We finally set off at about 10.00 o’clock on Tuesday 16th July, almost a year after we left Exeter. (the marker is for Ayamonte, mouth of the Rio Guadiana) We had decided to stop off en route at two places Chris had visited before - and talked about so much that I wanted to see! The first was about 30 miles down the coast, just a day sail (well motor-sail really) taking about 6 hours, – a lovely holiday resort called Mazagon that has grown up behind a LOOOOONG sea wall – at 7 miles it’s the longest in Europe – that protects shipping going into Huelva. It was a beautiful place with some lovely houses looking over the water; you probably need to be a millionaire to buy one though. We stayed for two nights and the first night was quite interesting as there were loads of small boats around and suddenly at 9.00 o’clock a large flotilla came out of the little marina (we were at anchor) and all moved out to sea. After about half an hour they returned and we think that it was possibly the casting of ashes onto the water of someone who had been very important to the boating community there. We then moved on to Chipiona where Chris had wintered on his first trip. Again it was about 30 miles on and again we motored/motor sailed most of the way as there was very little wind. (The marker shows Chipiona and you JUST see Huelva behind the zoom controls) We had decided to go into the marina there to enable us to go ashore etc. Moontide does not handle easily in small places as she has a long keel and is heavy displacement so this is always very fraught but we got in! Chipiona is another holiday town but far more commercialised with a long promenade with stalls and bars and cafes along it. Sitting there with a beer as the tide went out we could see some ancient – Phoencian/Roman – fish traps. These are walls built out of rock and stone covering a huge area that fill with water as the tide comes in and then trap the fish inside as the tide goes out. In the summer these provide wonderful swimming/paddling for children and great rock pools but in the winter Chris has seen the fisherman going out spearing the trapped fish. We spent a few days here and the day we were due to leave Chris bumped into a friend he’d met there before and who lives in Chipiona. He made arrangements to meet up that evening, delaying our leaving as we’re in no hurry. We’re not quite sure what went wrong but we did see not see him which was a great shame as again I’d heard a lot about him and his girlfriend who Chris had also wanted to see again! Unfortunately the next day was pretty windy and we decided not to leave then either as we did not want to get into difficulties with the boat so it was a further 2 days marina fees for nothing – ah well that’s life!! The next hop down to Morocco was 165 miles so was an overnight sail – again mostly motor sailing. We went into the marina at Rabat, the political capital of Morocco. After moving around in Spain and Portugal, the formalities were pretty long-winded. Chris had to fill in about 4 forms for different authorities (police, customs, port authority and marina!) that were all asking the same questions!! We even had the sniffer dog come aboard to check we had no drugs etc. He was an old dog and really struggled with the steps down into the boat and I think was actually more interested in saying hello to us than sniffing! However eventually we were assigned a berth and helped in by the marina staff –which was just as well as there was not much room to manoeuvre. It was in a prime position – the next pontoon along housed 6 of the King of Morocco’s fishing boats! So we then had our ubiquitous cup of tea and started our visit to Morocco. |
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