Our one and only stop after leaving Salalah would be Ras Al Hallaniya island, which is part of the Kuria Muria Islands, 30 miles away from the piracy attack Liz and I overheard on the VHF the other week. It was stunning though and it would be the last time we took a dip in the bath-like waters, snorkelled in the bay and hunted for shells on the beach, before setting off for India. The north east corner of the rock formation looked like a pop-art version of Mount Rushmore.

We spent one night there and then set off at 7am the following morning, throwing the line out the back of the boat. By 1100 we had caught the most incredible electric blue-looking dorado!

Now I’ve caught a number of dorado in my time, chiefly whilst crossing the Atlantic back in 2003. They were all a wonderful green-yellow colour. This dorado, however, was very definitely blue. Of course the following picture of this 93cm, 8lb beauty has him looking green-yellow, but in the water he was a wonderful blue, honest…

Unbeknownst to me at the time this memorable moment was actually my 15,000^th nautical mile at sea! What a way to celebrate! Needless to say that fish fed us for many days and Millie was pretty pleased with the catch too.

Rhumb Do at anchor, Ras Hallaniyah

This huge, shallow marsa looked a bit like the Dutch waterways. Another bird sanctuary-cum-BBQ spot. I could attempt to impress you with a description of this fantastic sailing destination but you’ll just get jealous, so instead I’ll impress you with a picture of a blue-tipped reef shark we caught. Tasted bloody lovely when shallow fried in batter!

This was the first time all of the rally boats got together and to celebrate we had a barbie on the beach, thanks to Cilian and Morris of ‘Cobble’.

Cilian the firestarter...by day

Colin of 'Moody Time' and rally relax as the sun sets

... and still firestarting at night

The next afternoon we set off and gained three hitch-hikers, which Liz later discovered were bridled terns. They were completely unphased by both us and the camera. They thanked us by leaving us little presents all over the bimini.

A bridled tern

Oh, and we caught another tuna (10.5lbs, 83cm).

It was our biggest yet, whose head was bigger than Millie’s. Not that she cared.

It started with a walk, accompanied by Antony and Davina of ‘Divanty’, leaving our anchorage in Inkeifel to head on foot to the next marsa a mile away, affectionately known as Little Inkeifel. After mooring up our dinghies and putting on our walking boots we immediately started to cross a plain that was very obviously once a coral reef, many hundreds or thousands of years ago.

The entire plain was littered with broken coral and sea shells, all waiting for time to break them down into sand. Every now and then we’d pick up a fossil, a big lump of coral or a beautiful shell with the knowledge that hardly anyone on this earth had ever walked this expanse of shore. It was eerily prehistoric.

To the east, the sea. An azure blue and green complex of reefs and breaking water. One great big sailing playground begging for some tourism to bring in much needed revenue to the local population.

To the west the mountain range that dominates the scenery. No roads, no people, no civilisation. We were on our own.

Eventually we got to Little Inkeifel and were bowled over by what we stumbled across: a small marsa that was partly covered by a sand spit, giving it the appearance of a Caribbean shore.

We dipped our feet in the water and once again commented on how we were possibly the only people ever to have trodden on that bit of sand. OK, so the first English people to have trodden on that sand. OK, so the first English people this year…etc etc

All the while the craggy mountain framed this memorable picture and we quickly agreed that we would stay another day in this area and return tomorrow to Little Inkeifel for a picnic and snorkel. This wasn’t to be, alas, as a southerly weather front was forecast and we had to push on.

We returned to our boats to prepare the variety of fish we had collectively caught, mainly our wahoo and some tuna from Full Flight and Roam II (their first catch). At the northern end of Inkeifel was a small shore and a mangrove lagoon where ospreys nested. We each packed our dinghies with the necessary gear to have the best beach barbie any of us had ever had.

Tony of 'Full Flight', Fiona of 'Roam II', Antony of 'Divanty', Pat of 'Full Flight'. Liz, Terry (seated) of 'Roam II' and Davina of 'Divanty'

Picture the sun dropping behind those mountains as we BBQ’d our freshly caught fish, cooling our feet in the clear waters, abundant with small reef fish and rays.

The evening ended with us paddling in water, watching the sun disappear behind the mountain, putting an end to another picture-perfect, memorable experience. I’m quickly falling in love with Sudan.