Magnum: Anne Crowley,Uwe Dobers, Kara Dobers: SailBlogs

Successful Transit Through Pirate Alley

Anne — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 02:54:00 -0500

We did it! Teams Magnum and Kleiner Bar have arrived safely in Aden, Yemen, after a 4 day passage from Oman on Friday March 19th at 11am local time. And what a good team we were! Our transit brought us through the Gulf of Aden, a span of water that separates Africa from the Middle East, aptly named "pirate alley", where the age old practice of piracy has evolved and escalated in the most modern of ways. I can certainly say that relief is featuring most prominently in our minds; a release both physically and mentally from the stress of the journey and its preparations; sleep deprivation also exists. If we were any way superstitious, we may have taken more notice of the omen unwittingly revealed by Kara, when on the 2nd night out after opening her kinder egg treat after dinner, an eerily odd surprise emerged from the plastic egg: an old fashioned fat pirate with a map of hidden treasure. Alas, the kinder enterprise has not been keeping up with the modern day advances in piracy. Here is a rough description transcribed from our log book of those 4 days. (Continued...)

Oman to Yemen

Anne — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:03:00 -0500

Time flies when you have be somewhere else and after only 4 days here in Salalah, we're moving on again. This trip will be non stop into the Gulf of Aden, along the coast of Yemen to the port city of Aden. Its roughly 600 nm and we hope to be there in 5 or 6 days. Our brief stop in Salalah has been enjoyable and it's been nice to have a few good nights of uninterrupted sleep. The port is an area of heightened activity with war ships and container ships moving in and out daily. Each day we marvel at just how different this landscape is- a combination of ancient and new; huge modern concrete buildings lie on a foundation of desert, separated by vast rising columns of sand and dust without a trace of greenery in between. Camels roam along the fringes of the highways, Mercedes zoom past, and even they don't question who the boss of the desert is; the alternative of conceding to their whims of flight across the busy lanes of traffic would result in no more precious Mercedes. Stores are well stocked with everything we need, and plenty of imported delights too, which allowed us to replenish the almost empty dark chocolate supply, with which life would be so dull without. This desert country has a feeling of affluence but it is refreshing if not a little surprising to find locals working in all sections of society. And boy oh boy, are they adept in the business of laundry; we'll depart Oman with warm feelings and perfectly starched cleaner than ever clothes. (View Post...)

In and Around Salalah

anne — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:06:36 -0600

Today, we rented a car and did a little sightseeing, lots of camels, desert and ruins and we're still happy! (View Post...)