El Jedida to Safi
26/09/07 19:42 Filed in: Morocco
Before sailing we wanted to return to the Cité Portugaise and visit the water cistern which we hadn't seen the other day. We were pretty early (09:30) but we were preceded by two coachloads of visitors. One French and one Russian.
The cistern, built in 1541, was marvellous and much better preserved than other parts of the city. This was some watertank. More like a church than anything else.
After the cistern we tookt a taxi to a large supermarket on the outskirts of El Jedida. Tomas thought it was Spanish owned and it was quite a contrast to the medinas and kasbahs we have been visiting recently.
Back to the boat and we found that in our absence Rashid had moved Kiriwina along the harbour and moored her outside a small local yacht next to the sailing club. Quite an achievement considering Kiriwina was locked and the awning up. The move had been necessary to allow "Doukalla" to sail.
This was not a good spot and the light local yacht was taking a bit of a pounding. I did the rounds to complete departure formalities.
First to the harbour office to pay dues of 30 Dhm. Then to the police and immigration office to obtain exit stamps in our passports and finally to the customs office where a note was made of our departure.
Ou port costs in El Jedida. Harbour dues 30 Drm, Harbourmaster 2 packs of Cigarettes, Rashid 5 Euros. He wasn't happy with our offer of 30Drm but at this point we only had 200Drm notes.
We sailed at 13:15. It was almost high water yet there was only 5.3 meters in the approach channel. After clearing the harbour we took a long curve around Cape Mazagon to avoid the etensive breaking shoals thereafter proceeding along the coast towards Safi.
The sea was pretty calm with a moderate 2m swell. Today we had wind. Less than 10 knots and from almost dead astern. Be poling out the yankee and rigging a preventer on the main we were able to proceed slowly under sail at around 3 knots.
This wind was as forecast and we continued to sail along the coast for the rest of the afternoon and throughout the evening.
The cistern, built in 1541, was marvellous and much better preserved than other parts of the city. This was some watertank. More like a church than anything else.
After the cistern we tookt a taxi to a large supermarket on the outskirts of El Jedida. Tomas thought it was Spanish owned and it was quite a contrast to the medinas and kasbahs we have been visiting recently.
Back to the boat and we found that in our absence Rashid had moved Kiriwina along the harbour and moored her outside a small local yacht next to the sailing club. Quite an achievement considering Kiriwina was locked and the awning up. The move had been necessary to allow "Doukalla" to sail.
This was not a good spot and the light local yacht was taking a bit of a pounding. I did the rounds to complete departure formalities.
First to the harbour office to pay dues of 30 Dhm. Then to the police and immigration office to obtain exit stamps in our passports and finally to the customs office where a note was made of our departure.
Ou port costs in El Jedida. Harbour dues 30 Drm, Harbourmaster 2 packs of Cigarettes, Rashid 5 Euros. He wasn't happy with our offer of 30Drm but at this point we only had 200Drm notes.
We sailed at 13:15. It was almost high water yet there was only 5.3 meters in the approach channel. After clearing the harbour we took a long curve around Cape Mazagon to avoid the etensive breaking shoals thereafter proceeding along the coast towards Safi.
The sea was pretty calm with a moderate 2m swell. Today we had wind. Less than 10 knots and from almost dead astern. Be poling out the yankee and rigging a preventer on the main we were able to proceed slowly under sail at around 3 knots.
This wind was as forecast and we continued to sail along the coast for the rest of the afternoon and throughout the evening.