We made it to Spain/Gibraltar!

Wow, Sunflower has finally made it to Europe! Not only another country but another continent!

Sunflower anchored in Spain, looking at Gibraltar

We left Morocco on the morning of Friday 13^th, a bit later than planned as all the formalities and dog sniffing took longer than planned but it was so good to be at sea again. The last couple of weeks in Rabat had been very hot (35-38 degrees) no wind in the marina and lots of mossies, so to be in a gentle breeze with nothing buzzing and clear blue seas rather than the chocolate coloured river water in the marina was lovely. We had no wind so we were motoring but the seas were flat and all was well. We knew we would have to motor most, if not all of the way as the only way to get north at this time of year is to wait for the prevailing northerly winds to die down. We had a brief 36 hour window before they piped up again so we took it.

The trip was uneventful until much later that night. I had just come off watch and laid down at about 3.30 am We were only about 6 miles off shore so there had been lots of fishing boats around. We had the radar on and were closely monitoring their activity. I had just closed my eyes when there was a horrible noise, Sunflower lurched to a halt and started rolling horribly. I scrambled up to see what had happened only to discover we had snagged a long fishing net which had acted as an emergency brake. Alan was struggling to get the main sail down ( we had had it up for a bit of stability) but as the boat swung away from the wind it became harder to do, so we abandoned it at half mast. I rummaged around for our big spotlight and we saw the long net tethered from one buoy to another about 300 meters apart. Sunflower was caught like a fly in a web. We weren't sure if our propeller was snagged or just the rudder. As we were surveying our dilemma a fishing boat came lumbering over with their spotlight, they offered a line to try and tow us off, we had one attempt but as we didn't know what was caught we decided we could break something if we just tried brute force.

Alan waved flippers at them and told them we would dive and see what was going on. At that point they retreated and let us get on with it. The water temp was 17 degrees so I fished out Alan's wetsuit, he gathered his new knife and underwater torch (without which the whole thing would have been impossible) It took a while to get everything organised and finally Alan was ready. We now had the wind on our stern so the swim platform at the back of the boat was slamming up and down into the water, the boat was also lurching from side to side quite badly. Alan tied a safety rope around himself and prepared to enter the cold dark water. I was really worried he was going to get hit on the head by the lurching boat so I sat on the back keeping an eye on him. Initially the net was just caught on our rudder so it could have been cut away quite easily, but Alan thought we might be able to get off without damaging the net. We tried a quick engine burst forward and astern but all that did was get the net tangled in the propeller! Our problem was now worse than before. Alan persevered and finally managed to cut us free at about 6 am just as dawn was breaking. The fishing boat had lost interest and gone away by this time, which was probably just as well as they may not have been too happy about the damage to their expensive net!

If Alan hadn't been prepared to dive under the boat or even if he hadn't bought the underwater torch I am not sure what would have happened. We may still have been stuck there! What a hero!

Interesting Trip!!

The customs dog came onboard, gave us a good sniff and had a bit of a slobber and we were clear to leave Rabat at about 10 am, Friday May 13. The wind was light, as predicted, so we settled down to motor most of the 150 nm to Gibraltar and the anchorage at Spanish La Linea. Our course took us no more than 10 nm offshore so 3:30 am on Saturday morning found us stationary, caught in a fishing net. We lost about 2 hrs while I dived under the boat to free us.
All went well until we turned into the Gibraltar Strait, the wind was predicted to calm down to around 10 knots or less but it remained around 20 knots, dead on the nose! So we are motoring into a head wind and the waves. Water is going over the boat and our speed is right down. Yes the wind finally did what it was supposed to do....about 1 hr before we got into La Linea! Oh well anchored now and had Sunday as a rest day, now it's time to see if we can check into Spain. More later....
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Back on the boat in Morocco - one more time!

We are now back on board Sunflower after 6 weeks back in London. Our friend is settled in her new rental flat while she looks for a new permanent home, following the sale of her flat. We had a busy few weeks following the funeral of her husband about a week after we arrived as we had to sort out many years of accumulated stuff. We managed a few days off to visit other friends in the country and to go to a boat jumble at one of England's stately homes.

We flew back to Morocco on Ryanair, a discount European airline. The flight did not really go smoothly! After a pleasant lunch and a last pint of cider at the airport pub, our gate number came up so we hurried off, as the Ryanair gates are always at the very end of the airport! It was number 54. We were surprised and pleased that we were the first to arrive and so in poll position. Soon everyone else followed and the boarding cards for the priority boarders were being taken. Ryanair does not allocate seats on the aircraft but you can pay extra for 'priority boarding' which allows you onto the tarmac first, although you can easily be beaten to the plane by a fit young backpacker who has not paid any extra, sprinting ahead of you. We have decided this is a complete waste of money and were soon to be proven right yet again. While this was going on I heard an announcement that the flight to Fez had been switched to gate 48! This didn't register with anybody else including the girl checking boarding passes. Then the announcement came again and the girl realised and made an announcement to the crowd whereupon a stampede began. As we were at the front of the now wrong queue we had to jostle past everyone and hot foot it to gate 48 which was up a flight of stairs! (escalator going down only!) The poor priority passengers were lost in the melee! Anyway we made it on to the plane and got our favorite seats, very back row. We have discovered that the back row has many advantages on a Ryanair flight. For starters the seats don't recline anyway, so there is just as much room there as anywhere else. You don't have anyone behind you coughing and sneezing or kids kicking the back of your seat,it's close to the loo and we are always first off as the planes disembarks from the front and rear. So far we have been lucky that the flights are never full so we have 3 seats to ourselves.

We all got settled and were ready with about 2 minutes to go when the crew opened the doors again to take on food and duty free! With the change in gates all that stuff had gone to the wrong place, so by the time that was on board we had missed our take off slot and sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes!!

After about an hour and a half into the flight we heard an announcement from the pilot that passengers never really want to hear 'ladies and gentlemen we have a problem..' It turned out there were technical difficulties and the plane was diverting to Malaga! Now having watched Flying High and other Hollywood scary flight movies, technical difficulties can mean anything from the pilot's feeling a bit off colour to there's a bomb on board! However as Ryanair only make their announcements in English and half the plane was Moroccan only 50% of us were worried while the other half had no idea what was going on!

We landed in Malaga, sat on the tarmac while the Spanish authorities worked out what to do with us, finally boarded a bus which then sat on the tarmac and at last boarded another plane which had just disgorged it's load of passengers, and we were off again. The crew apologized but ignored the cry for free beer and sandwiches from some of the passengers. There were a few startled Moroccans who must have thought Fez airport had undergone a massive upgrade since they had last visited, but finally everyone was up to date with what was going on. It turned out the technical difficulties were electronic and a screen was down so presumably the pilot had to fly the plane manually. The problem was there were no facilities in Fez to repair it and our flight turns around to do the final run back to London in the evening.

The tiny bathroom in the hotel in Fez.

 

Despite some misgivings our luggage managed to follow us from gate to gate and plane to plane so we were in our hotel about 9.30 pm several hours later than scheduled. The hotel was very nice, but with the worlds smallest bathroom! The door only opened half way before hitting the beautifully tiled sink! The restaurant was very nice and we had a lovely salad for supper and a nice brekkie before getting on the train at 10.45 the next day. That journey at least was uneventful and Sunflower was still afloat when we got back to the marina. My pot plants were amazingly still alive but when I opened the fridge for some cold water I was hit by that awful mouldy smell you get when a fridge has been turned off and the door shut and food has gone off.....

Somehow a wire had fallen off the compressor, Alan fixed it in minutes but it had obviously happened weeks ago and everything was covered in fine black sooty mould. Huge cultures of penicillin were growing at the bottom where water had gathered and everything stunk! Welcome home!

Luckily there was no meat or the stench would have been awful, but all my nice cheeses, carefully hoarded bacon and butter all had to be thrown away. we had to scrub the inside of the freezer, and all the baskets with bleach as well as the water bottles and I hadn't even unpacked yet!

At 6 pm we went to one of the marina restaurants for a meal. It is lovely and warm here so I need to think about packing all the clothes away again. I can't believe it was winter when we left and now it's summer! How did that happen?

Next day...

Alan has spent all day trying to get the freezer working. While the compressor came on immediately it wasn't cooling, a sign that it had lost some refrigerant. This happened when we returned to the boat after the new knees, although we had obviously left the freezer turned off and empty at that time. Apparently when the freezer isn't working the seals dry out and it leaks the refrigerant gas. We had some spare gas on board so it was out with the gauges and manual and it finally looks as if it may be cooling down. Yeah!

I can't go to the supermarket until the fridge is working so we have been surviving on crackers and cheesy triangles! (OK and the odd restaurant meal:)

Our new snazzy bells and whistles cooker now looks like it is not going to make it to Morocco. Despite even visiting the factory while we were in England (and me lovingly stroking my Rolls Royce of cookers) the shipper is now telling us the ONLY way to get it reliably in Morocco is for us to go and collect it from Casablanca airport. (not an option for many reasons) Apparently if they try and deliver door to door we may have to pay duty, it may get held up in customs, etc! Shame we didn't know about this in January! So we have decided on a refund and possibly trying again when we get to Northern Cyprus or Turkey. If we get it shipped to anywhere in the EU we have to pay VAT at 20%  ouch!

Alan has also found a way to get live BBC TV via the internet so I may be watching the BIG DAY(Royal wedding) after all, although he can't work out how to get a full size screen on the computer yet, so I may be watching it in miniature!

The marina rates here more than double from May 1st as it becomes high season, ( a week will now cost more than a month previously!)so we are now planning on a quick getaway, as the poor old budget has taken enough of a battering lately. It will be odd to have waves underneath us again and be anchored out, but we're looking forward to it.