Before we left Gibraltar we took advantage of the squash court that we found on the Rock. A very well maintained facility. Cost us nothing to play and had the courts to ourselves anytime we wanted. Thank you Gibraltar Squash Association. If you ever find yourself in Gibraltar, look them up at the Europa Sports Center out at the point.

Spent a night in La Linea marina which is right next door to Gibraltar. Tied up and then hopped on the bus to get to the other side of the bay where we knew we could get the soda-stream bottles exchanged. Not much to look at getting there and back. We were visited by the Policia Nationale that evening where they scrutinized our passports to see if we were legally supposed to be there. Turns out we needed to get our stamps up to date and we went over to the border crossing to Gibraltar in the morning to get the proper stamp into the country. And then 2 days later to get the stamp out of the country.

We waited for the clouds to form over the Rock indicating Levante winds meaning that it was time to leave and off we went to Morocco.

Tangiers

Next stop was Tangiers in Morocco. A good jumping off point to get across the Gibraltar Strait is Tarifa on the Spanish coast. This cuts down the amount of time being spent in Orca Alley. There has been a large number of attacks by Orcas on sailboats in this area and up the coast of Portugal as well. Experts are unclear why this is happening and only happening to vessel’s rudders (sailboats). The Orcas will start to “play” with the rudder until finally breaking it off causing the sailboat to lose steerage. They have even sunk a few by causing water ingress to the boat. A few things have been recommended to try to keep them away from the boat. Banging on the swim ladders, lighting firecrackers etc., but try to get away from the area as soon as possible.

We started off from Tarifa around 7:30 am when it was just getting light and spotted 3 different pods off in the distance. Could have been Pilot Whales but Jacqui was sure they were Orcas. Avoided any contact by steering 180 degrees away and tucking up behind a west bound tanker, made it into Tangiers marina with no incidents but we did hear on the radio an alert of orcas and a catamaran that was “attacked” around Tarifa where we had started out a couple of hours after we were there. Dumb luck or bad luck.

Tangiers was interesting, I won’t say it was a great stopover. Big city with all the people and culture that comes with it. Took a tour around the medina “old city”. Managed to have a tour guide by just showing up in the area. This guy attached himself to us and showed us around. We didn’t ask him to he just did. And at the end was looking for money obviously. Gave him a few Euros for his time, I think he was disappointed.

Rented a car for a day and drove to Chefchaouen to see the “Blue City” Got on the N2, a 6 lane highway and not more than 5 or 6 kilometers down the road when we spotted a kitten in the middle of the highway. Naturally we had to stop and try to rescue this thing. Flashers on, Jacqui jumps out and grabs it, now we need to find a rescue shelter or vet because there would be no way we could take her back to the boat. Drove all around the town of Tetouan and had no luck so we took her down to Chefchaouan to try to find a home. Finally found a mother cat with kittens around the same age living in a cardboard box so we left her there and watched to see if the mother would reject or accept. Seems all she did was ignore. Good enough. We saved her life but unfortunately could not give her the home she deserves, there were tears from Jacqui on goodbye.

Drove back to Tangiers next day through Larache. Not much to see there. I wanted to go and see Casablanca, just to say that I was there but after reading the history of the movie there really is nothing to see. Rick’s Cafe was built there in 2010 as a tourist attraction. And the actual movie was filmed entirely in Warner Bros studios. Not a loss as we were really looking forward to getting to the Canary Islands.

Canary Islands

Arrived here on the 27th of September and spent a couple of nights at anchor on Graciosa Island. Didn’t bother going ashore as the beach access was not the best. Moved down the island of Lanzarote to Marina Rubicon where we spent a few nights. Rented a car with the hope of finding the squash court that we saw on Google search in Arricefe in the middle of the island. It took us a while to locate but finally discovered it in a Community Center. There was another one on Google search but turned out to be only tennis and Padel. Thinking of taking up Padel. Vey popular over here.

Next stop an anchorage just outside of Rubicon while we wait for the weather to change. Went over to Islas De Lobos for a couple of nights and met up with our Canadian friends Eric and Bruno. They are also going across the Atlantic, and have joined the ARC.

Jacqui and I were anxious to get off the boat after a few days on the boat so we waved down a water taxi in the anchorage in order to get off the boat and hike the island. The island is volcanic so hardly any vegetation, like walking on Mars.

Next day carried on further down to the island of Fuerteventura to a small marina at Puerta Castillo. We did find a squash court here. In all our searching around for a court we found that there are squash camps held in the Canary Islands so we thought we could get lucky with a court. The one in Puerta Castillo was part of a hotel and we were able to use it … sort of. Got on the court, looking for the lights, went back up to the desk to request they turn the lights on. Seems they thought there were light switches in the court. Ah … no. They called maintenance and after being there for close to an hour maintenance never showed so we gave up. Hit the ball a little bit because of the natural light coming into the court but not enough.

Stopped on the way to the bottom of the island at Playa de Sotavento. Very nice anchorage that deserves another visit at another time. The bottom of the island was also a very nice secluded anchorage, even though is was blowing hard, plus 25knots, we were very secured. we made our way across to Las Palmas on Gran Canarias the next day. The sail to Las Palmas was supposed to be winds of 15-18 knots and 2 meter waves. The waves turned out to be so far apart it was hardly noticeable and it turned into a great sail.

So here we sit in Las Palmas marina (very cheap) while we wait for the water-maker repair kit to show up and get a rig check, (couple of things to take care of there, nothing serious) and also take care of some other odds and sods around the boat. No squash court here as we discovered. I hate Google!