After more than 1300 nautical miles, 12 long days and 2 small fish, we arrived bruise free in the port of Salalah, Oman, in the dead of night. We've already scoped out the Western watering hole up the hill, aptly called "The Oasis", the only place close to the harbor with booze and all the stuff us heathens enjoy! T-bone steak with a glass of red wine never tasted so good, they even have playstation for the kids and Internet WiFi, such luxury!
We find ourselves in a dramatically different landscape, gone are the bright blue hues of the atolls, instead we are surrounded by mountains of beige sandy desert. And ah, to sleep last night was absolute, sheer bliss, if only from 3am to 7,when Kara woke us up to tell us that we had arrived and land was everywhere around us. Imagine that! A most likeable, completely cool, friendly faced Mohammed with the crispiest white gown I have ever seen, came to check us in. ( I was dying to ask him if he could arrange my clothes to be laundered just like his). The whole process was very smooth and untroubled.
Its very unusual for us to arrive in port bruise free, as we normally find our bodies dotted with yellow and purple marks inflicted by the daily jigs and reels caused by the ocean motion. For once, on this ocean crossing, we felt like armchair sailors, coffee held loosely in one hand, book in another, sitting perfectly upright, gliding along under the gentle pull of slightly leaning sails. We even managed to do school every day, and Kara has become addicted to reading and writing lots of stories-as usual, she's a champ entertaining herself on long passages. We'll publish one of those stories shortly.
The sea gods were in such good humor. Each day dawned with bright blue skies, flat glimmering seas and winds drifting between light to moderate to non existent. This meant slower sailing speeds at times, compensated when necessary with an injection of diesel. But we were happy to sail slower and have some comfort. Sailing across the Arabian sea is synonymous to flying first class on a 747, I imagine- once you've experienced it,(I haven't), going back to economy sucks, as I envision sailing in any other ocean after this will be a smack back to the reality of ocean sailing as we know it and a return to bruises and roliness.
Since we are sailing within visual distance of Kleiner Bear, we merged together each afternoon for a rendezvous, lowered sails and steered the boat to a halt, with everyone jumping into the crystal blue warm waters (one always remaining on board of course).
Kids were traded between boats each consecutive day for a few hours, and at sundown, we came back together, the kids returned by jumping into the sea and swimming back toward their passing home. Kara thought jumping into the ocean from the boat was such fun. Even on the last couple of days when the seas rose, she still dived in without fear, but being the good parents that we are, I did jump in to meet her.
We've been on a roll of breaking things, (I attribute it to the prayers that my sisters have been offering)- first the modem for sailmail ceased to work, making communication with the outside world impossible, then after a day out, the water maker got tired of making drinking water, which we noticed while sipping a cup of coffee that tasted awfully salty. Not good news. We tested the salt content of the water and it confirmed our tastes, rendering the now contaminated tanks undrinkable. Kleiner Bear came to our rescue as we dropped 2 empty jerry cans into the water which they kindly filled for us, ! We hauled the heavy weights back on board and we returned the same with beer! We would not die of thirst afterall. Major water conservation commenced and over the next few days, Uwe took the machine apart, managing to get it somewhat working again. No sooner was that problem rectified than the fresh water pump also decided it had enough. We rummaged for the spare, broke that one too, and dug through forgotten holes where we discovered a 3rd backup pump-that worked, and nothing has broken since- dare I say.
We'll relax here for a few days, today we rented a car and drove around Salalah, saw some camels and ruins: amazingly different. Then we;ll begin the transit through pirate alley, i.e Gulf of Aden all in one trip. We're already adept at radio code diversions. But first, lots of rest and doses of more heathen stuff.