1 - 31 Dec 2017: The year is ending all to quickly. We are settled into our new spot. It is easier to enter and exit the boat through the side than over the gangway and the new spot has sun almost the whole day so it is more comfortable and homey.

8 Dec, we had our normal gathering but this time the foreigners far out numbered the Israelis. We had some newcomers: Mike and Natalie from Australia (Trimaran Scout) that arrived the week before, Sue from Voyager (Mike was recovering from dental work), Ron and Daniel from our flying friends, and Shmulik and Hane from Israel.

This week, I serviced the engines: oil change with new filters, new fuel filters, and new coolant filters. I changed the oil and oil filter on the generator, replaced the fuel filter, and replaced the raw water pump and sea water hose. The pump is not working correctly yet, so I am still troubleshooting it. I think the new hose is too long and exceeds the lift suction for the pump.

Hanakah started on Tuesday evening (12 Dec) and we invited friends from the marina to attend the first evening. Mike and Sue from Voyager, Mike and Natalie from Scout, Ron, Dave, and Daniel (flight crew), and Vered from Herzliya came for the first candle lighting. Click on the link for a short video of Tsipy singing "Maoz Tsur". Click on the back button to return to webpage after viewing. After the candle lighting, we had potato soup, salad, and fresh bread. Tsipy and Vered made suvganyot (fried pastry) as the traditional Hanukah dessert.

I finally fixed the raw water pump for the generator. I re-routed the hose, shortened it, and once the pump was primed, it worked like a champ. Now I need to order parts to rebuild the previous pump, the tongue that engages the drive shaft is worn.

On the 21st, we had a surprise visitor - Santa cruised down the channel with some of his fellow Santas and an Elf. We saw a few Christmas boat parades in the US but this was a first for us in the holy land. They even played Jingle Bells as they cruised by us.

29 Dec, Eyal and Sarit (from Givat Ela), their daughter Reut, her husband - Eyal, and two kids - Guy and Bar came by for a visit. Reut and her family were staying in Herod's just behind the boat. After breakfast, they stopped by on their way to the Arena Mall.

Our final gathering of 2017 was on the 29th. We have really enjoyed reuniting with all our old friends and meeting many new ones. Thanks for helping us celebrate our 18th year on Odelia.

1 - 30 November 2017: We remain in Karpaz Marina and still plan to leave around the 15th for Israel. The new transformer works great and is much easier to maintain. I will post some photos of the installation at a later date.

On 4 Nov, we celebrated Tsipy's birthday on board. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. We had about 15 guests on board and served snacks and wine and later cake. Lisa, Moshe, and Haddar from Israel were able to come. Locals included Ian and Gaille, Dave and Alison, Michael and Ushi, Tom and Petra, Mike and Debbie, Walter and Joan, Ian, and Marianne.

The weather seems to be cooperating with us, so we will leave here on the 14th for our return to Israel. Ilan is flying over to make the trip back with us and Ushi and Michael from the marina are also coming with us. That makes for an easy schedule for the crossing. We expect to be in Herzliya around noon on the 15th and hope to return to our old spot in the lagoon.

We left Karpaz at 0630 on 14 Nov. The weather was close to that predicted. Overall an easy crossing although we did have about 4-5 hours of choppy, 1m waves once we turned around the east end of the island. Once that cleared, it was smooth and calm for the rest of the trip. We arrived around 1300, checked in through security and border police and are now along-side the channel leading into the lagoon (opposite the Herod's Hotel). It is a safe spot for any expected winter weather and it's about 250 m from our old spot. We are settling in now.

We had a great gathering on Friday, our first of the season with six Americans: Steve, Kenny, Ron, Chris (a new pilot), Ed, and Mike; five Israelis: Yosi, Israel, Sylvan, Vared, and Yehuda; and two Germans: Ushi and Michael our friends from Karpaz.

On Sat, Mashka, Didi, Maya, Emily, and Mashka's parents: Vadim, Marina, plus Irina (a friend from the US) visited us in our new spot. Shmulik and Ceclila and Yaacov also came since they weren't able to come on Friday. It was a beautiful day and I've included some photos.

1 - 31 October 2017: Leila flew in from London for Sukkot, so we moved out of her apartment. We went to Eyal and Sivan's for Erev Sukkot (4 Oct) and Sukkot. It was wonderful to spend two days with their family. They had over forty friends and family for the first evening.

We returned to Lushi's for Shabbat dinner. On 17 Oct, Yosi, Gadi, and I went to M25 for dinner. Good food and great friends. Mike had the Friday gathering on his roof top on 20 Oct. Steve and the new mechanic David were able to come along with Shmulick and Gadi. On 22 Oct, Gadi, Yosi, Steve, Wayne, David, and I went to Bayern for my last evening in Tel Aviv. The Schweinehaxe was wonderful, each piece was 1.2 kg and even considering the bone it was a lot of food.

We returned to Cyprus on the 23rd and I started work removing the A/Sea Power Converter from it's cabinet. The A/Sea converter had died and I decided to replace it. The new 8 KVA Mastervolt Isolation Transformer fit into the old cabinet with minor modifications for wiring. The new transformer is 60 kg (a net savings of 40 kg compared to the converter) and I needed help getting it into the old cabinet but after that the rewiring was straight forward and simple. I installed a SoftStart to reduce the current flow when the unit is turned on and installed two sets of circuit breakers (input and output) to complete the job. The new system is a lot less complicated and should be less trouble in the future.

We will return to Herzliya in mid-Nov, so I need to prepare for the return crossing.

1 - 30 September 2017: Yosi came to Karpaz and had several great dinners out in the area and visited a new hotel near Girne. The A/Sea power converter (AC-12) failed (for the third time in three years) and I temporarily installed a 10 Amp charger to keep the house batteries charged while we are in Israel. I ordered a Mastervolt Isolation Transformer to replace it. Functionally, it will be similar, except the 110V power will be 50 Hz instead of 60 Hz.

On 5 Sep, we left Karpaz by taxi for Larnaka Airport and flew to Israel. We will be staying with Lushi while Tsipy goes to dental appointments. She is having three implants to replace the bridge that gave her so much trouble. I am visiting friends and going to the gym.

On our first Friday, we had our normal gathering at Mike and Batsheva's home in Tel Aviv. It was great to see my friends after so long.

We visited the Israeli tax office and picked up a copy of their new policy that allows boat owning tourists with a B2 visa to visit Israel for up to six months without having to pay taxes. This allows us to return to Herzliya for the winter. We plan to return in mid-Nov so we will be able to leave in good weather during May.

We traveled north to Givat Ela for Shabbat with Moti and Jackie. Our visit coincided with the 30th anniversay for the community. We attended one of the street parties on Shabbat and had a beautiful BBQ on Moti's new grill on Saturday evening before returning to Tel Aviv.

Our friend Leila lent us her apartment in the Island complex in Herzliya Marina. So we moved there for a couple of weeks. It is closer to Tsipy's dental appointments and to my gym. We came back to Lushi's and spent Rosh HaShanah eve at Yardena and Sammy's home with their family (less Roi who is now in San Diego). We walked home from there to Lushi's and celebrated the second evening at her home with Moti, Jackie, Netta, Noga, Ishay, and Yahav. We returned to Leila's apartment after the holiday.

On the 27th, Tsipy surprised me with a delayed birthday party at Nir and Hane's home. I want to thank them for hosting the event, it was wonderful and the food was delicious. It was great to see my old friends Yosi, Israel, Gadi, Yehuda, Gabi, Mike, and Batsheva, along with cruising buddies Yair, Alon, Mikki, Ronnie, and Evyatar. Our friend Vered loaded a surprise video on her computer to show us. It included photos and birthday messages from friends and family all around the world. My thanks to Mashka for all the hard work editing the files.

More photos to come:

1 - 31 August 2017: We left Boynuz Buku and went into the city marina in Gocek for four days. I needed to have some work done on the dinghy motor (a normal service and replacing the motor tilt control on the throttle handle) and we had new chaps and an engine cover made for the dinghy.

Erdinch did a great job on the engine and Maref (my new agent in Gocek) organized the new dinghy chaps. They look and fit great.

We returned to Boynuz Buku on 4 Aug in time to celebrate Shabbat in the bay. On 5 Aug, we had Erwin and his family over for drinks and snacks at sundown. Ofer and Yolanda returned on 6 Aug and rafted to us. We met a British couple on board Independent Freedom and they (Dan, Abby, Leila, Dorothy, and Samuel) joined us for sundowners. Their boat is unusual, schooner rigged but with unstayed carbon fiber masts. It reminded me of John and Frances's Nonesuch. It originally had the Nonesuch wishbone booms but the current owners replaced them.

Afterwards, Yolanda prepared supper and I grilled the lamb chops (delicious). After a nice breakfast, they left for other anchorages. Alba returned on Friday (11 Aug), rafted alongside, and we had a nice Shabbat dinner on board. They departed for Gocek and will return in a month.

On Saturday, Ersol returned and anchored near us. We enjoyed seeing him and his family again. He is taking his boat back to Izmir for retrofit this week. I am sanding and varnishing the Pilothouse doors and hope to have them done by this weekend. Nir, Hani, and Yair arrive this Friday and we plan to begin our crossing to Karpaz on Sunday.

18 Aug, Nir and Hane arrived for our return crossing. I went into Gocek, picked them up, and returned for Shabbat dinner on board. Yair arrived on 19 Aug and Nir and I went in to pick him up. We left Boynuz Buku at 0600 Sunday, 20 Aug for Kekova. The trip along the coast was smooth and we arrived in Kekova around 1400. We toured the town and had dinner at Ibrahim's. David, our neighbor in Herzliya, was anchored in the Roads and came in to join us for dinner.

We left Kekova on 21 Aug at 0600 and cruised to Kemer Marina where we spent two nights. We left Kemer for Alanya Marina on the 23 and got hammered at the beginning of the crossing. We diverted course to follow the coast line and made the trip safely. Isramar did not accurately predict the weather inside Antalya bay. We enjoyed the Turkish Hamam in the marina, a great experience but that was about it, the marina was hot, dirty, and extremely noisy all night long. We left for Karpaz at 0400 on Friday, 25 Aug.

Mike used PredictWind to forecast the weather for our crossing and it was just as predicted, light winds and calm seas. The trip took 16 hours. The whole crew thanks Mike for the weather routing.

We checked into Karpaz and are enjoying the swimming pool, beach, and club. Yosi arrived on Sunday and we went out to dinner at a local restaurant. Yair, Nir, and Hane left Monday morning early for Israel. I purchased a local SIM card for my cell phone, the number is shown on the contact page. We are keeping our Israeli phones active, so you can contact us via WhatsApp using them. Skype and email remain unchanged.

1 - 31 July 2017: We were able to spend some time with Nir and Julia, the crew from Blue Desert between guest visits. Nir's friend Martina came over from Rhodos for a visit. Nir is quite accomplished on water skis, wakeboards, and STABs (Stand Up Board). We enjoyed their visits, shared meals, and sundowner G & Ts. I was able to help Nir with some work on board his huge catamaran.

4 July, we decorated Odelia with US Flags in celebration of our Independence Day. Alon, Miki, Hanan, and Evytar came in for a week visit. We picked them up in Gocek at the Kabab Hospital. Ersal helped transport three and most of their bags with his SUV. Tsipy, Miki, and I took the rest of the bags in the dinghy. It was great to have them aboard, Miki and Hanan cooked every meal and we had fun with them in the water and playing Mexican Train. The Turkish grocery store Migros has a large market boat that makes the rounds in Gocek bay. The guys took the dinghy out and did some shopping. It is huge, with normal store aisles, shopping carts, and almost everything in the shore stores.

Shlomie came by and brought us a SUP (Stand Up Paddle Board) to try. Tsipy did a great job with it. I am still trying but am having balance problems. Shlomie returned on Monday (10 Jul) with his large dinghy to help transport everyone and their bags back to Gocek.

On the 13th, Ofer and Omri came in on Alba, they rafted to us for the night before heading into Gocek. Omri is flying out to Germany on the 15th and Ofer and a friend will return later. Omri swam around the bay and met Birim, Derin, Ediz, and Agathe, a Turkish family and their nanny from London. They joined us for a sundowner.

On the 14th, I picked up the new helm chair for the pilothouse. I had Nasuh make the stainless steel frame and base and then had Salih make the leather upholstery. It is very comfortable, looks great, and spins around for use at the computer.

Ofer on Alba returned on 18 Jul with two friends, Eitan and Uzi. They rafted to us for the night before moving up the bay. Birim on Derin also returned with her husband Jim. They are joining us tonight (19 Jul) for Mexican Train Dominoes.

Eyal and Harel came for a visit on the 21st. We enjoyed celebrating Shabbat with them on their arrival. Since then, they have been enjoying the beautiful bay, doing a lot of swimming, and some tubing. Harel also learned how to drive the dinghy. Here are some photos from their visit.

Ersol returned with his son Erwin, his wife, and son. They are staying for a few weeks on board Ersol's boat while he is in Izmir. Our friends on Derin left and returned to Gocek for some sightseeing trips around Turkey before returning to London. We will miss them.

1 to 30 June 2017: I haven't done an update for several months.

On 9 June, we had our last Friday gathering before our summer cruise. Hane, Vered, Dadi, Mike, Gadi, Gabi, Yosi, Shmulik, Sylvan, Israel, and Yosi Segev were able to attend. It may be our last gathering in Herzliya period, depending on the Israeli tax authorities. They tried to collect 34.55% taxes on their assessed value for my boat. I was able to leave but I don't know if we will be able to return. In either case, it was a great fun.

We left Herzliya Marina on 15 June for Finike, Turkey. Steve took a photo of us departing. Yair and Yacov came with us for the trip. We arrived in Finike at 0400 on 17 June after a 44 hour crossing. We had good weather for the crossing, just a little wind at the Turkish end from a local weather anomaly. We checked into Turkey there and bought Turkish SIM cards for our phone and WiFi hot spot. We had dinner in town. Yair left us there and returned to work in Israel. Yacov is staying with us for a while longer. We left Finike for Kerkova Roads on 18 Jun.

We had a short cruise to Kekova but had to spend three nights there due to high winds and waves along the coast. We left early on 21 Jun and arrived in Boynuz Buku at 1400. Nir on Blue Desert helped us tie to shore and he and Julia prepared lunch for us. A great welcome and much appreciated. We went to Gocek that night to celebrate my 70th birthday. Fatoush, Nasif, Baran, Nir, and Yacov joined us for dinner at Lotus.

Yacov departs on 27 June, we were happy that he was able to join us for the crossing and to stay with us for a while. Alon, Miki, Hanan, and a friend are coming in July for a visit.

1 - 30 April 2017: We celebrated Passover on the boat this year. Our guests were Didi, Mashka, Maya, Emily, Yoni, Sharon, Sven, Vadim, and Marina. The Seder was great, lots of fun and we read the HaGadah in German, English, Russian, and Hebrew. Tsipy, Marina, and Mashka made a lot of food, and everyone enjoyed the evening.

The Morrocan Jew celebrate Memunah at the end of Passover, an evening of dancing, singing, and lots of sweets. We were invited to Caza's for the party. Here are a couple of photos of the night.

On the 27th, Aviv celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem. We all met in Kiryat Ono to board the bus to a park near Latrun for breakfast and from there to the West Wall (Kotel) for the ceremony. After touring the area, Israel and Vadim helped Aviv remove the Torah from the Ark. Aviv did a great job. After the ceremony, we went to a local restaurant for a wonderful late lunch. The entire day was well organized and really fun.

1 - 31 March 2017: This month is Purim (10-11 Mar) and Tsipy is again busy creating costumes for us and for the family party at Noa and Eyal's house. She and Lushi even dressed up for their Thursday folk dancing group.

The Friday gathering was a part of the Purim celebration; Tsipy and i previewed our costumes for Saturday as hippies and Yosi, Gabi, and Israel got into the spirit with clown costumes. A friend of David (on the boat next to me) took some photos from a drone. I included two that shows our boat from above.

The family party was on Saturday (after Shabbat) and I included more photos from the party.

1 - 28 Febuary 2017:

On 7 Feb, Arik and Enbal came over for dinner and at the end we were visited by a some interesting characters. See the photos above.

During the 17 Feb gathering, Tsipy developed an interest in a new whiskey flavored with maple syrup. The photo had to be included.

I completed the installation of a new variable speed fresh water pump and replumbed the fresh water system. I am still working to get a rattling sound out of the system when the boat is hooked to the dockside supply.