Captain Scott ~ Monday, October 15th, 2007

Few people work during the month of Ramadan. The week after Ramadan is the Eid festival and nobody works. It is their most important holiday and the town is filled with country folk looking to party. And Oct 14th is their independence day. With holiday on top of holiday we are having trouble getting some basics to leave. Dinner ashore is movie stuff. Its packed and everyone dressed up. The women all wear berkas which is new in the past 6 years--Saudi influence. The men wear a large belt with an even larger curved dagger. The dagger is upright over the navel.

Dave bought this outfit and the locals loved it. I got my dagger my last time through. One local showed us his belt which had bullets on it. Just like a cowboy he grinned. Not many bars in town but we found one. A Russian Surgeon sat down with us and...Well no one out drinks a Russian. As a military officer he was stationed in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Everyone seems very happy to see us and we feel very safe. So as the only yacht in the harbor I have decided to fly the flag. Noted that the Cole was blown up here only 300 ft from where we are anchored