Ski Dubai

When you have the largest indoor ski piste 10 km away from your appartment, it would be a shame not to visit it. So a few days ago, we went to Ski Dubai to try out the snowboards in Dubai.

I never skied or snowboarded before. So I had to start from zero, with a lot of falling. Luckily, there is a smaller slope to train before going on the actual piste. I have quite some bruises right now, but afterall, it was worth it. Something to try again the next time I'm in Dubai.

Snoopy Island

Yesterday (friday, normally our free day), we went to Fujairah. Fujairah is one of the seven emirates of the UAE. It is a two hour drive from Dubai and is situated on the eastern side of the point of the UAE.

Somewhere alongside the coast of Fujairah, there is small island with some coral. Around the small island, named 'Snoopy Island', you can find a lot of colourfull fish and even tortoises. And ideal place to snorkel and an excellent activity for on a free day.

The island is named 'Snoopy Island' because, with some imagination, you can recognize Snoopy laying in front of his kennel.

CVN-65

About a week ago, when Le Sphinx and the Geelvinck were alongside Birth 53, a quay wall in the Jebel Ali port, I had a nice view on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) laying alongside the opposite quay. I have to say, it is quite an impressive ship.

Ben X

A week ago some people of Jan De Nul went to the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi to watch the movie 'Ben X'.





There weren't that much people who attended the movie, and I think almost 50% of them (about 25) were from Jan De Nul. The movie itself was quite good. The filming and effects are maybe not of the same level as 'De Zaak Alzheimer', but the story is much stronger. Together with the high percentage of Belgians in the theatre, I wouldn't be surprised if the public vote for the move will be close to 5/5.


One moment was really funny, especially if you are with 25 people of Jan De Nul watching this movie. Close to the end of the film, the actors are in the port of Zeebrugge to take a ferry to England. The camera shows a view of the port, with two ships sailing. And offcourse, one of those two was a hopper dredger of Jan De Nul, the Alexander von Humbolt if I'm not mistaken.

Splithopper barges

Once again my job has changed. In a few days, one of my collegues is going on holiday. Right now he is taking care of the stone dumping splithopper barges Geelvinck and Verrazzano and I'll have to take over his job. Next to these two vessels, I'll also have four other splithopper barges (La Boudeuse, Le Gerrier, Le Sphinx and L'étoile) under my supervision, but they are just anchoring here inside the Palm Jebel Ali.

The Geelvinck and Verrazzano are dumping rocks (Quarry Run, 0-500 kg) on the islands of Dubai Waterfront and on New Island. The Geelvinck can load about 1800 ton of stones. The Verrazzano can load slightly more, up to 2250 ton.

To load the barges, we use a shoot like shown in the picture below. Dumptrucks are loaded with about 30 tons of stones. The ride onto the shoot and dump the stones, which get 'shooted' into the barge.

Once the barge is at the correct position to unload, it simply splits itself open and the stones fall down.

Managing those barges does not only imply I have to take care of the dumping of the stones (position, time, what material, how much material, ...), but I also have to make sure there is enough food on board, that the flights for the crew get booked in time, check how much salary they can have for the month, ... And for the first weeks I will not only have to do it for the two stone dumping barges, but for all six of the splithopper barges here in Dubai.

Upcoming mega projects

The construction of the three palm islands in Dubai (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira), the construction of The World, Dubai Waterfront and Palm Cove Canal might be gigantic. But the recently announced Arabian Canal is even bigger. The Arabian Canal is a 75km man-made canal near the coast. The width is up to 150 m and the depth of the water is about 6 m.


The Arabian Canal is a project of Limitless, a sister company of Nakheel, the developer of the Palm Islands and Dubai Waterfront. Both are a part of Dubai World (not to be confused with The World), one of the main real estate companies in Dubai. The contractor for the construction works is not known yet, but rumors say that Jan De Nul has a fair chance to get awarded this project.


The Arabian Canal is not the only mega project coming being planned. While the current airport of Dubai is already amongst the biggest in the world, a new one has been planned. The new Dubai World Central International Airport will be able to handle up to 120 million passengers by 2015 on its six parallel runways. It will be located on a 140 square kilometer site near Jebel Ali.

Shopping Malls

Dubai may be known for having one of the largest shopping malls in the world, Mall of the Emirates, but there is more than just that one. I've already seen the Mall of the Emirates, Ibn Battuta Mall, Deira City Center, Dubai Marina Mall and Bur Juman Centre, and I'm sure there are still some others that I haven't visited yet.

Visiting a shopping mall is really a way of living here in Dubai. There are not only shops in such a mall but also a lot of restaurants and a so called 'food court' where you find all kind of fast-food. So these malls are really a place to meet eachother and to have a (fast) evening meal and to buy whatever you might (not) need.

Back to Dubai Waterfront

Since a few days I am working again on the Dubai Waterfront project. Another positioning pontoon, the DN39, arrived at the site and will be used on the 2nd island to place the toe of the breakwater.

Untill a few days ago, the DN39 was working on another project here in Dubai: Mcc3. When the pontoon arrived at Dubai Waterfront, the four anchors (to position the barge) still had to be installed.
Today, the anchors were installed and now the pontoon is more or less in the correct position to start with placing the rocks.