We had a fantastic welcome when we arrived in Salalah - practically the whole British navy - aircraft carrier Illustrious, destroyer York, Sir Tristram, Sir Galahad, Fort Rosalie, and Sea Conveyancer (Successor to Atlantic Conveyancer sunk in the Falklands) and sundry other craft, together with most of the marines and practically any vehicle of any description from Aldershot. Unbelievable. We went on a tour of the aircraft carrier last night: impressive.

Oman is not at all as we expected: clean, safe, unbureaucratic, free of corruption, prosperous, camels, and endless sand. And did I mention the camels and sand?

We hired a car and drove deep into the interior into a virtual moonscape, but along excellent tarmaced and practically empty roads. And of course endless sand and endless camels. The shops are excellent and you can get almost anything you want, so Hygeia is well provisioned again.

Most of the men wear spotless white djellabahs and Lawrence of Arabia look-alike headgear, though sadly many of the women, when you get to see them, are head-to-toe in black peering through the slits in their head-gear. You see boys in the street, but never any girls. It doesn't seem right.

Everyone is anxious about the next leg from here to Djibouti, though in fact the main area of increased risk is only about 155 miles, from Al Mukalla in Yemen down as far as Aden.

We're travelling in a convoy of 8 boats, and have spent a lot of time organising our safety plans. I'll give you details of this in a future web-site. We're now all so paranoid about security that I wouldn't feel comfortable announcing our plans over the web. But we understand the German Navy is patrolling the Somali coast, the French the Yemeni, and the British fleet, which left this morning, the bits in between as far as Djibouti. They have given an undertaking that if we call Mayday on VHF 16, the AWACS will pick it up and they'll have a helicopter over to us within 6 minutes.

So don't worry about us - we've taken all the sensible precautions we can, and so far this season no yachts have been approached. We'll be vigilant.

PS Did I mention the sand and the camels?

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