Passage to Rabat, Morocco

Depart Gibraltar 20 Sept for anchorage Algeciras close to Gibraltar

Depart Algeciras 21 Sept for Rabat

 

We now have our third crew member on board, Amanda Wilson from Hawkes Bay.  Amanda is an experienced sailor and skipper of her own 12m yacht and is sailing with us to get some off shore experience as it is something she has always wanted to do. We are thrilled to have Amanda on board and on our best behaviour - for a while anyway.

Soon after Amanda's arrival we move the boat over to La Linea Marina, now called Alcaidesa, and enjoy some music on board Hob Nob with Doug and Shanna.

We arrive in Rabat just after midday 22 Sept after an amazing overnight sail, but very intense at times.

After a forecast of no wind, we pick up an easterly wind at Tarifa at the western end of the Gib Straights just as daylight is filling in.  We slice across to the north western tip of Africa and past it to see the coastline stretching out to the south off to port.

Now for a while we have to motor - 3 hours in total - before a fresh south west fills in and pulls us on long tacks southwards. 

We organise ourselves into 3 hourly overnight watches, eat a dinner of roast chicken and vegetables then the night moves on.   We have to tack more frequently to keep the sails filled in the light south westerly, sometimes slipping along nicely sometimes struggling and engine assisted.   At some stage we sight a large purple weather cell behind us on the radar and think we might be getting a wind change.  Sure enough within half an hour wind fills in from the north-west and we are able to ease the sails, step up the speed and touch more than 7 knots at times.

 

It is a very dark night and we are two on deck at all times, revolving according to our watch pattern.  Fishing nets and other navigational hazards make for an intense concentrated time regardless of how close or far we are from the shore, sometimes 6 NM, sometimes 20.  Lights – tiny blinking ones in lines (they are fishing nets on the surface) and larger ones, sometimes stationary and sometimes moving, keep us fully occupied. The massive and ugly shrimp boat which tries to run us down is the worst.  Around 0415H Amanda and Pippy spot it from 12 miles away on our bow and track it on radar coming towards us.  Several times we change course to port to avoid it, and several times it changes course too to that it is always there, right in our path.  Cap’n Buck is dragged out of bed, having only just gone off watch at 0400H.  The shrimper is approx a mile away and has now been on our starboard side for a little time, when we spot a port light and realise it has this time changed to a cross-bows course towards us.  We know it is probably dragging nets – or something – so we must pass it's bow.  Soon it is half a mile away – our engine is on and we are accelerating at high revs.  All our deck lights are on too so that we are lit up like a Christmas tree.  Pippy is calling on the VHF repeatedly for them to advise their intentions.  No reply.  No AIS signal either.  By the time we pass under their bows they are a quarter of a mile away and coming fast.  We see the whole structure bearing down on our starboard side – massive steel gantries out each side which look like a Meccano construction, the bow crouching over the water like a giant mantis from a sci-fi movie, quite scary as we don’t actually know what it's purpose is and have never seen anything like it before.  Once we are past and away the shrimper changes course again away from us and continues on its way.

Moroccan Flag goes up on arrival.

We cannot believe that the manoeuvres this boat has made is to protect nets since it has literally hunted us down.  Two more sailing boats report similar incidents in this region over the next few days.  It is not until we see these reports that we realise what the offending boat was.

This wind carries us until around 0700H when the engine has to go on.  It has been an exhilarating and at times scary passage. 

We are a ragged little bunch on arrival into Rabat, having had very little sleep overnight. 

The Port Pilot meets us promptly despite us not being able to make out their transmission on VHF.  We follow the pilot on a very picturesque journey upstream to the marina on the Sale side.  

Once over the bar and past the rocky headland, we see massive ancient Kasbah walls on each side of the river towering over the foreground of a lovely sandy beach and many brightly painted small wooden fishing boats and their dark skinned inhabitants, which might have come from a Biblical scene. 

Customs give us a good look over on arrival and we are soon in our berth, where rather than dashing out and exploring, we fade quickly into blissful dreamless sleeps, fully clothed and asleep wherever it finds us, spread-eagled and relaxed.