Rabat and on to Agadir

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!