{"id":65,"date":"2012-03-18T23:21:12","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T23:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/?p=65"},"modified":"2013-01-28T23:48:52","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T23:48:52","slug":"omani-women-finish-4th-of-9th-not-a-bad-first-time-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/?p=65","title":{"rendered":"Omani Women finish 4th of 9 – not a bad first time effort….."},"content":{"rendered":"

We impacted lives – family and school girls <\/span><\/h2>\n

It is a wrap! At least so to speak… The Sailing Tour Arabia 2012 is over. After the finish, we sailed into the Wave Marina where we greeted by a class of young girls from a local school, our other Omani girls and their family. Hugs, squeals and cheering were abundant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Very touching! Congratulations and stories were passed between teams, skippers thrown in the water, and all the normal chaos of celebration… Meeting Intisar’s family was wonderful- her sisters were just as beautiful as she and were in complete wonderment (maybe a bit baffled too) about what she had done. None of her family are sea farers, so I got a sense they were a bit like ‘ where does she get IT from?’ with IT being whatever you want to fill in: moxie, adventure, craziness, daring to do something like this, or plain ole fool hardy. Raiya’s exuberant family was there as well making the picture of our two heroines complete.<\/p>\n

[slideshow]<\/p>\n

Sailing Arabia The Tour – a success! <\/span><\/h2>\n

There was great entertainment by native dancers and musicians, before the presentations. My embassy friends were also able to attend and I was so glad to share it with some of our government officials. I think it is important for us to support and be present for things that are organically grown and encourage opportunities like this. Prize giving went off without a hitch- French teams Courier Dunkerque, Commercial Bank taking 1st and 2nd, third place half French\/half Omani skippered by renowned French skipper Cedric Pouligny, and our team Al Thurya in fourth. This only the second year of Sailing Arabia, but the Tour has seen a 50% increase in the number of teams competing, and a significant growth in the number of teams from the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), with five of the six GCC nations represented. Next year hopefully there will be a team from every GCC country. Personally, I would love to see a full American team come. While I know that are those that might say there are security concerns, knowing what I know now (and which only some have I been able to really write about) I have full confidence that there wouldn’t be any insurmountable issue.<\/p>\n

\"Team<\/a><\/p>\n

Headed Home- much to process <\/span><\/h2>\n

The prize giving ended early evening and then teams headed to the airport or back to the hotel. That was rather anticlimactic, as I would normally have expected a dinner or some other formal event where goodbyes could be said. Our Omani girls headed off with their families and had to go to Dubai for a live TV interview (it has begun- their stars are rising). A few of us had dinner and a few celebratory drinks and the following day we flew home. Over the next couple of weeks there will be debriefs and follow-ups and for me time to process this amazing journey. I have had to hit the ground running as legislative season in California has been launched. I arrived in Sacramento after a 36-hour travel and the next day have flown to Hollywood for a two-day political function. Never mind the 12-hour time difference… It has been exciting, surprising, sometimes frustrating and hard but all in all really good. I am lucky to have been a tiny piece in this growing story.<\/p>\n

Thank you all so very much for following our journey on the Sailing Arabia Tour 2012!<\/p>\n

Til ‘next time’<\/p>\n

Katie Pettibone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We impacted lives – family and school girls It is a wrap! At least so to speak… The Sailing Tour Arabia 2012 is over. After the finish, we sailed into the Wave Marina where we greeted by a class of young girls from a local school, our other Omani girls and their family. Hugs, squeals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-satt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.katiepettibone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}