Christmas in Muscat

Hello Again

Well, a slight change of plan for us. We were originally going to be back in Muscat for only about eight days before heading on down the coast of Oman for the exit port of Salalah. Now we will be in Muscat for both Christmas and the New Year. We have been making contact with different rally groups with regards transiting the Gulf of Aden, to find they really don’t start moving in that area till early February, so, at this stage we have put our names down with one of these groups. Therefore we have postpone moving out of Muscat till early in the New Year to start the trip south. It is a 1,000nm run to Salalah, and we want to stop off and visit towns villages and bays along the way. Also

everyone tells us the fishing will be great the further south we get. Really looking forward to that.

Dubai Back To Muscat

Hello Again

Here we are back in Fujairah – on the East Coast of The United Arab Emirates. It is their 39th National Day and we will now have four days of ‘party time’!!!! They – the locals - start about 3.00pm driving up and down the Corniche with their cars all decorated up in flags, and some have bits of cloth the colours of their flag draped all over the cars, transfers of the different leaders stuck all over their cars along with stars and even more flags, then, tooting horns, backfiring their cars like a machine gun going off, screeching tyres and making as much noise as possible is the norm. There are bodies hanging out the windows, the favourite is to sit on the roof of the car with their legs in the windows, or sit with their legs in the sun roof, carrying a can of spray foam which you aim in the window of the car you are passing, preferable at the driver. If that misses then you jump from your moving car and run up and spray it in the window then clamber back onto your car. This is all happening on a four lane road. Very much like being at the circus!! The road is crammed with cars so they are not moving at too fast a pace. This will carry on till about 3.00am!!! and yes, the Marina is right on the Corniche!! I can now see why boats were pulling out for the long weekend as we arrived in here. Oh and to top all of this off, National Day co-insides with the Muslim New Year so there is a big fireworks display included in all this huge chaotic festivity.

Farewell To Dubai

Hello Again To Family and Friends


It has been a long time since you have heard from us and with people now contacting us to see if we are still afloat, here comes an overdue letter with a bit of an update.

Yes SHAMAL is nearly ready to begin the next leg of her adventures. We arrived back in the United Arab Emirates on the 15th October after a four month holiday back in New Zealand over a very cold winter there, and a very hot summer here in the Emirates. We returned to Fujairah International Marina where we had left SHAMAL in the water for the summer. It was still too hot to sleep on board as the temperature was over 40deg. C. when we opened her up, but, we were really pleased how she had stood up to the heat of the summer. No nasty smells, no bugs, and after a quick dive Alec was pleased to see the hulls had hardly any growth on them apart from the props, which looked like small Coral Reefs. Also there was a nice coating of sandy dust all over her. Nothing that a good wash down couldn’t put right. So it was back to Dubai and to Brigitte’s lovely cool apartment. I was so glad we had taken 95% of the food off as it would have spoiled in those temperatures.

New Zealand Holiday Comes To An End

Hello To You All

Yes it’s the Admiral and the Commander here. We are just about to venture out on the next stage of our Adventures. So exciting. We have one day left of our New Zealand Holiday and are really looking forward to getting back to Dubai to get SHAMAL ready for the next sailing season. We hear the temperatures in Dubai are up around 37’c so that will make a nice change from our rather wet cool winter.

The first few weeks back were taken up with Jobs and maintenance on our properties, purchasing boat spares and packing up trunks to send goods back for us and our daughter Brigitte in Dubai. We then started on a road trip heading North as far as the Bay Of Islands, visiting friends and them returning to Pukekohe – our home town. We picked up our son Murray and then headed South to visit family and friends. We went as far as Nelson at the top of the South Island crossing Cook Straight this time on one of the car ferries. Not like our last visit when we crossed with SHAMAL. It was a fun couple of months on the road and many thanks to everyone who made the time to catch up over a coffee or meal, or had us to stay. We really do appreciate your kindness for everything. We headed back north to continue on with jobs, maintenance, and even more visiting, and eating!! Yes we have both put on a couple of kilos which we hope to shed once we are back on the water.

Alec had his hernia operation which went very well. We have had the usual dentist and doctor visits and by what we paid I think we have set them up for a mighty fine Christmas!! Prices really have gone up.

We took a trip to Hamilton a couple of weeks ago for Alec’s Mums 93rd Birthday, and then again last week with friends to visit a small aircraft factory where a microlight is made called the Batam. Alec took his first flight in five years. How time goes. He took a year off work and forgot when that ran out. He keeps telling Murray that once we have finished sailing around the world that the two of them are flying around the world!! Yeah Right!!

So this is it. Bags are packed and those final phone calls have been made. I have squeezed the last items into the cases and have an extra one out on the lounge floor for Murray to bring up in a couple of weeks, as he is coming to join us for a couple of months. Tomorrow night we fly out to Brisbane where we will spend the weekend and then on Monday fly on to Abu Dhabi.

So will sign out and keep you posted

Much love

The Admiral and the Commander

Muscat to Fujairah (U.A.E.) - Dubai

Hello To You All Again

Just a very quick note from the Middle East.

Well here we are now sitting in Dubai. SHAMAL is in the UAE [United Arab Emirates] but not here in Dubai. We checked into the country in the Emirate of Fujairah on the 27th of April after a wonderful three weeks in Oman visiting with friends and relaxing in beautiful bays where the waters were so-ooo clean and clear. We were still swimming around midnight some nights as the water was so-ooo good.

Goa - Panji to Muscat - Oman

Yes it’s us again.

Well we left Goa at 2.00pm on Friday 19th March, crossing the Bay just outside the river mouth doing a good 6-8kts on a close reach with a 1,000nm crossing of the Arabian Sea lying ahead of us to reach Muscat. We have had similar distances in the past taking a maximum of eight days, but, with it being mid to late March it is not the most favourable time to make this crossing as the north east trades are starting to run out and in our case it looks like we will have westerly’s ahead of us. We don’t have the fuel to motor the whole way so it looks like we will be doing alot of tacking.

Galle to Panaji - Goa - India

This is only the Commander

Hello again

Yes It's Team SHAMAL Here Again

As I start this note we are about 60nm south of the Indian Port at Goa – Panaji – where we hope to stop for a night or two before heading out across the Arabian Sea to Muscat – Oman. No we don’t have a visa but have found out through our son ‘The Shore Manager’ that New Zealand is one of only five countries which can gain a visa on arrival. The other four are Finland, Luxembourg, Japan and Singapore. Time will tell. We have used a bit of diesel on the run up the Indian coastline and it would be nice to be able to fill the tanks and jerry cans before we make the crossing of about 975nm. Winds are a little light and variable, but in saying that we have had lovely runs every afternoon when the sea breeze kicks in sometimes well into the night.

Sri Lanka

Hello from Sri Lanka

It is times like we are having at this very moment that one needs a good sense of humour or you could lose your mind through sheer frustration!! As I sit and write this Alec is nearly pulling his hair out. We have a ‘local’ engineer on board who arrived with his tool box – one hammer and a chisel – to do a job for us which really needed an assortment of good tools. Alec is on the phone to the agent explaining the problem, but this bloody fat crow is sitting on the back squawking it’s head off as Alec is talking, and you all no he is a little hard of hearing these days!!  Each time I chase the crow away he comes back with vengeance and squawks even louder, and, he has just been joined by a friend!! Alec can’t hear what is being said, the guy on board with the hammer and chisel has just joined in the conversations yelling in Sinhala – the local language - to Alec from the engine room, and the whole thing is turning into a complete fiasco. Also it is very hot and humid. Problem is that we need this job done. The water maker pump bracket has broken off its mounting from the engine. The two bolts holding it in place have sheered through. There should have been at least four bolts holding it in place. Our local so called engineer was trying to knock out what was left of the bolts instead of unscrewing them so Alec very quickly put a stop to that.

Phuket to Galle - Sri Lanka

Hello again,

Well our week to ten days at the ‘Yacht Haven Marina’ turned into three weeks while the work progressed slowly and we waited on parts to arrive. So SHAMAL was washed and polished and the list in Alec’s ‘jobs to do’ book were nearly all crossed off which was great. We kept doing outings and visiting different stores etc to replenish supplies which other boaties tell you about. We were becoming familiar faces with the local restaurant owners and quickly becoming part of the local scene which really hit home when the Marina manager asked one morning if she could find us a permanent berth for the season. Help it’s time to move on when those sort of questions come at you.

Phuket - Thailand

Hello Again

Well we have been here in Phuket for nearly a month now and by first appearances we though the place was rather over-run with tourists and tourist things, but we are really enjoying the place now that we have had a good look around. One can either go with the tourist flow or it is very easy to go off and do your own thing. The climate is perfect at this time of the year with temperatures around 32 degrees during the day and dropping to about 25-26 degrees at night. We have a lovely breeze of around 10-15kts most days. The sun shines and the water temperature is perfect. We have had the odd shower of rain in the evenings which has been most refreshing. The people are lovely, the food is great and the place is a shoppers dream. I brought myself a lovely pair of silver shoes last night but have no idea when I will get to wear them, but could not resist them at only NZ$10!! The NZ couple who we were out with said I will just have to wear them when we have drinks in the evenings. They will look great with my swim suit!

Singapore to Phuket

Hello Once Again

First and foremost we hope you all had WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS with family and friends, and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR for 2010. Thank you all who sent us Greetings or those lovely cards and news of what you have been up to. We were out and about exploring new bays and Islands for both Christmas and New Year.

Now that you have received and read all your Christmas Mail and all that news which comes in for near and far, it’s back to those rather long and boring SHAMAL’S news letter which arrive in your inbox from time to time. I can hear you saying – oh it’s them again.

As I write this we are sitting on a mooring buoy in Chalong Bay - Phuket, having arrived here on Monday 4th January. So as you can see we have covered quite a bit of ground since our last post.