Category Archives: Cruising Guide

Information for other cruising boats. Our experiences finding places to anchor, dealing with officials, provisions, etc.

Leaving Oman

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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 →

Welcome to Port Salalah, Dhofar Region, Sultanate of Oman

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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.

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As we continued along, on the left, the breakwater Continue reading →

Checking Out and Final Thoughts on the Maldives

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This morning the anchorage was still rolly and miserable, but we bit the bullet and finished getting the boat ready to go. There was no way in hell we would spend another day in such rough conditions. We headed to shore at 1100. We are sad to report that Kosmopolitan’s front tip got caught under the dock just as a wave was smashing into us and Continue reading →

More SCUBA Diving and Sight Seeing in Male

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Yesterday, we spent the day doing chores. Eric changed the engine oil on the main engine and repaired the broken bilge pump. It turned out the intake valve inside the pump was broken. Fortunately, we have a rebuild kit on board. We also heard back from American Bow Thruster, who said there wasn’t much we could do about the stabilizer squeaking. Eric also thinks he has figured out the problem with the secondary autopilot. He thinks there is a loose connection somewhere, because the computer seems to lose communication. And to round off the repairs, Eric is now 100% sure that the issue with the inverter is simply a matter of one of the lines of LCD screen going bad and that the inverter itself is fine.

In the evening we had our heroine and Johan over for dinner as a way to thank them both for their hospitality to us. The dinner conversation was once again fascinating and we had a wonderful time with our guests. We have to say that through these two people we have really gained a lot of insight into the culture. Since both of them had to work the next day, it wasn’t a late night. One thing worth mentioning is that school is taught in English, which is why most people’s English is so darn good. The native tongue of the land is called Dhivehi, a derivative of the Indian Sanskirt language. Another item of interest is that neither of them could explain to us the significance of yesterday’s holiday.

Today, Eric went diving with the same dive shop. Christi couldn’t go because her ear was still infected. Both were drift dives along a wall, on the west side of Male near Garbage Island (yes, the dump). The first dive had Continue reading →

Welcome to Male, Maldives

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This morning, Eric realized that our primary bilge pump wasn’t working. Ooops. The good news is that we would be in to shore very soon, where it would be much easier to fix. Only a small amount of water leaks from the shaft as the boat is running, so it is really not a big deal. And we are not planning to spring any leaks. Even if we did we have another automatic bilge pump and a manual pump.

We could see land at around 1100. Like the Tuomotus, the islands are small and low, barely poking out above the water. The islands appear to be randomly scattered, which is a sharp contrast to the Tuomotus, where the islands are generally are congregated together into a clear ring shape. Though scattered, the islands here are pretty close together, and it doesn’t take much imagination to see this cluster of little islands were once one big island.

Our destination was the island of Male (pronounced Mall-ay). As we got closer, we were kind of shocked by how built up Male is. We were expecting it to look like the Tuomotus, with a small village and little houses spread out beyond the village. From what we could see, it looked like most of the buildings were between three and ten stories high, and incredibly densely packed. It looks like any mid-size city center anywhere in the world, except maybe with prettier scenery surrounding it. We knew Male has an area of only 1.7 square kilometers with a population of 130,000, so we should have been expecting it to be built up. Logically speaking, to get that many people in such a small space, it would have to be.

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As was recommended from several different sources, we Continue reading →