Page 287 - The Tigris Expedition

The Tigris Expedition
heard us anywhere. We could only prepare the anchors and go in
without permission. Without charts we entered an unknown bay
with the two men ahead probing the bottom, which now seemed to
maintain the same depth. Well inside the bay we lowered the
mainsail too, and threw out both anchors at four fathoms. They
dragged over a sandy bottom and we noted that the onshore wind
was increasing. Heavy clouds rolled up over the ocean behind us
and we began to see swirls of desert sand rising into the air on both
i sides of the bay. A storm came in from the ocean and although the
promontory gave us partial shelter, tall waves tumbled in and Tigris
danced and continued to drag on the anchor ropes. The birds were
so tame in this bay that they landed amongst us without fear. One
big gannet rode about with the two men in the dinghy and left its
visiting card on Detlef when he refused to stop rowing and allow it
to perch on his oar. There were obviously no bird-hunters in this
area, but we could smell fish half a mile away when the sailing
canoes passed.
At noon we were still slowly dragging our anchors and by now
i the wind was striking us hard. This was not the right weather to risk
•a lifting anchors and start crossing about among unknown cliffs,
looking for a bottom that would give a better hold. I sent Norman
and Rashad ahead into the bay on reconnaissance, to look for people
and try to learn with English or Arabic where we could best ride off
I the storm. Asbjorn took them
in, and with three men in life-vests
the rubber dinghy was loaded to capacity and vanished behind
S every wave.
Hours passed. Asbjorn had been back once to report that the surf
was terrific, but they had found a small sheltered corner of the beach
under the rocks to the far right. The other two had walked inland
with a man who could speak some Arabic. Having told us this
much, Asbjorn returned to wait for them, but this time none of the
three came back.
The eight of us left on board realised that we could never transfer
ourselves to the sheltered corner found by the men in the dinghy,
band was whirling high on either side of the bay, the anchors
dragged and we began to see a wide stretch of low land ahead,
apparently a sandy isthmus linking the lofty cliffs of the Ras
Ormara peninsula to the mainland. To the far right, where Asbjorn
had indicated, we saw some black canoes pulled up on the sand, but
no dinghy. We took the bearing of some lonely palms that came
into sight near the tip of the dragon’s tail, and as it showed that we
were still moving slowly we threw out the canvas sea-anchor,

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