Ken’s friend Mohammed had arranged for a driver to Marrakesh …. and the driver was still waiting in Safi. Skipped most of the paperwork and off to Marrahesh. Mo had also arranged a Riad or private house that was rented out to guests. Finally at two in the morning the crew was asleep in the souks of Marrahesh. Mo had arranged a guide and three day tour of the sights, sounds and snakes of Marrahesh than back to Safi for the sail to Las Palmas.
After a two layover of instrument issues and repairs in Gibraltar the Grateful Red was ready for the first leg of the ocean crossing back to Western Hemisphere and the Caribbean —- Gibraltar to Las Palmas in the Gran Canaries ….. with a stop in Safi, Morocco to Marrakesh. Matt, Gordie and Paul arrived ready to sail. Gibraltar to Safi is a 500 mile run. The initial winds were terrific and the Grateful Red was blasting so much that Ken lost track of fuel consumption. Soon the wind died, than we ran out of fuel and finally the fog rolled in. Did I mention the “fog”, visibility was zero. We more or less drifted in to Safi port, we could hear the waves crashing on the rocks but couldn’t see the rock – 100 {e5b62957b3804ab7f47eece8c936dd4b822dafb6efd3f6ca02827a1c1cc3266f} by the chart no visuals. At eleven in the evening we tied off to a work ship in Safi harbor – the harbor had only commercial boats and the Grateful Red.
We ended up staying a additional day and explored the city and surrounding area. Molly, Fred and Paula went off to ride camels and Ken and I took a taxi to one of the Resort Hotels down the beach and found some great internet. They let us sit in the beautiful lobby for several hours working on our computers. Ken knew that I had been frustrated with no internet and this was our solution. When we were finished, we instructed our taxi driver to take us to a nice restaurant somewhere on the route back to the harbor. After eating, we were close enough that we walked back to our hotel and got ready for a 6AM departure to Algeria planned for the next morning.
As with every departure, customs seems to take longer than you want. Ken and Fred had to go to the Port Authorities to get our paperwork back and they were gone almost one hour. I thought for sure that something bad had happened, but no, just the slow process of Customs.
We finally got to leave and headed out with 65 nautical miles to go for the day.
See you on the Water
