Hester's Head

Do you have your coffee? Is it still hot? Let's get started. Sorry for the really-lame-joke-subject-title.
We are back at sea and our second patrol is underway after a port visit to Muscat, Oman. First though, I have to say how weird it is to see Christmas stuff. We are finally in the footprint of whatever satellite it is that sends us CFRT - Canadian Forces Radio and TV. I won't take the time to complain how crappy CFRT is and how seldom we are able to receive it. I saw some of 'This Hour Has 22 Minutes' with a Christmas tree in the background and at first I thought it had to be a rerun. Then it dawned on me - "Oh yeah, it's Christmas time." The Christmas commercials are discombobulating too. Then I got up for my watch and saw our mess was decorated. I find it all very strange; it does not feel like Christmas at all. Maybe I should consider Christmas shopping. Except it's too late - we are at sea until after Christmas.

Muscat is a very cool place - it has great scenery and cool architecture. It is on the north side of Oman, on the Gulf of Oman. It has some small, but very rugged, mountains that come right up to the water.

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Here's a picture of the Sultan's palace, right on the waterfront.

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It was a nice little place, none too shabby at all. There were also a couple forts built up on the mountainsides and plenty of little guard towers.

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Since we left Djibouti we have sailed around in patrol boxes, hailing ships, looking and listening for suspicious activity and trying to get a picture of the maritime traffic. About two weeks ago we did find one guy who was acting rather suspicious, here's a picture from our Sea King:

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Notice anything suspicious? Our boarding party went over and inspected it very thoroughly, but nothing was found.

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Other than this things have been rather quiet. It's Groundhog Day now, one day is like another and I struggle to keep up to even remember when the weekends are. Other than the sunrise a few days ago - two days ago? - it's hard to remember, there's not much excitement. Other than the interesting food we took on in Djibouti. And the school of dolphins that came around:

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canucker, is this where the contestants from The Amazing Race learned to drive?

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Here are some of the pictures of the bastion from Fort Aguada that sticks out into the sea. The Taj Holiday Village is located behind the palm trees in the last picture.

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Here's a picture of one of the trucks encouraging you to honk as well as a poor guy doing some roadwork.

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It's 'bout time I posted these links:

When we sailed from Goa we brought three combat camera crewmembers with us and they've been around taking pictures and video of what we've been up to as we've sailed around the horn of Africa. We crossed the equator a couple times in the last week and Sunday afternoon was quiet enough we had another, much smaller, crossing the line ceremony for the 13 tadpoles we had on board. The Combat Camera crew are now trusted shellbacks as well. They were taking pictures before and after they were dipped in the brine, so, hopefully, they will post some pictures on the website.

Here's the link to their website:

www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca

Just type "Ottawa" after keyword in the photo search and you will find plenty of pictures of the ship. And lots of pictures of our boarding party. YAWN.

I think I already posted the link to HMCS Ottawa's photo gallery, but here it is again:

http://www.navy.forces.gc.ca/ottawa/home/index_e.asp

We also have a Mission line that people can call to get updates on what the ship is doing. I've never called it, but I heard that it's quite good. You can contact the Mission Line from anywhere in Canada at 1-800-866-4546. Dial 1 for English or 2 for French, and then I guess you just follow the instructions.

The last day in Goa I decided to go for a walk. I had considered not leaving the ship at all, but I felt like getting off the ship after all. This time I walked to Vasco Da Gama and it was as interesting as ever. I couldn't even walk out the pedestrian gate, I had to stay on the left side of the road and walk out with the traffic. The guard asked me twice, "Why?" That's all he said. I tried to indicate I wanted to go for a walk, when he asked again I said I wanted to go for a short walk. I’m not sure why it popped in my head, but I indicated “short” by holding one hand above the other: ‘short’ is in ‘not tall’ rather than ‘not long’. I could tell he thought I was crazy, but I'm used to that. I walked downtown where they had a market. I bought a coconut from a lady who took the husk off with a nail that hung around her neck and then punched a hole in it. I asked if I was to drink from the hole but she just smiled at me. So I took her picture and walked away, carrying my coconut.
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I didn't know if I was to tip it back and drink from the hole, no one else was carrying a coconut. So I just carried it, careful to keep the hole at the top. The market was spread all over the street and down the street as well as two side streets. This one kid, an older kid, maybe 16, seemed to be following me. His bright red shirt with the number 8 wasn't hard to pick out. I turned to take his picture and he desisted and went to buy some stalks of sugar cane. One guy finally came over and saved me from my coconut. He took me to a shop nearby and got me a straw, so now I was able to walk around drinking the coconut juice. I continued on my walk, as Vasco didn't seem near as threatening. There were some kids who were playing cricket. I thought it was a schoolyard, but it might have been in front of a hospital with a white truc...

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