Thurs
We left Lagos with Chautauqua just behind us at about 10.30am to start the 202 mile journey across to Rabat. At the end of the river we managed to get the sails up and had a lovely but quite slow sail for a couple of hours. The wind finally died to nothing so we put the engine on but luckily this only lasted for a couple of hours before it picked up again from behind us and we were soon sailing along at 7 knots. We settled into a 4 hour watch pattern (4 hours on, 4 hours off). Just before dusk we crossed a shipping lane and a couple of large ships passed in between us and Chautauqua!! We also saw in the distance a couple of oil rigs, so we checked the charts – no oil rigs, 1000m of water?? As we got closer we realized it was a platform with 2 towers on it being towed by a small ship so we alter our course slightly to ensure we passed behind the platform and not in between the two!! We had a lovely overnight sail.
Fri
Throughout the day it became clear that we would arrive in Rabat in the dark if we carried on at the speed we were so we decided that when we got a bit closer we would slow down and ensure we arrived in daylight as we knew the entrance might be shallow and we were unsure if the exact location of the marina as it was new and not on any charts. However after a discussion with Chautauqua it was decided that it might be better to enter at high tide – 5am. We knew from Christine Anne, who had arrived the previous morning, that a pilot boat would come and meet us at the harbor entrance and guide us down the river. About 4pm we decided to put the engine on to ensure we arrived at the entrance at 5am. From midnight we were both on watch – looking out for fishing pots and watching the hundreds of little fishing boats around us (through the binoculars these looked like 2 men in a dinghy with a torch).
As we got close to the harbor entrance we radioed the marina and a rib came outside the harbor entrance into 2m swell to meet us. We carefully followed the rib back down the river through some very narrow sections. We were put onto a reception pontoon and were boarded by a policeman and customs man. They were very friendly but searched all the cupboards including under the seats!! They took our passports and ships papers. We managed ok with our high school French and think we understood most of what they were saying. Finally we got into the marina and into a berth and got back into bed about 6am!!
Entrance to Rabat
Rabat Marina
Sat
To our surprise this morning our passports and ships papers were returned (we thought the guy had said, in french, that they would return our passports once they had finished with them but keep our ships papers til we left).
We met another Australian and American boat who had been here nearly a month so they were able to provide lots of information about shops, cash machines, acceptable clothing (in the marina gates it is ok to wear shorts and strappy tops however around the towns it is better to be more covered up especially as there aren’t many tourist in Rabat (the capital) or Sale (on the opposite side of the river to Rabat but the same side as the marina). They also knew about filling gas bottles. One of our gas bottles had run out when we were trying to cook tea on the way into Lagos (after 2.5 months) so we had an empty bottle that Jonny wanted to try and get filled. They used to fill English gas bottles in Portugal but last Christmas they had made it illegal. The guys from the American boat had the pipes needed to decant the bottles yourselves (an interesting task but not one looked upon favourably by health and safety officials!) so they took us into Sale to the ATM, bakery and to buy gas. The gas was 172DH for 10kg but you got 130DH back when you took the bottle back so the gas was 42DH which is less than £3!!
We bought the gas and headed back to the boats where the guys had a discussion about the best way to go about decanting the bottle and finally got on with it!
Once they had started it was really quick to fill our 6kg bottle. The remaining gas went to Chautauqua and Christine Anne to fill up their bottles.
By this time it was quite late in the afternoon so we checked e mails before heading over to Christine Anne at 6.30 for drinks. It was us and Chautauqua on Christine Anne and we had a really nice time but it wasn’t a late night as us and Chautauqua had arrived at 5am this morning!!
Sun
As Friday is the Muslim holy day everything was open as normal on a Sunday. We decided to head off and do some exploring. As Sale was closer to the marina we headed there first. We soon found ourselves lost within the souqs (maze of streets full of little shops and market stalls) which were absolutely amazing. It is heard to describe the sights, sounds and smells. Anything and everything was for sale but all organized into different sections – food, clothes, textiles … We passed stalls with live chickens in cages – there is little refrigeration so most chickens are killed to order. The people did stare at us as we walked through the streets but as there weren’t many other tourists around this is to be expected, however they were all very friendly. Every now and again you would here a “Hello” or a “How are you?” as they practice some of their English.
On our way out of the medina (walled area of the city) we passed the bakery so we decided to treat ourselves before the walk over to Rabat. We got Vanilla Slice type cakes for 25p each which delicious. We found a bench to sit down on and eat them and a guy in a wheelchair came over to talk to us. His English was brilliant and he was a lovely guy to talk to. At the start of the conversation he asked if we minded talking to him. He worked in southern Morocco and therefore needed to be able to speak English but was back in Sale to have an operation on his hip and leg after an accident had left him in a wheelchair.
The worst part about the walk to Rabat was trying to cross some of the roads – they were chaos – full of speedy traffic, lots of hooting horns and no concern about pedestrians!! Once across the river in Rabat we decided to head into the Medina and explore the souqs. Here there was more of a mixture of local areas and tourist areas however although we saw a few more tourists the people were mainly locals.
Tortoise for sale in the Medina! – pets or food??!!
We passed a shop selling guitars and as Jonny has wanted a guitar on the boat since the beach party in Cascais when Andy had his out we stopped to ask about prices but there was no one around so we decided to carry on exploring and try and find our way back later. We also found some cheap dvd stalls, at one we bought 6 for 30DH (£2) and at another more expensive stall we bought 13 for 110DH (£7)!! We headed back to the guitar stall and Jonny haggled for a blue guitar that he liked and managed to get it for 500DH (£33) which apparently for the make of guitar was a great price. We decided as we now had a guitar and it was getting hot as it was around midday we should head back to the boat for some lunch and then head out again later.
When we got back to the boat we headed over to Chautauqua because Jonny wanted to show his new guitar to Don. They had invited Christine Anne over for lunch and asked us to join them as well. We had a lovely lunch with some cooked chicken they had bought from the supermarket which was cooked was lots of herbs and spices. We filled them in on our morning shopping especially as Christine Anne were big dvd watchers and we knew they would want to go and buy some.
We decided to head into Casablanca as a group tomorrow – the trains were every half an hour so we decided to leave the marina at 8.30 and walk up to the train station and then get the next train.
Jonny was tuning his guitar in the cockpit later in the evening when Christine and Don came over. They had been buying dvds in Rabat but had tried some of theirs when they got back (we tried one and it was ok) and they had found some in French or even Russian??!! They had bought lots more than us so were going back to see about getting their money back. We tried all ours and 13 out of 19 worked in English so although slightly disappointed we decided for the price we paid this was ok.
We spent the evening watching Casablanca which Christine Anne lent to us ready for our day our tomorrow!!
Mon
At 8.30 we headed into Rabat to get the train. It was quite a walk to the train station but we managed to find it. The train tickets were 64DH (£4) for a return to Casablanca which is an hour away. We had 2nd class tickets and the 2nd class carriages were good – clean and air conditioned.
The scenery on the journey was amazing – passing a mixture of really poor slum areas and more modern new houses in the process of being built. We passed lots of people walking down the trainline in between the two sets of tracks – even a group of young children. When we arrived in Casablanca our platform was across tracks to the exit so everyone stepped off the train and crossed the tracks to the exit – this just seemed crazy to us after living in England where you are constantly told how dangerous it is to play on or cross rail tracks!!
We decided to head into the medina as by walking through the medina you could get to Ricks Café and the Mosque. Casablanca was a lot busier and noisier than either Rabat or Sale. We soon realized that we had maybe chosen a bad day to visit – there was a cruise ship in with 600 passengers aboard which seemed to make the shopkeepers even pushier and everyone assumed we were from the cruise ship.
We found a dvd stand which had the Sex and the City movie which I really wanted so we decided to risk it!! Later we found another stand where the guy had a dvd player so you could view the movie and check the audio so from him we bought the new Indiana Jones which was one of the ones we had bought in Rabat which didn’t work. Both of these were 10DH (60p) each.
We soon ended up with a ‘nanny’. A local man who acts as a guide (sometimes whether you want it or not!!) expecting a tip at the end. Russ asked him for advice about a good local restaurant to eat in so he said he would take us – via his shop!! His shop was actually lovely – one of his staff offered Jonny 10,000 camels for me (as a wife for his son) which Jonny thought was a fair deal??!! Upstairs in the shop they had lots of carpets which the guy started to sell us but once we explained we were on a boat and didn’t have room he soon lost interest and didn’t push it which was nice. I ended up buying a really nice tunic top as I had been looking for one since we arrived – Jonny was a good negotiator and got a good price for it. The restaurant the nanny took us to was obviously a tourist place and far too expensive so we decided to try and find somewhere else. After tipping the nanny (20DH - £1.50) we headed back into the souq.
Like the souqs in Sale and Rabat, the souq here was a warren of shops and stalls however obviously these are set up for the tourist market. We soon picked up another nanny – however this guy said he was a sign writer and didn’t expect money, he just wanted to practice his English??!! We were getting hungry and started looking round for somewhere to eat – we found a square that had a couple of cafes in it, both seemed to be full of locals. One had clay pots cooking over a stove and the contents and smell seemed good. Christine and Don did a good job of ordering lunch and we ended up with a vegetable clay pot and a meat clay pot for each couple – the food was delicious – not 100% sure what the meat was though!! For the clay pots, fries, bread and water we paid 80DH (£5) a couple.
Our nanny then took us to a restaurant that had a tower – it was part of an old Portuguese fort which provided good views of the coast and city. The restaurant was closed but he managed to find the owners to let us in. The views were worth the effort.
We decided it was time to lose the nanny (20DH tip despite initially saying he didn’t want money!!) and headed to Ricks Café. There wasn’t a Ricks café in Casablanca before the film but someone had decided to cash in on the film and open a Ricks Café. It was a lovely oasis of calm and well designed in recognition of the film. In the lounge area upstairs there had a large tv playing the film. We were having a lovely cup of coffee and enjoying the peace until a group of loud American tourists arrived from a cruise ship!!
After Ricks café we decided to head to the mosque – Hassan II Mosque – which is the worlds third largest mosque. It was amazing. The building was wonderful but also around the site there was a feeling of peace and calm.
We headed back to the train station through the medina. Jonny and Christine lead the way and managed to take us through the Jewish Quarter which was full of little workshops making shoes, clothes etc.
We arrived back at the marina at 6pm and were having Chautauqua over for tea. Another British boat – Chili Oyster – had arrived while we were out. They had been e mailing us about Morocco since we arrived so they came over to thank us for the information and to invite us over for drinks tomorrow night. The marina is great – the only problem is at the moment they haven’t got the pontoons in the right places. One boat takes up the whole of a berth because they aren’t wide enough and also the channel between the rows of pontoons isn’t wide enough so you can’t have boats opposite each other. Chili Oyster was moored opposite us but a bit further along level with Chautauqua and with their length and Chautauqua’s bow sprit it now looks like it is going to be a challenge to leave the marina!!
We had a lovely meal with Chautauqua and then an early night after a busy day. Tomorrow we are having a day on the boat sorting out our plans for the rest of our time in Morocco.
Pictures
Trevor (from Kishorn) has given us some photos:
The four of us at the Lighthouse Café on Isla de Arosa
Beach bbq in Cascais
Cascais
We were sat on Newt on Thurs afternoon, after going for a walk up the coast, when everyone around us started to pull up their anchors??!! Then we noticed a marine police rib going from boat to boat, as Christine Anne (the Australian boat – Christine and Russ) went passed we asked what was happening – apparently they were anchored in the wrong place. It didn’t look like we were going to get asked to move but unfortunately they finally made there way over to us – there was a disabled sailing regatta on at the yacht club over the weekend and where we were anchored was actually just for yacht club boats so they needed us all to move. The policemen were very polite though so it wasn’t a problem. (It also meant that we ran the engine so we got some hot water for a nice shower!!)
After dinner we had over to Chautauqua (an American boat – Don and Prescilla) to have a drink and swap some books. Whilst moving their boat they had lost their anchor and despite on of the norweigen diving down to look for it they hadn’t been able to find it.
We left Cascais the next morning at 7am.
We had a great sail for the first 25 miles, then we got to Capo Espichel and the wind died, then the wind briefly got back up again and then died altogether so we carried on for the rest of the journey with the engine on.
We met 2 groups of very playful dolphins who were swimming and playing around the bow of the boat for ages. We have seen quite a few dolphins on our travels but these were the most playful so far and we finally managed to get some pictures:
Sines
We arrived in Sines and debated whether to go into the marina or anchor and decided that as we didn’t need any water etc and were only planning to be in Sines for 2 nights we would anchor.
Other boats from Cascais also arrived in Sines: Kishorn, Chautauqua and Christine Anne.
The next morning we decided to go and explore town. Don (Chautauqua) wanted bread so decided to join us. The town was up at steep hill but once at the top was flat. Once in town we found the tourist information to get a map and ask where we could get bread. In the tourist information there was a table laid out with cakes and pop, wine and port and the guy working there was very insistent that we helped ourselves!! The town turned out to be much larger than expected and very pretty.
After lunch and some sunbathing on the boat we tried to get internet but couldn’t so decided to head back into town to find an internet café but on asking at the marina office were told that the only place was the library. We headed back into town up the steep hill, past the tourist information for refreshments and to ask for directions to the library!! As we were heading back from the library it started to thunder so we walked back as fast as we could as we knew we had left some of our windows opened. We made it back just in time and then spent the afternoon on Chautauqua. Unfortunately whilst at the library we checked the weather and realized that we wouldn’t be able to leave tomorrow as strong winds in the wrong direction were forecast and it was going to be tue before we could head further down the coast.
Jonny 'modified' our outboard engine to make it stand out more and therefore less stealable!!
Around tea time we headed back to the boat and had just started cooking when we received a radio call from Kishorn to say that they were all meeting to go out for tea at 6.30 – as we had already started cooking we decided to just meet them for drinks later. At about 8.30 we got a radio call asking if we wanted to meet them for dessert which sounded good!!
Sunday morning we woke up to strong winds and rain. We were still anchored out so we decided while the marina was quite cheap and the weather was bad we would move into the marina (it is no fun getting in the dinghy to and from shore in the rain). We had Don and Priscilla over for coffee as we had been over to their boat for drinks several times and then spent the afternoon doing some printing and other admin jobs – we discovered that the printer doesn’t like crisps??!! But managed to fix that problem and finish the job. The restaurant that they had been to the night before was really good and cheap so tehy wanted to had back so we decided to go. We trekked up the hill in the rain only to find it was closed!! Very few places were open but we managed to find a restaurant that was also very cheap and did good food.
Monday was spent doing washing, checking e mails and weather and other bits - dont really know where the days disappear to!! As the first night restaurant was closed on sun they wanted to go back before leaving tomorrow so we had tea out again!! It was very good food and very cheap.
Newt in the anchorage on her own!!
Lagos
Sines to Lagos is 77 miles so at a speed of 5 knots this is an 16 hour day sail!! We left Sines at 6am in the dark and hoped to make it to Lagos around dusk. Chautauqua had been to Lagos before and said the entrance was well lit so it wasnt a problem heading in in the dark. Kishorn and Chautauqua followed us out, Christine Anne was planning on heading straight to Morocco so had a longer sail so didnt need to leave early.
The forecasted northerly winds didnt appear and we ended up motoring all the way. We did have lots of dolphins which we took some photos of but they were around for so long we also videoed which we will put on here once i have worked out how??!!
We arrived into Lagos about 8.30pm in the dark. It was abit nerve racking before the entrance because there were lots of fishing pots but once inside the entrance it was well lit. At the marina you have to go alongside a reception pontoon, check in and then they lift a footbridge to let you into the marina. The footbridge only operates until 6pm in the winter so we spent the evening on the reception pontoon rafted next to another english boat and then with Chautauqua next to us. After a long day Chautauqua took us to a favourite ice cream place nearby which was yummy!!
Newt, next to Chautauqua on the fuel berth. We were wlongside the boat 2 in front of us overnight but moved back so we could both get fuel.
We checked in this morning for one night - we are hoping to head to Morocco weather permitting tomorrow so we had a busy day stocking up. We wanted to do a big supermarket shop and make sure we had plenty of bottled water. Luckily there is a supermarket nearby and they dont mind you taking the trollies down to the marina.
Jonny with his Batman toy that came free with the cereal!!
The plan is to head to Rabat, Morocco tomorrow - this is a 204 mile journey so will prob take about 48 hours - hopefully we will be able to do some sailing. The marina at Rabat is new and is meant to have internet so will update when we can.
We have now been in Cascais about 10 days waiting for weather to head across to Madeira - the winds have been too light, in the wrong direction, too strong with thunder storms - i know we are fussy!! In my last post i mentioned that we were thinking about not going to Madeira and heading further down the coast of Portugal and then straight to the Canaries. This has now turned into heading down the coast of Portugal, across to Morocco and then out to the Canaries. Hopefully this will now be the plan - we were going to head off down the coast to Sines today but as always these things are flexible!!
Since the last post we have had a problem with the propellor on our outboard engine - something to do with the bushs going and the prop not turning properly when we go over half revs!! Therefore we are currently moving around the anchorage very slowly!! We have found 3 places around here that could order us a new propellor but all 3 wanted €115 which seems ridiculous and it wouldnt arrive for a week. Last night we were on the internet and Jonny found a place online that would do the prop for €65 and post it to Portugal for €11 so we e mailed them to see how quickly they could deliver to Portugal - waiting for their reply at the moment to decide when we are leaving here!!
A couple of days ago the wind got up abit and Jonny had to rescue a boat who was dragging her anchor. Luckily the path she chose was straight through the middle of all the boats, avoiding everyone!! Jonny and a young German couple got onto the drifting boat, started the engine (they had left the key in the negine, all the instruments turned on and the boat open!!) and re anchored her safely. Later we had the German couple over for drinks which was really nice. They were a young couple as well - which is quite unusual and despite their protests they spoke great english.
We have really been enjoying life in the anchorage and have got to know lots of the boats around us. Last night we had a bbq on the beach with people off the other boats - english, american, norweigen, austrian. It was great fun and interesting to talk to different people about their plans. There is also an Australian boat in the anchorage so we have been talking to them about options for the boat in Sydney which has been useful. Most people are heading to the Canaries either via Madeira or Morocco.
Cascais has been a lovely place to spend some time and there is still lots we could do and explore but we are also looking forward to heading off to new places. Hopefully we will decide what we are doing about our prop and then be able to head off soon!!
Get a
Free Blog Site at Freewebs.com!