The third weekend- Friday

So I have two recreational goals before I leave this country. I want to go sailing and diving in the Arabian Gulf. A number of people in the office snorkel, so I may be able to accomplish the diving on a technicality at a later date. So Saturday morning, bright and early (say… 10AM) Michael and I head off to the beaches and resorts of Dubai to find a sailboat.

In Ajman, you can park anywhere, just make sure your tires are not in a travel lane...

I’m not here for very long, so I won’t be picky. I’ll be happy with either renting a sailboat of my own, or just crewing on a race boat. With so many rich folks around with large yachts, they are constantly in search of crew, so I’m told. We drive back up the sand highway to get to the Emirates highway and head south to Dubai.

We stopped on the way to see the local souqs or markets. Michael was looking for a ring, so we walked through the gold souq. We also strolled through the old souqs. To get back to our car, we walked up along the shore of Dubai Creek. The creek was full of Abras (big water taxis), water taxis, and traditional dhows carrying freight and passengers.

Entering the souqs.

A Gold souq

Water taxis at Dubai Creek.

We continue south to Jumeirah public beach. Dubai is much more open than some of the more conservative emirates so here, men and women are allowed on the same beach. However, cameras are strictly not allowed. There are very few locals here and the beach is filled primarily with westerners and to a lesser degree Indians. Very few people know how to swim in the UAE so the only people we saw in the water are the white visitors. There are no sailboats here, we continue south. We tried to stop farther south at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Turns out we did not have enough money to try to enter this hotel. The valet parking was full of Bentleys, Ferraris, Maseratis, and on and on. The cheapest cars around were Porsches. We continue south.

The view from Jumeirah public beach with Burj Al Arab in the distance.

We stopped in to the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club, DOSC, and chat with the guard. Despite niceties and trying to convince him we know people inside, we cannot gain entrance. We continue south.

The director of COWI UAE recommended we stop in and see the Madinat Jumeirah. Cool, that’s the next resort down the beach, here we go. We roll up and find surprisingly free covered, air-conditioned parking. Score. The Madinat was designed to look like an old fashioned Arabic fort. I have a feeling, however, that this one is much larger. The interior is filled with small souqs selling anything from swimwear to diamond jewelry, as well as restaurants that are prohibitively expensive. To be expected. We walked a bit and ended up eating Panini from Seattle’s Best Coffee.

Me and Michael in Madinat Jumeirah, with Burj Al Arab in the distance. You can see it from everywhere.
The canals at Madinat Jumeirah.

We’re now at the Palm Jumeirah, one of those fake islands that looks like a palm tree. Of course, I can’t come this far and not go out there. We can’t get on any of the fronds, as they are gated/guarded communities. We travel all the way to the end, where we find the Atlantis Resort. This is the hotel that has recently caught a whale shark. Its caused quite a commotion that they are charging admission to see the cage beast. We take a few pictures and head back off the palm.

There’s another marina farther south called Mina Seyahi Yacht Club, located in Dubai Marina. (Tom Isherwood lives somewhere near here, for those of you who know him.) I seem to recall this yacht club had something to do with sailing. We meet yet another guard who speaks only broken English. This time I nearly insist that people inside are looking for crew to help sail their boats. The guard gives me a phone number to call, not telling me whoever I might be calling. Captain Jacob picks up the phone. (Eat your heart out hippy.) “Sure” he says, “I’ve got a boat we can take you on.” Great! He says that he’s out at the moment, but he’ll be back at 7:30 and we can get some coffee and discuss going out then.

As its 4:30 now, Michael and I head to Emirates Mall to kill some time, and get lost in a few more city streets. We make our way back about 7:00. Security is way beefed up, the parking lot is filling up and many taxis are dropping people off. Hmm… I wonder whats going on? We meet the same security guard and he tells us we can park.

We wander over to the front gate where it looks like people are lined up to pay an admission fee. There are two huge black security guards. They are quite busy keeping people in line and somehow decide we’re not worth the trouble when we waltz past explaining we are going to see Captain Jacob at slip D28. Now we’re really wondering what’s going on.

Turns out that slip D28 is out at the end. As we continue walking that way, past gorgeous yachts, we note that the boats keep getting bigger. As we approach the end, there is an enormous Sunseeker 64’ flying bridge power yacht in the space. Captain Jacob jumps down, happy to see us. He is in his late 20s and from South Africa. He explains that a German guy owns this boat, but he only uses it for two to three weekends a year. The remainder of the time, Capt. Jacob is instructed to take charters to help pay for the yacht. He gives us a tour of the 3 staterooms, plus salon and galley. He then invites us to share coffee with him up on the flying bridge. We have a terrific view of the entire marina. He asks when we’d like to take the boat out. Well, we respond, we’ll need to talk to other people in our office to schedule a good date, but we’ll be sure to call him on Sunday when we get back to the office.

We excuse ourselves and head back to the entrance. We hear the sound of Caribbean music and see all kinds of neon lights. Clearly, this deserves investigating. On one side there are a ton of people gathered gathered around a long skinny bamboo and palm treed structure. On the other side is an enormous fully equipped and high class buffet. We wander to the palm tree structure broadcasting the music. There’s an announcer at one end and people are parading up and down the “catwalk.” We’ve stumbled into a Rip Curl beach fashion show. That’s why people were buying tickets. We hang around for a bit and continue to check out the party. We quickly realize we have no stamps on our hands and no entrance bracelets. We keep a low profile and soon head out. We grab dinner on the way home and head back to get ready for tomorrow.

[ Sorry, no pictures allowed inside the event... I tried...]