We were all wearing our bright orange life jackets. The eight people below deck looked like cartoon characters.

But what approached was no joke. Two long, greenish missile boats with commandos on board, black masks hiding their faces, aiming all sorts of weapons at the orange-clad figures.

The commando boats came closer; alongside them were two gray inflatable rubber boats.

Later, three more appeared.

Israeli expatriate Dror Feiler, now a Swedish citizen, shouted in Hebrew: Stop pointing your guns at us, we're unarmed. He played a tune he had composed, with Jewish cantorial motifs, on his saxophone.

Just as he stopped playing, the commando boats began to slow down and pull back. The activists joked that the tune had done the job.

Around 2 P.M., seven commando boats came within a few meters of the yacht on both sides.