12th-21st April 2006, Initial cruise from Almerimar to Melilla and Morocco

Easter Parades

It was Fiesta time by the time we arrived in Melilla, and most services were closed for the duration of the holiday. On Friday evening, Mo and I set off to find the Easter parades that were due to start around 2130. It was our first excursion, so it took a while to find our bearings. We found one knot of people around a church near the Plaza de Espana, then set off for the Bullring, where we understood another parade would start. Finding not much activity there, we were back at the first church in time to see the parade emerge with a vast Madonna with Christ emerge from the church on a float (apparently a juggernaut, the origin of our word) supported by many hooded bearers. This parade set off with bugles and drums, so we returned to the Bullring, where a parade with more floats, bands, and military was forming up. We had time to get back to the boat for the video camera before returning to see the combined parades come past the main church. We then went to find a drink, and something to eat at one of the few open bars, before returning to see the Madonna returned to the church, perhaps the most impressive bit. The way in which the floats were handled by upto 50 bearers, co-ordinated by a bell and drums, was most impressive.

On Saturday, we had a late morning, and then defrosted the freezer. In the evening we walked around the old fortified town, which was mostly shut up.

The big parade was reserved for Easter Sunday. It was perhaps not so formal, with fewer military involved. An enormous float with Jesus processed by one route, meeting up with another Madonna in the Plaza de Espana. There was much raising of the floats into the air, shaking and swaying, before they all returned past the main church.

The float depicting the risen Christ	The Virgin Mother

On Monday we found that most businesses were still closed for the holiday. We walked up to the old fort Victoria, but found this in poor repair. By contrast, a lot of work is going into refurbishing the old town, even though so little tourism (bars, shops, etc.) is at present in evidence there. Melilla is generally quite a smart and pleasant place to walk around.

The old town seen from the marina	The Plaza de Espana

Venture into Morocco 18th April

We teamed up with Lars Nordang, from the Norwegian yacht Sesam, to visit Morocco. Carol from Zelena Zaba had warned Mo that toilet provision in Morocco was very basic, and she was quite concerned on this score! Lars advice was to take your own paper, as it was not provided. We took a taxi to the border, then had to get out and join the throng. Many people were already heading back across the border into Morocco, with all manner of goods that they had bought in Spain. One cycle was loaded with three lavatory pans. Having filled in the forms, and had our passports stamped, we followed through with the cars. The local people crossing the border appeared to be constrained to passing through a narrow walkway shut off from us by barred fencing. Once through, it was not long before we were offered a taxi. A long conversation ensued, about where to go, and what to do. John's idea had been to go to the mountains near Berkane, but this did not commend itself to our interpreter/guide, and the asking price started at 200 euros. Eventually, we settled on a visit to the local mountain, and a fairly uncertain route after that, for 60 euros, plus a present for the guide, Mustapha. The taxi was an old battered and patched Mercedes, with no winder on the windows, and missing handles, etc. So we set off, Mustapha and the driver in front, Mo, Lars and John in the back. Just around the corner on the right, a little further in, we noticed a large fleet of more respectable taxis, where had we persisted our negotiating position may have been stronger. We had not gone far before the driver stopped beside the road, and someone appeared with a large can of fuel, smuggled from Algeria where it is much cheaper. Thus equipped, we went on to the first town. On the way we passed a long new wall, behind which we caught sight of one of the King's palaces. At the town we stopped for a coffee. We all had one, Mo had orange juice, and the bill was two euros! From here we climbed up into the pine forested mountains, getting the occasional glimpse of local mountain farmers and old, often ruined, cottages. We were surprised at the amount of green in evidence, and many wild flowers. A change from the south eastern Spain that we had left.

A farmer, with donkey and dogs	Typical farm dwellings
Mustapha, our guide	The luxurious Mercedes taxi

Eventually we came to a point overlooking Melilla, before turning back. We took a circuitous route eastwards, through the old mineral workings. There used to be a railway to Melilla, but this closed down. Minerals are now hauled by truck to Nador for loading onto ships. We continued into a fertile flat plain with cereal, fruit, olive and other crops.

Coming back into Nador, we stopped for a while and Mustapha, (who never stopped talking in any one of several languages), took us into the fruit market. We purchased kiwis, dates, some yellow stoned fruits that we did not know the name of, and grapes, all for very reasonable prices. Lars paid, as he had local currency (Dirhans) having been cruising the Morocco coast from Gibralter. We were then taken to a fish restaurant, where we had soup, followed by paella, then an enormous dish of fish, calamares and small octopus...name gone again. It was delicious, and the whole lot for four of us (the taxi driver waited outside) cost thirty euros. One of the things we noticed was how on parking there was someone to look after your car for you, for a few dirhans. At the border again, we were offered forms for immigration and a pen with which to complete them, this time for a euro. We were severely pestered but stood our ground, collecting forms from the police post and filling them in with Lar's red pen (the only one we had). In the end we rather wished we had paid. Lars had spoken to one of the guys at length: he had studied business studies in Germany, but was reduced to selling official forms and hiring pens. In Morocco food and housing is reasonable, so the people are reasonably content. There is no public schooling, so poor people cannot afford education, ensuring a plentiful supply of cheap labour. Meanwhile, the elite enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.

A Brilliant evening 19th April

In the morning, John at last managed to establish the wireless connection. This had required the attention of the marina capitain, who had been on holiday. When he did turn up on Tuesday, there had been a problem, so we were only issued with pass codes that evening. As it turned out, in the absence of a printer they had not copied the pass codes correctly so neither Lasse nor we could connect! In our case it was simply a case of an 'm' that could have been an 'h', an 'r' or an 'n'! To celebrate, he spent most of the day 'nerding' on the computer. Pete and Stephanie arrived on Brilliant (USA) from Aguadulce (they had aborted a previous attempt due to poor conditions), having sailed all night. They were a little tired, but recovered enough by the evening to join us for some spaghetti, bringing with them the salad to go with it.

Procuring supplies 20th April

We set off in search of the hypermarket referred to in the Green Frog guide. We eventually found a supermarket, but were not impressed with the choice, and the local shop seemed much better. John ought to have read the perfectly adequate directions better (turn left, first right over the bridge). Mo found it later and returned with some good fruit and veg and more importantly a supply of very drinkable wine chosen from the wide selection they had available. Diesel in the marina is currently at 75 cents a litre, the same price as on the garage forecourts here.

Return towards Mar Menor? 21st/22nd April

In the morning we set about doing our 'unknitting'. The plug had to be taken off the adaptor lead for return to the marina office, water filled, our ladder (passarelle) taken down, dinghy recovered, etc., and gear re-stowed below. Eventually we were ready. We had hoped to get away by 1000, but it was 1100 when we moved off the berth to the fuelling berth. Then there was no marineiro in sight - the bar on the opposite side of the marina is a good vantage point for observation of any comings or goings. We filled all our cans, and then topped up the tanks with the low price diesel (75c/litre). Finally we were seen off by the departure committee at 1130, and lingered in the harbour taking some photographs. Having set the main, once outside the harbour we attempted to unfurl the jib. No luck! Somehow the heavy weather jib sheet, that emerges from the mast above the normal jib sheet, had managed to get trapped underneath it, and had jammed into the sheave for the normal jib sheet. Then the whole sheave had broken, a screw gone missing, and it had come out of the mast altogether. We couldn't work out what had happened, but it was almost certainly an electric winch assisted failure, coupled with carelessness in re-rigging the heavy weather sheet that doubles as a ladder uphaul. We had considered running on the heavy weather sheet, but as this was attached to the sheave in some way (impossible to resolve from deck level), a return to our berth was necessary. We managed to effect a repair by clamping the sheave in place with an 8mm bolt and large washer, necessitating a couple of trips up the mast in the bosun's chair.

Finally we got away again at 1400. By this time the departure committee had grown, and David from Zelena Zaba had been helping Mo with the selection of bolts. The advertised wind was SW, but to start with we had NWN and had to put a reef in. Gradually the wind backed until by the evening it was W, even SW for a time. We enjoyed a good sail all night. During the course of the night, the GPS went down, and we had to get the paper charts out. At first I couldn't get the first reserve, a portable that Mike had bought to get Jemanna from Ibiza to Barcelona, to work at all. We had AIS data on the chart, but no fix! So I called up the Glasgow Maersk who happened to be passing, and they gave me a position. It was good to hear a helpful Scot on the radio, even though I was not too sure of the position he gave me. Anyway, in the early hours, as the wind vanished and we had to put the engine on, so the GPS came back. Our forecast predicted strong winds from the NE, and our late departure had put us behind schedule. So we decided to cut our losses and put into Garucha, well short of our original objective. We anchored with difficulty in the north end of the harbour as there appeared to be no room for us in the marina, seemingly for smaller boats. We could not get the anchor to set, and were limited by moorings and another boat where we could try. On the second attempt we laid out a few more metres of chain, as much as we dared, and left it at that as it was raining hard. The hot shower, shepherds pie and vino were very welcome. 135 miles, 24.5 hours.

That night we decided to mount an anchor watch, because of the increasing wind and uncertainty about our anchor holding. However, with the best of intentions, John missed 4 hours in the land of nod.