By Rosa Doherty
1 min read
By Rosa Doherty
Keeping Shabbat will be a challenge for Eton's Jewish-studies tutor when he attempts to sail 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.
Jonathan Paull will voyage from west Africa to the West Indies, to raise money for Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital.
He said: "Our preparations have been on how to make the boat Shabbat-friendly and how we're going to kosher the fish we will catch for dinner."
As well as himself, one other member of the four-person crew is Jewish.
"We're all amateur sailors and have been taking the usual courses. Two of us will be davening each morning and
we are working out how to set up the ship so we can limit our interaction with the mechanics and domestic appliances when we need to. As long as it is safe, we won't be using the engine, for example."
Mr Paull, who has been the Jewish studies teacher at the exclusive public school for 13 years, said they planned to set sail in November to avoid the hurricane season. "I am nervous about the weather," he admitted. Their craft is a 45ft single-mast sloop.
He hopes the trip will raise £35,000 for a mother's milk facility in the neo-natal unit at Shaare Zedek. "My mother died at the hospital in 2013 and the staff cared for her with such dedication I wanted to do something in her memory. She was passionate about the importance of breast milk and this will provide it. We've raised £8,000 already."
The New West End Synagogue member added: "I've been sailing since I was 13 – there's going to be a great sense of achievement when it is all over."