Gone Yachting...

So, yachting is quite popular in Dubai. The Dubai Marina is home to hundreds of yachts, many privately owned but also quite a few of commercial ones. And every now and then, one of the teachers gets sent a coupon to rent one for a few hours. Between fourteen teachers, that's about $28 each for a two hour cruise along the coastline. Not bad at all.

This morning, I set out with a whole bunch of lovely ladies from school. We met at the Dubai Marina and boarded a small yachted called the Elio Extreme. We laid out on the front and the boat motored down the Creek and out to the Gulf. The temps are over 100 here now every day, but when you're out on the water there is a cool breeze and it doesn't seem nearly as bad. We anchored off of a beach and jumped in the water. The nice thing about the water here during the summer is that it's the perfect temperature, around 70 degrees. Perfect. We had brought snacks and drinks. I freely admit that I started drinking today at 10am, Campari with white wine and sprite. We swam in the Gulf for about an hour. It was a little tough getting out of the water because our boat had one slight defect. It didn't have a ladder. It had a rope with notches. Does not work that well. That took about half an hour for all of us to get out of the water. For our older teachers, it was really hard. That was really our only complaint. The boat soared back through the water, kicking up spray. I sipped cognac and enjoyed the sun and the salty breeze. The trip was over way too soon.

After we docked, we grabbed taxis back to another teacher's villa. She has a great place that opens onto a courtyard with a pool. We ordered pizza and enjoyed the lovely pool. I was good; all day I had religiously applied and re-applied 100 sunblock. I got tanned, not burned. I switched to cider and chilled by the pool with my friends. They're a good bunch. We talked about everything from marriage to Princess Eugenie's Salvador Dali Unicorn hat from the Royal Wedding. Around 3:30 the heat started to get to me. It's tough being outside all that time, even with swimming. The heat just sucks your energy out of your body. So one of my friends and I shared a cab home after bidding everyone a fond farewell.

It's days like these that I really love Dubai despite the 100+ temps. Yeah, it can be a pain because the infrastructure is weak and the bureacracy sucks. But hey, it has its good points, too. Any day when you can spend your morning on a yacht drinking cognac and your afternoon by the pool sipping cider with lovely company is a fabulous day.