8th February 2010
Aden, Yemen.

The high volcanic jagged lava flows of Aden provide a dramatic backdrop to the harbour. The barren hard black hills are a perfect acoustic backboard for the muezzin calls from the many mosques in the anchorage area of Tawahi. Friday morning the call to prayer filled the air for hours, soothing gentle musical voices, almost relaxing until the sermons began. On Friday, the holy day, the sermons from many mosques seem to be broadcast out over the town. These sermons, last Friday, became a harsh cacophony of noise as each one became louder trying to over lay their neighboring sermons. Saturday it was back to just the musical calls to prayer several times a day, thank goodness.

We arrived in Aden last Thursday after a 2 day motor from Al Mukalla , through what is considered to be "pirate alley". 49deg to 47deg is the area considered to be the most dangerous. For our little group this was the area we saw the least boats until the last morning when the fishing boats out of Aden started to appear on the horizon. Seven of us left Salalah we picked up another boat at Ra's Sharma so eight boats finished our 600 mile journey safely. A few mechanical problems had surfaced along the way but we were all in one piece having had a great trip. Once anchored and official duties accomplished we had a party on Tuatara to celebrate our safe arrival and the 70th birthday of Gunn- Britt from the Swedish boat, Stressless.

The party was peppered with the usual ' do you remember' , we have a multitude of wonderful memories of our stops and of the friendly Yemeni people. My enduring memory of Yemen will be the wonderful friendly people.
"Welcome to Yemen, welcome, welcome."
" Where do you come from?"
"ah New Zealander"
" yes, yes we know, by Australie"
This from all ages, men, woman and children, on the street, on beaches, shouted from small fishing boats and over the radio from the Yemen navy and the coast guard, even from the gun toting officials at Khaisat.

We spent part of an afternoon ashore at Ra's Sharma with a group of 4 woman and their children, having fun together with very little English and virtually no Arabic. We had not met any woman at that stage but as we walked up the beach, children of all ages stopped playing in the sand and swimming to come and ask for photos. The kids walked up the hill with us and out of the house/ruin at the top of the hill appeared their mothers. The women were clad in colorful robes, their usual black put aside for the weekend. We woman stayed to talk and the yachtie men wandered off. As the woman relaxed and the kids danced around us, pressing glasses of hot sweet tea in our hands, the veils came down. They even invited the men in because they wanted to see who was married to who. Unfortunately the women drew the line at photos but we could take as many as we wanted of the children. I have many of the children, handsome boys and beautiful girls, long eyelashes, bright smiling black eyes and jet black curly hair. Sharon had them clapping along to some songs then the kids sang us some of their favourite songs. A magical afternoon spent sitting on a mat in a concrete ruin of a house overlooking a beautiful beach. We think that this family was there for the weekend, well we hope so because the house was just a bare concrete shell on the way to complete ruin. The older lady indicated to me that they were all one family perhaps married to the same man, not sure really it's a bit hard with sign language. When it was time to go the kids skipped back down to the beach with us, insisted on a few more photos then helped us launch our dinghies. The colourful ladies waved from the hill, I hope they got as much out of the afternoon as we did.

At Al Mukalla we saw old buildings, rubbish eating goats trotting around the winding streets, men with cheeks stuffed with quat, evening soccer games on the side walk and best of all lots of woman and kids out and about. In Salalah, Oman we saw very few woman and virtually no children. Yemen seems normal, women shopping, taking kids to school, completely covered in black but still out and about doing everyday normal things. Some even running vegetable street stalls. While on the hunt at the post office for an ATM that worked, a woman interviewed some of us using her mobile phone. Her excellent English she had taught herself. Al Mukalla was our first experience of a Yemeni town, looking past the rubbish we liked what we saw. Yemen has many problems including the practice of child brides but there is no way of telling ages with only eyes showing and even then some have veils over those. For our short visit the surface was welcoming and extremely interesting.

The woman may be covered in black, head to toe, fingertip to eyelash, while in public but going by some of the dress shops they wear some saucy clothing at home. Bright, figure hugging dresses, skimpy negligees with fluffy trimming. Our guide here in Aden, Hamza, is newly married. He told me he gave $3000US as a dowry and his wife spent half on sexy clothing and gold. On the street high heels and jeans peep out from under black, and big glittery hand bags adorn silky black arms. The younger women seem to make an effort to try and have some individuality showing. I don't know how they recognize each other in the street, perhaps by their hand bags. Walking through Arab town here in Aden I watched as a mass of black surrounded a clothing stall, some had small children clinging tightly to them. It must be a nightmare for a little child if they loose their grip of mum. How would they find her again in that sea of swirling black. The little girls are dressed in gorgeous frilly frocks or mod jeans and cute little boots. They have a few years of being fashionable in public before getting lost in the anonymity of their mothers black world.

In Al Mukalla the Port Control told us to anchor in the inner harbor which suited us as it got us out of the swell running into the bay. Khalf Harbour or the new harbor as it is referred to in Mukalla is a busy little place.( I think it has been" new" for quite a while) We had been warned not to come to Mukalla because the rumor was that this was where the pirates came to refuel. We don't know if we saw any pirates, especially as we are not sure what they look like. We did see Yemeni flagged fishing boats coming in to the fish market wharf, laden with empty fuel drums, men and dubious looking clothing drying on the rigging. Some of the dhows looked like they could hardly be safe for a few miles let alone hold together out in the Gulf looking for pirate targets. The entrance to the harbor was guarded by a gun boat, which stopped every fishing boat before they could enter. But the dhow anchorage just outside was filled with boats that could have come from anywhere. Yemen does have a problem with Somali refugees flooding in and straining their already poor country. A couple of times on the wharf Yemeni men greeted us with their enthusiastic "welcome, welcome" Asked us how we liked Yemen and then made the point that Yemen people were not like Somalis, and in fact would like them all to go home. A Yemeni fisherman had been killed recently out at sea when a group of Somalis demanded his boat, shooting him when he refused. So we were under no illusions about the need for vigilance and caution when we left Mukalla. But we felt safe in the harbor and town and as it turned out we had a safe trip from Mukalla to Aden as have many yachts in the past and this year. As far as we know about 60 yachts are moving or have moved west nonstop and our group of 8 and 2 other yachts have been the only ones we know of to stop and enjoy the sights. Hopefully we have left a good impression, a little taste of the western world left behind, and somewhere on Yemen TV is a small item, an interview and film about our little group visiting Al Mukalla.