Abu Dhabi Sailing – ADCA racing, Yas Island Rally

We are two-thirds of the way through the sailing season, which runs from mid-September to the beginning of June, coinciding with the months of the year that human beings can survive outdoors in the UAE. Mark and I have been doing a lot of sailing during these cool months.

Our club here, the Abu Dhabi Cruiser Association (ADCA), holds races every third Saturday. We also participate in special events including the recent Emirates Open Regatta and an annual ADCA Yas Island cruise out. The following briefings will give you the season’s highlights so far, with some local color and characters.

The move to Emirates Palace Marina

Life changed for the better – MUCH better – when we moved from the crowded marina near the Marina Mall, over to Emirates Palace Marina.

The floating dock is used for prize giving and posh dinners

Let’s just start with the parking, which is spacious and beautifully landscaped whereas at the other marina it’s a permanent construction zone, and you may as well park across the street in the mall parking lot, taking your life in your hands to cross the street.




Plus, although it’s a spacious marina designed for mega yachts, it has the following environmentally sustainable green credentials, according to Marina Manager Capt. Toby Haws:
- ISO 140001 waste management
- Blue Flag Award
- ICOMIA Green Marinas
- 5 Gold Anchor Award
- Carbon footprint assessment done

Idefix and Unwind are neighbors

The $3 billion US Emirates Palace Hotel is in a class of its own, and so is the marina. The concierge will deliver you and your gear to the slip in a golf cart, and fetch ice if needed. They are at the dock to catch our dock lines as we arrive after a sail. And they offer catered lunch to be delivered dockside, complete with fine china and cloth napkins.


I have seen this myself – one weekend the skipper and crew of the Beneteau 21.7 in the next slip sat down in the cockpit and tucked into a pre-race lunch of juicy looking cheeseburgers and ice cold beers while we were setting up our boat for racing. The room service cart filled the whole cockpit.

Clubhouse

The best part of the move, aside from the location, scenery and service, is using the floating clubhouse. Now we have a place right at the marina where we can gather after a race. We bring our own beverages and food, and the marina provides a barbecue. The post-race group seems to grow a bit bigger and more fun after each race, and Mark and I can never seem to tear ourselves away without being among the last to leave.




This year’s ADCA Annual Meeting for the general membership will be in the Emirates Palace Marina clubhouse.

ADCA Commodore’s Cup series 2012-13

The new marina is working out well for racing. When we were at the other marina, our starting line channel buoys were in a location that was popular with jet skiers, who loved to buzz around us in light air just after the start, showing off for spectators by disturbing the water and stopping the boats. Yelling at them to go away only made them do it more. Boys will be boys, and they pretty much do whatever they want around here.

Lady Marmalade, Saeeda and Floosie before the start

Now we use the Emirates Palace Marina channel buoys as the start line – port end is usually a bit favored, but not bad – and we round permanent buoys offshore. We’ve raced the same 14 NM course for the past few races. There is a bit of current to play, some wind shifts and tacking, and a downwind run to the finish line. We always start at 2 p.m. which may sound late, but the early offshore breeze dies around noon, and in the afternoon we usually get a decent onshore breeze of 8 to 12 knots, sometimes less and sometimes more. We finish around 4 p.m. or so, put the boat away and head over to the clubhouse, getting just a bit of a head start on the slower boats who sail a shorter course.

There are thirteen IRC-rated boats registered for the season, and from five to nine have been showing up on the starting line. Despite the wide range of boat types, the racing is fun, with us on the Pacer 27 Unwind battling it out with our arch rival, the Farr 30 Idefix, who need to be upset from their perennial podium place as season champions.

Greta, Alicia, Emma and Matteo

Unwind’s crew is all Italian except for Mark and me, and the crew rotates depending on who is available. On one fun special regatta this year, the Abu Dhabi Cup, we had Emiliano’s two daughters, Emma and Greta, and Paolo’s daughter Alicia, all three chattering in Italian and singing Taylor Swift songs.






The Humpback Dolphins have been meeting us in the starting line area, swimming with us as we tack around before the start. We see Humbacks or Bottlenose almost every time we go sailing, although as the water along the Abu Dhabi coastline warms up they will surely go someplace where it’s cooler.

Starting the Race with Humpback Dolphins

At this writing we are in the lead for the season, but only one point ahead of Idefix, having taken a third in Race #8. A THIRD??? Read on …

The New Floosie in Town

Martyn and Floosie

We took a third in Race #8 because there is a new FarEast 26 named Floosie in the fleet. The owner, a very nice Brit gentleman named Martyn, wanted to get something a bit larger than his National Squib, so Emiliano suggested the purchase the FarEast 26. It was delivered from China a few weeks ago, and Martyn named her Floosie, because “She’s fast and she’ll go with anyone.” Apparently she’s the latest in a long line of Floosies that Martyn has had. Emiliano, Mark and I went out with Martyn on the maiden voyage, to help him sort the boat out and figure out how to sail it. We agreed that it’s very comfortable and sails very well.




Then Martyn asked us to go out with him on a Thursday evening Twilight Race, which we did – despite the shamal, which is a strong northwest wind that blows across Iraq and the Gulf, kicking up some pretty steep chop. Whoa! First puff upwind the boat lays over and the outhaul on the main breaks. Nevertheless, we continued to the mark, rounded, and put up the spinnaker, crossing the finish line first – well – and last, being the only boat out.

Mark and Martyn get along like a house afire

That evening we enjoyed an intimate BBQ with Martyn, his wife Christine, son Geoff, and some Cuban cigars, which Martyn enjoys regularly and Mark has recently taken quite a liking to. Christine “isn’t much of a sailor,” says Martyn, but I think she will grow to appreciate Floosie’s comfortable accommodations in the benign weather we have so often here.





A couple of days later we sailed Commodore’s Cup #8 on Unwind with Emiliano. It was light wind, with choppy conditions left over from the shamal, and Unwind just couldn’t get moving. It also seemed like we were faster on port tack. Floosie took second place, with nobody more shocked than Martyn. Thus, we are now only one point ahead of the Farr 30, and Floosie is a threat. This week, Emiliano is hauling Unwind, painting the bottom, and checking the mast and keel alignment.This is just what Emiliano wanted – more competition in the fleet, which he hopes will encourage more people to join ADCA, buy boats and sail in races.

Martyn was so appreciative of our help that he hosted us at the last running of the horse races at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club on March 17th. He is just one of the many great people we have met, and continue to meet, sailing here. We just need more boats!

Emirates Open Regatta

Tom, me, Mark, Ken and Geoff accept the 2nd Place cup.
The award money is coming, inshallah.

We sailed the Emirates Open Regatta on Saturday, March 2nd. It’s a multi-day international regatta, sponsored by Emirates Heritage Club and Abu Dhabi Sailing and Yacht Club, with mostly dinghy classes.

We sailed in this regatta last year, with just a few other keel boats. This year, thanks to Emiliano and his skill in getting the fleet to turn out, we managed to pull together enough keel boats – eight – registered in the “Cruiser Class” for our fleet to not only race one day but actually qualify for prize money. Instead of being awarded to the winners, the money is put into the ADCA fund to benefit all members, which means we will have a big party.

At Emiliano’s request, Mark and I sailed Floosie. Martyn was out of town on business but we had his son Geoff, who we think actually prefers fishing but is liking sailing more with the new boat. To round out the crew we brought our friend Tom, who has day sailed with us occasionally and laughs every time you try to explain how to do something, and a guy Tom met at the British Club named Ken who said he had done some racing about 30 years ago.

We used our regular up-down course, with three races. Although it was the perfect light conditions for Idefix we managed, to our surprise, to earn one “bullet,” or first place, on Floosie which put us in second place for the series, behind Idefix and ahead of Emiliano on Unwind. We are more impressed with the FarEast 26 each time we sail her.

The best part about the Emirates Open is the prize giving ceremony and dinner. The prize giving is in the National Theater, on the waterfront next to Emirates Heritage Village and the site of the Volvo Ocean Race stopover. After a young boy sings some verses from the Quran, the winners approach dignitaries lined up onstage and are awarded large trophies. Then everyone goes over to the Heritage Village for a huge Arabic buffet dinner, served al fresco. The regatta’s sponsors provide all this at no cost, no entry fee, no dinner tickets. The only thing for us that is different than other regattas is the absence of sponsors like Mount Gay or Skyy, which just means that we get home at a decent hour and nobody makes a fool of themselves.

Walking over to the dinner

By the end of the evening we could see that Ken was already getting hooked on sailing again, so it was no surprise to see him crewing on Floosie in the next Commodore’s Cup race.





Sailing Arabia – The Tour

Inshore racing
Photo: thenational.ae

We had some international sailing celebrities in town recently, including a member of Richmond Yacht Club, our yacht club in the San Francisco Bay. Liz Baylis, two-time US Sailing Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, was sailing with three other professional women sailors, Dee Caffari and Sarah Hornby of Great Britain and another American, Katie Pettibone, on an all-female team with a crew of Omani girls sailing in Sailing Arabia – the Tour.




The Far 30 fleet’s racing began in Bahrain, stopping along the Arabian Gulf coast in ports in Qatar and UAE, then through the Strait of Hormuz to Oman, ending in Muscat. Mark and I caught up with Liz and the crew while they were in Abu Dhabi, and watched some of the in-port racing before heading over to our own ADCA race which happened to be the same day.

Omani crew

We talked briefly to the crew, and I was impressed with the young Omani women from the Oman Sail Women’s Sailing Program, who were out racing day and night, among the oil rigs and sandy shoals, building confidence in themselves and learning that they can compete in the sport of sailing.





Since they were rotating their crew there were a couple of girls who weren’t racing and Liz and I talked about having them come and race with us in our ADCA race, but it didn’t work out. Although I thought we had two crew coming along, they went out on the spectator boat, and we had to leave to get to our marina and get our boat ready. I think maybe they were a little shy about going out with us. Oh well.

Volvo Ocean Race 2013-14



The Farr 30’s were tied up at the docks that were built for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race stopover. It’s been announced that Abu Dhabi will compete in the 2013-14 VOR, and Abu Dhabi will again be a race stopover. Mark and I will still be here by then – maybe. This time, we’ll make sure we get on a boat to watch the in-port racing on the water.




Yas Island Cruise Out

Every year, ADCA organizes a cruise to Yas Marina, a 25 mile trip past Abu Dhabi’s still-developing arts and culture center on Saadiyat Island to Yas Island which, in addition to the luxury marina, is the home of Yas Marina F1 Circuit, the world’s largest indoor theme park Ferrari World, the brand new water park Yas Waterworld, and the Yas Links Golf Course – none of which anyone in our sailing group visited. We were just there for the cruise and the party.

Ferrari World

We started out from Emirates Palace Marina at about 10:00 a.m. to take advantage of the ebb. We got a mile or two offshore where we found a decent breeze, and were able to hoist the spinnaker. The fleet consisted of four boats – Idefix, Unwind, Floosie, and the Cork 1720 Saeeda. Once again Mark and I sailed with Martyn on Floosie, because Emiliano and Paolo had their families along on Unwind.

Mark and I were excited at the opportunity to explore a little piece of the coastline and some inter-island waterways that we hadn’t yet seen. It’s always an interesting perspective to view a city from the water. All along the way, we recognized buildings that we knew, but had never seen from that vantage point. We also saw things we had never seen before, and were especially interested in what looked like an abandoned resort project, with Arab-style wind tower architecture. An Arabian ghost town.

25 miles each way

 

Dockside celebration on Saeeda

The fleet arrived at Yas Marina between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. There was only one grounding by Saeeda but, because the bottom is sand, it wasn’t a big deal and they were able to sail off. The four boats tied up and everyone enjoyed some drinks and snacks.

Compared to Emirates Palace Marina, Yas Marina, which is also designed for mega yachts, is very noisy. There was racing on the track right next to the marina while we were there, and the Abu Dhabi International Airport is nearby, with a constant stream of approaching jets flying right overhead.

Yas Marina entrance

That, combined with a retrofit of the restaurants and other non-berthing facilities in the marina, made it a bit less convenient than we would have liked, so before long everyone was taking the concierge golf cars to the Yas Viceroy Hotel to catch taxis.




Some people had booked a room in one of the hotels on the island, but Mark and I went home which, as you can see from the map, is exactly half way between the Palace marina and Yas – about twelve miles.

We returned at 7:30 for the dinner, and as we arrived at the hotel complex, the place was buzzing with people arriving with Corvettes for a racing event. ADCA’s social secretary, Liz, arranged for a private poolside buffet dinner for our group at the Yas Rotana Hotel. Spouses who didn’t make the ADCA cruise joined us and there were about 40 people in the group. The wine was flowing, and there was a considerable amount of singing, which Malcolm had started back in the marina. At one point I looked over at Malcolm, who helms Idefix when the owner Marc, who is a pilot, is flying.

Photo lifted from Wimer's Facebook page.
I hope it's OK, John!

I noticed Malcolm balancing a spoon on his nose, which reminded me of someone back home. Malcolm is ADCA’s version of my sailing friend John Wimer, owner of the San Francisco Bay J120 race boat Desdemona, notorious for winning the party as well as the race. Both Malcolm and John are very affectionate. Malcolm is always demanding kisses, both cheeks please, and Wimer kisses everyone, not just the girls!

Malcolm at least needs some beads, no?

The next morning, Malcolm flashed us as we passed Idefix motoring Floosie. Which is a classic Desdemona move. “We have a Wimer,” I told Mark. “He just needs to work on the wardrobe.”





As the weekend wore on, it reminded us more and more of a calmer version of the Delta Ditch Run, a popular race from Richmond in San Francisco Bay through the Sacramento River Delta to Stockton, California that’s often very windy, with lots of groundings and carnage. What a great race it would be, downwind to Yas Island! There would need to be a motoring allowance, Mark and I decided. The party could be easily organized at any one of the many restaurants in Yas Marina, or at a nearby hotel as Liz did this year.

Catching Idefix under power

We left the Yas Marina dock at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, so we could beat the tide, and motored out, enjoying the scenery and wildlife, including a friendly Humpback Dolphin, a Stingray, and a Gazelle grazing in the mangroves.







At 10:00 a.m. we crossed under the Saadiyat bridge and into the Gulf, where we were met by a fleet of classic racing dhows just lowering their sails. The breeze came up, and we close reached up to the Emirates Palace Marina, arriving at 1:00 p.m.

What a perfect weekend, and what a perfect place to go sailing. And what a great group of people, the Abu Dhabi Cruiser Association.

Thanks for reading; two photo albums are below.

ADCA Racing 2012-13 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Yas Island Rally 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

An Encounter - at my little beach in Abu Dhabi

It just might be the littlest beach in Abu Dhabi.

A few days ago, I rode my regular Zayed Grand Mosque bicycle route. It was breezy, due to the shamal, a northwesterly wind that blows over Iraq and across the Gulf, bringing airborne sand, reducing visibility and breathability, and lifting plastic bags and other trash into the air. So I elected to make it a relatively short 45-minute ride.

The workers' standard greeting is not "Hello."
It's "How are you?"

Maybe it was the effect of the shamal, or maybe they are getting used to seeing me out there, but right from the beginning, something was different about that morning. All of the workers tending the landscaping were especially friendly, pausing and waving to me as I passed, calling “How are you?” One even hailed me to come talk to him. “Where are you from?” He attempted to chat me up a bit, and I was friendly but didn't stop long, not wanting to get him into trouble for taking time off from planting petunias. No doubt there are cameras all along the route, because I ride past the Abu Dhabi Police Officers Club, under the Zayed and Maqtaa bridges, and past the Armed Forces Headquarters.

On the way back after the turnaround, I decided to stop at the Maqtaa Bridge, drink some water, and observe the current running under the bridges – where I was swirling around on my SUP in last year’s blog story, Caught at Maqtaa Bridge. As I sat there looking at the little beach before me, I couldn't help but notice the trash. Water bottles, food containers, and plastic bags, all left by workers who come there to relax, eat, and fish. And birds, picking their way around. Much of the trash had been blown up against the fence by the shamal, so that the end of the little beach was acting like a sink, collecting refuse.

Maqtaa Tower and Zayed Bridge. A great place to contemplate life, gazing at old and new.

Well, I thought. I can reach that bag floating in the water; it looks somewhat like a jellyfish and needs to come out. So I got up, fished the bag out of the water and began collecting trash to fill it. It’s such a small beach that it didn't take long for me to collect pretty much all the trash into two bags, which made a huge aesthetic difference. I decided not to venture around the other side of the dilapidated barbed wire fence, even though I could have easily gotten past it. I sat with my bike, sipping my water and contemplating the view.

Apparently I was being watched.

A view from the water, on my board. The little beach is on the right.

Just a few moments passed, and then a vehicle pulled up and stopped. The door opened, and a soldier in a black jumpsuit and cap – Emirates Special Forces – got out and came over to me. I thought it best to let him speak first.

He picked up my two bags of trash. “Thank you," he said. "Thank you." I had been planning to take the trash with me on my bicycle to the next debris box along the route. “Where are you from?” he asked. “USA,” I said, “and, you're welcome. And thank you for taking the trash.” I pointed at the beach. “What a mess!” He nodded, then shook his head. What can they do? He thanked me again and drove off, circling around and honking and waving as he passed by again.

As I got on my bike to ride home, I felt great. A few moments later, I saw something I had never seen before – about a hundred guys exercising on steps. I was in such a good mood that I waved and called out the Arabic greeting, “Salaam alaikum!” (Peace to you.) And they called back, with a chorus of “Alaikum salaam!” And there was a lot of surprised laughter.

It felt good to tell the soldier that I’m American, and I think my little cleanup gesture made a good impression on him. It helps to be on good terms when you cruise their neighborhood regularly. So I've decided to adopt that little beach, and every time I ride there, I'll check for trash to pick up. I’m doing it for myself, because I miss working in my yard in Nevada, and for the birds and the fish. And I’m doing it so that I can feel like I’m giving something, however small, back to Abu Dhabi.

Boating in the Musandam with Abdul Hameed Alawahdi and Friends

Abdul Hameed, left, is a natural-born host and organizer.

Last year, camping with Abdul Hameed was the highlight of the season, and has remained the all-time most popular blog story. Unfortunately, this year Abdul couldn’t set up the camp because he was unable to borrow Salim, his Bangladeshi man Friday, from the family farm for the season. Salim learned how to cook at camp, and now he cooks at the farm. Without Salim to watch over camp during the week, everything could disappear. And it isn’t easy to hire someone for only a few months, even for the well-connected Abdul.

So instead, Abdul Hameed organized a boating trip in the Musandam with Khasab Travel & Tours.

The Norway of Arabia

Musandam is in the northern tip of the Arabian peninsula, jutting out into the Straits of Hormuz. This Omani exclave, geographically separated from the rest of Oman by UAE borders, shares control of the Strait of Hormuz with Iran. It’s also a tourist destination because of its rugged beauty and opportunities for fishing, diving and dolphin watching. It’s a fantastically remote and peaceful place. You would never know that you were in one of the strategic hot spots on the planet.

The Musandam has Iran as its neighbor to the north, across the Strait of Hormuz

 Our boating trip began in the town of Khasab, which dates to the beginning of the 17th century at the height of the Portuguese naval presence. To get there, we left Abu Dhabi on Friday morning, driving northeast through Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah (RAK,) where we rendezvoused with Abdul, his cousins and the other Arab guys from Mark’s work who were coming on the trip. We had Tom riding with us. Dana and Deb were in Dana’s car along with Dana’s son Jared and Jared’s girlfriend Hollie, who were visiting from Pasadena, California and had spent the previous two days in Dubai. Our boat would leave on Friday evening and return 24 hours later, on Saturday.

The American guests: Hollie, Jared, Deb, Dana, Anne, Mark, and Tom

But first, we made a stop at the Barracuda liquor store, which is located in a run-down looking resort of the same name in the emirate of Um Al Quwain, between Dubai and RAK. Barracuda is quite famous with expats for being the best place to buy alcohol, even if you live in Abu Dhabi, which is hours away. While there are small liquor stores scattered around – we have a High Spirits near our apartment compound – it’s always hit-or-miss depending on what they have in stock. And there is absolutely no packaged alcohol sold in the hypermarkets or anywhere but a liquor store. Just like pork, you have to go someplace special. Although I must admit that it’s easier to get booze than pork.

We bought some of these pre-mixed cocktails
which come in very handy on road trips.

Barracuda has a wide selection of everything. Two rooms of wines from around the world, pretty good selection of beers, and a great selection of vodkas, high quality scotches, the best tequilas – you get the idea. And it’s all beautifully displayed. For me, it’s fun just to get to see the displays, many of which are custom-made, or “bespoke” as they call it here, and really deserve their own blog photo story.

We picked up a few bottles of this and that, a couple cases of beer, sampled some cheeses at the gourmet store, and were on our way again to meet Abdul.

After lunch at a mall food court, we formed a car caravan and headed up along the rugged RAK coastline to the Oman border crossing near Shams. Border crossings are always a crap shoot for expats. With Abdul and the other Emirati nationals patiently waiting, we went inside and found ourselves delayed because they had run out of the forms they require us to fill out. Um, hello, this is the only thing they do here! You would think they could just ask us for the information and type it into the computer but … oh well, the forms finally arrived, we paid our exit fees, got passport stamps, and we were almost through the gauntlet. One more check point, where the Omani border guards looked in the back of our vehicle. We briefly wondered if they would want to know what was inside the telltale opaque bags from Barracuda, but apparently that wasn’t what they were checking for. Sweet relief.

Khasab Travel & Tours is
a large operation with many boats

We wound our way along the coastline to Khasab, pulling into the parking lot at about 4:30 p.m. just as our boat was arriving in port and unloading a group of passengers. In no time, they had hauled all of our belongings across several day trip boats to our modified three-level dhow, and we were motoring out.

What would a boat be
without cushions and Persian rugs?

Meanwhile, we wasted no time getting relaxed. There were several coolers of ice for the beverages, and Abdul had brought several bags of snacks. The guys were still unwinding from a very busy week at the IDEX International Defence Exhibition and Conference, which Mark has said he will write a guest blog about but I'll believe it when I see it, inshallah. They were ready to kick back.

The private bathroom was very nice to have.

The boat had eight cabins containing two bunks each, and private “heads” – bathrooms, which were equipped with showers. We had three couples on board, and the rest were “bachelors” – which is what we in the U.S. sometimes call men who are traveling “stag.”

Our host and Arab friends

We learned way back when we camped with Abdul last year, and it’s been reinforced in many ways since then, that Arab husbands and wives do many activities separately. American women usually see this leaving the wives behind as unacceptable, but it’s totally normal for them. The fact is, Arab men spend time with their families. And they also do a lot of the grocery shopping.

Limestone layers

If you expect a coastline with at least some vegetation, it will be a visual shock to contemplate the barren limestone of the Musandam peninsula. This place, called “The Norway of Arabia” by the tourism industry, is the definition of stark beauty. We motored out, and as we gazed at the rugged cliffs with their undulating layers, uplifted and bent by the collision of the Asian and Indian tectonic plates, Abdul pointed and said, “There are jinn there.”


Ah, jinn! I’ve been reading up on them, and I am fascinated with their prominence in the Arab culture, particularly in the mountain villages in Oman and the UAE, and how they have transitioned into American popular culture. According to Wikipedia:

The jinn, or genies, are spirits mentioned in the Qurʾān and Islamic theology who inhabit an unseen world in dimensions beyond the visible universe of humans. Together, the jinn, humans and angels make up the three sentient creations of God. The Qurʾan mentions that the jinn are made of a smokeless and "scorching fire" and they have the physical property of weight. Similar to humans, jinn have free will allowing them to do as they choose (such as follow any religion). They are usually invisible to humans, and humans do not appear clearly to them. Jinn have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds and are thought to live in remote areas, mountains, seas, trees, and the air, in their own communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment and will be sent to Paradise or Hell according to their deeds.

With Cindy and Mohammed at
Al Bidya mosque near their home

I mentioned that jinn are in the book I’m writing about my American friend Cindy Davis who married her Emirati husband Mohammed Ali Alhammadi in 1982 at age twenty. Abdul knows them well. Cindy once had trouble with a jinn in the house, or some kind of black magic.

“She married a jinn,” Abdul said. What!? Mohammed Ali? A jinn? “What makes you say that?” I asked. “Bad things happen and Mohammed is there,” Abdul replied. I don’t know, because jinn are not human and human are not jinn. Perhaps Mohammed is a jinx! I’ll have to ask Cindy what she thinks of this comment.

Arabian sunset

As we watched the sun sink, the little fishing pangas that were dotting the sea began to race back toward their villages. We were anchored far away from but within sight of the Omani navy base.

The moon, which was a day shy of full and visible all afternoon in the sky, brightened. There was a big discussion about why the moon appears white with grey spots. What color is it, really? People had theories, but the group never could agree.

Dana had an interesting fishing technique.

Then, we fished in the dark. Abdul had brought a few kilos of fresh squid, sliced and ready to go. Personally, I would have been happy to just dip the squid in some batter, fry it up, and enjoy it as calamari fritti. It was that fresh.

Mark's first fish.

Using thick nylon fishing line on large spools, we each baited a couple of hooks and dropped them to sit on the bottom. Pretty soon people started pulling in fish.

Abdul was going to bring more food, to be sure we didn't
run out. Fortunately, the tour company convinced him
not to do it, saying "We have never run out of food!"

We decided to have dinner at 9:30 p.m. and right on time, a buffet spread came out with all of my Arab favorites. Hummus, mutabal (eggplant dip), garlicky yogurt dip, Greek and fattoush salads, rice, chicken, and delicious barbecued fish – not the fish we caught, but larger ones that had been marinating since we came aboard.

Some people got up early to fish while others slept.

We fished more after dinner, there was some talk of card games, but people started dropping off to sleep. In the end, nobody slept in any of the cabins. It was just too wonderful not to sleep out under the moon and stars. Despite the full moon, Mark and I spotted Orion and the Big Dipper although he insisted they were in the wrong place.

The instant Nescafe in little packets tastes really good on a boat. 

I woke up to see the sky getting light as the sun lingered behind the crags. I love seeing the sunrise on a boat even more than I love the sunset. There is a very practical reason for this. I tend to get seasick on overnight races if I see the sun go down and stay on deck until after it’s dark. I lose the horizon, and I lose my equilibrium.








But when the sun comes up, and I can see the horizon, all is well including me. Plus, I just feel such peace and promise in the rising sun.

The boat was equipped with at TV.
That's the Omani Navy outside.

A boat came over from the naval base and lurked near us, so we weighed anchor and motored out. We then drifted offshore and fished more. I finally caught a few of the little pink fish that Mark had been catching which Abdul called Sultan Ibrahim.

Mark mimics the way
the fish's tongue hangs out.

Mark threw his first one back, but Abdul said “No, no! it is good to eat. The smaller the better.” I’ve since looked them up and found them in the food blog of an American wife called Emiratican Kitchen which will now be my go-to source for information about how to cook the local foods. Sultan Ibrahim, when they are small, seasoned and deep fried, taste like shrimp.












Breakfast was served. There were eggs three ways – scrambled, cheese omelet, and boiled. Also, fresh fruit – the watermelon and cantaloupes you get here are wonderful. And with every meal, there is delicious yogurt and Arabic bread.

Approaching Telegraph Island

Next we headed into the Elphinstone Inlet, home of the famous Telegraph Island – which I had never heard of but Mark and the other guys knew about. According to Wikipedia:








In the 19th century, it was the location of a British repeater station used to boost telegraphic messages along the Persian Gulf submarine cable, which was part of the London to Karachi telegraphic cable. It was not an easy posting for the operators, with the severe summer heat and hostility of local tribes making life extremely uncomfortable. Because of this, the island is, according to some travel agents and journalists, where the expression "go round the bend" comes from, a reference to the heat making British officers desperate to return to civilization, which meant a voyage around the bend in the Strait of Hormuz back to India.

Today, Telegraph Island is an eerie reminder of the British Empire. Abandoned in the mid-1870s, the island has remained deserted and only the crumbling ruins of the repeater station and the operators' quarters can be seen. As tourism has grown in the Gulf region, so the island is regularly visited by dhows carrying tourists to view the ruins and to fish and snorkel in the waters around it. However, the intense heat (particularly in the summer months) endures.

Our boat stayed in the western Musandam, but around the bend from Khasab, about 60 miles south of the tip, is the town of Dibba. Dibba’s natural harbor is another popular place to catch a boat tour up the eastern Musandam, and there are several 5-star resort and spa hotels along the coast as well.
 

The tip of the Musandam Peninsula

All that yoga paid off.

We anchored at Telegraph Island, and everyone got ready to swim. I inflated my ULI stand-up paddleboard and took a little cruise to the shore. The snorkeling didn’t look that good, which Mark confirmed later. He had brought his scuba equipment, including two tanks that we rented in Abu Dhabi, but he didn’t use them. I gave Hollie a little quick instruction on the SUP, and she turned out to be a natural, which I suspected she would be after she told me how much yoga she does.






Later, Hollie and I paddled across the inlet to explore the shoreline.
 
 
 

The brown dhows are for day excursions. Ours was the white one.

 
I must admit that I didn’t walk on the Telegraph Island – I had forgotten to wear shoes on the board and when I stepped onto land after giving the SUP to Hollie, I could feel the coral slicing my feet, so I swam back to the boat. Warning: be sure to wear shoes when you are walking on rocks and coral anywhere in the Middle East! Tom’s wife Lucy (who in case you are wondering is back in the USA taking care of the two elderly mothers, hers and Tom’s) got a cut bad enough to need several stitches last year just on a tiny piece of coral that was in the sand in the Abu Dhabi mangroves.
 














Next was lunch which was another huge and delicious spread, and then dolphin watching. The Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin is the most common cetacean in the Gulf. They are slightly narrower and lighter in color than other Bottlenose and are very social, swimming over to the boats and leaping out of the water. We often see the very social Bottlenose when we’re out sailing in the waters off of Abu Dhabi, where they swim around and play with Unwind. We also see the shyer, less common  Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin. I believe the dolphins we saw that day were Pacific Humpbacks. Although they did swim alongside the boats a bit, they did not put on the porpoise show that we would expect from Bottlenose, and they had the humps and elongated fins. The Pacific Humpback and even more rare Finless Dolphins are considered endangered.
After the dolphin watching, we cruised around the shoreline, napped, and listened to Tom’s eclectic iPod mix while trying to finish up the chilled beverages in the coolers.

Isolated little fishing towns dotted the coast.

I was fascinated by the remote fishing villages, where ruins of mud and stone buildings crumble alongside newer structures, and I wonder if they have been there for centuries. The only way to get there is by boat. Do families live there, or just “bachelor” fishermen, while their wives and children live in town? Mark and I were curious about what looked like power or telephone lines strung on poles along the shoreline. How and why did they come to be there?




At 5:00 p.m. we pulled back into the harbor at Khasab, and it was over all too soon. But I heard a rumor that Abdul is already planning another trip in April, for big game fish. Maybe we'll go "round the bend!"

Watch for the next post, in which we spend a night at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Khasab, have lunch at Abdul's home in Dubai, and meet his Moroccan wife and children.

Thanks for reading, and try not to step on any jinn..

Boating in the Musandam, Oman VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Above It All–A Perspective

 

I have come to appreciate Earth from above. Whereas I once dreaded flying – we could crash, and all surely die! – I am coming to think that the safest place to be, perhaps other than home in bed, is in the air.

It’s well documented that the drive to and from the airport is more dangerous than the flight. Not to mention the bicycle riding, sailing and other risk-inherent activities I engage in on a regular basis. But flying – and diving, for that matter – are in a different class for me. They both represent a leap into an abyss, separating myself from Earth and air.

 

My first glimmer of my new thinking paradigm came in the summer of 2011. I was flying home from a visit to my parents in Michigan. It was a bumpy ride, which most people would find disconcerting. The reason: deadly tornadoes below us. It was just days after the devastation in Joplin, Missouri.  Just a month before, a tornado had swept through downtown Kansas City.

This day, tornadoes were threatening St. Louis, where I was catching a connecting flight. But the pilot could see the storms, and he assured us that we were landing in a gap between the systems which were raging across the Midwest. I couldn’t get back in the air fast enough!

The recent “Nemo” snowstorm on the East Coast reminded me of my scariest airplane takeoff, and my epiphany – in the Urban Dictionary sense. I was in Reno, Nevada, on a plane going to Oakland, California – a trip which should take inside of an hour. The problem was, it was snowing heavily in Reno and the wings needed constant de-icing. Because of the weather, there was a backup for takeoff, so each time our turn came up, we had iced up and needed to return for more de-icing. My seatmates were two fun women a bit younger than I. We called our husbands and then joked uneasily about needing a drink or getting off the plane. On the second or third try, as we lined up on the runway, I could see from my seat that the wings were again covered, and I wondered if we would take off. This could be it, I felt. I mean, my last flight. But at that moment the pilot walked into the cabin, looked out the window and said, “Nope. Sorry folks, but I’m not comfortable with that. We’re going back for one more try.” Back to de-icing.

By that time it was so late that most planes were gone – we were about three hours behind schedule. My seat mates were still talking about getting off the plane, but we all felt that after all that time, we were committed. So I – expert that I am! – said, “All we need to do is just get into the air, and the wind will evaporate the snow off of the wings. Then, we will be above the clouds. If only we can just take off!” I couldn’t believe that I myself was talking like that. But I realized that it’s what I had learned. And then we finally took off, and sure enough we watched the wings dry, the little bit of ice and snow evaporated, and next we were in the air, headed into the last vestiges of the California sunset above the clouds. Everyone on the plane cheered.

 

 

Since then I’ve realized that, while I still don’t relish takeoff and landing, I do appreciate a good, clear view from above. So often it’s just clouds, which aren’t always interesting. It’s when you can get a good clear view of the landscape below that you realize how amazing this planet Earth is, with evidence of its geologic past, and all the evidence of human activity that it shows – and hides.

 

 

 

I’m amazed at how mankind has managed to divide up flatlands into squares and rectangles, and how inaccessible the mountains appear, until you notice ribbon-like roads in the most unlikely looking places. And these days I fly peacefully over places where where more than the weather is bad – places where some of humankind’s biggest problems fester. I look down on the lights in the Arabian Gulf – oil platforms so numerous that you would think you are flying over inhabited land. It’s a piece of the planet I had never expected to see.

 

I’ve never been a person who likes heights, but maybe that’s changing. Now that I have (finally!) conquered my fear of flying, I can suddenly imagine what it would be like to be in space. I could never before imagine being an astronaut, but now maybe I can. How peaceful it would be, floating in space next to Earth.

 

 

I will probably never venture into outer space although if life continues as it has, I won’t say it’s impossible. Maybe if I get into my 90’s and the price comes down, I’ll go on a Space Cruise. Until then, I’ll consider what my Dubai sailing friend Michal did recently – skydiving. Not that I will be up for it any time soon, but you never know.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Above It All -- in the Air VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Why Do Ladies Cover?

Wadha and me, in her home

The following is my own personal take on and understanding of the subject of women “covering” in the Middle East, based on observations, discussions, and reading. I am in no way presenting myself as a expert. I’m just reporting on what I have seen and heard since I began living here some 15 months ago.
The concept of covering is anathema to Westerners. Without meaning any disrespect, I must admit that to us, the Arab women gliding around dressed in black abayas with shaylas covering their hair and sometimes their faces remind us of certain symbols in our own culture – Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Past or, perhaps, the Grim Reaper. Add to that the idea we have that it’s a way for men to repress and control women.

During my time in the Middle East, I have met and talked with a number of Muslim women, and the subject always comes up. Why do women cover? The answer always boils down to the same thing: personal choice. Usually. Sometimes, they always admit, the decision is influenced by pressure from one or more males in the family.

Irrepressible young Emiratis

As I understand it, after the death of his first wife,The Prophet Mohammed took many wives from many tribes, and bade them to cover for their own protection against enemies. That’s how the practice got started, and after The Prophet’s death, it spread. Over the centuries its meaning has shifted, as is the case with cultural and religious practices throughout human history. Recently it’s been taken and used by extremists so that now, for Westerners, it represents repression.

I’d like to share conversations with two women who cover and have helped me understand it a little better. The first is a woman I met as a sub at the American school. She’s Emirati, 35 years old, and a widow with five children, ages 20 to about five. She’s a student at the women’s college at Zayed University, studying to become a social worker in the schools, which is what we might think of as a school counselor. Her name is Wadha. I won’t identify her any more than that, because I want to respect her privacy. Maybe after I get to know her better, I’ll write a story about her, inshallah.

Wadha is the embodiment of what I have come to think of as an Emirati lady – and by the way, the Arab men refer to them as “ladies,” not “women.” She is soft spoken and demure, gracious and graceful, and welcomes my friendship. When I met her in the hallway at school, she was wearing her black abaya and shayla, with her face covered with the niqab, as you see in the photograph above, which she removed once she was inside the classroom when there were just women or children present. However, whenever she ventured out of the classroom she put the niqab back on.

Wadha told me that, when she was observing in a classroom with a male teacher and wearing her niqab, the students who didn’t know her made fun. Many expats in Abu Dhabi, such as the parents and children in the American school, often don’t have much, if any, contact with Emiratis. So there is a cultural divide.

Wadha’s brother was sitting with us as she told me the story about the children laughing at her. He spoke up and said, “I told her not to wear it, just take it off, but she wouldn’t do it.” This surprised me, because I had heard that sometimes it’s the husbands or brothers who insist that their sisters cover. But this obviously isn’t the case with Wadha. So that leaves only one other reason for her to cover. It’s her culture, her custom, how she was raised and what she is comfortable with.That’s it. Nobody is forcing her. She would feel as uncomfortable going out uncovered as I would if I were going out in skimpy or overly tight clothing.

Not all women wear a niqab, which is the black face covering with an opening to see through. Some ladies find it more convenient to just drape their sheer shayla over their face when in public, and other ladies don’t cover their faces at all.

The birqa is a symbol of beauty

Wadha told me a story about how she began to wear the niqab. One time, she was out shopping with her family and had thrown her sheer shayla over her face to temporarily cover. She spoke to a strange man about the shopping, thinking he was her husband, and was humiliated when she discovered her mistake. From then on, she has worn the niqab, with its eye opening, which is easier to see through. The other option is the burqa, which is the metal or leather mask worn mostly by older women. Wadha told me that the burqa is a symbol of beauty, and older women like to wear it because it covers bad teeth or aged skin. Before you judge, compare this to Western vanity – our anti-aging beauty treatments include Botox injections and surgery, the effects of which sometimes resemble a mask! Wadha doesn’t like to wear the birqa because it’s not comfortable – to hot and sweaty.



(The burqa is not to be confused with the burka that women in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan wear, which drapes from the head to the feet with only a small space directly in front of the eyes to see through.)

Cindy and me at the Emirates Palace Theater

My friend Cindy is American, and has been married to an Emirati for 30 years. Cindy is a Muslim, having converted about a year after she and Mohammed married. Cindy wears the abaya in public, and she covers her hair with a shayla but she never covers her face. Not all ladies cover their hair completely these days but Cindy does, even though she is sometimes asked why. She’s been told by other Arab ladies that it’s “the old way.”

To Cindy, wearing the shayla or hijab to cover her hair is a symbol of her Islamic faith and her solidarity with her husband. “I don’t do anything halfway,” she told me. “I don’t understand these girls who only cover their hair partway. You either do it the way or not at all. Why don’t they just take it off, then?” And she also said, “I kind of like it that Mohammed is the only (man) who gets to see my hair. And, you know,” she said happily, “I think it’s as soft as it is because it’s been protected for all these years.”

So there you have it. I have seen their world through their eyes, and I understand. Not that I have any inclination to cover myself. I am thoroughly Western. In fact, Wadha’s story of the encounter at the store reminded me that the exact thing happened to me just a couple of weeks ago, just because I was not paying attention. “Oops,” I apologized to the man. “Sorry, I thought you were my husband!” A little internal cringe, and it was over.