Today, my second day in Jizan (also spelled Jazan and Gizan) was actually a day off. Fridays, better known as Gathering Day or "الجمعة" (Yawm al-Jumʿah) in Arabic are the equivalent to our Saturday and are the one day I will be getting off of work every week. Saudi's follow the Islamic Calendar which started not on the birth of Jesus, but 622 years later (when the prophet Mohammed migrated from Mecca to Medina) making today's date 28 Rabi'ul Awwal 1437.
That said, I checked off one of those things we all want to do before we die and went for a swim in the Red Sea, named as it is for one of two things; 1) the seasonal blooms of the red-coloured Trichodesmium erythraeum (Sea Dust) near the water's surface or 2) a theory favored by some modern scholars is that the name red is referring to the direction south, just as the Black Sea's name may refer to north. The true answer is lost to history. A beach north of us is closed to swimming following a fatal shark attack. The word is that sharks are getting hungry due to over-fishing which causes large sharks to hunt closer to shore. As well, tourist boat operators throw dead fish overboard for shark-photo opportunities, and I also read reports of ships throwing dead livestock overboard, not that I saw any dead cows float by...
The Red Sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world at 40% +/-. It stung my eyes and throat but was a blast to float around weightlessly on.
