Friday morning, bright and early, my flat mate and I boarded the ferry boat bound for the mainland. We chose to travel early rather than rush on Thursday afternoon and drive 3 or more hours in heavy traffic to Abu Dhabi.
We chose wisely.
The ferry left on time and was not crowded at all. Less than a dozen cars and not many more people. We were two of five women on the boat. It is an easy calculation because women sit in a different area than men on the ferry. The water was beautiful, the sunrise divine.
The waves were a bit rougher than I have experienced before, but we figured it might be due to how light the boat was without a full load.
After docking in Jebel Dhana and making our way to the main highway, her phone rang. A co-worker on the ferry let us know the ferrys had been cancelled for the rest of the day because of the rough sea due to wind.
Wow, weren't we lucky to have made it to the main land before that decision was made? Well, that is debatable.
There is always a long list of places and items to find in Abu Dhabi and priorities have to be made. So we took care of several things on Friday, like the Teacher's Place, Spinney's Supermarket, the furniture store, checking into the hotel for the evening, visiting with friends and eating a great meal.
Spinney's is a great Ex-pat store with many brands from the states and a "must" visit before heading back to the island. So, actually it was a recon mission to see what they had for Halloween.
It was a wonderful day that found me stating how happy I was for two main reasons: one was our GPSR or SAT NAV as my flat mate calls it, is very up to date, has a sexy man voice and took us to a new Spinney's we hadn't been to. The other was the radio station we had on was playing great music.
We chose wisely.
Saturday morning found us sleeping a bit late and heading out to make a few new places and then to IKEA before heading back to the Ferry.
Before we even made it to our first stop, there was a text and phone call.
The ferry was not going to run all day because of high winds.
WHAT? We need to work tomorrow morning...
We can try to fly in on Saturday, but the two flights are over booked by 15 people each. The ferry in the morning is at 8:15 am and we would need to be closer to it or get up at 4 to drive in the wee hours.
Or we could stay in Abu Dhabi for a day and take the plane on Sunday and miss a day of work...
Hmmmm it was a crap shoot. Who knew what would work.
I had friends closer to the ferry we could stay with and that would alleviate the need to drive too far and give us a chance to have a decent night's sleep.
If the ferry did run, we would be at work by 10 and be able to just be "late" and not "absent".
After 2 hours of contemplation, we chose to try to make it to the ferry. Knowing that if it didn't run we would need to drive back to Abu Dhabi, a three hour drive, to try to catch the plane and leave our car at the airport.
So, at 6 am, we were up and driving to the Jebel Dhana. When we arrived at the ticket counter, we didn't even ask if the ferry was running, we just gave them our documents and money and waited.
Then, after some discussion about car registration, that had never come up before, we were handed our tickets... WHEW!
We chose wisely again....
Home by 10, and at work.
A lesson learned, don't assume the ferry will run just because it has every other time you were traveling off the island.
We chose wisely.
The ferry left on time and was not crowded at all. Less than a dozen cars and not many more people. We were two of five women on the boat. It is an easy calculation because women sit in a different area than men on the ferry. The water was beautiful, the sunrise divine.
The waves were a bit rougher than I have experienced before, but we figured it might be due to how light the boat was without a full load.
After docking in Jebel Dhana and making our way to the main highway, her phone rang. A co-worker on the ferry let us know the ferrys had been cancelled for the rest of the day because of the rough sea due to wind.
Wow, weren't we lucky to have made it to the main land before that decision was made? Well, that is debatable.
There is always a long list of places and items to find in Abu Dhabi and priorities have to be made. So we took care of several things on Friday, like the Teacher's Place, Spinney's Supermarket, the furniture store, checking into the hotel for the evening, visiting with friends and eating a great meal.
Spinney's is a great Ex-pat store with many brands from the states and a "must" visit before heading back to the island. So, actually it was a recon mission to see what they had for Halloween.
It was a wonderful day that found me stating how happy I was for two main reasons: one was our GPSR or SAT NAV as my flat mate calls it, is very up to date, has a sexy man voice and took us to a new Spinney's we hadn't been to. The other was the radio station we had on was playing great music.
We chose wisely.
Saturday morning found us sleeping a bit late and heading out to make a few new places and then to IKEA before heading back to the Ferry.
Before we even made it to our first stop, there was a text and phone call.
The ferry was not going to run all day because of high winds.
WHAT? We need to work tomorrow morning...
We can try to fly in on Saturday, but the two flights are over booked by 15 people each. The ferry in the morning is at 8:15 am and we would need to be closer to it or get up at 4 to drive in the wee hours.
Or we could stay in Abu Dhabi for a day and take the plane on Sunday and miss a day of work...
Hmmmm it was a crap shoot. Who knew what would work.
I had friends closer to the ferry we could stay with and that would alleviate the need to drive too far and give us a chance to have a decent night's sleep.
If the ferry did run, we would be at work by 10 and be able to just be "late" and not "absent".
After 2 hours of contemplation, we chose to try to make it to the ferry. Knowing that if it didn't run we would need to drive back to Abu Dhabi, a three hour drive, to try to catch the plane and leave our car at the airport.
So, at 6 am, we were up and driving to the Jebel Dhana. When we arrived at the ticket counter, we didn't even ask if the ferry was running, we just gave them our documents and money and waited.
Then, after some discussion about car registration, that had never come up before, we were handed our tickets... WHEW!
We chose wisely again....
Home by 10, and at work.
A lesson learned, don't assume the ferry will run just because it has every other time you were traveling off the island.
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