Before I forget, here is the link for the Dubai Fountains video, just copy it to your web browser address bar.

https://vimeo.com/123284480

Having passed through the Straits of Hormuz and rounded the northern tip of Oman, we set courses towards Muscat.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that, since Mumbai, we have been in the HRA, or High Risk Area, an area spanning the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, some of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.  It all stems from the Somali Piracy events which plagued the area over the years.  Notice I write in the past tense, these incidents have reduced considerably since the ‘bad days’, mainly due to the actions of EUNAVFOR, a combined naval force of many nationalities and one or two nations taking unilateral action, Russia, India, Iran, to mention but a few.  Rumour has it (and I emphasise, it is only rumour), that there are different ‘rules’ for some nations; let’s put it this way, on occasion, the pirates don’t come back and I’ll leave it at that.

We have had drills involving guests and crew and adhere to Best Practices recommended by the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations.  

Further south, there is a convoy system for slower ships, through the Gulf of Aden, escorted by warships, like ducks in a row; it’s quite something to see them on radar.  Across the HRA, speed is your best deterrent and we remove all ‘blocks’ on our output, making us capable of 25+ knots if needs be.

Muscat is completely different to Dubai.  Nestled along a rocky coastline, the houses and buildings are along the coast, in the higher crags are forts from long ago.  We arrived at the uncivilised hour of just past midnight, this due to my wish to make a faster speed than the original schedule called for.  The idea being that once alongside, we would put a gangway in, (for emergency egress) and Immigration would come on board and clear us at 7:30 a.m.  So it came to pass and, having ‘parked’, I got to my bed at 1:30.

 I was unable to go ashore today, affairs of State  😕 , however I managed some from the ship and Karen, using one of our shuttle-buses made a foray ashore and took some for me.  She enjoyed it immensely, however remarked that it was far more expensive than Dubai.

 Karen took the camera and off she went, to the Souk, of course!

The city is surrounded by forts.

 I write as we make our way south-west, towards our next port.  Seas are calm and wind light, perfect weather.  It’s a mad world we live in, I’ve reached the stage that I wonder if I should even write our destination; the web is far from private, how awful is that?