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.