconds in which to make my decision: try to do something about the motor, get my surfboard ready and yell "Surf's up !" (maybe the crowd that had formed on the beach would think I was doing this on purpose!), or try to sail through the surf.  I chose the third option.   The roller furling genoa opened smoothly with a sharp "Bang" as the wind filled it. NANOU was pivoted around in a neat little gibe and - amazingly - slowly bashed its way from the waiting sands and towards the deep water.  We were safe.

A few seconds later, a small boat from Ashkelon marina came up to NANOU - it was a crazy sight to see the small ski boat careen up and down in the surf.   They had thought the worst was going to happen and were set for the rescue. Instead, they were able to come close enough to enable Yran - the marina shipyard manager - to come on board.  With his help, all was easy.  Four hands are infinitely better than two when the solid waste matter hits the fan!  Yran was a hot crew member an even diagnosed the problem correctly - my gear box had lost it's oil due to a corroded hole in the oil cooler. Without oil it stopped working and started burning instead!   Yran and I got the main sail up. We would sail in with the ski boat towing us to ensure we beat the breakers.  As we were sailing close to the wind Yran - who has done heaps of sailing -  looked at me and said with amazement. I can't believe this big boat is doing 6 to 7 knots against these waves and wind!  As NANOU's proud father, I was reminded what a pity it would  be to lose the boat here on Israel's tourist beaches (or anywhere else...).  In front of me, the entrance loomed up again, with the same breakers as before. But this time NANOU powered along and sailed right in - the tug boat perhaps providing some extra grunt but hardly needed. 

As NANOU rounded the breakwater everything was different.  No waves and no wind. NANOU was dead in the water (though safe enough).  The tug boat did its thing and I steered at a dock that looked good to me.  Now the problem would be to stop the boat.  40 tons moving at 1.5 knots is a lot of inertia to overcome. 

As we came level with the dock I handed the aft mooring line to a young chap on land. My choice was not so good. He knew nothing about boats and, understanding that stopping the boat was all in his hands, panicked a bit.  "Go around the bolard many times - don't try to tie a knot!"  I yelled at him.  The bloke pulled it off OK and NANOU came to a creaking stop at the dock.    I looked up for the first time at the watching crowd.