Oman Sail

Week 8: The Indian Ocean welcomes Musandam back - with its typical rough manners04 March 2009

Another great week spent in the action-packed Musandam worldwide tour, and with activities ranging from creative zero-gravity writing to mast climbing.

Day 55: A Brutal South Indian Ocean 03 March 2009

It's been a bumpy time out here, perhaps the roughest of the trip - down to just the 3 reefed mainsail for a while, most of the night in fact, just to safe guard the boat a little bit from the motion and so that we can get some rest.

Day 54: Punishing conditions for Musandam and crew 02 March 2009

If you look at the (short) history of sailing multihulls round the world - those that have been successful have had at some point had to throttle back and limit the speed, we are jumping off some big waves and down below you just wince at every impact - now is not the time to risk breaking Musandam.

Sail and win with Oman Sail - No experience required 02 March 2009

As Mohsin al Busaidi rounds his third and final cape, we are giving you the chance to have a go at sailing in his wake. We have created the Musandam Sprint Challenge, a free to enter virtual sailing game that lets you test your sailing skills and battle with the winds to get where you want to go.

Day 53: Enduring the inevitable01 March 2009

The wind has finally dropped - less than 10 knots for the last 5 hours now. It came slowly to start with then in the space of around an hour the winds decreased from 17 to 9 knots.

Day 52: Mohsin Back in home waters - the Indian Ocean 28 February 2009

A complicated weather system ahead as Musandam rounds the Cape of Good Hope and heads back into the Indian Ocean, important for Mohsin now back into his home waters and happy in the knowledge that Muscat is to the north.

Day 51: Tricky decisions ahead 27 February 2009

We are still figuring out how to make the transition from being south to heading north. there is a huge blocking high pressure system that is moving fairly quickly. Our choice of routes makes us decide between more wind upwind for a shorter time, or less wind upwind for a longer time.

Day 50: Catapulted from west to east 26 February 2009

We slipped past the Meridian about 0310 GMT, of course it was dark and with out ceremony, or celebration, we just keep going east. After yesterday's experiences of zero gravity things have calmed down a bit, the wind is still as strong as it was but we are downwind rather than nearly upwind.

Day 49: Zero gravity in rough, tough conditions 25 February 2009

We are sailing at 72 degrees to the wind in around 20-28 knots of wind, on deck the spray is every 10 seconds or so and fairly persistent - frustratingly our wet weather gear is wet...i have wet arms, legs below the knees - we are just wet, wet, wet.