March 10th,11th Dubai, 12th.

Saturday, 10th March and we were sailing deeper into the Arabian Sea. Humidity was increasing although we were still able to sit out on the balcony with temperatures around 30 degrees, and we were enjoying a calm sea, which was 29 degrees with slight breeze. Alan went off to his lecture on Dubai by Professor John Reich, and I went to finish my beaded necklace and earrings, which turned out quite nice. Then it was Spanish class and I am struggling amongst very advanced students! They want more and I want less! By lunch time we were heading into the Gulf of Oman and because there are 1200 passengers leaving the ship at Dubai, it was quite hectic around the shopping areas. I won’t be sorry to see some of them go; they did seem to be of a miserable disposition! We had more interesting things to do and planned for our day in Dubai seeking out where to go, how to get there and how much cash we would need. At sunset we entered the Gulf of Oman and continued on a north westerly course towards the Straits of Hormuz and the entrance to the Persian Gulf. We passed six miles to the south of Ra’s al Ku in Iran shortly before 10.00pm. Our evening was relaxed with an enjoyable dinner before a visit to the casino where I had a successful hour playing craps before retiring. Alan still had a very bad headache and went to bed earlier. Clocks went back one hour so now we are 4 hours behind the UK. Time is passing far too quickly for us!!
Sunday, 11th March. Unfortunately, Alan was not well enough to go ashore today, so I decided to go alone. At 9.15am our waiter, Hansel, arrived and asked me if I would like him to escort me to the gold souk because he was meeting his friend there at 9.45am. Of course I accepted and off we went; the gray haired English lady and the handsome young Indian! Hmm! We took a taxi into Deira, an old area of Dubai where there are more traditional shops in the souks. I was amazed when we arrived to find that a ‘souk’ was just an area of shops, and not a type of market. There were so many shops and so much gold and magnificent jewellery that I was in my element, and although this was what I had expected it was still a huge surprise. I left Hansel buying an engagement ring for his fiancé and wandered in and out of more jewellery shops. It wasn’t long before I found a nice ring for Alan, so I worked it out in dirham, converted it to dollars, then pounds to see if it was a bargain and by then the jeweller had reduced it even further thinking that I was haggling!! None of the money exchange places were open so I paid in dollars and asked for change in dirhams, but as it happened I didn’t need them. It was a good morning and I was delighted with my purchases, I now have a burkha and a super pashmina to wear, plus something else for the children! Temperatures were about 29 degrees but because the shopping areas were so shaded it was quite pleasant. At lunch time I found a taxi and went on a 45 minute ride along the new coast road to see the new Bur Al Arab hotel. I was a bit disappointed to find that unless you have a reservation you are not allowed into the road leading to the hotel, but I asked the cabby to wait and took a few long distance photos! Back to Port Rashid and enjoying the sights along the way, beautiful expensive new houses and roads. The whole area is still being developed and I took photos of the huge sky scrapers that are quite unique in design. After 2 hours the taxi driver was delighted with his high tip in dirhams because the price of the taxi was so cheap! Everyone was back on board by 5.00pm and we sailed at 6.00pm passing one of the Palm Islands where new housing/hotels/golf course/shops etc is being extensively developed from land reclaimed from the sea. Alan was much better but chose to dine in our suite whilst I dined in the grill and enjoyed sitting with a lady I had made friends with.
Monday, March 12th. Alan went off to hear the lecture on Roman Architecture by Judith Dupré, followed by “The Magic of Concorde” with Captain Dick Routledge, whilst I caught up on all the bits of admin we had outstanding - I can’t believe the number of forms we have to complete for every port of call, but they are a necessity. We had left the Persian Gulf and sailed back through the Straits of Hormuz again during the night and by noon we were 17 miles off the coast of Oman with temperatures around 25 degrees. It was hazy again due to dust particles from the Arabian Desert, which is 900,000 square miles in size and off our starboard side. We have been invited by Commodore Bernard Warner to dine with him at the Captain’s Table this evening, so that will be rather nice as it is a ‘black and white ball’ evening. We have dined with other Officers many times before, but never with the Commodore, so this is a first for us! We are sailing in a south westerly direction toward the Gulf of Aden with a further 2340 n. miles through the Red Sea before the Suez Canal. We expect to arrive at the Suez Canal about 2.15am on Friday (16th) so hopefully we will be able to enjoy the experience when dawn breaks. We have five days at sea until Alexandria on March 17th and there is still plenty to do. We have clocked up 34, 682 nautical miles to date, which is 39,884 miles.