Kids, coffee and cardinals

05:30 Its time to load up the car for the weekend. My wife and young kids get the luxury of a lie in, but skipper needs to get the boat ready and moving. In years to come the kids will not doubt be getting up early as well, but for now they are five years old and would become troublesome confined on board for six hours while we make our way to UAQ.

06:30Pick up Pete and his cool box and down to DOSC to meet up with the other boats. We have nine DOSC boats on the Rally, with one coming from Mina Seyahi. Only three plan to leave this early, with the others coming on as they like throughout the morning.

07:00We load up Shahrazad, our Beneteau First 36.7, with crates of provisions, bedding, fishing gear and toys and we’re ready for the off. Crew for the day, Karin and Lars, join us for the early morning run and a quick visit to the club office to get our sailing permits.

07:30And we’re off, heading 020 degrees, motoring over a flat sea with just four knots of morning breeze. Lars is watching the helm and watching for the World Islands’ workboats while Karin gets to grips with the gas stove and the bacon butties. It is quite misty and visibility is only around one kilometre so I enter the World Islands and Deira Palm navigation marks into the on board chart plotter. At least now we have guides to keep out of the hazardous construction areas.

08:30Out of the mist comes a rather large container ship steaming up the Port Rashid channel and we alter course to pass well astern. The last of the butties are washed down with a strong tea as we pass by a fishing boat, moored at the side of the channel. We wave and exchange gossip: “any fish?”… “not yet but we’ve just started, where are you off to?” … “UAQ” … “Oh! That far?” We’re making 6.5 knots through the water, but 7.5-8 knots over the ground. Lucky to have the tide with us as you never quite know whether the tide will work for or against you these days, with all the back eddies created by the offshore construction.

09:00My head is in the toilet. No, not seasickness – I have been sailing too long to remember my last heave ho – but the seals on the pump have perished in the heat and its time to change them over. One of those jobs best left until it can’t be put off any longer and the wife is now refusing to come on board until there is a working heads. The crew take us round the top of Deira Palm and we set course for the UAQ waypoint.

10:30The toilet is now fully functional. We celebrate by breaking into Pete’s cool box. The visibility is very poor now and we cannot see anything living: no boats, buildings or land; quite eyrie when you know a huge city is so close. Mobile reception cuts in and out adding to the absurd feeling of isolation. A light breeze picks up and cool air flows over the boat. Gorgeous.

11:30We slide the inflatable dinghy off the bow and tie it to the stern quarter so I can get to the anchor chain and that other job that has been hanging for a while: splicing the anchor warp to the 8mm chain. The double bowline was never meant to be used, but somehow I never quite got round to taking it out. The tides run quite hard in UAQ so better to get it all shipshape now and have a better night’s sleep. Lars alters course towards UAQ waypoint. The tide is slackening and our SOG is down to seven knots.

12:30By now the buildings of UAQ appear through the haze and by 13:30 we are up the channel and coming alongside the fuelling berth at the quay, with wooden fishing boats pulled up on the beach behind us and large rusty supply hulks anchored ahead. The shore party of Carole and kids arrive, together with Judy and Pete’s brood. Heading away from the quay towards the Mangrove lagoon, there is a sand bar reaching out from the corner of the first island towards the fixed police barge. Depth beneath the keel drops to less than 1.5 metres as we inch our way across. Then we are safe in the main channel with five metres to spare and we look for a nice spot to anchor. We try to sneak up the side channels, but back out with less than a metre under the keel – guess the main channel after all.

15:00The ravenous hoards quickly devour a picnic lunch under the sun canopy and then it is down to the serious business of the afternoon – helping the kids catch jellies. After 11 years in Dubai we have never seen such a profusion of big jellies. The kids sweep them up in nets onto the seat of the dinghy and look pensively at Daddy. “Do they sting?” asks one tentatively. “Dunno” says Daddy … Well someone has to find out I guess and I duly investigate and, with much relief, pronounce them harmless. Later on, while swimming with a mask and snorkel, the swarm of jellies reminds me of David Attenborough’s documentaries. More yachts are arriving all the time and by mid-afternoon all ten of DOSC’s cruiser armada are anchored up in the lagoon, making quite a sight.

17:00I drop Pete and Lars at the Flamingo hotel jetty by dinghy to catch a cab back to Dubai. I call in on a few boats on the way back where I am invited aboard for a sundowner. But my duties call me off and back to Shahrazad to spark up the BBQ mounted on the back rail to whip up sausages and steak for tea.

18:30We have a minor problem. The wind and tide have swung the boat round and we have less than one metre below the keel. We might have moored too close to the edge of the channel, so up anchor and motor round to the middle of the fleet, where the depth sounder showed a more comforting five-metre reading. The morning low tide is forecast to be 0.5m lower than the evening tide so we need the extra water to be secure.

19:00I drop Pete, Judy and their kids off at the quay. The tide is very low and they struggle up the vertical ladder, much to the amusement of the guys fishing on the quayside. Carole has put our brood to bed and they crash immediately after a hot day of play, so by the time I get back all is quiet and peaceful.

21:00We also crash out. Its been a hard week. And I expect to be woken up a few times during the night to check on strange noises as we swing at anchor. The tides are quite severe and we will likely shift around a bit. We set the anchor watch on the depth gauge at 1.5 metres, so the alarm would go off if we drag into the shallows. The temperature is cooling off now and sleeping is not a problem.

07:00PANIC! Not because we dragged or ran aground during the night. Worse – we forgot to bring any coffee! So the boys (still in their PJs) and I motor off in the dinghy to call in on the other boats to see who can help us in our time of need. Howzat invite us in for sausages and toast and then sent us off with some sachets of instant – enough to keep us going. There is a cool six-knot southerly breeze and with a backdrop of mangroves, the morning is a beauty.

08:00and some boats are starting to leave for the sail back to Dubai. We have a leisurely start and at 10:00 we take the dinghy over to the shore to pick up another family who have driven over from Dubai. The kids get back to their favourite activity – catching jellies, but they have all been swept out by the retreating tide. So we throw everyone into the water and mess around towing them behind the dinghy on a boogie board.