Author: Will

We left Tangier on 11th September, heading south for the capital Rabat, a journey of 150 miles or approximately 24 hours. After Lisbon this would be the second capital city we had sailed into. With very light winds we used our engine and reached our destination during the morning of 12th September.

At Rabat the Bouregreg river divides the city of Rabat on one side from the city of Sale on the other. To reach the marina you have to sail (or motor) down the river for about a mile, a picturesque journey going past the old medina of Rabat, with fishing boats on both sides of the river, rowing boats (boat taxi) crossing slowly in front of you, swimmers jumping in, jet-skis whizzing about, while all the time you are trying to make sure you stay in the middle so the water is deep enough. A backdrop to this is the nearly 1,000 year old Hassan Tower, a 44 metre structure built as part of plans for the largest mosque in the world. Construction was abandoned in 1199, and despite earthquakes the structure is still very visible.

Once safely in the marina we had the usual clearing in procedure which involved a lot of paperwork, a boat inspection from the police and the customs officials, and this time even a sniffer dog. The steps down into the boat were deemed too steep for the dog to go inside so it stayed on the deck. (The steps weren’t a problem for Granny and Grandpa’s dog, Billy, when he came to visit us in Portsmouth in May!)

The marina is on the Sale side of the river, which is quieter than Rabat but has its own interesting history. With its strong French influence, as we have found elsewhere in Morocco, it also has many excellent patisseries. We got to know a French family on the boat next to us in the marina, who are home schooling their children aged 12 and 13 and making their way to the Canaries, hoping to cross the Atlantic later this year.

To reach Rabat from Sale you can take a tram, but we preferred the more scenic option of being rowed across the river on one of the local boats.

In Rabat we visited the mausoleum of Mohammed V with its many guards, and stocked up in the souk with its hundreds of different shops selling spices, fabrics, leather and jewellery.

We also had time to explore the medina on the Sale side of the river, all enclosed within the old city walls, which are lit up spectacularly at night (photobombed by Lucy).

After a few days it was time to continue our journey further south to Agadir, a trip of 300 miles or approximately 48 hours at sea. Leaving Rabat proved an interesting start to the journey, as there was an ocean swell of around 2 metres, and where the river meets the ocean it produced a surge of up to 4 metres over the sandbanks. (Much above this and they close the entrance and won’t let boats through). We were allowed out of the marina at high tide to ensure the maximum possible depth of water, and navigated our way back down the river past the fishing boats, swimmers, a dinghy sailing school and jet-skis keeping us company. The height of the waves as the river joins the ocean made for a bumpy start, nice for the surfers lined up along the beach but not so much fun on a yacht.

Once back out into the Atlantic ocean the swell disappeared and there was not much wind, so we decided to keep our engine on and head along the coast, intending to anchor in a sheltered bay at Essaouira, not far north of Agadir.

Unfortunately after leaving Rabat we became aware that our engine was not well – it kept almost cutting out, labouring and dropping its revs and needing a push on the throttle to keep it running. As there wasn’t enough wind to sail by, we needed the engine to make progress on our journey. Will identified the issue as air getting into the fuel line. He found a crack on the pre-filter and managed to change the base unit. Luckily this kept the engine going throughout the night and part of the next day, until there was enough wind behind us to switch it off and start sailing. We then sailed along happily at around 5-7 knots, slightly faster than we had been going using the engine.

While trying to get the best position for our headsail with the wind almost directly behind us, we had some trouble gybing it (moving it from one side of the boat to the other) and unfortunately got it trapped and subsequently wrapped behind the forestay so it wouldn’t furl away properly. We were unable to correct this until the wind died down so we continued using just our mainsail.

Eventually at the end of the second night at sea, the wind died away again and we needed to restart our engine. Crossing our fingers and holding our breath, we switched the engine back on – luckily it started after a few attempts and some manual bleeding, and kept going, while still keeping us on our toes by threatening to cut out every so often – nerve-racking stuff. Having daylight and calmer winds also gave Will the opportunity to sort out the headsail and furl it away properly.

With the engine issues and stronger winds expected to come in during the next few days, we decided not to anchor at Essaouira but head straight for Agadir marina, where we would be able to find an engineer to fix the engine (and be alongside). The trip had been eventful, but there were also some highlights, including seeing sparkling phosphorescence in the wake of the boat at night, the milky way above us, and dolphins at the end of the night watch.

We are now in the marina at Agadir, a more modern city which was largely rebuilt after a catastrophic earthquake destroyed the old city in 1960. The inscription on the hillside in Arabic reads “God, country, king”. The engineers have been here working on the engine, I am extending my French vocabulary into technical terms for engine parts, and we are hopeful that we will be able to depart for the Canary Islands in a few days’ time – next stop Lanzarote!

Let me start by saying we were very sorry to hear about the devastation caused by the earthquake in southern Morocco. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families affected.

As mentioned in our previous post, we were safely in the north of Morocco, in Tangier, when the earthquake happened, and didn’t feel any tremors. We spent a few days there exploring the old town, with its labyrinth of ancient and narrow streets, and the medina with its many small and enticing shops selling everything including spices, multicoloured fabrics, carpets, leather purses and wooden puzzle boxes.

For the girls in particular on their first trip outside Europe, after very British Gibraltar, this was a culture shock – the exotic scent of the spices, Arabic and French spoken everywhere, the call to prayer five times a day, but they are taking it all in and have enjoyed shopping and bartering for goods in the medina. We have also been enjoying the Moroccan food, including delicious tagines with couscous and preserved lemons, and an interesting chicken dish topped with icing sugar, all followed by sweet mint tea. We had a lovely dinner in a rooftop restaurant with our friends from our neighbouring boat in Gibraltar, Willowtarn, who came across with us on the journey from Gibraltar to Tangier.

The marina in Tangier is clean and modern, although we are getting used to a lot of bureaucracy – it takes hours of detailed form-filling to clear in and the boat has to be inspected by both the police and the customs officials before you are allowed into the marina. Having arrived in Tangier at 5.30 pm on our first day it was dark by the time all this had been completed, so we spent our first night on the arrivals pontoon and were only allowed into the marina the following day. However everyone is very friendly and helpful, and they really want us to enjoy our time in Morocco.

The marina has a display of coloured fountains set to classical music each evening, which Sophie enjoyed dancing in, as shown in the photos below. (If you’re reading this on your phone and can’t see the pictures, click on Valent in the top right hand corner to go to the website and you will be able to see the pictures).

After a few days in Tangier, it was time to start our journey south. Yesterday we moved down to the capital, Rabat, which we’ll write about in a few days once we’ve had a chance to explore it.

Just a quick post to say that we are all well and enjoying Tangier. We are several hundred miles away from Marrakesh and we’re oblivious to the earthquake until this morning. However we had planned to do a short excursion to Marrakesh – that is unlikely to happen. Next stop Rabat in few days.

We’ve been living in Queensway Quay marina for nearly two months now, and have become used to life in Gibraltar. We’ve been up the Rock (twice) and seen the macaques, the Great Siege tunnels and St. Michael’s cave with its incredible light show.

The views from the top of the Rock are amazing – you can see Spain, and across to Morocco at the same time.

We’ve enjoyed having English shops like M&S, and have found the best ice cream shop in Gibraltar where we have been their most regular customers – to the point where we even got a lock in when they had to shut early!

There’s plenty to do here – swimming at Europa pool, bouldering, a cinema and even the Gibraltar fair. Everyone is very friendly and we’ve made friends with lots of people on the other boats on our pontoon. We’re now regulars at the Sunday night quiz in the marina (team name: Orcas’ Revenge), and Will has even joined the Gibraltar Manchester City Supporters Club (members including Will: 10).

We’ve had fun in Gibraltar, but now it’s time to move on. The plan is to head over to Morocco, next stop Tangier, and go slowly along the coast to reach the Canary Islands. The orcas seem to be heading north now, so fingers crossed for no more close encounters!

After nearly 2 months in Gibraltar we are finally getting ready to depart. At long last our steering systems are repaired/replaced and all seems to be working. For those interested in the saga we needed to replace the damaged parts of the Hydrovane (wind steering) and repair/replace the hydraulic ram for the auto pilot. Hydrovane provided an excellent service and the Hydrovane repair was completed in a timely manner with a new shaft and rudder being installed. The autopilot proved more challenging.

The first challenge was that no part of the hydraulic system had any markings, serial numbers or other way of identifying the manufacturer or type of system. The practical guys from All Motor Boats and Yacht Services (Steve & Jordan) found a workshop in Spain that managed to repair and refurbish our hydraulic ram. However, when we fitted it and tested the system it became apparent that the steering motor had also suffered significant stress in the Orca attack and would not longer work. After many calls, Jordan could find no-one in Spain able to refurbish or replace the motor and the decision was taken to install a complete new hydraulic steering system.

After discussions with Pantaenius, our very helpful insurance company, a plan of action was agreed and I ordered a new system from the UK. In order to expedite the situation I ended up flying back to the UK 2 weeks ago to collect the new system and take it back. This saved at least a week in terms of logistics and around £150 by not paying any shipping or importation fees in Gibraltar. It also meant that I could spend 36 hours preparing our house in Woking for new tenants, painting, gardening and other minor maintenance jobs. For those of you wondering how flying back could be cheaper, we decided it was a good use of some of my historic air miles, so I had to suffer a business class flight for £1.

Installing a new system is never as straightforward as you think it should be, and this was no exception. We ended up having to remake a fixing bracket and fit it further back to accommodate the different ram operation. The motor is a little larger and this system also includes an oil tank. Once installed we could not get the thing to work, try and try as we did. I even bled the system, but other than a few tiny movements we were flummoxed. After a chat with the manufacturer, the helpful suggestion was made to power the new hydraulic ram but bypass the Raymarine steering controls (i.e. directly link it to Valent’s 12v battery bank). And the system worked perfectly. This meant our problem was one of voltage and commands from the control unit and not the new hydraulic system. After much thinking the issue was annoyingly simple – I just need to change the input setting in the onboard Raymarine computer to the new type 3 hydraulic drive. Once that was done, hey presto the autopilot and new hydraulic ram worked exactly as expected.

During this time some other maintenance jobs have been successfully completed. There was time to send the Watt&Sea controller for the Hydrogenerator (a towed system that produces electricity whilst we are sailing) back to the manufacturers for repair and a software update. Hopefully this will now work correctly and stop trying to charge the batteries once they are full. I managed to get a few bits and bobs sent out from the UK/collected on my return trip and now we have a 20A fuse from the generator, a new turbo heat shield on the engine, new radiator cap and jubilee clip for the air filter. At the other end of the spectrum we have a lovely new shower curtain and snazzy lights in the cockpit.

When we arrived in Gibraltar we intended to spend a few days. I certainly did not expect to be here for the start of the new football season. Unfortunately, we no longer have time to explore the Med as we need to be in the Canary Islands by mid October, and there is no point in rushing towards somewhere, only to have to turn round, rush back and then find yourself trapped by an Autumn Westerly. I will get the girls to write an updated tourist guide to Gibraltar – suffice to say it feels like we have been here long enough to qualify for residency!