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Apr. 8th, 2006 09:47 pmOn my first Thursday in the course my grandfather died, and I went back home to the funeral and returned the next day.
Yesterday we got our first weekend off.
I decided that I wanted good hummus very badly, and my dad and a good friend of his, Lior, both former Naval officers, decided they wanted to go see a yacht a friend of Lior's had in the Jaffa marina, so we all met up at Abu Hassan's, a place which serves the best hummus in Israel, and once we've finished eating, headed down to the Marina to search for the ship, the Barracuda.
Abu Hassan
Supposedly, the Barracuda was at the dry dock. we snuck in, and found only three ships, two of which were ancient metal vessels, red with rust, and one which was a huge Catamaran still in the process of being built.
we looked at the ships a bit--one was built by a friend of my dad's, and was meant to go around the world, but never actually made it out of dry-dock. the other was unrecognizable.
We were about to leave when out of the catamaran an old man stumbled out.
"Eh? Who're you?" he asked.
We explained we were looking for a ship called the barracuda, and asked him if he's seen it in the dry-dock.
"Eh.." he wheezed "not in the last...what year is it? 2006? not in the last five years, no. But you," he said, pointing at my dad, "Do I know you?"
"You may.." My dad answered. We all used to live on a wooden yacht, of British origin, in the Tel Aviv harbor. The geezer looked like an old sea dog, and Israel’s seafaring population isn't very big.
"I used to live on the Ch?teau over in Tel Aviv.."
"The Ch?teau? Beautiful vessel. Wooden, isn't she? British?"
"That's the one."
"She's here in the harbor, I think. So are you both sea men?"
"We were officers in the navy.." Lior answered.
"I instructed the first two courses in the Israeli Navy, back in '48, y'know."
And so started an amazingly intense and interesting conversation. The old man--Odded's his name, by the way--has really done everything one can hope to do at sea, be it the navy, the Israeli resistance's sea forces before Israel was founded, and later a skipper and captain in the Scottish trading fleet.
And now, his Catamaran.
turns out it ran on a jet propulsion system he designed and built himself, along with the rest of the vessel.
He did everything,
from building and cutting the windows to cutting and nailing and gluing the wood that made up the ship. everything alone, with his own two hands. this was his sixth year working on it, and he expected it to be seaworthy within the month.
The Jaffa Marina Harbor
After seeing the entire ship, from engines to sleeping quarters, and after hearing about the resistance's exploits at sea,
we left, smiling. it was exhilarating, seeing someone do so much with his life.
This also helped reinforce my decision to join the naval academy after I finish commanders course in the artillery.
Soon after, we left to eat baklavas and drink Arabic coffee in one of Jaffa's many Arabic cafe's.
Then I visited a friend of mine in northern tel aviv, and went home, where I met up with a good family friend we first met in Geneva.
at around midnight I went out to a pub with a good friend of mine, which, by the end of the evening, we claimed as our new regular place. Got home at around 6 AM, woke up at around 12:30 PM, caught up on the few LOST episodes I haven't watched yet, and rested for a while.
now I'm writing this and in 10 hours and 45 minutes I’ll already be back in the army.
see you all in two weeks.
Yesterday we got our first weekend off.
I decided that I wanted good hummus very badly, and my dad and a good friend of his, Lior, both former Naval officers, decided they wanted to go see a yacht a friend of Lior's had in the Jaffa marina, so we all met up at Abu Hassan's, a place which serves the best hummus in Israel, and once we've finished eating, headed down to the Marina to search for the ship, the Barracuda.
Abu Hassan
Supposedly, the Barracuda was at the dry dock. we snuck in, and found only three ships, two of which were ancient metal vessels, red with rust, and one which was a huge Catamaran still in the process of being built.
we looked at the ships a bit--one was built by a friend of my dad's, and was meant to go around the world, but never actually made it out of dry-dock. the other was unrecognizable.
We were about to leave when out of the catamaran an old man stumbled out.
"Eh? Who're you?" he asked.
We explained we were looking for a ship called the barracuda, and asked him if he's seen it in the dry-dock.
"Eh.." he wheezed "not in the last...what year is it? 2006? not in the last five years, no. But you," he said, pointing at my dad, "Do I know you?"
"You may.." My dad answered. We all used to live on a wooden yacht, of British origin, in the Tel Aviv harbor. The geezer looked like an old sea dog, and Israel’s seafaring population isn't very big.
"I used to live on the Ch?teau over in Tel Aviv.."
"The Ch?teau? Beautiful vessel. Wooden, isn't she? British?"
"That's the one."
"She's here in the harbor, I think. So are you both sea men?"
"We were officers in the navy.." Lior answered.
"I instructed the first two courses in the Israeli Navy, back in '48, y'know."
And so started an amazingly intense and interesting conversation. The old man--Odded's his name, by the way--has really done everything one can hope to do at sea, be it the navy, the Israeli resistance's sea forces before Israel was founded, and later a skipper and captain in the Scottish trading fleet.
And now, his Catamaran.
turns out it ran on a jet propulsion system he designed and built himself, along with the rest of the vessel.
He did everything,
from building and cutting the windows to cutting and nailing and gluing the wood that made up the ship. everything alone, with his own two hands. this was his sixth year working on it, and he expected it to be seaworthy within the month.
The Jaffa Marina Harbor
After seeing the entire ship, from engines to sleeping quarters, and after hearing about the resistance's exploits at sea,
we left, smiling. it was exhilarating, seeing someone do so much with his life.
This also helped reinforce my decision to join the naval academy after I finish commanders course in the artillery.
Soon after, we left to eat baklavas and drink Arabic coffee in one of Jaffa's many Arabic cafe's.
Then I visited a friend of mine in northern tel aviv, and went home, where I met up with a good family friend we first met in Geneva.
at around midnight I went out to a pub with a good friend of mine, which, by the end of the evening, we claimed as our new regular place. Got home at around 6 AM, woke up at around 12:30 PM, caught up on the few LOST episodes I haven't watched yet, and rested for a while.
now I'm writing this and in 10 hours and 45 minutes I’ll already be back in the army.
see you all in two weeks.
