| | We have been in Salé for 2,5 months and we want to move on to our next destination: Agadir.
It will take us 4 days and 3 nights to get there. I feel much better and the forecast is favourable. We have the wind, although it is not much, against us, so we have to sail on the engine. We don’t want to wait any longer.
Monday 30-01-2017
At 10:00 we sail to the jetty of the customs for clearance. We hand in our passports and boat documents and have to wait about 30 minutes before these are thumbed through and we have a clearance stamp in our passports. The customs lady and three of her colleagues AND a dog come over to the boat and hand us our papers. She asks us to open the gate, so the dog can come on board. Fred tells her that we have a cat and that is why the gate (with a net) cannot be opened. Before she comes on board, he will have to keep hold of Kit. Problem! The dog can’t come on board, apparently lifting the animal is not an option. Again we escape the dog-control! The customs men do come aboard and want me to open all sorts of shutters and lift the cushions of the saloon couch. They poke about here and there and that is it, we can leave! Together with a German boat, “Pretender” we sails down the river behind the pilot boat. We wave to the few people that are on the quay and at noon we put to sea. We are underway again! It is a beautiful sunny day with little wind, we sail on the engine with the main sail and use the autopilot. At the end of the day we have a lovely sunset!
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During his night watch, Fred wakes me, he sees so many strange lights in the surroundings, maybe these might be the infamous tuna fishnets! Together we look around concentrated, gosh, are we glad we purchased a radar in Lagos! Luckily we succeed in avoiding them and I hop back in to bed. During my watch a large tanker passes by. Not much later there is a terrible stench about, a mishmash of exhaust fumes and rotten eggs. Apparently this tanker has dumped some garbage or dirt. Then it starts to blow with gushes up to 23 knots and we land in a fog at that. We put a reef in the mainsail. An unquiet night.
Tuesday 31-01-0217
Around 8:00 the wind, still from the front, increases up to more than 30. We have to navigate by hand. A few hours later it starts to rain and the waves get pretty high. The boat’s nose dives into the waves and the splashes of the water doesn’t help us getting dry. In the afternoon we get a little bit of sunshine, but soon it gets clouded. A bad day with a lot of rain and wind.
Today we have reached the 2,000 nautical miles!
Around 23:00 it is dry and the wind has quieted down to 10 knots, but in the night new dark clouds gather.
Wednesday 01-02-2017
It has been sunny for practically the whole day and with that 5 knots wind. We hang our sailing gear out do dry in the sun. At a given moment I see a change in the waves diagonal in front of me. It looks like a large school of fish or is it dolphins? No, it must be something bigger. And then I see something rising out of the water, it is a large group of whales! I turn the helm quickly and can evade them. Not much later I see the echo sounder suddenly at 4 metres. Evidently they are swimming under the boat. Pity they didn’t ‘pop up’. The wind increases in the early evening, but quickly drops back to 4 knots. The night is fine and we both have a quiet watch, so we can catch up on some sleep. Although it isn’t a full moon and therefore not very clear, I immensely enjoy the beautifully starred sky. I also see a falling star and make a wish anyway. I am totally happy!
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Thursday 02-02-2017
Dark clouds and the wind comes from the side. Engine off, Genua up and we can sail again! I try to get some sleep in the morning and as soon as I have fallen asleep, Kit snuggles up to me. Around 12:00 we are nearing Agadir and we see a lot more small fishing boats. We can spot them well on the radar, fortunately, because we completely lose sight of them in these high waves. Very brave of them to go this far out at sea in these small boats. At 14:00 the wind has decreased and we wrap the Genua. We sail into Agadir on the engine. The harbour staff is waving at us to point out where we can berth. With gestures they make it clear that they would very much like us to berth with the backside of the boat to the pier. But we don’t want that, us being stubborn and cocky! We have a Wind Vane and no swimming plateau at the back to protect this and we like to have the sun in the cockpit. The marina-man still wants us to turn the boat with the argument that the finger piers are not strong enough when we lie the boat like this. Nonsense, of course! I find out pretty soon that all the boats are berthed with the back to the pier; they just want this for the ‘nice picture’! Tomorrow we will get another spot, where we can get the sun in the cockpit, but then we have to turn the boat with the back to the pier now! We agree, reluctantly. At 15:00 we are all ready and berthed at the pier. On one side a Swiss- and on the other side a German boat. The police comes to pick up Fred for the ‘form filling’. Then the customs man comes over to ask the clearance papers (in ánd out!) of Salé and he walks back with Fred to the boat. We have, as you all know, had some parcels in Salé (see previous blogs) with some goods he would want to see now! Fred shows him what he asks for and the guy slinks off. We still have to wait for our passports.
Now we first want to have a nice showers and then a bite to eat somewhere. When we are at the top of the pier at the gate, the customs man walks up to us and hands over our passports. The harbour master is there too and shows us where we can berth tomorrow. We walk along the boulevard and find a restaurant, “Havana“ with a view of the beach. We can order alcohol here and we indulge ourselves in nice food and a bottle of wine. Afterwards, Fred asks for an Irish Coffee, but what they serve him up has not the remotest resemblance to it! Poor guy, he really deserved one. Back on board we cuddle up on the saloon couch and watch a little TV before rolling into bed. Tomorrow is another day.
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