We left the marina at just after nine as we had a long journey ahead through the straits of Gibraltar to Ceuta in Africa. It was great to sail past Spain to our left and see Africa to our right.
In order to sail this route we needed to make sure that the tides were right. This meant leaving at low tide so we had the benefit of the rising tide behind us.
With regard to the technology, unfortunately Marco’s AIS (automatic identification system – for identifying boats types, speed and position) was not working. This was a bit of a shame when we were about to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping channels. One slightly depressing part was that the horizons were permenantly smudged with brown exhaust fumes from the ships, despite the fresh winds. While sailing across the Southern Spanish coast we had a lovely chat with Sam and Harriet who were on the beach in Brighton.
Marco therefore had to rely on the age old techniques of observation and gut instinct to avoid the many other craft using the route!
He had to avoid the separation lanes and then seize the moment to cross them when there was a gap between the large craft. As a result, we managed to get some good close up views of a range of ships. We also spotted another sunfish which was jumping out of the water.
Dave was doing a very thorough job of his watch and popped his head above the parapet of the sunshade only to lose his precious cap, (which I bought in the Duck, Outer Banks, North Carolina in 1999), which was whipped off in an instant by the wind. He had bought this over 20 years before on a trip to the Outer Banks in America, so it had sentimental value!!!
We warmed up with some chilli for lunch and secured the microwave with some massive elastic bands as things were fairly choppy at that point.
We had had a fairly slow start to the journey and spent quite a while racking along the Spanish coast, but once we were past Tarifa things picked up significantly and by 2:10 our speed was 8.6, later rising to 9.2.
When we arrived in AFRICA!!!! we needed to get used to a mediterranean style Marina in which there were no pontoons but a system of ropes which needed to be hooked out of the water walk to the front of the boat and tied on.
We had our customary beer o’clock beer and Sue rang the restaurant we thought we had booked just to make sure. We had a little rest, we spoke to Ben, Marco had a sleep and then we went for a wander around CEUTA. We wound up through the shopping centre and thousand cafés and bars but there are far too many young children screaming, so we left and went to a place where the clientele were a little bit older, and we all had a gin and tonic.
While sitting there, we noticed that the house nearest had dragons on the roof which were very spectacular. As the time progressed we needed to find a taxi to take us to the restaurant that was up on the hill above the town.
We got in the queue to the taxi rank, but there were no taxis, so Sue rang the number and managed to get us one reasonably quickly. We all donned our masks, got in and he drove us along a windy narrow road to the restaurant and only managed to escape two accidents on the way. We paid got out and walked into the restaurant, it was now 930 in the evening and not a soul was to be seen in the restaurant apart from us. We were a bit perplexed so we sat down and read the menus and then worked out that it was because we are in the month of Ramadan. Sure enough, lots of people started to arrive and then after a few minutes the restaurant was almost full. We had Ramadan soup which was very tasty and filling and a freshly baked loaf of bread with chicken liver pate which was also extremely tasty. Marcello had lamb tagine, Sue had lamb couscous. And I tried a chicken filo pastry cake thing, all washed down with a bottle of Marques de Cáceres, Rioja. As we got to the end of the meal Marco was looking extremely tired as this was a very late for him so we paid the bill ordered a taxi and waited outside the restaurant for it to arrive. The view down to the town was stunning and we had a leisurely drive back to the boat where we all went to bed.
So this was a close as we were going to get to Morocco. While it is open to planes and ferries now, it is still shut for private boats. So sadly we are not going to be able to visit it to the boat. So we will help Marco get the boat a bit further a long the Spanish coast over the next week and then start to wend our way back.
Another great entry in great trip. And getting Marcello to stay up that late! Unbelievable!