There have been power boat races for the last couple of days, and they are taking place in the water virtually in front of our building. I walked over today while they were doing some training runs as I figured it would be really crazy around 3 when the finals take place. This picture is a little far away but you can see the numbers of the boats along the dock. The size of them, to put them in perspective is longer than the room I am in, which is about 15 feet. They are monsters and very low in the water. When they start up, they really vroom. The crowd is mostly male and they all smile when they hear that noise!


This gives a bit of an idea of the speed. They race around the whole bay twice, or at least they did for the training runs. They are fairly small specs when they get to the open end of the bay until they start coming back around the small island and back in front of the corniche.

They have a holding area on land where they keep the boats when it is not their turn. You can see, they are like the miami vice type of boats - or cigarette boats we used to call them.

To get them in and out of the water they use huge cranes. Quite a well orchestrated procedure. It was very pleasant with the sea breezes and then I thought I would walk back via the gardens a little way and it took no time for me to get boiling hot with a red face and realized it was time to head for home. It really takes very little effort in this heat to get very hot. I find I am good for a couple of hours standing still, which I was watching the races. But only about half an hour walking is my max. Amazing to think that when I first got here it was so much cooler that I could walk for a long time. I am curious to see how long I will last in the real heat - probably 5 minutes of walking!