We’ll start with the only scary event on the passage so far. Yesterday afternoon we saw a boat ahead of us in the distance coming towards us. We changed course. It was still coming towards us. We changed course some more. It was still coming towards us. It turned out to be Continue reading
The first priority of the day was to get checked out. Muhommed had to go out of town on an overnight trip, so we would be doing check out on our own. We went to the office. No immigration or customs officers were there. We waited, along with a group of other people. We talked to ex-pats who have been living there a while, as well as an Omani guy who is also an agent, waiting to do a check in on an American freighter ship.
After an hour, an officer arrived, the same one who had checked us in. The group mobbed him. Eric tried to get his attention, but he basically ignored us. He helped everyone around us, and then Continue reading
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 Continue reading
On Sunday, we realized we can see AIS targets 50 miles out on the radar screen, when normally they only appear 8-12 miles out. VHF range around here is absolutely insane. The chatter on the radio is incessant, both legit and screwing around. The monkey boy was still coming in loud and clear, and he was getting progressively harder to take. While he is by far the worst, he was not the only one screwing around on the radio. Over the course of the entire day, we got 6 more distress calls, all from weird MMSI numbers such as 111111111 and with no coordinates. All presumed fake. It is really upsetting that these guys are abusing the radio waves. The wind died for a few hours and came back as only very light head winds. The seas also flattened out, which we are ecstatic about. It was smooth and wonderful. We hoped it would last.
Yesterday we had four more fake GMDSS emergency calls, and, in general, the radio chatter continued to drive us crazy. The winds have gotten even lighter and the seas smoother. It has been a fantastic ride today. There is no wind chop at all, just glassy seas with a small swell. It has gotten significantly cooler and drier as we head north. The weather is a nice change of pace, and certainly makes it more comfortable inside the boat.
Today, in the early hours of the morning, we heard Continue reading
Yesterday the wind dropped a little more, down to 12 16 knots, still on the nose. Every day the ride gets a little bit better. Hopefully, this trend will last! For days we have seen no one, but now we are starting to see quite a few freighters, presumably on their way to/from the Red Sea. When we left Singapore, there was an obnoxious guy abusing channel 16. He was singing, whistling, making clicking noises and saying random things. Not only was he annoying, he was tying up the communication line so no one else could use it. When people would tell him to stop, he would attack the commenter, calling them monkeys with small bananas, as well as using obscene racial slanders. Well, guess what? He is back today. Same guy, same shenanigans. At one point someone told him to stop, and he responded by singing that Peter Gabriel “Monkey” song and improvising some of the words, then went off on a foul mouthed racial tirade. He was on the air for pretty much the whole day, so they are probably paralleling us. They would have been out of range sooner if they were going the opposite way.
Today we achieved a milestone. We are very excited to report that at 0310, we made it to the halfway point around the world! We are really proud of ourselves. Our marina in San Diego that we left from is Continue reading