Anyway, the day before he was to arrive some people came to fix the leak, but when Tim tested it he found that they hadn’t and we spent the best part of a day locating it and fixing it ourselves. We left Cascais 9pm Wed 23 and arrived in Agidir, Morocco Sunday morning. (My solo watch story this trip, at night I went below for 3 minutes and came up to a horizon full of red lights, so many cargo ships!!!! that my heart started pounding and my stomach churned. When I started breathing, I realised that it was Mr Moon coming up, but it still took me 5 minutes to calm down. That night I also boiled the kettle dry, fell down the stairs, and also nearly set of my Man Overboard wristband alarm in the water doing the dishes!!!. I still have a long way to go, but Tim started asking why we had put radar on the boat, because I can spot any boat including a small fishing ship miles away.
The radar was definately worthwhile as we moved past Cape St Vincent - we past the Western end of the Traffic Lanes and there were ships everywhere - and without being aware of them I am sure that we could have been surprised a few times. The photos below show 3 boats we can see and the plethora of boat on the radar - so it was handy.
Matt is still getting a bit sea sick, but Tim lead the way to actually be sick, followed by Matt, but Gilligan could only feel nauseous for ½ an hour. To date I have not been actually sick and get over the nauseous feeling in 20 minutes, Matt has the feeling on and off all the time.
We also put the Gennaker out for the first time on this trip - rolling it and rigging it on the seas - not the easiest task but one the three of us managed with ease - ok some difficulty, but I have to say that it looked great and performed well - a great addition to the boat and one we will use by ourselves once we get a bit more experience.
On the way into Agadir I had my first nervous experience of being approached by a local boat - not quite sure if I ran over fishing nets / pots or were being approached by pirates or refugees - it is amazing what goes through your mind when there is nothing but new experiences. Well - there was no such dramas - they were looking to sell some of their produce - what appeared to be a very nicely sized crab - say hello to paranoia for me next time you see her.....
We checked into the Yacht Club in Agidir (which is really part of the fishing harbour) for our 2 nights. We had about 8 police/customs officials board the boat, they were very friendly, but were most interested in our supply of foreign beer. As the boys only had 1 six pack, we handed over a bottle of scotch we had purchased specifically, and our papers were signed. Karen was also promoted to First Mate on her shore pass (but I think that was actually Gilligans title anyway). The next day, we had dead fish floating around the boat, and we could not connect to power or water, so even though it was a great experience, I was glad it was only for 2 days.
When we planned the trip we had intended to head straight to Agidir, but Tim was really cautious about Africa and Morocco and terrorist attacks and changed our course for Safi, which his friend had said was safe. We headed into Safi, but could not clear customs and decided to stick with our original plan, (added another ½ day to the trip). When we looked at Agidir, all the sailing books said there was no Marina, but I found one on the internet the night before we left, but was dismissed as we were now going to Safi. We had also read lots of blogs about a marina in Morocco that is listed, but doesn’t actually exist. When we pulled into the luxurious yacht club (which was fun), I kept asking why we couldn’t go to the Marina, but the boys dismissed it as a figment of my imagination.
On our way down past Essaouira, we heard a yacht called Exceter calling port control looking to berth there - we all had visions of a large American motor yacht stinking up the bay - you can image the surprise we had when we pulled into Agadir yacht club and there was another 420 hybrid - Exceter - not the big polluting motor yacht but an environmentally freindly hybrid sailing catamaran. Charles the owner and his daughter were great and we shared our experiences to date with this new technology.
On our first day, we left the “Yacht Club” (unisex showers with no doors) and walked around the corner to be met by a tout Akmed (on the right below), who took us by Cab to a huge market, and straight to his friend’s herb and spice shop. We were given the complimentary free tea, and then smelt all these amazing spices. Tim was keen to buy but we were suckers and spent so much that we came away with free samples of Moroccan viagra powder to be mixed with honey and left for a week to brew. The tout was keen to show us the market, and also his friend’s stalls, but when we said we wanted to do it on our own he wanted 50E (A$90) for his time. We settled for 10E and we looked around a bit more but were all really tired so went back to the boat.
The next day we made it out of the Yacht Club without escort, and found the beach and also the Marina I had googled and kept asking about. Tim even apologised for not finding it and heading straight for the fishing port. The marina was located on a great Bay and beach and was nearly empty. The rates were expensive compared to Europe and we were proud of ourselves for negotiating a lower rate. It took all of 10 minutes for Matt to convince me to stay and discover Morocco for 2 weeks, then head to the Canaries by ourselves.
