Aussie Dave rang yesterday morning with an offer to go fishing. We had been before but his was on a little (25ft) charter boat. It could take six people so organized for Damian and Colleen to come along and we teamed up with Dave, Greg and Nora, who work for other companies here in Qatar doing the same work. Now I really enjoy fishing and with the weather always fine here and the sea relatively calm I thought this would be a great way to spend a quiet Friday afternoon. So we meet down the wharf finally find out boat and skipper and we head off. We stop in at the coastguard barge to let them know of our plans. I should have been a little worried as the skipper didn’t know the name and number of his boat and the directions he gave the coastguard seemed to confuse him. We have to stop and get fuel first and this is a great little comedy show as well as there are only two fuel pumps and there is a bit of a queue. It is a bit like the driving on the roads. Finally sorted we head off out passed the airport and fly down the coast. The guy has twin 225 HP Johnson outboards on so we are going pretty quickly. Now before we started I asked him about lifejackets as I’m not a great swimmer. He said he had one for me if I wanted. I told him no I just wanted to make sure he had them on board. Turns out when he said he had one he literally had one and three little floating boys. Colleen found these and also noted the lack of a fire extinguisher, no marine radio or gps. As it turns out no fish finder either! This wasn’t a problem initially but when we started heading away from the coast out into the shipping lanes in the Arabian Sea on a course for Iran and our cellphones lost coverage I started to get a little worried. Now I did say this was a fishing trip didn’t I? When we pulled up to our first fishing spot it became obvious that fishing trips as a tourist exercise were new, novel and this was to become another adventure that we would add to the tapestry of life we call Qatar. No rods, no bait just five hand lines for six people with sibikis. After 2 and a half hours of cruising around looking for fishing spots for us to use these finely crafted fishing instruments we said “Halas” take us home. For the record the kiwis won 4-3 in fish catching competition with the largest fish being 3 inches long. And the next time Dave rings for a fishing trip I am going to be sick.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Fishing Qatar Style
Aussie Dave rang yesterday morning with an offer to go fishing. We had been before but his was on a little (25ft) charter boat. It could take six people so organized for Damian and Colleen to come along and we teamed up with Dave, Greg and Nora, who work for other companies here in Qatar doing the same work. Now I really enjoy fishing and with the weather always fine here and the sea relatively calm I thought this would be a great way to spend a quiet Friday afternoon. So we meet down the wharf finally find out boat and skipper and we head off. We stop in at the coastguard barge to let them know of our plans. I should have been a little worried as the skipper didn’t know the name and number of his boat and the directions he gave the coastguard seemed to confuse him. We have to stop and get fuel first and this is a great little comedy show as well as there are only two fuel pumps and there is a bit of a queue. It is a bit like the driving on the roads. Finally sorted we head off out passed the airport and fly down the coast. The guy has twin 225 HP Johnson outboards on so we are going pretty quickly. Now before we started I asked him about lifejackets as I’m not a great swimmer. He said he had one for me if I wanted. I told him no I just wanted to make sure he had them on board. Turns out when he said he had one he literally had one and three little floating boys. Colleen found these and also noted the lack of a fire extinguisher, no marine radio or gps. As it turns out no fish finder either! This wasn’t a problem initially but when we started heading away from the coast out into the shipping lanes in the Arabian Sea on a course for Iran and our cellphones lost coverage I started to get a little worried. Now I did say this was a fishing trip didn’t I? When we pulled up to our first fishing spot it became obvious that fishing trips as a tourist exercise were new, novel and this was to become another adventure that we would add to the tapestry of life we call Qatar. No rods, no bait just five hand lines for six people with sibikis. After 2 and a half hours of cruising around looking for fishing spots for us to use these finely crafted fishing instruments we said “Halas” take us home. For the record the kiwis won 4-3 in fish catching competition with the largest fish being 3 inches long. And the next time Dave rings for a fishing trip I am going to be sick.
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