Dubai

3/30. Dubai yesterday: a beautiful modern place that seems stopped in time right now - with many huge construction project cranes sitting still. Towers half built, islands in the making, roadway work suspended. Apparently 300,000 people were laid off and presumably sent home to their countries. Of course, there’s still evidence of vast fortunes. [Another surprise - for them and us - it rained.]

The world’s engines have slowed down affecting everyone - from tourism in Mumbai to towers in Dubai, from unusually still container ports in Nagasaki to closed companies in Saipan.

I’ve seen so much. At this point my mind is just recording what I see and hear. What it all means will have to become evident as time passes. There are five days at sea now, good for thinking time if we don’t have any pirate excitement, but after that the ports will come quickly one after another In one case there are four days in a row without a sea day in between - Ephesus, Istanbul, Mykonos, Athens.

All in all I will have visited 37 ports in 25 countries since January 10th. When I say this is mindbending, I am not overstating the case!

Arabian Sea

Day 76 from NY. 2 pm NY time, 11 PM our time . . . Passed Pakistan as we sailed in the Arabian Sea; right now we are in the Strait of Hormuz between Oman and Iran. Have been able to see the coast of Iran for quite some time - traveling this way makes geography real. We bear left after Oman and arrive in Dubai at 8 am. [Bound to be a contrast to our last port of Bombay.] We’re now 27,302 nautical miles from NY and 1,015 from Bombay. Temperature mild (75) but we may have rain tomorrow. Maybe not - we’ve been so lucky with weather on this trip. Just saw flocks of small, glowing birds, probably white reflecting the ship’s lights but they seemed phosphorescent in the night, flying above the water - quite mysterious. Could see them well enough to know they were birds and not flying fish but otherwise have no clue.

Several crew members are leaving in Dubai, heading home for their break - my cabin steward John Elasin, wine steward Andres Gallegos, and assistant waiter Demetrio Sandoval - I will miss them!

Eager to see Dubai, then head into the Red Sea. see Petra in Jordan, and then transit the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean.