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!