We gotta get outta this place!

Oasis Bar and Grill happy hour; Salalah, Oman

S/Y Aspen – May 21, 2011 – Log #74
Position: 16 degrees 56’ N 054 degrees 00’ E (UTC +4 Hours)
Salalah, Oman

"We gotta get outta this place!", lyrics by the Animals

Yes, we are still in exile in Oman. The port security guards challenge us as we drive through the gate on a daily basis, on our way to the nearby hotel so we can shower. The guards ask to see passports, visa and port permit. We roll down the dark tinted window of the rental car to let the stifling desert heat engulf us and say in English, "little ships".

The guard immediately opens the gate to let us pass, ignoring our papers as he smiles warmly. He knows we are in exile and is sympathetic to our plight.

Hardly a day passes without a report of another pirate attack very close to the Oman coast near us. The Oman coast is crawling with pirates and the Oman Navy and Police are powerless to stop them. The Somali pirates are ruthless and rule both the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. The constant stream of warships into our port attest to the dangers that lurk outside this protected harbor.

We keep writing this, but, our ship is still heading this way. When it will arrive is still a mystery it seems. We receive daily updates talking about delay after delay while we sit and wait in the stifling heat aboard our little ships. It does cool down at night to nearly 90 degrees with no breeze!

Every day we prepare out boats for the upcoming journey. We scrape waste from the waterline, clean anchor chain of debris that has become entangled and scrape the dinghy bottom of the hundreds of barnacles that cover every inch of the fiberglass and rubber.

But on the bright side we have the grocery store LuLu's. It is fairly modern with a good selection of reject US products on the shelves. The Middle East seems to be a dumping ground for food that does not pass the stringent US inspections. So they send it around the world. No pork though - that is a no no here.

We buy produce from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Pakistan. Meats are from New Zealand, India, Australia and Oman. Veiled women wearing all black abbayas sit at the check out counter and cast a mysterious eye at us through their black burka (eye slit) when we unload our cart. Under the abbayas it is rumored that the women wear French designer clothes, although we infidels will never see that!

Maybe next week we will have some better news about our BIG ship.

Sail on, sail on and sail safe Aspen…