Went on a tour of a dhow today. It was pretty interesting.
Dhows are what they call boats here. Usually used for fishing. There's 4 types, from largest to smallest: boum, sambuq, jelibut, and shu'ai. The one we toured is a shu'ai. It's pretty small, consists of an upper deck, engine room, and a couple compartments below the top deck. There's a wheel house used for navigation/sleeping. The one we toured is generally used for shrimpin. These small dhows aren't allowed to travel outside territorial waters- 12 nautical miles from the shore. They have a GPS unit for navigation. There were about a hundred dhows tied up to the pier here. I guess they go out in the morning as a group to go fishing. With the fuel onboard, they can stay out for up to 45 days! Looks like pretty rough livin, though, think I'll stick to my desk job = )
