May 11 - Strait of Hormuz

It’s a sunny, muggy day here on the Encore as we make our way from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman via the Strait of Hormuz.  I think a little information about these bodies of water is in order.  The Persian Gulf  is essentially an arm of the Indian Ocean with its only entrance being through the Strait of Hormuz.  It is bordered to the northeast by Iran and along the south by the Arabian Peninsula.  The Gulf is relatively shallow with its mean depth only being about 165 feet.  This is a major shipping area for oil and natural gas tankers carrying their loads from the oil rich countries around the Gulf.

The Strait of Hormuz is a choke point allowing all the tankers to exit to the rest of the world. About 20% of the world’s petroleum must pass through the strait making maintaining open passage a very important international strategic interest.  At its narrowest point the strait is only 21 nautical miles wide.  To avoid collisions ships follow a Traffic Separation Scheme.  There are inbound and outbound lanes, each two miles wide, with a two mile “median” in the middle.  During the transit ships are passing through the territorial waters of Iran and Oman and do so under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas.  According to the US Energy Information Agency in 2011 an average of 14 tankers a day passed through the Strait carrying 17,000,000 barrels of oil mainly to countries in Asia.  With those kinds of numbers it’s easy to see why the occasional saber-rattling  and threats to close the waterway by Iran have global implications.

 

This big container ship was headed in to the Gulf.

Two of the many rocky islands in the Strait.  That's why everyone has to stay in their lane!

We’re making an uneventful transit with the excitement for the morning being the crew drill which just concluded.  Once we leave Muscat, Oman tomorrow evening we’ll round the end of the Arabian Peninsula and head westward through waters that have sometimes seen a lot of pirate activity.  The crew drilled for that this morning.  There were announcements that two small, swift boats were approaching our stern.  The crew decked out in helmets manned water cannon.  They simulated repelling boarders.  The last time we traveled through those waters we actually picked up some armed security who stayed with us to our next port.  I don’t know if the same thing will happen when we depart Muscat.  We shall see.

In the middle there's a crewman decked out in his helmet manning his gazillion watt light

One of the water cannons spraying the sea beside us

Here’s a little anecdotal story about a Seabourn ship.  About 8 years ago one of the company’s original little ships was sailing in the waters we’re headed to when a small boat of pirates approached.  The ship sped up and wasn’t boarded but the pirates did manage to fire some RPGs, one of which didn’t explode but did penetrate into someone’s cabin.  That would get my attention and it must have made for a great story to tell around the campfire for those passengers.

After a lovely dinner we went to bed because we had an early morning wake-up call for our tour in Oman.  More later.