Monthly Archives: June 2011

(Almost) Sailing on the Gulf of Arabia

Preparing To Launch

I have been on a quest for sailing ever since I arrived in Kuwait last February. Over the past several months I have followed a number of “leads” here and there but was not having much luck–until last Friday, June 24! Harry Morrow, a work colleague of mine spotted some brief articles about sailing clubs in Kuwait in the local newspaper. A few of us went exploring and, after a couple of dead ends, I finally connected up with one of the members of the Kuwait Catamaran Sailing Club. As it turns out, the club keeps their boats at a small dryland boatyard just a couple of kilometers from our hotel. Friday is their regular race day so we were invited to come and meet some of the members and see the boats. Darren Montgomery, another work colleague who is keen to sail joined the adventure.

The Fleet Sets Sail

The club is made up of a variety of people from the UK, Europe and other far flung places. On this day there were several Dart 18s, a Hobie and a monohull dingy in the race fleet. All boats were fully crewed so we did not get a chance to sail but Darren got to help out in the safety boat.

The Race Is On!

The safety boat captain set up a course of three marker buoys a few hundred meters offshore and the races were on. It was a great site to see and even though I was not on the water I had fun watching the races and taking a few photos. I was so engrossed in the all the activity that I almost forgot that the temperature was approaching 50 degrees C!

Darren Joins The Safety Boat

Friday turned out to be our lucky day. We made some new friends and will have a chance to crew in some future races. Now if I could only figure out how to get Ananda over here for 6 months!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kuwait Sightseeing – Part Deux

A couple of months ago I had a great time exploring parts of Kuwait with my friend and work colleague David.

Darren Montgomery joined our team about eight weeks ago and Ren Arbuthnot has just joined us. They were curious to see more of Kuwait so we convinced David to take us on another tour–similar to my first adventure!  Our first stop was the marina at Marina Mall. Lots of interesting boats and shops–but sadly no sailboats. Other stops along the way included Kuwait Tower and David’s Christian church.
We spent quite a bit of time at the Kuwait Fish and Produce Market. This place is full of people doing their weekly shopping and visiting with their friends. We arrived at the docks outside the market just in time to see a number of smaller fishing boats arrive with their catch from the night before.
Our next stop was inside the market building to see all of the different kinds of food for sale. Fish, meat, produce – The selection was massive!
After leaving the market we headed to the city center in search of one or more of the old gates to the city. Apparently many years ago Kuwait was a walled city with entrance gates at several strategic locations. As the city grew sections of the wall were torn down but planners had the foresight to preserve several of the original gates. They now stand as a wonderful reminder of the city’s history and heritage and are accessible to anyone who wants to take a look. One of the gates we stopped at (Al Sha-Ab) was built in 1919. It now stands in the shadow of many very avant guard high rise towers and office buildings. final stop on the tour was to see the sailboats at the Science Center. The sailboats are still there–waiting for a captain….. perhaps I should apply for the job! 

Bountiful Date Palm Trees

I have always really liked the look of palm trees. Warm weather and exotic locations are the first things that come to my mind when I see one–whether it’s real or in a photograph. There are many palm trees here in Kuwait and it is wonderful to be surrounded by them for shade and for visual appeal.
Over the past couple of weeks I noticed that many palm trees have green plastic mesh bags hanging from them. My colleagues told me that those trees are beginning to produce their date “fruit” and workers put the bags over the bunches of fruit to: a) keep the birds away from them, and b) keep the fruit from falling to the ground as they ripen. Ripe dates are very sticky so apparently they can make quite a mess if they fall to the ground and left there.
From a distance the dates look like huge bunches of green grapes. It is amazing to see the bounty of these trees appear so quickly. I am used to watching apple trees take months to produce their fruit. The bunches of dates seemed to appear almost overnight.
The breakfast buffet at our hotel has fresh dates every day and I have gotten in the habit of eating several of them each day. They taste so fresh compared to the dates we get back home. Now I know a little bit more about dates and have gained a whole new level of appreciation about where they come from. 🙂

 

 

 

Happy 20th Anniversary To The Love Of My Life!

20 years ago today (June 15, 1991) Catherine and I were married in a small ceremony in her parent’s back yard. The day was incredibly hot for June – over 30C with very high humidity. The guests and the catered food, especially the chocolate dipped strawberries, were wilting in the heat. That didn’t matter to us or to any of our guests. We were gathered to celebrate a truly wonderful occassion and nothing was going to spoil this day.
The wedding party sought shade under the rented canopy tent. We made it through the heat on that day and we have made it 20 years to this day. Catherine deserves a medal for putting up with me all this time! Through all these years our love for each other has never faltered. I truly am the luckiest man in the world! We had planned to go to Europe for our 10th wedding anniversary and spend 10 days in France–one day for each year we had been married. Unfortunately, work got in the way and we had to postpone that plan. Our 10th was instead spent in Toronto having a few nights on the town. It wasn’t Paris but we still had a great time and have fond memories.

Now, here we are on the day of our 20th and I am in Kuwait and Catherine is in Canada. We want to be together today but it’s not possible. However, we are going to make it to Paris later this summer. It will be special and nothing will get in our way this time!
Happy Anniversary, my love!
Now, please tell me again–who are all the young people in these photos?

The Heat Continues! It’s Hot, Hot, Hot!

We went out for lunch this past Thursday and the temperature gauge in the car rose to 50 degrees C (122 degrees F)–outside! It was very hot but there is not a lot of humidity yet so it was bearable. However, friends are telling me–just wait until the humidity arrives, and then you will experience some real heat!

When I showed this photo to one of my colleagues at work he told me that the (outside) temperature gauges in a lot of cars won’t show over 50C. He shared a photo of his car’s gauge (a Mercedes) that showed 51.5C! I’m going to buy a thermometer at the local store and keep it on my balcony at the hotel. Watch for postings of new records.

And speaking of records, last summer was an especially hot season for us in Ontario. While I was cruising down through the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River we would “celebrate” the beautiful weather with lots of jumping off the boat, cool drinks full of ice from my new refrigerator and with some great recorded music to pass the time.

Here’s a link to one of my summertime favorites: Arrow singing, what else but Hot Hot Hot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGBXhDZXTqY

Just makes you wanna dance–even if it is 50C outside!

Now where did I leave that bucket of ice…….?