Dubai

Monday 1st December

Still waiting for the pilot and before “smoko” I helped one of the crew to sugee down the wheelhouse. When that was done I went aft and carried on polishing the emergency lights. In the afternoon the new crew arrived by launch and at 15.30 the pilot boarded to take us in. I was on the bridge and Billy was for’ard with the Third Officer. The old crew all had their gear in the starboard alleyway making passage difficult and they were all queuing up waiting for transport. They were to stay in a hotel the next day for the flight home but in fact were 2 or 3 days waiting! Till about 19.30 I helped the 3rd Officer on cargo watches and rigged the cluster lights.

Tuesday 2nd December

Billy and I split the day up into two watches, he works from about 7 till 1 and I work from 1 till about 7 at night. This morning I went ashore with the 3rd officer and his wife Wendy. We got a taxi from alongside the ship and first had to handover our Seamen’s I.D. cards in to obtain a shore pass at the dock gates. We then drove round to the town center which was only a couple of hundred yards from the ship but about 3 miles right round by the dock gates. The taxi driver wanted about 10 Dirhams (about £1.21) but Mark just thrust him an English pound note which he seemed happy with.

The streets were very narrow and nearly all the cars were big American jobs which were out of place. Every other shop sold watches or radio equipment at fairly cheap prices (about £50 saved on Seiko watches).

We looked at countless items in many shops and in the end I was torn between buying £97 worth of stereo cassette and £115 of camera. In the end I bought neither. At noon we went into the Ambassador Hotel where a small beer cost 66p. Then I got a taxi back to the ship and relieved Billy who went ashore in the afternoon. In the afternoon I was able to get to know some of the new crew. The actual cargo discharge was uneventful. The Arabs seemed to work at only two speeds, dead slow and stop. It was a difficult task noting when their meal breaks etc were due to this.

Wednesday 3rd December

This morning I went ashore again with Steve (the A.E.O.). This time we crossed the river to the other half of town. Several boatmen were clamoring for custom bargaining against each other till you got rowed across for 1 dirham (12p). On the other side we made our way to the gold market. This was a long narrow alleyway lined with shops selling gold jewelry and ornaments. There were so many so close together it was a wonder any of them stayed in business.

It was quite interesting looking round the shops and one felt a pang of pride when in the clothes shops the “British Made” sign was proudly exhibited on the front row! We were amazed to find a Kentucky Fried Chicken parlour so we had dinner there which, apart from not being hot enough, wasn’t bad.

In the afternoon it was back on cargo watches as the crew got on with painting the starboard side of the accommodation. In the evening they finished unloading the cargo so we were due to sail for Kuwait at 06.00 tomorrow.