Page 286 - The Tigris Expedition

Tigris and the Superships: the Voyage to Pakistan ^ ^ ^
my legs violently; ‘We can see Ras Ormara now, and it is doubt u 1

we can clear the cape!’ „„ thc
I felt an icy chill through my bones. It was before si
27th and we coasted with good speed along moonlit wh ’
but just ahead they ended and opened up into a large bay. CY°^
the bay a towering promontory, twice as high as the other c 1 s,
jutted into thc sea with wild peaks and precipices that scared t c
helmsmen from coasting on, thc more so since we began to get a
very strong onshore wind the moment the cliffs inside disappeared.
The wind followed the cliffs. It was again as if nature took the lead
and wanted us to turn with thc rock walls and flotsam into an
unknown bay. Ras Ormara towered in front like a policeman
guiding the traffic to follow the curve in a left turn.
Against an intensely red sky that preceded the first light, Ras
Ormara reminded me of the lofty North Cape of Norway, drop­
ping into a black sea at noon in midwinter with the sun just below
the horizon. But this was more of an Asiatic dragon, drinking from
the ocean, its dorsal crest towering against a sky the colour of blood,
its jagged tail sloping off towards thc inner bay.
We had to take an immediate decision. I wakened Norman, who
was on the bridge in two leaps and taking the bearings.
‘We will never make it,’ he yelled. ‘We arc steering for sure
collision with the cliffs!’
‘Let us steer into this bay and drop anchor,’ I shouted back. There
was no time to lose. All hands were summoned. The topsail went
down. The mainsail was trimmed. With thc wind at our back we
turned into a huge bay. Ras Ormara at our starboard side provided a
magnificent sight, the more impressive as the sky behind the
dragon began to play in brighter shades, until the sun shone on the
ivory cliffs on the other side of the bay while we were still in
shadow and could only see rays of silver radiating above the head of
the dragon. Three white sails began to show up deep inside the bay.
As they approached we hoisted the Pakistani flag, green and white
with moon and star, but the sails belonged to fishing canoes which
passed us cautiously at a great distance. We could not see where the
bay ended.
Torn and Asbjorn went out in the rubber dinghy to film the
sunrise and to sound the depth ahead of us with lead and string.
Five fathoms!’ ‘Four fathoms!’ they yelled back to us. Really
shallow for this far out. Here, too, the water was milky. Norman
tried to call Ormara, Karachi, Bahrain; he called ‘all stations’; he
tried anybody who could help us ask for landing permit. Nobody
241