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.

Thank you to Peter and Yai, Millie and Ali, and Grant, who had us around to meals. It was great to catch up. A big thank you to Alex Omega and Tau who had has to stay. We look forward to catching up again with you all on our way south towards the end of the year. Another lovely surprise we had in Muscat was catching up with Garth and Koreti from NZ who were with us in Oman in the 80’s. They were visiting the country with their daughter Maryanne who works in Dubai.

As we said in the last email, Oman is not a cheap place to enter but we saved our money by not staying in the marina. It is definitely a must to visit for all you yachties out there.  The coast line is wonderful.

Once again our trip from Muscat to Fujairah was a mixed bag of weather where we motored for most of the morning on dead flat seas till the breeze kicked in mid morning and then we were able to sail till around dusk when the winds died and we were back to motoring again. I did manage to catch a fish but it went back as we were unsure of what it was!! We arrived in Fujairah the following day morning.

We were told that there was no available space at the marinas in Dubai and also it is very expensive so we decided to check into the Fujairah International Marina and drive to Dubai – 100km’s or so and check things out for ourselves. Our daughter Brigitte, who lives in Dubai, came over to pick us up. After some investigating we have decided to leave SHAMAL in Fujairah for the northern summer as it is only costing us NZ$350 per month on a wet berth. We are automatically made members of the club and get a 20% discount at their bar and restaurant which is really nice. We have met a couple of other ‘liveaboards’ in the Marina. They have put air conditioning units into their boats – very much needed at this time of the year. Summer is here with temperatures now reaching the 40’s along with the dust haze that reduces visibility to 3,000 -4,000mts some days.

We will bring SHAMAL around to Dubai when we come back at the end of September as we are looking forward to exploring the Musandam area which is at the Straits of Hormuz at the entrance to the Arabian Gulf. Also we will lift SHAMAL out here in Dubai as she will need a good clean and her zincs renewed after spending the summer in the water. Alec has got costings for that and it is not too bad. He has also had our two water pumps overhauled which he was impressed with the work done and also the price. One of the shafts was bent and they made up a new one in a machine shop.

We will be flying out of Abu Dhabi for Brisbane this coming Wednesday, we hope as we are on stand-by tickets, where we will visit the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show on the weekend and visit Alec’s brother Richard and his wife before returning to New Zealand.

So that is all from us for a few months till we arrive back and continue with our travels. Look forward to catching up with those of you in NZ

Lots of love from

The Admiral and The Commander