07-Nov-2008 Noon Update

North Atlantic Ocean

34'57.3N/7'09.9W

• 86 nm since leaving Tangier 11am yesterday
  
• 472 nm to the Canary Islands
  
• Winds FAC
  
• Flat Calm Seas, Mirror Smooth
  

As mentioned in our last entry, our stop for Tangier will not be posted for one month from now for obvious reasons once you read it. So stay tuned...

We cleared out with Moroccan police and customs by 11am yesterday after a very lengthy search of the port for the customs officer. When we cleared into Morocco at Tangier the harbor police took our passports and our boat documentation and issued us shore passes. To leave we went to the harbor police, who gave us back our stuff when we returned our shore passes. Next was a lengthy walk through the shipping terminal to find the customs officer to stamp us out. When we cleared in to Morocco, the Customs Officer came to the boat and told us to walk to his office in the port when we were ready to leave, and that it was easy to find.

I walked past hundreds of trucks that were lined up to be loaded on a ferry headed to Spain. I asked  all of the police officers there where the Customs office was. None of the police officers spoke English. So I showed them my Customs form asking where the office was. Many men started shouting to each other in Arabic and then one told me to follow him thru the port.

Along the way he talked to about 50 other Customs officers, all shouting loudly in Arabic and waving their arms, pointing in different directions after looking at our customs form. After an hour long walk throughout the port, I was told to go back to the front gate and check there. So off I went.

Of course the office at the main gate was closed. At this point I was ready to leave Morocco without clearing customs. Then one of the police officers at the front gate told me to look in a warehouse nearby to see if there were any officers in there. I think the warehouse I walked into was stored all of the seized contraband items that they have collected over the years. There were things piled everywhere, and right at the entrance was a customs officer watching TV with a few of his friends.

So once again I showed him my form. And he, not speaking any English, pointed to where I had just came from. He then pointed for me to follow him back to the shipping port, and once again we made another complete round of all the offices that I had just been to before.

After much more yelling, arm waving, and pointing, we finally found the one guy in the whole port that had the rubber stamp to stamp our papers. I think the Customs Officer that was walking me around was the head guy as he had a large gold star on his uniform and every other officer he walked by would hug and kiss him 2 times on each cheek. Lucky for me I just got away with a only a handshake.

After returning to the 'Piper is was time to leave. The moorings in Tangier Harbor are not like any marina we have been in before. When we arrived there were a few other sailboats with their anchors out and their sterns secured to the pier. So we just side tied to the last boat. During our stay, 3 other power boats tied off on our other side. To get out was a tangle of lines as we had to squeeze the 'Piper out while not casting loose all the boats tied on our other side. But we made it out, no problems.

Once in the Straits of Gibraltar we motored west for 6 miles. Sandpiper was at last in the Atlantic Ocean after more then 3 weeks of waiting for an agreeable weather window. Once we cleared the Straits we were able to put up the sails and sail south for the first time in years. We have not sailed south since heading down Australia's west coast to Sydney.

We were able to sail all night, with the winds slowly dying about sunrise, leaving us sailing about a 1/2 knots at times. We then fired up the engine and have been motoring since on a flat glassy ocean.

Still lots of shipping around. Last night we had a pack of other sailboats pass us. We are starting to fall in with all the boats that will be crossing the Atlantic this year. Everyone is heading to the Canary Islands to get ready to leave when the trade winds fill in. This also means lots of new boats from Europe that are just starting on their adventurous. Which also means lots of boats on there very first ocean passages.

Since we are not in a huge hurry to get to the Canaries we will sail if there is any wind at all. As long as we can keep moving, the auto pilot can steer us. Last night at times we were averaging only 1-2 knots while all the other sailboats that were passing us had their engines running.

It seems from all the different crazy light arrangements on their masts that they added more lights to their boats in order to be seen. But all this does it make things more confusing since it is very hard to determine what direction they are going if they do not have the proper navigation lights. The first boat to pass us had their spreader lights that pointed up and they were switched on. I think they did this in order to light up their sails thinking ships will be able to see his sails and give him the right of way. But from a distance these spreader light look like a masthead light. So this defeats the whole purpose and is also very confusing from a distance.

The next boat to pass us went by less then 50 yards off our port side. Even in daylight, in the open ocean, this is far to close to pass another boat. And at night, this was way too close. We were not sure if he even saw our stern light which was burning brightly. He just kept coming closer and closer. Since it was another sailboat, and we could see him, we just waited to see how close he would actually get.

As he pulled along side us he finally decided to look around and saw us right off his starboard side, within talking distance. He then completely freaked out and shut off all his navigation lights. We are guessing he was freaking because he was on the open ocean for the first time and was reading too many books on piracy ("Pirates? Been to Disney World one to many times Captain Ron??"). We started laughing really loud, but there is no way he could not have heard us. All he had to do was look forward and he would have spotted us. We then yelled at him to turn his lights back on. He then re-energized his lights and slinked off into the night.

The next light of interest was a sailboat with a flashing yellow siren type light that was mounted right above his cockpit. I think he thought he would add this light to make him more visible to shipping. But the light was so bright that there was no way to see his running lights, so only made his situation more confusing. The funny part was this light was so bright and flashing right into his cockpit we are not sure how HE could see anything. And would make me crazy in just a few seconds.

Sorry for the rant, but its been an interesting 24 hours. This was just our first night and we still have 472 nm to go. The weather is calm, but looking at weather forecasts we are hoping the winds fill in from the NE for the next couple of days. Hope this time tomorrow we are sailing!

More in 24!!

Tom and Amy

Birthday shout out to Steve on S/V Shiraz!

Tangier, Morocco

Med Moored in Tangier Harbor
Tangier
Morocco
Gateway to the Atlantic, North African Coast
Mediterranean Sea
35'47.2N/5'48'3W

Sandpiper is currently Med Moored in Tangier Harbor with three other boats side tied to us. We checked the weather and its looking like we might make it all the way to the Canaries with the weather that is being forecasted. So we will be heading out tomorrow morning after checking out with customs and police.

Amy has written the update for this stop. But due to the sketchy circumstances here in the harbor we will be posting this entry one month from now when we are far from this port. So stay tuned...

Hopefully the next entry has us in the Atlantic!!
Tom and Amy

Tangier, Morocco

Anchored in Tangier
Morocco
North African Coast
Mediterranean Sea
35'47.0N/5'47.7W

Sandpiper is currently anchored off a long row of hotels at the city of Tangier on the north coast or Morocco, Africa. We had spent the last several days hiding from the weather at Hercules Marina in Cueta, Spain, waiting for the westerly winds to die down so we can get out of the Med.

Spain drives me a bit crazy as it seems like every time we go ashore all the businesses are closed all afternoon. If we are lucky, they might open up at some random time for a few minutes, then remain closed for the remainder of the afternoon. About 9pm all the businesses open back up, and by midnight everyone is out shopping or having dinner. If you show up at a restaurant at 9pm, it is too early to have dinner. So you have to wait till later.

People seem to go out for dinner and shopping at 11pm and then stay out all night. I have no idea how Spain's economy functions. Saturday was 'All Saints Day'. So once again everything was closed, Then Sunday everything is closed again.

Anyhow, being in a marina in Spain when it is pouring rain and everything is closed all the time, we had to spend our time down below just trying to stay warm and dry. We have spent the last couple years living on the equator in shorts, and when we go ashore, maybe a shirt to look dressed up. Winter has been showing up with a vengeance and now when we leave the cabin we are wearing shoes, socks, sweatshirts, pants, and jackets. Our nice golden brown tans have faded away to a pasty white. All the Europeans here are walking around in full jackets with fur lining and boots. They stay warm by hiding in heated coffee shops.

We dug through Sandpiper and found the electric heater that we have not used since being tied up under the Golden Gate Bridge. And being in a marina, we were able to plug it in to keep the cabin warm.

This morning Amy went to the grocery store for some last minute supplies (it was closed when she arrived). We topped off Sandpiper's water tanks, then went to McDonalds to get lunch to go. We found that they too were closed. We tried to pay our bill at the marina office. That was closed. We pulled up to the fuel dock. That was closed.

By 1130 am the fuel dock opened up and we took on 100 liters of diesel, the headed west down the Straits of Gibraltar, skirting the shipping lanes and dodging fishing boats. We were hoping to be able to enter the Atlantic. As we approached Tangier the winds died down. We talked to the U.S catamaran 'Following Tides' who had just turned left outside of the Straits. They told us that winds were calming down. So we decided to drop the hook here in Tangier to see what the weather is doing tomorrow morning.

From here it is only 6 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. Once there we head south for 600 miles to the Canary Islands. We might wait here for a few days till we can be sure we are going to have good winds. If we do stay we will pull into a marina tomorrow morning. If not, then we will head out to hopefully sail.

More later, once we make a decision.

Tom and Amy

Is it Cash? Or is it Hash?

Team Sandpiper Update 2 Nov 2008
Side tied at Tangier Municipal Marina
Tangier
Morocco
North Africa, Gateway to the Atlantic
35'47.1N/5'48.3W

Is it Cash? Or is it Hash???????

Let me set the scene for the evening: It is 9pm in cold, dark, wet sketchy Tangier, Morocco. We are side tied to a derelict boat. In fact, all of the boats in the harbor are derelict, except for the Sandpiper. We had a great day zig-zagging through the alleyways of the Casbah, poking our heads into shops along the way. We are now back on the boat, trying to keep warm and dry, enjoying dinner and a movie.

We have taken a few breaks throughout the evening to poke our heads up top and have a look around at what is going on in the harbor. Tangier is a dirty and busy harbor with thousands of stinky fishing vessels of all sizes moving in and out of the harbor at all times of the day and night. This last time we went topside we noticed the Harbor Police towing a large sport fishing vessel, and they appeared to be headed straight for Sandpiper.

Sure enough, moments later we have a 40-foot sport fishing boat tied off our starboard side. It is never good to have to be towed in. And to do so at night just adds to the drama of it all. So we stuck around outside asking our new neighbors "What went wrong? Why are you being towed in? Where have you arrived from?"

Soon after meeting the sweaty, nervous looking, talk a mile-a-minute, neck tattoo covered Captain we were privy to their story. It seems that this "gentlemen" and his crew, whom he had never met before this morning, have been hired to deliver this boat somewhere across the Straits. After they arrived on the boat, which by the way has no name or numbers on it, they got just a few miles out of the harbor when the engine died. The Captain also reports that his cell phone wouldn't work, claiming that it had no signal, this being only 2 miles from port. He thinks the police are following him and are intercepting his cell phone. This prevents him from being able to call his local 'boss' and he is now forced to deal with local authorities.

It is not until hours later that they give up on the engine and are in fact towed in by the local authorities and his cell phone magically starts working again. I should also mention that while he is sharing this info with us, he is downing shots of vodka like a loyal comrade. Their boat is currently secured next to us, and streams of officials are coming off and on it, which means they are stomping over Sandpiper too (here, everyone side ties to the last boat in).

This, of course, is all so fantastic to us and is the most excitement we have ever seen in such an exotic harbor. The movie will have to wait. While one official goes onboard, another arrives. Our new neighbor is getting antsy and sweatier, but he still managing to chain smoke, occasionally hack up a lung on us, and do more shots of Vodka. Baksheesh, a form of payment/bribe, is part of the culture here and a pack of cigarettes is the norm. He told us that one of the officials asked for cocaine as his payment. Interesting…

After the last official leaves the Captain says "I want you to know that people have been shot here in Tangier because of what you saw here tonight". This of course didn't stiffen my curiosity of what was going on over at his boat. So I started asking "What is the name of your boat? What kind of boat is it? Where are you going? Where's all your fishing gear if you're a fishing boat?" To which he looked at Tom and said "Your wife asks a lot of questions" as Tom is giving me the hand across the neck motion. Tom had figured out what was going on as soon as the boat tied up next to us. It had no name or numbers, and the captain not knowing where any of his boat's mooring lines were stored.

From the bits and pieces of what we could gather from the captain,  it seems that he had just arrived this morning. He was hired to take this recently hauled out boat out of the country and deposit it somewhere else. With our minds racing, and few details given to us thanks to shots of vodka in the skipper, we gathered this vessel's recent yard work included hollowing out the insides of the boat, adding false compartments, and filling them with cash, hash, or who knows what? 

Needless to say, it has been an exciting fews days here in Tangier. As we spent hours the next morning trying to clear customs we asked our new friend how he cleared out. He stated "It was taken care of..."

Cheers,
Amy and Tom

Ceuta, Africa

Med Moored at Hercules Marina

Ceuta (aka Sebta)

Spain

North African Coast

Mediterranean Sea
35'53.3N/5'18.7W

The weather has been constantly getting worse day by day. After 24 hours of 30 knot winds at anchor, with boats around us dragging anchor, and not being able to leave the boat, we decided to move somewhere safer. Another low pressure system is supposed to blow through tomorrow and we do not want to be at anchor for this one.

When we woke up yesterday the winds had dropped down to 15 knots. So we quickly got Sandpiper secured for sea and picked up the hook. As we left the anchorage we kept getting calls on the VHF from the other boats we had been anchored next to asking where we were going. They did not want to be stuck in Gibraltar any longer either. We headed south, across the Straits of Gibraltar, 15 miles of dodging all the East/West shipping traffic to where we are currently secured in Hercules Marina in Cueta, Spain, in Africa.

One thing about 'cruising' is that we get an 'in depth' education about countries along the way. I had no idea that Spain had territory in Africa. But it does! Cueta is on the North African coast. It is a small Spanish territory along the Moroccan Coast just south of Gibraltar. It has been here since 1640. It is only 20 miles square, surrounded by Morocco. Cueta is a bustling town, right on the water with its preserved old city walls and navigable walled moat. Hercules Marina is a very convenient marina with everything we could need right across the street... grocery stores, a public market, Internet. There is even a McDonald's just a feet away.

We had hoped to be here just for a few days till this next low pressure system blows through tomorrow. But the weather forecast is not looking to good for us. The next 5 days predict winds coming out of the SW,  the direction we need to go. There is a group of about 10 other boats between here and Gibraltar that we have gotten to know during the last several weeks. They are all more then ready to get moving to the Canary Islands.

If it looks like we are going to be here more then 2 days due to weather, then we are going to plan some inland travels to Morocco while the Piper stays safe and sound in Hercules Marina. 

More later!!
Tom and Amy

Notes From Ron:

• Ceuta is believed to be the location of of the African Pillars of Hercules. Hence the name of the marina.
  
• Morocco has wanted Ceuta, Millina, and the uninhabited islands of Perejil transferred to them from Spanish control. In fact, Spain and Morocco got into a shooting war over the Perejil Islands back in 2002 when some Moroccan soldiers set up a camp there.