Guide · 5 minute read
Ain Dubai sits on Bluewaters Island a few hundred metres off JBR, and every boat leaving Dubai Marina passes it within about five minutes of clearing the breakwater. From the water you pass almost directly beneath the wheel, which is closer than any road gets you and the reason it appears in most Marina charter photographs.
Published
A man-made island a few hundred metres off the JBR shoreline, built as a mixed development of hotels, apartments, restaurants and retail, with the observation wheel at its seaward end. It is connected to the mainland by a road bridge and by a pedestrian bridge from JBR, so it is walkable from The Beach in about fifteen minutes.
From land it reads as another Dubai development. From the water it reads as what it is — a separate island with a 250-metre wheel on the end of it, and the scale only registers when you are underneath.
Close. Charter yachts leaving Dubai Marina clear the breakwater and turn north, which puts Bluewaters immediately to starboard within about five minutes. Crews slow down for it because everybody wants the photograph, and the pass runs almost directly beneath the wheel's outer edge.
RIB tours do the same thing faster and lower, which changes the perspective — from a metre above the water the wheel looks considerably bigger than from a flybridge.
Nothing lands on the island from the water. There is no public jetty and no boat access for guests; Bluewaters is reached by road or on foot.
After sunset, without much competition. The wheel is lit and the lighting is the main event — from the water at night it is the brightest thing on this stretch of coast.
In daylight, the run out in late afternoon gives you the wheel with the sun behind you and the JBR towers lit warm. Midday is the worst of it: flat light, hard shadows and heat haze.
Between May and September, haze frequently softens the whole skyline from the water. That does not affect the wheel much because you are close to it, which makes it the most reliable summer subject on the coast.
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