The ocean getaway was being planned for a while now, but the winds just weren’t cooperating.
So this Thursday morning, when my colleague Rebecca texted me to say that WindFinder was predicting waveless seas, I was up at 7 am all dressed and read to hit the blue!
Rebecca and her husband own a lovely little motorboat here and take it out on weekends from the Bander Al Rowdha Marina. Its the ideal thing to do in Muscat winters- dolphin watching, fishing and the occasional spotting of a whale.
It is no wonder that when she asked if I’d like to come along, I jumped at the proposition!
So there I was, on ‘Twilight’, speeding across the calm Arabian Sea, Stewart at the wheel and us looking out for any dorsal fins. Me secretly hoping that we’d only come across dolphins 🙂
I’ve hardly ever seen the ocean so flat. At that early hour, it was as still as glass, a serene reflection of the clouds above and the mountains standing guard. Almost 15 kilometres away from the Marina, there was just water everywhere. For a while, we sneaked up on the long-beaked common Dolphins who frequent this part of the coastline. Wishing deeply that I had a better lens on me, to capture action shots of these beautiful creatures, I managed with snout and tail fin pictures. With her telephoto, Rebecca did much better.
After an hour or two of tailing them, we decided to move on to the fishing point – giving Stewart his part of the fun. I was even allowed to steer for a while, where I did pretty well managing to keep the direction of the boat between South and South East. Ocean lovers should try this – its immense fun and you can’t really hit anything – much better than the regular driving I say!
While Stewart did very well catching a Hamur (who gave me quite a scare while driving back home by thrashing around in its baggie) and a baby shark (who was let back in the water, of course) – us girls basked in the Sun, ate Pringles and took in the beautiful breeze. This is what weekends should be.
I can’t thank the Jones’ enough for letting me a hitch a ride in their wonderful sea vessel. Here are some pictures from the day:
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| Hello dolphin. |
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| Faraway sighting. |
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| Captain Jones! |
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| Tourist boats in the vicinity. |
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| Steer her through. |
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| Gulls! |
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| A very busy Stewart. |
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| Sky. Sea. Fishing rod. |
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| A collection of pods |
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| Dolphin silhouette. Photo by: Rebecca Jones |
Going on this little ride has made me quite ambitious of doing this on my own. Someday. When I live in place by the ocean. I will buy a boat and call her ‘Temperance’. Inshallah.
PS: Did I mention that this is one to-do ticked off the 13 for 13? 🙂