Sailing the Arabian Sea to Muscat in Oman

Known variously as the Persian Sea and the Erythraean Sea, the Arabian Sea has been critical to commerce and central to cultural exchange throughout history.  Trade vessels have been sailing these waters for thousands of years, as far back as the third millennium BC.  Egypt’s pharaohs  dug canals to give them access to the Arabian Sea.  In Julius Caesar’s day, Roman troops relied on the water routes so they could avoid impassable desert or mountain terrain, and during the Age of Sail, all manner of metals, spices, precious stones and wine were conveyed along the Arabian Sea.

 Thursday 4 May – our first day at sea!  It’s been all go since we embarked.  After breakfast we had a 10 am appointment for a tour of the laundry.  Certainly not as boring as it sounds.  It is located on the first deck below the passengers’, Deck a, and sits amongst the crews’ quarters.  A team of 10 people work in shifts for 24 hours a day washing all the ship’s linens, crews’ uniforms and guests’ clothes.  (We also have our own laundrette on each floor.  I had rushed in there after we embarked yesterday afternoon as I had quite a lot of laundry from over the past week, ours is small - 4 machines, 2 dryers and 2 ironing boards, and I was able to get everything washed and ironed whilst other guests were still arriving!).   The team below decks have 4 x 90kg machines and 4 x 50kg dryers, plus one machine with a very hot washing cycle that is used specifically for linen that has been in contact with anyone with Covid or a similar disease.  The lint in the dryer can be a real danger on the boat,  we all know it can catch fire easily if it builds up, so the lint is cleaned out every hour and the back of the machines are cleaned every 4 hours.  There is a special steam room for pressing silk, a “spot” table with all the products needed to remove rust/ink/wine/sunblock cream/oil etc.  There is also a special machine with chemicals for washing cashmere and wool, with a dryer to go with it. 

The Team are very careful to check all washing and drying instructions on labels of clothing sent in by the guests and will check with them before putting any spot removers on their garments.   There were two amazing machines…..the first was the dryer for the sheets – two men fed the wet sheets through and the machine not only dried them but the side part of it (out of sight) had an amazing way of folding the sheet and out it popped out all beautifully pressed and folded.  The second machine, which I would love to have at home, was like a bodice and you put the jacket, shirt or t-shirt on it and it blew very hot air up inside so instantly every crease came out!  There was a special hot-plate ironing board for pressing cotton shirts, and a trouser press.  The clean linen was housed was in a cage and locked, so there is no contamination between clean and dirty laundry and the room attendants have to ask the Manager for the key so they can load up with fresh linen and towels for the staterooms; these are changed every two days.  Finally, we were shown the tagging machine which prints off the tiny tags put inside the garments so they end up in the correct rooms.  The tags on the crews’ clothes are put on at a temperature of 180 degrees so they last for 6 months but the temperature is a lot lower for the guests’clothes so they are easy to peel off.  All in all it was a very interesting 30 minutes!

We seem to have been very busy since we got on board.  There is just so much to do, plenty of activities, lectures, eating and drinking and we also have shore excursions at every destination.  I haven’t even had time to pick up my book yet!    Geoff played bridge after lunch and we met up later and had an early evening swim with the pool all to ourselves as everyone rushed off to dinner as soon as the doors opened!   A pre-dinner drink and a very nice 5-course degustation dinner with matching wines at The Chef’s Table, and then, slightly tipsy, we threw ourselves around the dancefloor for a couple of hours before retiring for the night!  We have a lovely cabin at the stern of the ship and it is nice and quiet and lovely to see the wash at the back when we are sailing.

Friday 5 May – Not such an early start this morning after all the alcohol last night, but we managed to scrape into breakfast just before it closed!  We’ve found that it’s better to eat later, as the restaurants are packed as soon as they open, and it’s not like they are ever going to run out of food!  Geoff played some more bridge whilst I headed off to the Explorer’s Room to take part in the Quiz, followed by a gym session so I could enjoy  a guilt-free afternoon tea in the Wintergarden with both English breakfast tea and a flute of champagne as well! 

Interesting things are happening on the ship tomorrow because we are entering the Gulf of Aden which has been known for pirate activity.  There will be razor wire being fitted to the guardrails around Deck 2 and armed guards will be joining the ship for a few days.  Other measures are also being put in place but in the interests of security, they will not be divulged to us.

Saturday 6 May – Coronation Day!  Sadly I forgot to pack my Union Jack clothes and earrings, never mind.  The great news is that tonight’s buffet is a Taste of Britain with all the British classics from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales (although I’m not sure they would have been able to find pig’s bladders for the haggis in Mumbai!).   I might just veer from our plan to go to the buffets at the end and be first in the queue tonight, need to make sure I snag a Yorkshire Pudding and hopefully there’ll be a trifle.  No doubt King Charles III’s Coronation Quiche will feature too.

We did the tour of the Engine Room before the best part of the Coronation started – I’m going to let Geoff have a paragraph on this – pretty much all of it went over my head, so here goes........

“It’s a misnomer, for although there are engines on board, indeed 4 x 18 cyclinders in a V formation, these engines are only diesel generators.  The propellers are driven by electric engines.  There are no batteries, the generators feed power to the electric engines which drive the propeller shafts.  There is no gear box, no folding propellors for reverse as the electric engines can wind the prop either way.  The boat carries 550 tonnes of bunker fuel and burns 80 tonnes in 24 hours at a full speed of 18 knots.  I was a little puzzled by what exactly we were saving by not having the diesel generators drive the propellers just the electric motors as we still have fumes coming out of the funnel and exhaust waters pumped into the sea.  To be fair these fumes going into the atmosphere are washed and cleaned and are probably reasonably greenhouse acceptable, but when Ro and I were sitting near the funnels on the Upper Restaurant deck, bits of soot were falling out of the sky!  Other interesting mechanics on the vessel included fresh water-making facilities.  Although they did some desalination using high pressure pumps and a water-maker in the same manner as we do on our cruising yachts, the bulk of the water is distilled, that is boiling and collecting the steam distillate.  The ship used approximately 400 cubic metres (400 tonnes) a day.  The reason they don’t use desalination as much, is that the desalinated water aided corrosion, whereas the pure distilled water did not.   

The other interesting aspect we found was how they deal with the grey and black water generated by over 930 guests and 450 crew, the laundry and the half dozen restaurants and bars scattered around the vessel.  The blackwater (the shit water) is sucked down from the toilets in every cabin and around the boat by a vacuum suck so that less water is needed to get it into the holding tank.  Once in the holding tank they go through a mascerator and the solids sink to the bottom and the fluids are pumped through to a liquid tank, into which the grey water, being showers, handbasins, kitchen etc., also flowed.  They have several of these big tanks scattered around in the base of the boat and can carry thousands of litres of grey water.  This is treated with chemicals to maintain a near neutral acidity or PH value, and water is passed through a UV module so that once in International waters,  they are able to release the tanks into the sea.   Into the solids that accumulate in the bottom of the black water tanks bacteria are introduced which actually eat and break down the solid mass.  Again, once in International waters these tanks can be released as these tanks only contain biodegradable solids – and the fish eat them!

The final aspect of the engine room that was interesting was the refrigeration.  It is very hot here, 35+ degrees during the day.  With airconditioning on fully throughout the ship, in every ship and public room, all with doors opening to the outside hot atmosphere - the airconditioning units work overtime.  These units plus the refrigeration compressors are all electric driven from the same diesel generators that drive the electric engines for the propellors.  Due to the big distances needed to carry the power, for example to the forward two engine thrusters, a high voltage is required to reduce the diameter of the wiring carrying the currents and the ship’s wires carry 6,500 volts!   These generators are enormous and they produce for example, 150 amps at 6,500 volts to drive each propellor”.  Thank you Geoff!

An afternoon in front of the box and watching all the pomp and ceremony going on in London followed by “the buffet” – very tasty, roast lamb, roast beef, Cornish pasties, Shepherd’s Pie, fish and chips, trifle, Eton mess, Bakewell tart…no complaints from me.

We arrive in Muscat at 7.00am tomorrow so we’ll be up early to watch the boat come into port and then we have a Muscat City Tour booked – very exciting!