First Mates Night Out....

First mates Claudia Jackson of the Ranger and Margaret of Tardis of Tappahannock celebrate an evening ashore at the Beach Bistro on Longboat Key FL. Claudia is now highly successful in promoting books for Telemachus Press.

Gordon the Navigator

Sadly this week in Tappahannock, Margaret's father Gordon (top right) passed away peacefully at the illustrious age of 87 years. Gordon was a Bomber / Navigator with the 493rd Heavy Bombardment Group with the 8th US Army Air Force and was assigned to Suffolk England in January 1945 with his B17 crew. Having flown his requisite 25 missions over targets in Dortmund, Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Kiel, Royan and survived despite horrendous odds, he was sent on another 5 missions and returned safely to the USA in June. When he was introduced to a young German lady Ben brought home after traveling with her across China, Tibet and the Karakoram Highway, Gordon asked where she lived "Oh yes I remember dropping a few bombs on your town!" Gordon is now navigating the celestial heavens...

Last night on the Nile

We board the "Crystal Nile" for the last evening in Egypt, buffet
dinner, and entertainment including the inevitable belly dancer and
whirling dervish dancers. As we leave the dock, there two heavily
armed police boats continuously circling us for the entire evening to
keep us safe from the ever present threat of fundermentalist action.

Son & Lumiere

Navigational Orientation - Mecca

Five times a day Muslims face Mecca and pray - our hotel room by the pyramids had a green arrow pasted on the ceiling to let the true believers point correctly. Hosni, our guide shows the correct ritual at the Mohammad Ali mosque in Cairo's Citadel. First prayer of the day as we entered the airport today was 5 am.

Lighting of the Candles

The nightly Meridien Pyramids lighting of the candles ceremony.... db

Ships of the Desert

From ships on the Nile to ships of the desert.... a skill you
definitely have to acquire.... or just put it down to one of life's
experiences you can best remember!

Navigational marks

Now obsolete due to the regulated water flow, many years ago there were substantial differences of seasonal water levels and flow. After the high dam was built, the locks on the lower dam became redundant. Now boats are taken up in pieces and reassembled.

Egypt connections

Reflecting on my family's Egyptian connections I remember that my
father fought under Field Marshal Montgomery at the turning point of Rommel's North African campaign and defeat at El Alamein. Some thirty years later he returned as a horticultural specialist working for UK parks and monuments responsible for the military sites scattered throughout the Western Sahara and Middle East. His priviledged access to prohibited sites across the region allowed for his secondary role of collecting military intel on location and identification of the local forces in a tense stand-off with Israel.