Great palce to visit, pretty picture to end with. Tomorrow we sail to Smir on the Moroccon coast. It's an exotic an interesting marina and village of Tetouan to visit. Happy July 4th everyone!
We had a very nice stroll around town and bought a Spanish cell phone - Hola!
Here's the river.
This fort is actually in 2 pieces, separated by a salt water river that makes Ceuta another island city.
This beach looks north over the Med towards Spain.
This is the beach looking south towards Morocco.
A sailing friend recommended this place - Cielo. Very nice dinner and view.
Ceuta is one cool place. It's "only" 2000+ years old and started by the Carthaginians, remember them, partiers! Then of course the Romans, then Muslims, then North African tribes, then Portugal and finally Spain. It's surrounded by Morocco and has a population mix of everything. It also has the cheapest diesel fuel in the Med - yahoo.
It took us a full day sail to make it to Ceuta - 10 hours to go 30 miles - yikes. That's what happens when you get wind and currents working against you. BTW, we timed it to go in with the rising tide and still maxed out at 3 knots - nice plan Capitano!
Now in the Gibraltar Straights, we sail between ships such as this times 50. Fortunately there are clearly defined sea lanes for Med bound traffic and Atlantic bound traffic. We just hang in the middle, kind of like a squirrel in traffic - fun times.
On our way to the Straights once again, under an even better forecast, but lo and behold, more weather. Oh well, we are committed now to get through the Straights. Our destination is the port of Ceuta (Say-oo-ta) on the North African Coast.
Time to take their picture as well. Nice kids. Thay had fun pacticing their English on us. In these parts, not much English is spoken. Hello and bye bye is big here.
Obviously we had to spend a day and go to the beach. I'm taking a picure of Jenée and I see these guys off in the distance cracking up. I haven't said a word and I'm already knocking them dead!
What might I be contemplating? Probably the fact that we sailed out of Cadiz heading for the Straight of Gibraltar in blue skies and a favorable weather forecast and got quite the opposite. We kept the blue skies but we ran into 12-15' waves and 40 kt winds - on the nose. Welcome to the Mediterranean! Prego! It was probably the hairiest sailing we encountered to date. Waves crashing up and over the pilot house, water finding it's way in - everywhere. Katie the Jungle cat was beside herself. This is what you get sometimes with the wind in this area. We consulted the charts and found this little fishing village of Barbate (Bar-Baht-eh) 6 miles off and headed in. Nice place with a nice beach. Oh, by the way earlier in the day the dinghy engine slipped out will being hoisted, but I caught it - on my hand. If you look close you can see my bashed knuckles. I'll have a talk with that guy who tied it up.
Great palce to visit, pretty picture to end with. Tomorrow we sail to Smir on the Moroccon coast. It's an exotic an interesting marina and village of Tetouan to visit. Happy July 4th everyone!
We had a very nice stroll around town and bought a Spanish cell phone - Hola!
Here's the river.
This fort is actually in 2 pieces, separated by a salt water river that makes Ceuta another island city.
This beach looks north over the Med towards Spain.
This is the beach looking south towards Morocco.
A sailing friend recommended this place - Cielo. Very nice dinner and view.
Ceuta is one cool place. It's "only" 2000+ years old and started by the Carthaginians, remember them, partiers! Then of course the Romans, then Muslims, then North African tribes, then Portugal and finally Spain. It's surrounded by Morocco and has a population mix of everything. It also has the cheapest diesel fuel in the Med - yahoo.
It took us a full day sail to make it to Ceuta - 10 hours to go 30 miles - yikes. That's what happens when you get wind and currents working against you. BTW, we timed it to go in with the rising tide and still maxed out at 3 knots - nice plan Capitano!
Now in the Gibraltar Straights, we sail between ships such as this times 50. Fortunately there are clearly defined sea lanes for Med bound traffic and Atlantic bound traffic. We just hang in the middle, kind of like a squirrel in traffic - fun times.
On our way to the Straights once again, under an even better forecast, but lo and behold, more weather. Oh well, we are committed now to get through the Straights. Our destination is the port of Ceuta (Say-oo-ta) on the North African Coast.
Time to take their picture as well. Nice kids. Thay had fun pacticing their English on us. In these parts, not much English is spoken. Hello and bye bye is big here.
Obviously we had to spend a day and go to the beach. I'm taking a picure of Jenée and I see these guys off in the distance cracking up. I haven't said a word and I'm already knocking them dead!
What might I be contemplating? Probably the fact that we sailed out of Cadiz heading for the Straight of Gibraltar in blue skies and a favorable weather forecast and got quite the opposite. We kept the blue skies but we ran into 12-15' waves and 40 kt winds - on the nose. Welcome to the Mediterranean! Prego! It was probably the hairiest sailing we encountered to date. Waves crashing up and over the pilot house, water finding it's way in - everywhere. Katie the Jungle cat was beside herself. This is what you get sometimes with the wind in this area. We consulted the charts and found this little fishing village of Barbate (Bar-Baht-eh) 6 miles off and headed in. Nice place with a nice beach. Oh, by the way earlier in the day the dinghy engine slipped out will being hoisted, but I caught it - on my hand. If you look close you can see my bashed knuckles. I'll have a talk with that guy who tied it up.
1 comment:
Do they charge more when you order from outside tables? Is it cheaper to order at the bar?
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