October 18 – A Sea Day in Port

Around noon we arrived in Salalah, Oman.  Oman is a sultanate on the southern Arabian Peninsula.  The capital Muscat is more than 1000 km from our port which lies on the southern coast and is very close to the border with Yemen.  Only two tours were offered and the one we wanted was full, so we decided to have a sea day in port.  The port is a very large container port and is some 25 minutes from the city.  Some of our friends did take the shuttle bus to the port gate and hired a taxi there for a reasonable price.  They went on a nice tour of the place and said it was quite lovely and extremely clean unlike Egypt.  Apparently the Sultan is an enlightened leader and is trying to build up his country.  Along what they described as a beautiful beach there are modern hotels and restaurants being built.  The hope is to increase tourism.  In retrospect perhaps we should have done the same thing but it’s too late now.

In port today we evidently replenished supplies.  It’s evidently one of the places that containers can be flown in to await delivery to the ship.  We also took on fresh fruits, eggs, and most importantly, fuel.  A large tanker tied up alongside us and if Al heard the conversation correctly we took on 100 tons of fuel.  He supervised the operation from our veranda.

When we had lunch outside on our stern we saw two local vessels tied up side by side.  They appeared to be made of wood with a wooden rudder moved by a rope system.  As we sat there a man shimmied down a rope next to the rudder and went underwater for a long time.  He wasn’t wearing any diving gear and we wondered what happened to him.  Eventually he reappeared and climbed back up hand over hand.  On either side of the rudder, hanging from the railing were two open wooden boxes.  Our captain told us those were the heads on the boats.  Sure enough as we sat there a man climbed in one, did what he had to do and climbed out.  On the open stern deck was what at first glance looked like a pile of carpets rolled up.  Al took some photos and when we looked at them later we realized they were piles of clothes, suitcases and other personal possessions.  There was a group of men out there who looked like they were doing some rudimentary bathing and we surmised that the open deck might be their accommodation on the ship.  It was definitely a contrast to the Odyssey.  It was like looking at the ships from Columbus’ expedition or that of the Jamestown settlers.

One of the local boats

 

The pile we thought were rolled up carpets but turned out to be clothes, etc

That white box to the right of the rudder is one of the heads

It was a peaceful day. After refueling (which took several hours), the fuel ship left and we sailed a little after 8PM.   We have 3 sea days left and then it’s time to get off and do our tour to the Taj Mahal.  Our passage to India will be complete.