Rabat to Canaries

Moonrise

Exiting the Rabat marina was not as fretful as I expected.  After being re sniffed by the dogs de douane we were OK to go.  Ocean swell not too bad, but once again, no wind so we motored.  Swell.  Days turn into nights turn into days into nights.  You get up & go when it's your turn to watch.  The big events are:  sunset, full moonrise, moon set, sunrise, & the occasional turtle floating by like an animated pancake.  We had 2 big events in one day, I had to go lie down after all the excitement.  Francois spots a couple of dolphins, then Serge & I see groups of 2 & 3 & before you know it, they are converging on the boat from all directions.  There must have been 20 or more of all sizes swimming with us at the bow.  We slowed down so they would stay longer.   Then, a little later, WE CATCH A FISH!  I heard the whizzing of the line on my afternoon watch so I called the boys up to take care of it, something I'm getting increasingly good at doing, according to Serge.  We had a baby tuna, all shiny & bright blue stripes, about 2 kilos.  It made a very nice sushi, with the rest for dinner. 

Skyping with the fam & telling this story elicits the comment, HOW EXCITING!  How exciting indeed, you have no idea.  Actually, it gets a little exciting as we approach Gran Canaria in the night and the wind picks up so we get to sail for about 12 hours.  Radar shows ships dead ahead but I can't distinguish anything against the lights of shore until they get quite close.  Then we start to get 30 knot wind gusts & we are really barrelling along.  Seas were very confused as we got closer, waves refracting off of the cliffs and giving poor Otto the pilot 30 degree shifts to react to, so Serge took over, cursing all the while.   Neptune should really get his act together.  Las Palmas is a really big port, lots of action all the time, even off season.  As usual, the marinaro helping us into our slip is a total moron.  How do they manage to find so many?  Wind blowing across the bow at 15 knots with 1 boat length to maneuver.  Serge took a second approach that was going to be perfect except for marinmoron in his Zodiac who thinks he should push the bow the SAME WAY the wind was blowing, and against the bow thruster.  So we ended up diagonally in a very narrow slip, scraping on the neighbours.  Serge was very upset.  He prides himself (rightfully) on parking his boat with lunar landing precision.  He was going to have a perfect performance in front of the gathering audience.  Instead we look like real morons.  No damage done, except to the skipper's ego.

Grumpy just for fun

We'll look for one more crew here.  Easier said than done.  There is a knock at our transom almost as soon as we dock.  Matteo the musician who has no experience but is a fast learner & plays healing, relaxing music on his guitar.  Ooookaaayyy.  Some other space cadet in really grubby pants wants a ride too.  A tribe of rasta type youths who look like they are living on the beach are all looking for passage.  We actually interview a couple of them, young Swiss men one of which has a huge mass of dreadlocks tied up behind his head & a wooden hole in his earlobe.  He's really cute, except for having 2 heads.  His friend with really long toenails wants a certified 1000 mile passage to get his captain's license, his longest passage is 14 hours, he eats mostly rice & sprouts, smokes cigarettes, & drinks a little wine occasionally (riiiiight)  He ends up REJECTING US!!  Seems he doesn't want to spend 2 weeks with us old farts. Hmpht.  Then a young woman who wants to go to Brazil passes on our offer too.  I'm beginning to get a complex.  Finally a nice couple from Brittany, like Francois, is moving in tomorrow.   We're casting off for Martinique around noon.  Should be there in about 2 weeks.  If this turns out to be my last post, in lieu of flowers send money to our favourite charity, our KIDS!