Page 199 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
No harm done. Where we were was for us a more favourable
position; we could sail with better wind straight for the Hormuz
Strait. We could go in to Sirri together and have the damage to the
dhow repaired there. But no thank you. The mere thought of being
in Iranian national territory made Captain Said desperate. He had
no Persian flag. He had no documents permitting him to sail in
Persian waters.
We had a Persian flag, he could borrow it, we said. But no use
arguing; Said did not have time even to listen. He now confessed
that there was something wrong with his engine too, and his
water-tank was leaking. We were not in the Arabian part of the gulf;
t is was a serious matter. And before we had a chance of reaching
any kind of agreement the dhow, with the defective pump running,
water splashing in the hull and the rudder damaged, put up full
speed downwind in a direction far south of the Hormuz Strait. We
s outed that we had now to head for the Hormuz Strait and no
ot er destination. Through the roar of the sea we thought we heard
as ad s voice instructing us that we had to make a rendezvous
somewhere on the Arabian mainland north of Dubai. The name of
t c place, whether a bay or a coastal islet, was totally lost, and all we
a guide us was that, as the little dhow left, never to come back,
oaid had steered with a course south-east.
There was no need for Tigris to call at Sirri; this island had lost its
c arm for us anyhow, once we saw all its oil installations and
angar-like buildings. But neither did we see any reason to escape
i e Said. We had no visa, but nobody would suspect that smugglers
or spies would sail the gulf in a reed-ship, so we ventured into the
s eltercd water on the south side of the island and sailed very close
a ong the shore. The sudden silence of the sea, and the abrupt end to
the violent pitching and rolling, left us with a comfortable feeling of
t eatrical unreality, and we lowered our voices as we seated our­
selves on the benches along the plank table when Carlo called us to
dinner. Fried fish-roe with biscuits and hot soup of dried fruits were
enjoyed seated in oil-skin jackets while the last drizzle died away.
What scenery! Calm sea, rising clouds, a long row of lamp lights
very c ose to our port side, as if we were sailing slowly down a river,
and on the other side violent red flares everywhere, as if the world
was on
.. ]J"C aJ?n8 horizon, particularly in the direction we
would be heading. Occasionally, we thought we could still see the
w/aSu"nPL ?tS °t tJlC dhow’ but in the early morning it was gone.
With Rashad on board.
The peaceful hours in the shelter of Sirri were few. The wind
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