This morning the seas smoothed out again and the ride became fabulous. At 0830 local time, Eric hailed Salalah Port Control on the radio. The protocol is to call an hour prior to arrival in port. He gave them all the pertinent details and was told to call back when he got to the breakwaters.

It was a hazy morning, and we couldn’t see land until 0845, and in the distance looked like just a small blob of white contrasted against the blue sea. By 0900, the new breakwater was clearly visible. It so new it is not on our charts. By 1030, land became much clearer. Directly in front of us was a cluster of densely packed white buildings that probably make up the main part of the city. To the left of the city, it looked more industrial, with an odd assortment of buildings grouped in small clusters, ranging from low buildings to high rises, scattered across a dry looking desert back ground. To the right, the shoreline is covered with green trees, with a few buildings cut into the trees along the shore and a few buildings popping out from behind them. It looks like there are large mountains behind the flat shore, but we could barely see the mountains in the haze.

We turned behind the breakwater wall. The water was extraordinarily calm. This is a container port, and the right side is lined with rows of huge cranes for lifting the containers on and off the ships.

As we continued along, on the left, the breakwater turned into a small, hilly peninsula with a jetty sticking out perpendicular to the land. We passed a large number of industrial commercial vessels on both sides of the jetty. We saw some dolphins playing in the water. The bay comes to an end maybe 3/10 of a mile from the jetty. There was a US military warship anchored on the right side at the end of the bay area. On the land directly ahead, we could see huge cisterns, with what appeared to be large sand dunes behind them. On the left, in between the jetty and land, is the small yacht anchorage. We turned left into the anchorage area, which is small, but incredibly well protected.

The hilly peninsula above us has a couple of new looking square buildings and a few palm trees. Other than the palms, the landscape is completely barren. At sea level, there are several more new looking square buildings that we guess probably houses the government officials, as well as some small corrugated metal buildings. There were fish jumping all over the place in the anchorage.

Once we were anchored, we called Port Control. It was 1100. They said customs and immigration would be coming shortly. The boat next to us told us we should go to shore and get Muhommed, who is an agent that would take care of all our paperwork for us. She said Muhommed was waiting on the shore for us. We were leery about leaving the boat after we had been told to stay aboard. That is a big no no in most countries. We called Port Control to confirm, and they said to wait on the boat.

At 1400, the US warship left. We are pretty sure that ship hailed from San Diego and it would have been really nice to have met some people from home. At 1430, another yachtie came by and told us that Port Control is different from Customs and Immigration. He assured us no one would be coming out to the boat and that if we go to shore, Muhommed would have us checked in quickly. We tried Port Control again twice. Both times, they had just been on the radio a second before, but they ignored our calls.

We hopped into dinghy and motored the 100 yards to the quay. This is the shortest dinghy ride we have had in a long time. There is no usable ladder, so to get up and down, we had to scale the tires strapped to the wall that are used as boat bumpers. Christi wants everyone to know that trying to get your foot up from one large truck tire to the next while wearing a skirt is not easy, nor is it graceful. She feels sorry for shorter women facing the task, since her legs are barely long enough to stretch between the tires.

Muhommed greeted us as we pulled ourselves up onto the quay. He is a tall man and was wearing what looked like a gospel choir robe made out of thin, white cotton. He also had on a round needle point cap.

He drove us through several military checkpoints to the customs and immigration building nearby. We passed through the container port. While the container port is miniscule compared to Singapore, it is still quite large and impressive in and of itself. Muhommed seems to be friends with everyone. He inspires a lot of laughs and smiles out of people. He joked with the customs guy the whole time he was processing our paperwork. Muhommed filled in most of our paperwork for us, in Arabic. The hardest part about our paperwork was Muhommed and the agent debating about how best to translate the word “Kosmos” into Arabic. We were told to come back in an hour.

Muhommed drove us to a small restaurant and mini-market on the jetty at the edge of the peninsula. Since lunch time had passed, our meal choices were limited to egg or tuna sandwiches. After eating, we headed back to Customs and Immigration and picked up our visas, and then Muhommed dropped us off back at the boat dock. We had mentioned to Muhommed earlier that we needed a rental car. Apparently, he also offers a car rental service. At the dock, he handed us a key and pointed to our new rental vehicle in the parking lot. Awesome. We were set.

The cruisers we had talked to earlier had invited us to go to dinner with them at a restaurant within walking distance called the Oasis Club, just up the hill on the peninsula. We found out that to get in and out of the port area you have to show your passport and Oman visa to the guards. They had just waved us through when we were with Muhommed. Much to our surprise, the Oasis Club is a bar and restaurant with pool tables and a bowling alley. It is a popular ex-pat hangout and was packed. The menu offered a large variety of international dishes and the food was pretty good. We had a nice time with our new cruiser friends.

In the shot below, the Oasis Club is on the hill to the left and there is a cluster of government buildings on the right, both just out of view. We like this shot because it gives you a good sense of what Oman looks like.

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