Nordhavn Saturday

I knew that my client Nordhavn had a new N 86 stopping in Hong Kong enroute to a delivery to Indonesia for the owner. I e-mailed the president of the company and asked how I could get aboard to see the new boat (hull number 10 of this model). He put me in touch with the captain and the project manager and they were very accommodating. The boats are built in Xaiman China, a few hundred miles up the coast but it is easier to bring crew into Hong Kong and fuel and provision here. The captain invited me to come down Saturday morning for a sea trial of a new forward scanning sonar and auto pilot calibration. I took the train to Tsing Yi Island and then a taxi to the boat yard.

Trever Smith, the Nordhavn project manager had just flown in that morning as well and it was good to see him as he is an old friend from previous matters.

The boat was beautiful, shiny and new. There are always a bunch of little items to complete; getting the towels and sheets out, putting the right bulbs in lamps, getting distilled water for the humidor, etc., etc.

Soon after coming aboard we pulled away from the dock and headed out to more open water.

I poked around the boat and hung out in the pilot house as the tech demonstrated the forward scanning sonar. With a call to the tech support in the USA on an iPhone, we went through the paces of calibrating the autopilots.

After being on the water a couple hours, we headed back to the boat yard. The new cook made lunch for us all.

Since the plastic coverings do not come off until the owners come aboard, we ate with the cover on the table and the plastic on the chairs. The food, nevertheless was delicious.

At Petra

We woke up this morning after a good nights sleep in a quiet room at the Marriott.  A little American luxury can really be nice after a tough day.  The shower had plenty of water and it was HOT.  Nice for a third world country.  The breakfast was great in the restaurant and the smoked salmon and cream cheese omelet from the omelet bar was one of the best I have ever had.  We had coffee, juice, lots and various fruits and oatmeal, eggs, bacon, sausage and thoroughly stuffed ourselves.  Since we had only had a little dinner on the airplane the night before, we were starving.  Back at the room we caught up on e-mails and blog posting; having fast internet was a real luxury as well.

About 10:00 a.m., we checked out and got directions that put us back on a road we had driven up and down the night before.  In the light of day, with a better map, we made it out to the main highway headed back toward the airport and south toward Aquaba and Petra.  We got cheap gas (one of the advantages of the middle east) and headed down the “Desert Highway” to drive the 200 km to Petra.  The highway had lots of trucks and buses.  It became apparent the Aquaba, on the northern tip of the Red Sea, is Jordan’s link to the sea as we saw lots of trucks with containers on them and trucks of new cars heading toward Amman.  We passed lots of new construction and saw that the Jordan Valley is a vast agricultural area that reminded me a little of the California Central Valley.  Further south, there was mining, an aluminum plant and a cement plant.  A lot of it looks new and well kept.  We also passed large chicken farms.

Finally, we got to the turnoff to Petra, left the highway south and climbed up into the hills, up a canyon with lots of cedar trees on the hills surrounding the canyon.  It was kind of a surprise to see the trees, but overall, parts of the area looked a lot like the Mojave desert (after the Jordan Valley), and then as we got toward Petra, it started looking a lot like Southern Utah.  The town just outside of Petra is in a canyon that reminded me of Moab (without the river).

We easily found our hotel, the “Movenpick,” which is at the end of the road, right across the street from the entrance to Petra.  We checked in, had some ice cream in the bar (being a Swiss chain of hotels, the feature Swiss ice cream) waiting a few minutes for our room to be ready.  We got settled in and about 2:30 p.m. walked across the street to the entrance and bought our two day passes for the Park.  At 55 Dinar each (a Dinar is worth about $1.60 USD) they were on the expensive side, but a one day pass is 50 Dinar, or two days for 55.

We walked down the canyon through narrowing gorges of red sandstone rock and after about a mile came to the “Treasury,” the most famous of the building facades carved into the sandstone.  It is very impressive. 

We walked around looking at various other carvings, tombs, and fending off the hustlers selling rides on donkeys back to the parking lot, coins “found in a tomb,” postcards, etc.  About 4:30 p.m. we started the walk back up the hill out of the canyon and while it is a long drag, it did not take us too long.

We can back to the hotel for a rest before dinner.  After dinner, we bought tickets to a “Petra at Night” show, where we go back down the canyon with it lit by candles.  It should be quite a show.

Here we go

After maintaining a website for years, with prodding from my son David, I am going to try the WordPress software, which can be easily updated from the iPad. Wish me luck.