salalah, the Red Sea

April 3, 2011, Salalah

We had never heard of Salalah in Oman and didn’t know much about Oman either.  Oman is a small emirate and religiously conservative. Salalah is its second largest city with about 300,000 people.  We visited the history museum a few miles out of town which is small but well-designed with clear English labels as well as Arabic ones.  We then to the blow holes far on the opposite side of two.  The blow holes did not blow so much as sign weakly.  On the way we passed a dramatic “cave” or cliff overhang.  It was all worth a few pictures.  Lastly we passed the port and went into to town to the frankincense souk and bought frankincense and myrrh.  Something for January 6.  It was a pleasant day, but there was an awful lot of driving around.  We could have taken a tour cover the Queen of Sheba’s castle (or archeological site), and the Queen’s garden which could be photographed but not entered, but that had stuck us as very sunny and hot in a sunny, hot land. 

April 5, 2011, the Red Sea.

Today we sail the Red Sea which we are told has always been called the Red Sea and in a variety of languages despite its lovely blue color.  Apparently it can turn red with sand during storms.  The Red Sea was apparently created by the shifting of tectonic plates.  Our speaker showed slides of the mega-continent of old and how it broke up, but what was completely fascinating to a New Yorker was that the cliffs along the Hudson River near Hook Mountain exactly match some cliffs in Morocco.  It is larger than I thought 1500 miles end to end and wide enough that we never see shore.

As we progress north in the Red Sea we are leaving the pirate areas and they will begin to remove the extra precautions.  Tonight there will be more lights on Deck Nine but Deck Three, the Promenade Deck, will remain closed after dark, and we still can’t walk the complete circle even during the day.  I suspect Cunard would prefer me not to post the security details on the internet, and I won’t.

 We heard a lecture about the pirates this morning.  There is a lot of international cooperation on this as well as efforts by individual nations.  We got the impression that small, slow ships ignoring international advice are most likely to have trouble.  Things that make a ship safer are following the best practices advocated by the navies, traveling faster than fifteen knots, having a freeboard (space above the water line) greater than six meters, a vigilant crew and taking defensive measures such as razor wire.  All of these are on the ship.  Working against us is that it is a daytime passage. 

In 2005 the pirates operated 165 nautical miles off the coast.  Last year they went as far as 1500 miles.  They have improved their skills and equipment.  If possible they will avoid killing but are not averse to it if given any resistance.  A pirate can earn 5,000 times the average wage of his country.  These are people who want a better life and, in a dysfunctional country, have few means of achieving it.  Reducing piracy will require some progress on land.