Bindu's invitation was tempting since the Omani coastline boasts of one of the most abundant marine life in the world.
"Do you have any plans tomorrow? If you are free, we can go for a short boat trip at 8 am."
"Let's go" we said, after discussing with each other.
So yesterday we put on our sun hats, got into the car, and followed our neighbours - Bindu, Raju, and their son, Royce, to Marina Bander Al Rowdah.
They share their fishing boat, the Al Khaleej, with two other partners. Bindu said the partners are like Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat when they go fishing on weekends.
Raju and Royce put in the fishing rods in slots around the boat. An assistant from the Marina helped to lower the boat into the sea from the dry dock.
Raju let us take turns at the wheel and Royce showed us how to control speed.
It was a bright morning and the surface of the sea hardly moved at all.
Someone asked,
"What did one sea say to the other?"
Then answered,
"Nothing. It just waved."
As the boat gathered speed, we spotted a pair of seagulls taking a ride on a floating sheet of metal.
A tiny pure white butterfly fluttered nearby.
Birds hovered around the boat as the men put baits on the lines.
While we patiently waited for the fish to tug on one of the rods, Royce regaled us with his observation about how the 'three men', the fishing partners, react to the tugs on their rods.
First man: Hmmm....Hmmmm (with a great deal of nodding)
Second man: (wildly excited) Whoa! WHOA!
Third man: (shaking his head only on one side) It's a hamour, I know it's a hamour.
The hamour is a fish commonly found along Oman's coastline.
Then there was a time, Royce said, when one of the partners had purchased a very expensive fishing rod and lost it in the sea. Another partner, whose line was lowered at the same time, brought his line up after a tug and what emerged was the lost rod!
Once, a friendly bird nonchalantly perched on Royce's sun hat for a free ride home.
There was a gentle tug on one of lines.
Everyone was thrilled to watch the end of the rod bend slightly.
Up came a fat hamour!
A little while later, on another line, three little sharks came up together.
Our short trip had yielded a good catch and we turned back at full speed.
Raju told us that this was the third boat that he and his partners owned.
"Let me tell you the story of an adventure we had on one of our previous boats..."We had taken part in one of the fishing competitions organised by PDO and sailed out far into the open sea."The bottom of the boat had to be plugged before sailing out. Unfortunately we had overlooked this important detail."We had a bountiful catch that morning but we realised that the boat was slowly flooding up."My partner, however, got carried away with our luck in fishing and wanted to carry on."Slowly there was a lot of water in the boat. Thankfully, the bottom of these modern fishing boats have foam lining. So it didn't go down in spite of the flooding."
As we arrived at the Marina, it seemed very busy with the comings and goings of yachts, speedboats, and dhows.
The sun was right up and we returned with a fantastic experience of our first Omani fishing trip.
