Doha, Qatar - touring around

Well, my Doha adventure continues some more! I spent the morning touring around a bit and made to the Pearl as well (more on that later in the blog). First thing is that I was touring about looking at architecture ...

Cool buildings on the way to the Pearl

The above buildings were my first architecture goal. Fascinating architecture because looking from the long side they buildings look straight, but from the side they are really funky! Below them is a mall but not one that seemed to interesting to me ... I was on my way to The Pearl ...

This is The Pearl from afar

I made the drive to The Pearl, which is a major development in Doha. While it is really pretty, it is utterly ostentatious beyond belief. The first place I checked out at a Masarati & Ferrari dealer across from the Rolls Royce Dealer ... from there it simply got gaudy. Lots of people who seem to live a high life on The Pearl - and I mean a LOT of people. It is a very high density "community". Needless to say I searched for a way out. Most of the stuff seemed to be under construction and finding a destination to chill was difficult so I simply gave up ... you do need a car to get around because the place is very large!

Next was some touring along the city coastline ...

A view of downtown Doha

 Doha is full of skyscraper construction. They are undertaking a considerable effort to really modernize the city and make it appealing. It is not as desert-like as other cities in the region and they made phenomenal use of their coastline.

Right along the Corniche area south of downtown

More downtown across the water from the park area. Note the boats for water tours

More of the coast and nice clear water of the Arabian Gulf!

A nice area along the park (turn 180 degrees and you are right beside the water)

Some of the tourist Dhows going across the bay

 Overall, it was a pretty good tour of Doha this morning - I hope to do some more later, but need to fix a minor car tire issue before I return to Saudi Arabia ... oh and one more thing ... someone asked about a particular building ... location is good for access :-)

The Bin (I think)

Traveling to Doha - part one

It seemed like it was time to escape the Magic Kingdom and explore the region a little more. This excursion takes me to the State of Qatar. The drive was quite pleasant - actual driving time is only 4 hours and I took the long way (it would have been 3.5 or less if I ignored the signs and GPS and went with my instincts although I suspect the Arabic signs were clear were I able to read squiggly lines). Anyway, the drive was really pleasant except the two hours crossing the border ... the Saudis took and hour and the Qataris showed an equal efficiency. The upside is the border staff (both Qatari and Saudi) are far more pleasant than the ones on the Bahrain Causeway ...

Anyway, since I was driving I could not take any pictures safely (my speed was around 13² km/h) and there is still a big haze of sand preventing much vision. Had it been clearer and if I had a passenger (I would have stopped if I was solo) there would have been many pictures of the desert that includes some small mesas, jabals, dunes, camel herds, bedouin camps, and some really cool erosion of the rocks. On a side note, I know know where Haradh, Hiawia, and Hofuf are ... definitely an interesting drive!

Once I arrived in Doha, it was a positive driving experience with polite drivers, decent signage, and major construction projects! Despite the main artery under serious construction, it all worked well and the drivers were definitely courteous, albeit fast. Speed is respected here in Qatar with cameras every 5 km or so on the highway. It was a nice change traveling along with the cruise set just under 120 km/h and no crazies passing on the shoulder or stuff like that. But the road construction will make a huge difference for traffic flow when it is done. This is one very big project, likely to help support their World Cup effort. There also appears to some form of a bus system here ... this place is definitely a modern city! The exploration will be Friday and I hope to take many pictures ... but for now I will start with my residence for the weekend - the W Hotel Doha :-) I cannot say enough nice things about the hotel ... I did not even leave it last night since it appears to be THE night spot in Doha.

Walking up to the door of my suite ... gotta love a special suite, but what does it say?

I must be a cool person being in the "Cool Corner Suite". This made me smile!!

First impressions are everything and a picture is worth a thousands words!

A well thought out (and appointed) desk

Beautiful bed with a view

One of the two sitting areas (looking back toward the entrance)

A proper sized bed with a nice down duvet

the other sitting area in the corner point of the room

The TV even knew who I was and welcomed me :-)

A nice place to relax in the room

With lots of space to just get ready for the day

View #1

View #2

View #3

Sailing adventures!

Well, my blog has been a tad slow updating, but my time outside of work is spent mostly sailing, which is a good thing. Last weekend was a race weekend ...

What is different about the boat on the right?

Well the race weekend was really interesting, except the winds were quite high so I fully reefed the mail sail and did a short solo run ...

The Hobie Cat all reefed

Now the reefing was a good idea since it removed around 3 square meters of sail area, except even in the one short run I managed too much speed for solo sailing and could not find any crew so the boat was put away and I raced on a Hobie 17, which was a lot of fun but very wet. Definitely the fastest sailing I've done yet. The only Hobie 16 racing (see the first image) with the  Frenches was really cool to watch since they were flying a hull almost the entire day with both of them fully hiked out! It would have made a great picture!

So with no racing, the boat was returned to its storage area for another weekend ...

The boat in its storage area with the cover (the dolphin striker ties to a stake in the ground under the tarp)

View from the storage area (I'm in the back row of the Hobies)

It was a fun weekend, but the day prior to racing I went into the hardware district of al Khobar to order some stencils for the boat so it could be officially named. These were installed just today ...

The newly named boat

And the name is legible in two languages!

Well, the boat was named for my bird, Moxie :-)

With the freshly named boat I did some sailing today around the bay, which was fun except the winds were the opposite of last weekend and the spinnaker was actually needed! I need to get some good pictures of the boat at racing speeds and some shots with the spinnaker fully inflated.

The only other excitement at the beach was the usual dolphin sightings and this unexpected visitor:

Sea snake washed on shore

Sea snake free swimming after being put back in the water

A Weekend at the Yacht Club

Well, the Hobie Cat is finally here and it is almost registered.Despite the registration not being complete yet, I decided to do some sailing since I now have a boat that is by the water ... so it as some attempts at sea trials. For this, I took out to other new hires: my neighbor Eamonn Houston from Ireland and Bill Ghent from Houston.  The weekend was pretty good and the boat was in the water both days. Here are some pictures!

Bill Ghent

Eamonn Houston

Bill and Eamonn

Derek and Bill

Eamonn and Derek in front of the boat

The boat all ready to sail

A boat in full sail - even a spinnaker!

So that was the first full weekend with the boat ... unfortunately the water was like glass and it was not possible to really get much going ... although the second day was most amusing ...

Note how the water is like glass and how the boats are moving ...

Unfortunately one of the children kicking the boats in became a traitor to his father and abandoned ship. The boat on the left had two loyal children to kick it in when the wind fully died.

Launching the new Hobie Cat!

At long last I finally have something blog about over here in the big sandbox: my Hobie Cat has finally arrived and it was a good weekend :-)

The first part was receiving the Hobie Cat. This finally happened at 11:30am on January 5, 2012. East and West Express delivered the goods!

The hulls and mast carefully packaged

The hulls and mast and deck with a bunch of boxes (on the tables behind)

And all the stuff again

Did I mention this was a French Hobie?

Well after a long afternoon (and another morning) with the help of some fantastic staff at HMYC - plus some assistance from the catamaran fleet Captain (James) the boat was finally assembled and ready for sea trials ...

This is the assembled Hobie and January 6 around noon

I also need to add a few more views of the new boat ...

The boat again with an old and  new beach cart

Now what is this - a SPINNAKER pole on the bow with a trumpet snuffer?

Note the very cool new beach cart to the right ...

I got in a few runs today, but needed to spend some time on the beach to dodge the Coast Guard since the boat registration is not complete and it was just easier to not answer questions. Still, I got in two runs despite the really light (and multi-directional) winds. The next task will be to get the spinnaker set up properly (this was learned the hard way) and get used to the boat itself.

There are some great people out at HMYC and everyone there was quite excited to see the new boat, but also commented that the only real difference was the hardware on it - goes to show the Hobie 16 is a classic design.

All in all, it was a good day ... with a great sunset ...

A Quick October Update

I posted some pictures to the blog, but there are some things that cannot be capture in photos. The past two weekends were busy:

• October 6, 2011 was Octoberfest at the Gulf Hotel in Bahrain. It was a great time for all with a great deal of beer available,  good selection of German food (including great pork), and a oompah band! The ballroom was very full of people, many of whom were in traditional attire such as liederhosen or bavarian style dresses. Such a grand night, but one where I took few pictures. Afterwards I stayed at the Gulf Hotel, which was quite amazing!!
• October 13, 2011 was Canadian Thanksgiving in Bahrain hosted by a Canadian social group. The event was held at Upstairs Downstairs near the Gulf Hotel and a fun time was had by all. A great group of people and a good night out :-)

The last bit of excitement was work related! Today was a lot of fun for me. We had a nice drive to Ras Tanura airport early this morning to catch a helicopter to an offshore facility. The facility was very interesting and we got the added bonus of a boat ride to two other facilities and being hoisted by a rope basket at one point. I felt we should have paid admission! The helicopter was very comfortable with 12 people (plus two pilots). A really nice perspective of the area, although the open was not terribly picturesque ;-)

October Catamaran Regatta at HYMC October 14, 2011

As most of my friends know, I love the water (see previous post for more about my boat which is en route to the Kingdom finally). On Friday I was at Half Moon Bay for the monthly catamaran regatta. While I did not sail in the races (my boat is not here yet), I took some pictures to show what it is like here at the nice beach ;-) I did eventually sail after the races with some folks to help them learn to read the winds a bit better and get me used to a Hobie Cat.

The rules of the beach (#9 is most interesting)

This is the beach .. nothing to say the pictures does not!

The other direction on the beach with nice shelters and grills!

This is actually a shower! Note the shower head  in the dolphins mouth (the hobies are behind it)

One of our racing Hobie Cats

One of our racing Hobie Cats

A nice, colorful Hobie 17

A few boats from the fleet (we had 9 out in total)

A Hobie racing the some decent wind (they were light that day)

Hobies after the first race

All nice Hobie Cats that came out to race after the first race

Subset at Half Moon Bay

The day was a good one and we had a great lunch afterwards and were able to do some socializing later as well. What I learned afterwards is why the road there is so dangerous ... all of the Saudis are driving home to Khobar, usually a high speed ... some with no lights ...