Dubai to Muscat

15/4/2009 11 30 am

Well we have finished our first leg of the voyage from Dubai around to Muscat in Oman and all feeling very cruisy and relaxed after a great start to our journey. It
was a pretty full on final couple of weeks in Dubai with Rob trying to wind up work and getting ourselves out. Stress levels were somewhat high with difficulties getting the Iridium phone to speak to the laptop and sorting out the HF radio but of course all worth it now that we are on the road. We had various goodbye sessions the week before and then a very emotional and teary farewell on Wednesday the 8th April as we finally set sail with the Haines family and Simon escorting us from DOSC out to the edge of ‘The World’. It was a very strange feeling leaving and knowing that it wasn’t just for a holiday this time – Rob and I first came to Dubai 13 years ago, 2 weeks after we got married, had James and Tom, spent a couple of years back in Australia (produced Sam) and then back in our old stomping ground for the past 6 years. We have made many very close friends in our years in Dubai and the boys were far more emotional about leaving than we had thought they would be with farewelling their mates and school. BUT it is fantastic to be finally away after the past couple of years of planning and rebuilding of ‘Muneera’ and feel very happy and confident that she will do us well in taking us safely on our journey.

Sailing wise things have been somewhat varied and as a lot of DOSC sailors would understand and appreciate, the gulf waters and winds as fickle as ever!! We had no wind up to Um Al Quaim, then on the nose to Khasab (which promptly made all the boys feel sick but no-one complaining or wanting to return to land yet!!) and then none again through the Straits of Homuz and around to north of Dibba. We did however have 3 great anchorages on the way nestled amongst the mangrove swamps of Um Al Quaim, in the spectacular fjords of the Mussandam and then in a small Omani village north of Dibba. We had amazing cross currents against us going around the top of the Mussandam and was spectacular shooting the gap early morning with turtle and jumping sting rays. We did our first overnight sail from Fujairah to Muscat with great sailing winds and are now enjoying the pleasures of Muscat.

Muscat is a great city and had forgotten what a cool place it is. We have been enjoying being tourists with visiting the Palace, Museums and the famous Mutrah Souk. We have also been having a very social time here – we were met into the yacht club by the Davies family here on holidays from Dubai, have spent time with the Boothways who now live here in Muscat, have caught up with the Pollock family here on holidays from the UK and have our dear friends the Browns back in town from Abu Dhabi for one final farewell!!

But time to move on and we are headed out across the Indian ocean on Friday for our big trek to the Maldives. Unfortunately there has been a lot of piracy activity down around the Seychelles and Zanzibar over the past few weeks so seriously contemplating changing plans and heading to Asia and then Australia after the Chagos. We will wait until we are in the Chagos to make the call but meanwhile now need to have C-map cartridges sent into the Maldives to cover the other areas that we may need plus a couple of charts......disappointing but really not keen on going near pirate infested waters with the boys!

Enjoy!!