More photos from the "Day Out"

The big four.....men doing what they know best. Spearing fish and then BBQing the catch. This is from L to R... David (Angel), Gavin,(Sol Maria), Brian (Miss Tippy) and Pete(Fai Tira). The beach looks a little like a Guernsey one apart from the searing heat. Meanwhile, the ones who weren't BBQing were trying also not to fry! L to R Glenda and Ian (Lucy Alice), Dick and me. John (Fai Tira) took the photo so credit for it must go to him.

And later on after the beach, we came upon this very new state of the art hotel (the Marriot) which we had to visit because they sold beer, albeit at exorbitant prices but maybe a free dip in the pool came with it? Brian and Gavin jumped in.

The rest of us sat in the shade!

I know this is just a little sad...my collection of shells picked up on the beach...but they were such nice colours, purples and pinks mostly. I also never knew they had ormers here. Maybe this is where all the Guernsey ones have migrated to? Do they prefer the warmer waters of the Arabian Sea? Which migration route did they take?

You can tell I'm running out of things to say!

The days here merge into one another as we try to keep the dust down on the boat or come up to the hotel to swim, read, work out(!) etc. Evenings are often spent at the Oasis Club where beer and passable red wine is a very good price. Some people bowl. Others play snooker or watch male orientated sport on the big screen. The very amenable owner of the club is allowing us to have theme nights at some point in the future. First night will be a Monty Python one.

The arrangements for the yacht transport out of here to Marmaris are proceeding slowly. The ship is due here at the end of April...but this has already changed once so I'm not holding my breath. In any case, I have an unmissable appointment in Dubrovnik on May 9th come hell or high water!

A day out; more later....

The Hilton Hotel, where many of us spend rather a lot of time these days, has lizards running around all over the lawns. This one posed quite nicely for me. Jane Hearne (of Channel TV fame) led a group of us out to some of the sights and sites along the Omani coast. It might not look much but this picture shows many species of large bird, including flamingoes and the Queen of Sheba's palace beyond. We plan to visit soon. We decided to stay here at this very pleasant spot where those who are so inclined went snorkelling. A starfish and a large unidentified (as yet) shell were unearthed for the photo shoot and then gently placed back in the water. This is Pete (Fai Tira) and Glenda (Lucy Alice) with aforementioned sealife. They also found cuttlefish which were left and two parrot fish which were speargunned and later BBqed. Very nice they were too! Another find was this very very recently deceased green turtle (It hadn't really started to smell yet!). Kiwi Gavin (Sol Maria) felt the need for a trophy and so decided to gut the poor dead thing. Not for the squeamish!!

More from Salalah.....

Here's Jane, THE face of Channel television for 25 years as anyone who ever had a Puffin's birthday greeting will know. She and her husband, Andy, who works out here have been really kind to us and we have all sorts of things planned now to make our stay more interesting.



Taken by John of Fai Tira on our day out into the Dhofar mountains which are composed of young limestone (yawn!!)...but note the impressive geology book I'm holding which belongs to Sue (UK warden for Oman) and which I have promised to guard with my life!



Some impressive limestone rock overhang.

On our twisty turny route up into the Dhofar mountains, we were followed by this huge truck carrying hay into God knows where!

Posing at the top.....Larry of Journey, me, John of Fai Tira and Dick

Camels, camels and more camels!

My first camel! We were driving southwestwards along the coast towards Yemen and there they were.... a train of them ambling along the side of the road towards something green to eat.





On they went. I think they might have owners. One had some rope around its hump.








And on the way back to Salalah, we saw them again. I've decided that it's hard to take a bad photo of a camel as long as the head is in view that is. They are just so strange looking from any angle.



I love the egret imitating the camel's pose! I also saw a spoonbill in this spot but the photos weren't so good.






And this is the general view NE up the coast of Oman. In this part of the country, it's all very much the same apart from the Dhofar mountains which are to the left of this photo and which I shall try to upload in a minute....except that it is so slow here for some reason so they may arrive tomorrow.

Uploading photos takes a long time.

Updated chart of pirate activity.....The Gulf of Aden is almost clear now ...but we're still shipping out!






Talismano and Moonshiner get very close, earlier this morning. We managed to resecure her in the end.







The dog on the next boat but one thought it was all very exciting. He was covered in pinkish dust.







None of my pictures of the dust did it any justice so I left my mark in it instead!







John (Fai Tira) takes an important shot at the Oasis Club. Dick and Larry (US, Journey) look on. I played the other night and managed to hit the ball quite impressively on a couple of occasions. There are witnesses!!

Two and a half weeks into our enforced and elongated stay in the desert country of Oman and I have yet to see a camel although I have eaten some! I have seen a sandstorm however. Everyone in this mooring spot here in Salalah was shaken awake by strong winds and boats bumping together at around 5am this morning. The boat alongside us, a 48’ Halberg Rassy with Italian owners away for a few days, broke free of her stern rope which had been chained to a rock(!) and tried to gallop off like a frightened horse…..but she reckoned without us and between three boatcrews, we managed to bring her under control after a bit of a tussle. The wind continued to blow and the dust got everywhere. My hair has never felt so stiff! This sand is very fine, made of limestone dust and it coats everything very easily. It’s a losing battle trying to keep it under control but after this morning’s episode, it was time to finally clean the decks etc with the saltwater pump. I had been quoting Quentin Crisp who said that the dust doesn’t get any worse after six months, but I think that after six months of this type of dust, the boat would be buried or sunk under the extra weight on the decks.

We were supposed to go off on a day trip with John from Fai Tira, a longish drive up over the mountains and into the desert proper, well the edge of it anyway, to the end of the macadam road at least, that is…. This has now been put off to another day. I think the desert has been trying to come to us! I was almost guaranteed to see wild camels on today’s drive but I will have to wait now.

The arrangements for our mass shipment out of here are well in hand and there should be a ship arriving in about a month that will transport all 20 yachts through GoA and the Red Sea, then Suez into the Med and finally Turkey. We all have to get to Turkey by other means and this is proving to be a bit of a nightmare as there are no direct routes from here. The plan we are currently working on is a 12 hour coach trip to Muscat which should be fantastic as long as it’s in daylight as it is supposed to be one of the best bus journeys in the world. After that, there might be a flight to Rhodes via Qatar and Athens and then finally a ferry ride to Marmaris, Turkey where we shall meet the boats a week later……….. Trouble is, we can’t book anything at all until we know exactly when the boats are going to be shipped and then there will suddenly be quite a lot of us who are all rather anxious to leave Salalah at the same time! It sounds very expensive.

I shall be sorry not to be able to visit Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan and Egypt as well as missing the trip through Suez but in the end, I’d rather be safe. Other yachts have already made the journey through GoA safely including one Blue Water yacht, friends of ours with whom we spent Christmas, Spirit of Nina. We were very worried about them but they insisted on sailing through, along with a few other brave souls and they are now in the Red Sea having encountered no problems en route. From the websites we monitor closely, it looks as though most of the pirate action has moved north and east of here and we were lucky to get here without problems as our route was in the middle of current trouble areas. See most recent photo attached later for current activity.

In the meantime, we sit here day after day getting hot and dusty with periodic relief of a short trip to the Hilton Hotel for a swim (one has to pay 5rials or £8.00, for this) or another short trip to the hypermarket….. to stock up on dates mostly! The built up areas around here are strange. There are small groups of houses and shops scattered all over the place with nowhere that looks exactly like a town. In any one group of shops, you are guaranteed to see a laundry, a hairdresser (men only I think…women’s hair is never on show) and a restaurant. There are virtually no women on the streets though they are in abundance in the hypermarket. All the shops, including the restaurants and laundries are run by men. It’s all rather alien to our western way of life and I’m sure I’d never adjust to having to stay hidden away. I did discover why the women have such huge heads though! In the hypermarket the other day, I touched one of them on the back of the head very gently and asked what on earth it was she had under her enormous black headscarf. It was a sort of loose woven basket which must contain the hair in some way. It looks so strange though and I’ve not seen this style in other Muslim cultures. The other odd thing as I said before is that the mostly younger (?) women pencil in their eyebrows so that they meet in the middle. What for? I might get bold and ask to photograph one of them.... watch this space!

Creatures of the Night and other scary things.

The latest pirate attacks showing a fair few just on the route we took. Timing is everything. Sorry it's blurred.






Two Omani women...at least I think they're women! Hmm









And last but not least, the Hilton Hotel which is where we have been spending some time recently......nice to see grass and water!

In the heat and the dust

Events have overtaken us. We are not now sailing on into GoA and must now try to find a solution. Luckily, we have some excellent yacht skippers among us who are used to dealing with big expensive problems and the current plan is to charter a large ship that will carry all the boats on its deck into the Med while we fly out of here to somewhere safe. Various embassies are now involved too. In the meantime, we must wait here as arrangements are made. It may take a few weeks and we hope the Omani authorities allow us to stay here if and when our visas run out in three weeks. Otherwise, the yachts will have to be left here with little or no on board security and who knows what may happen to them?

Several other, mostly smaller boats, not with the Rally made the brave decision to sail through Pirate Alley last week. They are not quite through yet but it looks as though they will make it safely…. There is a multitude of multinational naval vessels out with them so they are probably quite protected but I’m glad we’re not with them. The pirates have come a lot closer to the Omani coast and had we left Mumbai a week later, we may not have been so lucky.

So, we sit in the sunshine and dust of Salalah trying to entertain ourselves! There is a local club that serves alcohol and is a Mecca for all the sailors who come to this port. It is a few minutes walk up the hill from here but not a bad place to spend an evening or two. Otherwise, during the daytime, we can shop at the hypermarket which is very new and shiny and sells the most incredible selection of dates….we ate two pounds of them last week! Upstairs is a clothing section where Angel Val and I spent quite some time buying traditional Omani clothes, both for men and women.

The men look rather cool, or so I think anyway, in their long cotton robes called “dish dasha” that are whiter than white or occasionally grey, blue or cream. They mostly seem to carry themselves very well, even the chubby ones and they wear the “Omani cap” which is like a little pillbox hat and finishes off the look rather well in my opinion. Lots of the Rally men must think so too because a fair few of them have bought one or two to wear. I have yet to see one being worn though…. They are really cheap to buy at about £5.00 and the rather intricately embroidered caps are only about £4.00. The alternative head gear is the shamag (the Yasser Arafat turban style, mostly red or black checked) which they wear in a very casual style. So much for the men……

The women are something else! They are mostly completely swathed in black from top to toe in an ensemble called an abaya…it’s just a very long (scrapes along the ground) loose, shapeless black dress with the odd hint of a sequin…but the head gear! They wear a long wrap around black scarf which covers the hair and usually the face apart from the eyes but it’s not a burkha. Some wear this scarf as a veil. I have no idea how they can see out. The weirdest thing is the huge lumps they all have at the back of their heads which I can only assume is the long hair curled up into some intricate style. The rally men say that they look mysterious and alluring but I think they look like Darth Vader or vampires…creatures of the night that glide across the floor because you can’t see the feet…..Creepy! I managed to get a distance photo of a couple of them.

And a few of the younger ones don’t have their faces covered but are instead smothered in skin lightening make up and eyebrows that are joined together by a thick black pencil line. Er….not terribly attractive to my mind but it takes all sorts. At least they are tolerant towards us westerners and we females mostly respect their wishes and cover arms and legs if possible. It’s hot but it’s been a lot worse in other places so I don’t mind.
Most speak more than adequate English which is very useful too.

So, the negotiations to organize a yacht transport ship go on… We must simply be patient and find things to do. We can’t clean the boats of salt etc because the water supply is very limited and there is no point in dusting because it’s just the same the next day (hooray!).

Things to do and see include a must do visit to the tomb of Job…. Well I never! Who would have believed that his tomb would have survived all these centuries? Think I’d better have a peek at the bible to find out what he did that was so special! Excuse my ignorance.

The most interesting potential trip for me apart from seeing the Omani ophiolites which are several hundred miles away to the north and therefore a no no (shame that), will be a trip to the Royal Stables and Stud farm. We have our consular contact working on it at the moment and I am hopeful. It was always a bit of a dream for me to see Arabian horses on their native soil and so I’m keeping fingers crossed… Next blog then….

This is the Arabian Sea with pirate attacks in January. We were supposed to find a safe route through all of this which we did by making a huge detour north but the attacks are now very close to our route down the Omani coast. Quest and the danish boat Ing were attacked by the pirate group in the centre of this photo.



An Omani fishing boat, not a pirate, but they came far too close for comfort for some of the yachts....... They were mostly just curious or busy hauling nets.






Natibou with blue sail and Jacabel, who were behind us in our group,getting just a litle too close to each other avoiding a harmless fishing boat. Things got a little tense on occasion!




And finally, me in my salwar khameez, traditional Indian dress, on Angel in Salalah. Sorry about the sideways aspect but it makes me look a lot taller and therefore slimmer!

In Oman

I don’t know where to start with this post and I suppose most followers of my writings will have read my last entry which I wrote while in a state of shock. Further frightening events happen daily as the pirate action escalates and we are told that no yacht is safe out there any more. The remaining Rally boats are all secure here at present in Salalah but we all know of several yachts still in transit to Oman and others who have taken the bold decision to carry on through the Gulf of Aden (GoA). The latest reports which we now know to be true are that a Danish yacht with a family on board is in pirate hands and heading for Somalia. There was a news blackout on this event and we naturally feared the worst. Another smaller rally of about ten boats with whom we had some radio contact a few days ago are in the Gulf of Aden and we just hope they are travelling safely
.
The long 1500 mile motorsail from Mumbai to Salalah, long because of our pirate avoiding detour, was free of actual pirate problems though some of the more panicky members of our group believed that any boat nearby might be a threat and we had some quite comical sudden course changes going on around us as curious Omani fishing boats came close by for a look with big smiles and lots of waving. We kept a good visual watch from the cockpit as normal and muttered a little about the dependency of some yachts on their radars and AIS systems…hopeless against small fast skiffs which the pirates use and useless being down below over the chart table, seeing nothing.

We stopped overnight at an island, Masirah, just off the Oman coast to refuel having received permission from the sheikh himself to do so. John from Spirit of Nina, who were already safely in Salalah, very kindly arranged it all for us. It was my first step ashore in the Middle East since 1976 and the Esso tankers….. All the women were covered top to toe in black as this island is very traditional but the sheikh’s daughter wore the most extraordinary black mask that looked like a bird’s skull. I wish I’d had the nerve to ask if I could take a photo. I wish too that we could have stayed a day or two longer but there was a pressing need to get to safety and Salalah.

As dusk fell the next night we were motorsailing as usual just off the coast when I spotted the dreaded lines of polystyrene floats which have plagued us ever since Indonesia. These floats which are lit only at one end are the visible part of huge drift nets which can be several miles long and hang just a few feet below the surface. If you can sail the boat in between two of these floats, you won’t get tangled up………We were in the middle of dozens of them horizon to horizon and they became almost impossible to see as night fell. We had successfully led our team of five boats in a line across several nets and were starting to relax a little when I spotted the next one about four feet away in the gathering gloom. OK for us but lethal for Hans on Natibou, the cat behind us. He got well and truly caught up so the rest of us crept out to safety and then wondered what to do. Hans was in favour of diving under the boat in the dark to cut the lines away but this is just too risky with nets and currents. So we decided to hang around as a group til morning when the task of freeing the boat would be easier. A very long night was in prospect. As luck would have it, the next, much faster rally group were just a few miles behind us and hearing of our plight, they insisted on coming across to help with their superhero team of cool divers, The Men in Black AKA the SBS. In a very short time, they had cut Hans free and so we were able to continue ……

This was a very arduous trip with little respite from trying to be in a constant state of alertness apart from sighting dolphins and two killer whales and being treated to an amazing light show each night as the water became alive with bioluminescence from our wash. I’m now just really relieved we’re here though.

Oman is very pleasant….a little dusty but not too hot if one stays out of the sun and not too expensive either. We found a huge hypermarket that sells everything we could wish for apart from alcohol and pork products. I got carried away in the date section and sampled quite a few before buying some which are the best I’ve ever tasted. The women mostly cover up completely in black with their headscarves encasing some huge lumps on the back of their heads. I think they look weird, like Darth Vader (they glide along the floor.) or vampires even. Strangely, the men seem to think they look mysterious and alluring. Surely this isn’t what they are supposed to think? The Arab men can look elegant in their floor length white, cream or grey shirts …I think they’re called dish tash or something like that….as long as they don’t have big protruding stomachs that is. I haven’t the nerve to take a photo yet though they are all very friendly and tolerant of our general state of Western undress.

So, here we sit while the big guns in the rally, of whom there are several, formulate a master plan to get us out of our predicament. We are not supposed to reveal our plans for some reason as of yet but I’m sure it’ll all become clear soon. In the meantime, I can sit here on the boat and try out my new dongle. Everyone who travels with a computer should have one of these though it took me many months to find out what they were and I am now so pleased to have one. Lets hope it allows me to upload a photo or two now. ..............