Dubai, boat show, friends and dismantling our car: "
welcome to the dubai boat show…..
We had to visit the boat show in Dubai as well,, it is a boat show, and I love boats. Not only that the show had representatives from all forms of marine activity. The Diving equipment was of interest to me, as some of our equipment needed some serious servicing and we also had to try replace the battery for the underwater video camera, as the last one has started to swell and could explode at any time. After meeting Ali and Glenn (who had also done some serious expedition driving back in the day) we managed to get our gear sorted, which puts my mind at ease as we will be doing some major underwater time between Kenya and South Africa. Steve, who serviced our gear found all parts of the world hidden in the regulators, sand from Morocco, seaweed from Norway, radioactive waste from Lake Baikal in Russia, you know the ushual. Our tanks were rusted inside, which does not do much good for ones lungs, especially since I have no tetanus inoculations (seriously allergic to needles). With the dive gear sorted we just await the arrival of the new underwater light battery, which I hope gets here before we leave on Wednesday for Kenya. I did manage to find our new research boat at the show:
Some may consider the boat as over kill, but I think it would offer a comfortable research environment with no excuse for one not to be happy. I believe the vessel has all the amenities, and enough space. I though of using my credit card to pay for the boat but 500 million may be over my budget slightly, by about 500 million. Oh well guess we require a sponsor for this one, like GOD. Pity our research on this vessel may not come to head as I foud the perfect tender for this vessel (a small boat dragged behind and used for short trips to land, sampling etc).
Some may say, toooo many engines, I say security, some feel it may be too fast, I say efficiency, some say huge fuel bill, I say wet dream. I honestly believe with this baby we would be able to sample the worlds oceans in ooooh a week, but alas, it appears GOD will not be funding this one either, so back to the car, which has undertaken a transformation to fit into a container.
Our good friend, Saeef, and Supresh have been organizing everything regarding our car for us here in Dubai. Supresh who is working for AMI shipping has organized our shipping at cost, incredible, saving us US$300 to US$400, to which we are extremely grateful. Our car is quite big, the problem being that we would require at 40 foot container, which is very expensive, but with a few modifications and some luck, we could fit the car into a 20 foot container, so it was time to knock off some inches off the vehicle, this is what we did.
We went to Saeef’s factory and we dismantled our bumber and winch:
Pic: Saeef and menber of the factory staff remove the bumper, good news is that Saeef is an excellent mechanic and knows exactly what he is doing, if I was on my won, this picture would look fore like a bowl of spaghetti. We managed to shave off 60 cm, which meant the car would fit lengthways into the container, yeah one job done, but it still was too high. so….
Down with the tyre pressure, which gave us a few more centimeters on height, they key test though, will it be enough to fit into a rather small box like container?
But first before the fitting Saeef had made some polystyrene protection pads for the solar pannels and for the sides of the vehicle, which had to be fitted. Saeef had thought of everything, Linda and I just looked on and contemplated how we would been really left hanging without Saeef and Supresh’s help. So finally off to the container….
Tyers defated, air suspension flat, one man on the bonnet and we were doing just fine, it worked with about 2 cm grace. So our beloved vehicle is off to Kenya, traversing the pirate zone near Somalia, before we catch up with her in Mombassa, Kenya.
Car packed in with bumper lashed in under the vehicle 
Saeef has been instrumental in Linda and I organizing everything in Dubai. To drive from Sharja, where Saeef lives to the port is over 40 km, yet ever time we required a lift to the port, he would take time off his work to help us. Saeef gave us his extra phone to use, drove us to get our camera fixed, took us around Dubai, helped replace 2 tyres, advised us where to get our smashed window fixed, offered his house to us while we were in Dubai, payed for numerous lunches, got our visas on our behalf for the UAE, basically did everything. We are so grateful to his friendship and time in helping Moving Sushi. Saeef has packed up his job and house here and will be moving back to India to work with the TREE FOUNDATION in Chennai. Saeef has decided to live and be passionate about what his work represents, make a difference, inspire others and to use his incredible engineering skills to create new solutions for the TREE fOUNDATION. Saeef has given up the materiel word to follow his dreams and contribute to society back in India alongside an incredible Supraja, from TREE. We wish Saeef all the best with his new venture, and look forward to hosting you and any TREE FOUNDATION members back home in South Africa. We will never forget your kindness and friendship, thank you.
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