Hello!
You all probably saw the press release by the race officials regarding the delay of our start. The wind was definitely in to the 30+ knot range. There were white caps in the protected bays by the hotel and apartments- no small feat! Today was the grand opening and we were very lucky to have royalty come for the opening- Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa (born June 30, 1975) is the second son of the present King of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah and his first wife, Queen Sabika bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa. (I uploaded a video of his arrival to youtube). He has a white head dress with a complicated folding at the back off it. Very handsome man… It was a well attended opening, with the CEO David Graham speaking about the race and its importance in the region. Each skipper also spoke briefly about their team and their thoughts about the race. Dee Caffari, our skipper, warned the mens’ teams to watch out- the women were coming after them. Our esteemed guest had a good laugh about that and later told Dee to go get ’em.
There is a Saudi Arabian team here competing, largely made up of ex-pats. And of course, their skipper couldn’t help himself -speaking after Dee- that their intention was to beat the women. (!) Really? Did you have to go and actually SAY it? Crikey… If that’s how its going to be played- GAME ON.
The rest of the day was spent by the teams taking care of little boat jobs, looking at weather, team briefings and packing. Tonight we will make the food for tomorrow’s journey, have one last look at the weather and then go to bed. Currently, it is forecast for 20 knots from the northwest and it will slowly drop throughout the day. The trip from Manama, Bahrain to Doha, Qatar should be around 11 hours. We were warned about a huge fire in the sky by a large natural gas plant as we get closer to Doha, i.e. don’t be alarmed. Because we will be arriving late in the evening, the in-port race will be short. Incidentally, we were also told that the in-port races did not count for points, that they were about taking esteemed guests out – so a pro am race which helps garner excitement and interest in this event. I believe at one of the UAE stops we will be taking out the first arab woman to climb everest, which will be quite cool.
On another topic- I was having a look at international news and I found a piece that clarified why I was held up in Bahrain customs seemingly over the fact that I was an American lawyer…
2 American women arrested during protest in Bahrain
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 12, 2012
The two American women, Ms. Arraf and Ms. Sainath, had entered on tourist visas and attended illegal protests. “The advocacy group Witness Bahrain said both Arraf and Sainath are human rights lawyers. They were in the Middle Eastern country as part of an effort to have more civilians from different nations on the ground to monitor the situation.”…
Hmmmm- well I believe they were able to look up the sailors and find out that I in fact was going sailing and not going to be getting involved in the political goings-ons and so I was able to go through. I did have a moment though, where I thought “Huh- what if they won’t let me enter? That will really be a bummer. More the point- I can’t believe that I will have to fly all that way back after just getting hear!” It was an eye-opener, however, as were all the police check points we had to go through to get to the hotel. And no- they weren’t DUI stops! This a dry country….
It will be a very early morning. Up at 5:30, to the boat by 6 am and off the dock by 7 am. Currently the plan is to start by 8 am. Wish us luck!
