Our sightseeing of Portugal was over and it was time to think about our continuing journey. Since it was still early November, we figured we didn't have to head straight for the Canary Islands, but could instead hop down to Morocco and see some more of that country. So, when we left Cascais behind on Sunday, November 3, 2002, we set a course for Casablanca, on Morocco's northwestern coast.

The same morning we left Cascais, Tom pulled out of Peniche and set the same course, but since he was about 40 miles north of us, it took him 24 hours to catch up. As soon as we had cleared the anchorage for the big ships, which lies outside the opening to the Tagus River, we shut the engine off and were under sail only. The wind was light, 8-10 knots from the west, so we only sailed along about three knots. That was all right seeing we had been sitting still for awhile and needed to get used to being onboard again, besides we wanted Tom to catch up. All day we moved forward slowly, and by evening, when it was time to connect with Southbound II, the Canadian weatherman named Herb, we also talked to Tom on the SSB. He was only about six miles behind, but we still couldn't see him! The following morning XTC had caught up and was within sight of us. We both started nearing Cape Saint Vincent, by mid-day on the second day out, which is the last point in Portugal we had to go by, and soon the European mainland started disappearing in the haze. Crossing the shipping lanes in and out of the Mediterranean was not as horrible this time, compared to when we arrived. Besides being daylight, it was not as many ships either coming or going, and before dark we were well below the lanes and could go to sleep knowing we were out of the area. The second day out it got quite breezy, northerly wind up to 32 knots, so we hurried forward with great speed. Thank goodness it calmed by evening to a mere 15 knots and that is just about right, especially since both the wind and sea came from behind. During the day we had the whisker pole holding the genoa out, but maybe the wind got too strong for it, as all of a sudden the pole bent. It put a good kink in the forward tube and it was no way it could be bent back; the whisker pole was useless!

Early in the morning on Wednesday, November 6, we started seeing lights from land and we were getting close to the Moroccan coast outside Casablanca. By then Dan and I took turns sitting watch, as the auto-pilot was tired and wanted to go to sleep also, and we had to shake it awake. We also needed to go through the offshore, big ship's anchorage outside the entrance to Casablanca's harbor, and for that one of us needed to be awake. Numerous smaller fishing boats were also about in the wee hours, and it was awfully hazy and hard to see far into the distance. As we got closer to the big ships and the coastline, we could see somewhat better, but even then a thick haze seemed to hang over the land and reach out over the water! Eventually we made it in behind the first big breakwater wall, and there on top of the cement wall sat numerous men with their fishing poles. A small dinghy came towards us with three men onboard, and we were wondering how we would be accepted? No problems what so ever; we were welcome, they said, even though they asked where we came from! Immediately I could see in the faces of these men and by the way and how they were dressed, that we no longer were in Europe. Everyone seemed to be very thin; skin draped over sharp, dark and swarthy features, and they were not clean washed. Most had cloth wrapped around their heads and some even half covered their faces. They all wore long sleeved shirts and pants; none in T-shirts and shorts! Some even had on thick vests on top of everything, and maybe it was needed as the nights could get pretty chilly! The water in the harbor was just about awful; everything imaginable floated about besides oil and diesel! We of course, were looking for the marina, and according to our chart it was way up and inside the roll-on, roll-off harbor! We found a small area in shallow water where some local boats had anchored, but it certainly was no room for our boats. Instead there were plenty of fishing boats tied up three, four deep along the quay, and others were moored out. Finally Tom talked to the Harbor Master on the VHF, and we found out there was no marina for foreign yachts in the port, but at the very beginning of the harbor, between the outer breakwater wall and the container terminal, we could anchor. We turned around and headed out of the harbor, and when we saw the container terminal, we went into an area between it and the next quay and there we stayed on anchor that night. We had come 288 nautical miles since we left Portugal, and had arrived to another world!

Nobody had bothered us during the night, but we thought it odd no other boats had come in to anchor, as we had heard some talk on the VHF the night before! We found out the next morning that we hadn't anchored in exactly the right spot; one bay over was the designated anchorage area and sort of a marina! We soon pulled up our anchors and headed over to where other boats laid on anchor, and the first boat I noticed was one with a Swedish flag waving from the stern. It was the boat, Lena III, with Lars and Gunnar onboard. We had met them in Cascais earlier, and it was nice to see them here again! Once we sat secured on anchor, we ate breakfast and started getting ready to go ashore to check in. Another sailor came by to tell us that we, plus everyone else, needed to go ashore and see the Customs and Immigration people as soon as possible. We got a ride with Tom into the marina. I don't think we could call it a marina, as it only consisted of some chained together wooden pontoons. When we walked on these platforms they moved up and down and sideways, and from one to another we had to balance on rickety boards or take a huge step! Some big I-beams, pipes and staging also went out into the water, so at one time this might have been the harbor's loading platform! A few sailboats were actually tied up stern-to to this floating configuration of pontoons, but it certainly was no place we wanted to be! At least we could tie Tom's dinghy there, knowing it would be looked after.

As soon as we came up on land, we were herded into a Mercedes car and driven over to the Customs and Immigration by an elderly Moroccan man. He spoke only a few words of English and we no Moroccan, so we had a hard time finding out the charge for this ride? The paperwork took awhile to complete, but soon we had permission to stay in Casablanca. Then we decided to have the man drive us to the main gate of the port and drop us off. Again we asked what the charge would be, and Tom suggested a price, but that was not to the man's liking. Finally we ended up giving him 10 euros, which was too much I thought, but worth it to get rid of him! We were finally free to walk around in the city of Casablanca! A man soon attached himself to Dan and started speaking English. The man was very friendly and told Dan where such and such a place were located, so soon we were walking along trying to find these places! The sidewalks were crowded with people and the streets by cars! The drivers were dangerous, and I don't think any particular rules prevailed, only who could squeeze into a spot first! We soon found a local bank and an ATM machine, where we got some Moroccan dirhams; 10.37 dirhams to $1.00 at that time. Now we had local money and could eat lunch at MacDonalds! We also found our way to the tourist information, where we picked up brochures over Morocco, Casablanca and Agadir, and did we want a guided tour of the city, with an English' speaking guide, for 450 dirhams? The tour would take about 3-4 hours, and we decided "yes", that sounded great!

While we waited for the lady to organize our tour, we walked over to the local produce market. It was open longer than usual since this was "ramadan", when the Muslim people fast during daylight hours. By 1430 we sat in the back seat of a taxi, with the driver and guide in the front and so our guided tour of Casablanca began! Our guide was called "Lucky", he said; the name stems from a severe motorcycle accident he had a few years ago and survived! He spoke quite good English, which he had learned working as a nanny for an American family in the sixties and also while working at the American naval base in Casablanca. He definitely was a character and said about his own countrymen, that you don't find a job sleeping till noon! In his eyes, the ones that wanted to work could always find something, but the lazy ones slept till noon and begged for their existence. Everywhere we saw outstretched hands begging for money, and if one man helped another with anything, money was changing hands! That was something we got tired of fast and tried our best to ignore!

Our first stop was at the Town Hall, which was beautifully decorated with colorful tiles and plaster in delicate patterns. A huge picture of the new prince also was on display. He seemed to be quite young, and he had taken over after his father had passed away. Not a job I would want! To reach the Town Hall we had driven by the prince's palace, where he lives when he comes to Casablanca to visit. Normally he lives in his royal palace in Rabat, which is another city along the coast but farther north! When we came out from the Town Hall, we walked along the streets to the "medina", which are the Arabic quarters and where the local people come to do their shopping. Here you are expected to haggle about the price on everything, and here everything was available. Beautiful robes for the ladies and gentlemen, slippers of every size and color, Moroccan daggers in various sizes with nicely decorated handles, hand-tied colorful area rugs, jewelry, and so much more. Food was also for sale; olives soaked in different spices, dried spices in huge sacks, meat and poultry hung up for inspection, and bread was baked in a special baking store. A huge deep oven was heated with wood, and here everyone brought their already prepared bread for baking. As we walked along narrow lanes in the medina, we passed by a shop where they made mats from straw, and where I was allowed to take a picture. The men squatted on planks raised on edge, and across these planks they hand wove straw mats in different colors and with beautiful patterns. I could not imagine an American male doing anything like that!

Soon we reached our car and were whisked off to the nicer side of the city, where wide, tree lined boulevards with beautiful, huge mansions were plentiful. This part of the city was inhabited by foreigners; this is where all the embassies and consulates were located, and where the people who worked in them lived! A short distance further, we reached the Atlantic coastline south of the port, and here we got out of the car and walked along the tiled walkway. We could see a long beach farther ahead, but Lucky said that it was very dangerous to swim there in the winter. The surge from the waves was very strong and could overpower a person! Even so we saw surfers try their luck among the breaking waves, and a few sunbathers on the beach. Lucky also pointed out a small rocky island a little bit off the coast farther south, and that's where they think the original settlers of Casablanca had lived. Here along the coast-boulevard Lucky lost his driver! As he walked to find him, we sat at a sidewalk cafe' and drank a cup of coffee. Soon Lucky returned with the car and driver; this was the first time Lucky had used this particular car and driver, and consequently they hadn't gotten used to each other and where to stop and where to pick up!

The last stop of our tour was at the newly built Hassan II Mosque, which was situated on top of an old swimming pool along the shore just outside the port. It was enormous and very beautiful! Inside the main part of the mosque there is room for 25,000 men praying on their mats. Upstairs on a balcony 5,000 women can do the same, and another 80,000 people can kneel and pray outside in the huge plaza. We were allowed to peek inside the big room, and there the floor was covered with beautiful rugs. Men in green robes watched so you didn't wonder in too far, and I must say I was very surprised when one man indicated that I could take a picture. Usually the Muslim people don't want their picture taken, but here maybe they were used to tourists wanting to photograph the beautiful mosque! Even though the mosque was not that old, the elevator to the high minaret didn't work, according to Lucky, and here and there we definitely could see shabby areas, but from far off the place was immensely impressive!

Instead of returning to the tourist office with Lucky and his driver, we asked them to drop us off in the port. Shortly after 1700 we drove through the main gate, where both Lucky and his driver had to show some kind of ID's in order to get through the gate, which was heavily guarded by police! We in the back seat didn't have to show anything! We now tried to guide the driver towards the marina, which was easier said then done, and when we had to stop for a freight train to pass, we decided to walk back from there. I asked Lucky and the driver to come outside the car so I could take a picture of them. I think they were mightily disappointed when I only took a picture and did not give them any tips. By then Dan had walked away, but Tom was still close by, so he felt sorry for Lucky and the driver and gave them a few euros apiece! The tour of the city had been very interesting, and we had seen the highlights; more so than if we would have walked around on our own, so the few euros Lucky and his driver earned, besides the original charge, was worth it to us!

Later on that same evening, we connected with Southbound II and his recommendation was to stay in the harbor another day, giving the sea a chance to calm down some more after some strong winds. That meant one more day in Casablanca and some more stuff needed to be brought onboard. Pretty early on Friday morning Tom picked us up in his dinghy and brought us ashore, and since no Mercedes sat waiting for us, we walked all the way through the port and up into the city. It was quite a long distance, but to me the walk felt good. Since we expected to leave for Agadir the following morning, we wanted to find an Internet Cafe' and send some emails. The connection to the Internet was very slow, and since they used a French keyboard, all the keys were not the same as we were used to. We had a hard time connecting to our email address, until we found out that the number 1, was not number one but something else! Soon we had sent our mail and checked the weather; light northeasterly winds for tomorrow, so it looked good for our continuing journey. One last good lunch at MacD's, a carton of cigarettes for Dan, and some very expensive batteries for our water tester we also bought. Soon we headed back towards the port, but before we got there a very nasty thing happened to Tom; he got robbed of all his money! As we were walking along the busy main street, there were lots of people sticking things in our faces and wanted us to buy, or just had their hands out and begging. We tried our best to ignore these people, but one particular man, in a black jacket with some athletic slogan on the back, kept following us much longer than usual. In hindsight we should have been forewarned, but who would have thought the man would strike in broad daylight and among so many people! Evidently this man was checking Tom out, and when he struck, it happened very quick, so the maneuver was certainly practiced and perfected over time! Tom, Dan and I were walking in a row; I first, Dan in the middle and Tom last. Just as I turned around to check and see if the guys were still with me, I noticed that Tom almost fell forward. At the same time I heard a clink, then saw Tom look up at a man next to him and they both stared at each other! As soon as Tom realized what had happened, he yelled thief, but the man calmly walked away from him. Soon Dan joined in the shouting also, and people around us started to look interested. Tom then started to run after the thief, but since this was the thief's turf, he soon disappeared down some alleys, and Tom thought it prudent not to follow! Tom told us later how the whole episode had come about: Tom had walked along with both hands in his pockets. When the thief stuck out his leg in front of Tom trying to trip him, the natural instinct was for Tom to pull his hands out of his pockets and try to catch himself. In so doing the thief stuck his hand into Tom's pocket and grabbed his money clip, but the clip came off the money and fell to the ground, and that was the clink I had heard. The thief got away with about 100 euros, so he had a good day, but for Tom it was a very frustrating experience to say the least and very aggravating. Everything happened so quickly, but as I think back on it, it all seems to be playing out in my mind in slow motion! Another man, a reporter for some newspaper, asked us what had happened? Once we told him Tom got robbed, he thought we should report it to the police. How could we do that, when we didn't speak their language and could only describe the robber as wearing a black jacket! After that experience we all wanted to get away from Casablanca, so when we returned to the port, we went to the Customs and retrieved our boat papers, got our passports stamped out and we were free to leave.

Shortly after daybreak on Saturday, November 9, we pulled up our anchors and powered out of Casablanca's port. Two sailboats had already disappeared around the corner and another smaller one left right behind us. The Swedish boat, Lena III had left the day before heading for Agadir, and that's where we also were heading. Once we came away from land we could hoist our jennicker, as the wind was pretty light, but we moved forward at least. A few big and small fishing-boats were heading for the port, but one small dinghy, with three men onboard came straight for us. Evidently they wanted to sell their catch, but we didn't want them near our boat. Our "no, we don't want anything", didn't stop them, but when I went to get my digital camera to take a picture of them, they started hollering and turned their dinghy around and hurried away! What we could see of the African coast, as we made our way south, was only sand dunes to begin with. Further along, the sand dunes gave way to ragged and barren looking mountains, and hardly any houses did we see. Of course a few towns were scattered here and there along the coast, but how could people make a living in the land of sand? All day Saturday and even during the night we sailed with the jennicker out, but towards afternoon on Sunday it was time for Dan to wrestle with the chute-scoop and the jennicker. By then the wind gusted quite high at times and we seemed to be flying on top of the waves! Dan went out on the bow and yanked on the lines for the chute-scoop, but it was jammed somehow; that meant that he could not collapse the big sail before taking it down! While Dan was working with the sail, I was sitting in the captain's chair keeping an eye on him. All of a sudden I saw Dan dangle up in the air over the starboard bow! He had collapsed the sail and was pulling on a line, when a strong gust of wind re-filled the sail and consequently lifted Dan, like a rag-doll, up into the air. My thought was that surely the sail would swing Dan back over the boat and drop him on the deck. Not so; when the sail collapsed, it dropped Dan in the water along the boat and I couldn't see him any longer. What an awful feeling in my stomach I had, as I hurried out on the stern to see where Dan was! By then Duke was interested also, as he surely could sense something horrible had happened! There, along the side of the boat was Dan, and he was holding on to the line! Thank God he was strong enough to hang on, as with the boat sailing along pretty fast and he with all his clothes on, it couldn't have been easy! Eventually Dan pulled himself up over the lifelines in the stern, but first we had to unwrap the line from his neck and chest; it had gotten tangled around Dan when he was dragged through the water. Once Dan stood dripping on the deck in the back, we both could let out a sigh of relief, but what horrible stress for a few minutes! The jennicker did come down eventually and the easier to manage genoa was rolled out!

With strong gusts of wind during the afternoon on Sunday, the wind calmed altogether in the middle of the night to Monday. By 0200 both Dan and I were awake and we started our engine to at least move ahead and stop from going backwards. We called Tom on the VHF to inform him what we were doing. He had already tried to start his engine, but it wouldn't stay running. The engine oil lamp and buzzer kept going off on low oil, he said. He had found a leak in one of the lines to his engine and had no more oil to put in! We had oil on our boat, and since we couldn't keep going and leave Tom stranded out on the water, we turned around and motored the few miles that separated us. If you have tried to get close enough to another boat out on the heaving sea, to transfer something, you know how hard it is! Dan stood out on our bow, a rope tied around the oil can in his hand and directing me where to steer. Of course it was even more difficult since it was dark and we couldn't see very well! When XTC was on top of a wave, Stress Relief was at the bottom of another, and I had visions of our boat climbing straight up on XTC's stern. After numerous tries Dan was finally able to throw the rope over so Tom could grab it and haul the oil over to his boat. I could steer our boat away and breathe again, and I noticed that I could hardly swallow - my mouth was completely dry! It is hard to imagine I could go back to sleep after that harrowing experience, but I did and slept for a couple of hours till the radar alarm woke me. By then it was almost daylight and just as well to stay up! Dan had left his fishing-pole out during the night, and all of a sudden the reel started spinning out. I woke Dan to tell him he caught a fish, so he got up and started reeling in the line! It was some resistance now and then, and as the end of the line neared the boat, we could see something flapping about; must be a big fish we thought! We had not caught a fish; instead a big, brown sea-bird had caught our line! The line was wrapped around one of its wings and tangled up in its feathers, and it was no way Dan could untangle it. Besides, the bird wasn't too friendly and tried to bite Dan with its thick, long beak whenever Dan pulled it close enough to the boat to reach its wing. Finally, Dan had to cut the line and pull as much as he could away from the bird's wing, and soon the bird bobbed free on the water, where he was constantly shaking himself. We never saw him fly off, but I surely hoped he could! After the bird-catching experience Dan took his fishing-pole down and put it away, and only brought it out once more during our crossing, and that was the day before we made landfall in the Caribbean!

It was hardly any wind during the day on Monday, so we motored-sailed along and moved forward. Only the highest peaks from the mountains onshore stuck up through the thick haze, so we can't say we saw much of the African coastline. At night we shut the engine off, as we didn't want to get too far ahead of XTC, but when the genoa just flapped back and forth Dan rolled it in all the way. Now we were just bobbing along with the waves and current, and on our chart it showed we went backwards and around in a loop by morning. Before 0500 Duke woke me up by his barking? What could he possibly be barking at out here on the water away from everything? Maybe a fishing boat was getting close, so I naturally had to get up and have a look. Nothing within sight of our boat except flashes of light in the water now and then! I opened the plastic door to the stern and peeked out, and to my amazement I saw flashes of lights all around the boat. It startled me at first, until I figured out what it was; it was phosphorescence flashing from dolphins chasing smaller fish. It actually looked like someone was below the surface shining a flashlight upwards here and there, and it was very beautiful. I could also hear the dolphins make a swooshing noise, as they briefly came to the surface for air, and I think that was the sound Duke had heard!

Duke and I had also watched Tom sail by; seems he can sail in much less wind than we can. By daylight on Tuesday, November 12, we found out that XTC was about five miles ahead, so we started our engine and powered south. After one and a half-hours of motoring we caught up to XTC, but since the winds were light and variable, we continued motoring. By then we were getting close to the last Cape we had to clear, before we could set a course for Agadir, about 20 miles further southeast. After discussing our plans with Tom, it was agreed we would continue under power to the harbor in Agadir and check it out, before Tom would arrive. It took us all day before we reached the enormous breakwater wall on the outside harbor, where big freighters and ships laid tied up. We continued by this port until we reached the fishing port, as there the marina also was supposed to be. As soon as we entered the fishing harbor, we were amazed at the amount of fishing boats tied up. We found out later, that the world's largest sardine fishing fleet makes its home in just this harbor! Of course all the biggest fishing-boats started backing out from their rafted position as soon as we arrived, and it was a cacophony of horns blasting and engines roaring. The water in the harbor was like that in Casablanca - awfully dirt with garbage floating everywhere. One man onboard a leaving fishing-boat just heaved a plastic bag full of garbage overboard. I would not have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes! As we got farther up into the port, a thick layer of oil and diesel floated on top of the water and it certainly didn't look pleasant! We noticed a few sailboats farther in and we headed for them, but once we rounded the first pontoon, where would we tie up? We didn't see an empty spot for our boat? Instead we saw the Swedish boat, Lena III rafted up outside another big catamaran, and when Lars said we could raft up to them, we gladly accepted! We had arrived to Agadir after about 230 miles and 80 hours on the Atlantic again!

Once we had visited with the Swedes, it was time for our supper. Shortly after four official men came over to our boat in a dinghy. They wanted Dan to go with them and check in! Dan was a bit hesitant to get into the dinghy with all those men, but they made it over to the marina office all right, where Dan checked us into Agadir. Even though we still were in Morocco, each city we left and entered into, we had to check in all over again! We had tried to contact Tom on our VHF several times since we arrived to the port, but to no avail, so we kind of wondered what had happened to him. We found out later, after we had slept for awhile, when Duke was barking and woke us up! Tom had reached the port and was in the process of rafting up to our boat, with the help of a man from the marina! We were glad he had arrived also!

The next morning the Swedish boat, Lena III took on diesel the Moroccan way; it was brought out to their boat in five gallon containers in a dinghy, and the man transferred the fuel by way of a small hose he blew into! Since Lena III couldn't hold everything they had ordered, we took on the last 15 liters, which our tanks just gobbled up! After breakfast Tom, Dan and I got ready to go ashore and find our way into the city, and it was a good hike into the center. The first store we looked for was an Internet Cafe', where we checked and downloaded our emails. We also checked the weather and it didn't look good for us to continue out to the Canary Islands until Sunday, so we would have four days in this city! After we found the tourist information and got some maps over the city and surrounding areas, we located an ATM machine and got some more dirhams. A pizza for lunch tasted delicious, and that's when we also decided to rent a car for three days, so we could drive around and see some of the area, plus Dan didn't want to walk all the way into town every day!

Since neither Dan nor Tom had a valid driver's license, it was mine that rented the car for three days. The charge was 800 dirhams, about 80 dollars for three days, which we split with Tom. We didn't exactly get a nice car, but the engine and the transmission worked, which was most important! Of course Dan drove, and we made our way out of the city and headed down the highway towards the old "casbah", where we wanted to have a look. Halfway down the hill, we got stopped by the police; they stopped all the cars going in our direction! Of course they wanted to see Dan's drivers license, which he had on him, but since it was expired he said it was left on our boat! I showed them my license and the car rental papers, but one of the policemen kept saying 400 dirhams; evidently that was the fine for not having a license to show! They also asked where we were going, and when we told them the old casbah, they finally let us go, without having to pay any fine. From then on we decided that Dan would show his license even if it was expired, for how many Moroccan could read and/or understand English! The old casbah, what was left of it, was at the top of the high hill behind the port, and up that curvy road we now went. On the side of the mountain painted stones were laid out to spell "Allah, King and Country", and I guess the Moslem's priorities come in that order! We could not see this from the road, but from our boats in the marina it was visible. Soon we reached the top and left the car along the old wall that had encircled the casbah, while we walked through an old gate and had arrived inside the old living quarters. Nothing was left except a few walls here and there and some foundations, but from this top we had a magnificent view over the port, the sandy beach, and over the city! If you wanted to, you could have a short ride on a camel at the top, but since I already had tried that, I skipped, and neither Dan nor Tom were interested! It didn't cost anything to arrive to the top, but to leave we had to pay the gate-keeper one dirham, which wasn't the end of the world! Once we returned to the boat, I had to wash some clothes, which had been soaking since the day before. The water had started to smell, and it was time to scrub our clothes clean and hang them out to dry!

The next day was spent doing odds and ends on the boat, as it rained most of the day. When it rained, it really poured, and with so much water I would have thought the land to be much greener then it was. Maybe the rain didn't have good soil to soak into, but instead ran right through the gravel and red dirt, which seemed to be everywhere! On Friday we found out about "Souk Al Had", and that we wanted to visit! It was a huge flea-market, where everything from vegetables and fruit was sold to clothing and electronics! Everything could be bargained for except the fruit and vegetables; for that you paid what was asked! Before we even had turned into the parking lot outside the wall-enclosed market, we were accosted by men who wanted to guide us through! Dan told one, that he didn't want to pay him anything, but when the young man said he got paid from the merchants, we accepted his guidance! We followed this man through the wet and muddy paths between vegetable and fruit stands, before we came into a cleaner area where there were cement walkways, and where clothing and other goods were sold! He brought us all the way in to the Berber store, where beautiful carpets, jewelry and decorated furniture were for sale. When the proprietor realized we weren't going to buy anything, we were shooed out, and made our way over to a Berber pharmaceutical stand. There you could buy anything for your ills, but only natural products, and it was impressive to hear the sales-clerk tell what some herbs could accomplish! It kind of made me wonder about all the synthetic drugs that are available in the modern world - are they really necessary? Before we went back to the car, we bought some fruit and vegetables, but that was the only purchases, so I guess our guide didn't make any commission on us. I did soften up and gave him 10 dirhams at the end, even though we had said we weren't going to pay him anything, but he had been helpful and very friendly. Before we could slink into our car and get away, another man came up and started wiping our windows with a dirty rag, before he wanted a tip. Dan got mad and told him to buss off, but he followed us all the way to the entrance, where we had to pay the gate-keeper one dirham; maybe the window washer man got a cut of that, who knows! We were finally on the road again and away from all the helpful people with their hands opened for tips, and since it was fairly early in the day, we decided to go for a ride!

We followed the main road south out of Agadir, and drove by a beautiful mansion, where everything looked green and well groomed, and was well protected by military men. I think it was another one of the king's palaces! The rest of the land was not very green, quite barren actually, and only along riverbeds we saw trees and bushes. Most of the towns we drove through didn't have sidewalks either, and with the rainy season everything was pretty muddy and dirty! Cars, busses and overloaded trucks vied for the road space, but even our little car managed to squeeze in among everything. Out in the open country it wasn't crowded at all, and there we could take our time and look around, not that it was anything to look at! When we reached the city of Tiznit, we stopped at a restaurant to eat lunch. As soon as we got out of the car, a young man came up to us and wanted us to continue into the city to the market, where the Berber craftsmen had displays of their handmade jewelry. This jewelry is supposed to be world famous and quite elaborate and beautiful, but we were not in the market to buy anything, so we declined! After the lunch, we hurried to our car and got away before the young man returned. It was time to head back to Agadir, but we wanted to take another road, so we found our way out of Tiznit and headed for Tafraout. That city was up in the mountains northeast of Tiznit, and as far as we knew, it was nothing special about it, just that the road went by it on its way to Agadir!

It seemed the road just went on and on without any end in sight, since the country we traveled through was pretty flat, and hardly any houses were seen or vegetation growing. After about one hour drive, we started nearing some mountains, and there we drove through a small settlement of houses, downhill into a gully and across a gushing river, before the road started uphill again. Soon we had to stop totally, as the road in front was full of stopped vehicles? What was going on? Dan stayed with the car, while Tom and I walked ahead to investigate. At the bottom of the gully ahead, the road disappeared under a roaring river, and the cars had stopped on both sides of this gully. Lots of people were about and I took pictures of everyone looking at the river and wondering what to do! A bus soon came from our direction and it continued all the way down to the edge of the water. People were on the bus, more abandoned the taxis they had come in this far and hopped on the bus, and eventually the bus started to drive across. I could not believe they would try it, but the bus and even a taxi made it across without any incidence! Since it had been raining a lot lately, the mountain valleys collected the rainwater, and eventually the water became a roaring flood, which hurtled downhill any way it could. The roads were built with no sides across these gullies, so when the water came, it could flow freely over it and continue its journey towards the sea. Our small, light car would never make it across, so our car, and lots of others, turned around and headed back the way we had come. We did check another road, just in case it was passable, but the same scenario played out there and I was glad when we were up on high, dry land again!

By the time we returned through the towns before Agadir, it was getting close to dark, and lots of people were in a hurry to make it home to eat. Skinny donkeys pulled their heavy burdens and seemed to strain with all their might, but even so their masters whipped them. Children hurried home from school, and the streets were crowded with vehicles and people. Along the roads we could see trees blooming with plastic bags. The bags were blown around by the wind and got stuck in the tree branches, and it looked like the trees were blooming! Soon we had made it back to the marina and to a happy Duke, who had to stay onboard. Later on that evening Tom moved his boat across to another pontoon, and we followed with our boat. Now we were only two rafted up, as before we had been four boats. A big English boat in front of our boats wanted to leave the next morning, and had asked us to move our boats so it could go by. Since we planned taking the car for another trip inland in the morning, we had asked the marina man if we could move, so the English boat could get out without us having to be there! That was the reason we moved to another pontoon!

By 0800 on Saturday morning we were ready to have a last look inland around Agadir, and this time we opted to try the road towards Tafraout from Agadir end. As soon as we started climbing up into the mountains, the heavy sky opened up and dumped some more rain on us. Since we had already seen signs of road flooding, we decided to turn around at 1000 and head back. We would not be able to reach Tafraout anyway, as we still had half the distance to go, and then had to be back in Agadir to return the rental car by 1500. When we returned to Agadir, we were ready for a cup of coffee and some pastry, which we enjoyed at a Cafe'. I mailed a letter and some postcards, we bought some groceries, and finally we drove over to the car rental place. A young man came with us and dropped us off at the marina, and so we were rid of the car. There was a lot of commotion at the end of the quay when we arrived to the harbor, so before going to our boats and Duke, we walked over to see what was happening! A fishing-boat had arrived with its load of sardines, and these now were sold off to local individual men. Some men only bought one crate full, before they fastened the crate on the back of their bicycle or moped, and took off for their neighborhood to sell the fish. Every one of these crates had a dirty bowl on top, and we kind of figured out that it was some kind of measurement; maybe they sold one bowl at a time!

Time for Dan and Tom to pay the marina charges and check out of Agadir and Morocco! They had asked the marina man earlier what the charges would be, so we were sure to save enough dirhams. When they went to pay, the price had increased somewhat and we didn't have enough dirhams left. Luckily for us they accepted American dollars, and finally we were free to leave. Dan and Tom had told the officials that we would be leaving later on the same evening, so we got our passports stamped and the boat papers returned. Of course we had no intention of leaving that night, but nobody bothered us anyway, and the following morning, Sunday, November 17 we were up and gone before 0700!

Now we were heading for the northeastern Island in the Canary chain, Lanzarote, which was about 210 miles southwest from Agadir. We had planned two nights sailing to reach the island, but since the winds were in our favor the entire distance, we arrived to the island in the middle of the second night. That meant that all the sails had to be pulled in, and from about 0200 till daybreak, we just floated along with the current, which fortunately carried us south and sort of towards the entrance to the port at Arrecife. Shortly after we left Agadir on Sunday morning, the Swedish boat, Lena III breezed by us, and that was the last we saw of it. We had hoped to connect again on Lanzarote, but we could never find them. We found out later via email, that they had gone to a marina farther southeast on the island, while we stayed in Arrecife more in the middle!

On our crossing from Agadir to Lanzarote we only saw one fishing-boat close by, and we even had to alter our course to go around it. The big boat seemed to just sit still in one spot, and we didn't see any activity onboard - sort of eerie. Maybe the fishermen were taking a siesta, since it was in the middle of the day? Later on that same day, while Dan was taking a nap and I was sitting watch, we went by a stick in the water. The stick was not floating on top of the water, but rather sticking almost straight up! Since we were out in water hundreds of feet deep, if not thousands by then, it could not be stuck on the bottom! The stick didn't bob up and down with the waves either, rather the waves slapped up against it. I couldn't see if it was attached to anything, but it sure gave me a very creepy feeling, and I was glad when we had gone by it! I could not stop thinking about it though and wondered what it could have been; neither Dan nor Tom had an explanation for it later on, when I told them about the stick!

As daybreak arrived on Tuesday morning, November 19, we made our way into the port at Arrecife. Since it was pretty crowded with big and small boats along the quay, on moorings and on anchor there, we turned around and went outside the harbor, but inside the big breakwater wall for the commercial port, and anchored among other boats. There we ended up staying on anchor for one week, as we didn't want to continue and arrive to Gran Canaria before all the boats had left on the ARC rally, which we found out should be about November 24th! The ARC rally is sort of a race across the Atlantic of numerous boats of various sizes, which pay about $1000 per boat to participate; they leave from Las Palmas on Gran Canaria and make landfall on St. Lucia in the Caribbean! This year about 250 boats left in the rally, and before the take-off date they all were assembled in Las Palmas. That was the reason we didn't want to arrive there until after all the boats had left!

Lanzarote, as well as all the other islands in The Canarys, are volcanic islands, as was clearly evidenced by conical shaped mountain peaks. The island was rather forbidding looking with its black soil, and only around the settlements were trees and shrubbery planted. Almost every day we went into the town looking for boat parts, food or communication with family and friends, and soon one week had gone by. It was time to get weather information for the crossing over to Gran Canaria, but since we had a terrible time trying to communicate with Southbound II, we checked the weather-on-line also. It seemed we could hear and talk to Herb pretty good when we were on anchor, but while under way the static and interference was awful.

Early in the morning of Wednesday, November 27, we left the anchorage at Lanzarote and powered down to the end of the island, before we got winds we could sail in. They came from north and pretty light, but enough so we could sail and not having to use the engine! Gran Canaria was about 103 miles farther southwest, and it took us 28 hours before we had arrived to Las Palmas and were tied up to the pontoons in the big Marina de La Luz. Since this was Thanksgiving Day at home in the US, we called Chris, MaeSue and Tyler and woke them up; I had wrongly calculated the time difference! It was so good to hear their voices, even if they all sounded groggy with sleep! They were going to one of MaeSue's sisters for Thanksgiving dinner later on, and I hoped they would enjoy it, and think of us as they were munching away on all the traditional foods! Tom, Dan and I soon were ready to leave Duke onboard and head over to the marina office, where we needed to check in. Since the office wouldn't open until 1600, we continued to a bar along the quay and ordered beer for us all. Complimentary deep fat fried tiny sardines were placed in front of us on a plate, and the bartender indicated they were delicious! Of course I had to try one, no more; Tom ate the rest and Dan wasn't brave enough to try even one! It was not that they tasted so bad, but that the tail and head were still on, and you were supposed to eat the WHOLE thing. I crunched through the body with all its bones, even the tail I could get down, but no way was I going to put the head with those staring eyes in my mouth!

Soon we had returned to the marina office and checked in, and were now free to go anywhere on the island. Since the marina was very close to downtown Las Palmas, we could easily walk there and find the stores we were looking for. Actually, on the northern side of the city, to the west of the long beach, we located a big Mall. You could almost believe you were back in the US again going there! There we located a huge grocery store, and that's where we went to stock up later on for our crossing. Along this beach was a wide tiled walkway, where people strolled in each direction, and where numerous restaurants, hotels and souvenir shops were located to entice the tourist to eat and buy! At either end of the beach we saw, and I took pictures of, some interesting artwork and statues; the most interesting to me was the sea serpent. We had seen him blow water from his mouth onto his tail the first time, but when I took the picture he had run out of water! Of course we also walked by the soccer stadium in the city, as soccer is as big a sport in Europe as football is in the US.

Las Palmas is quite a big city, and the outlying areas sprawled up onto the mountainsides to the west. This island also had remnants of ancient volcanoes, and I don't know if any one of them is active still. There are some places of interest in the city, since its history goes way back, but the only one we saw was Castillo De La Luz. The castle was not very impressive to look at, since restoration obviously was going on there and we only got a glimpse through the chain link fence! The streets of the city, at least the main ones around the downtown shopping area, were already decorated with Christmas lights. Some of the bigger department stores had beautiful displays of lights on their facades, and we could not help but being reminded that Christmas was not far off!

Looking at weather-on-line and talking to Southbound II, we decided that Wednesday, December 4, looked like a good day to leave The Canary Islands and head for the Caribbean. Some very strong winds had almost left the area and the sea was calming down. Not that I was prepared to leave the safety of the marina, but at the same time I was kind of anxious to get it over with! So, after we had paid our bill at the marina office and checked out, we let go of the pontoon at 0930 and officially started our time at 1000, when Dan re-set our instruments for the upcoming journey! It didn't seem to me that the wind had calmed any, because as soon as we left the port and came out into open water on the east side of the island, we encountered northeast winds in the 20 knot range, with gusts almost up to 30 knots! Later on in the afternoon the wind increased even more, and we sailed along in 20-25 knots with gusts as high as 38! That was too fast, but thank goodness it calmed with evening and night approaching to a very comfortable 10-15 knot northeasterly wind with following sea! When we talked to Herb later on in the evening, we got updated weather information and suggested way-point from him. The way-point was more southwest than we had expected, but in order to get away from the stronger winds, this was the preferred direction!

Thursday morning we checked with XTC on the VHF radio to see how he had fared during the first night out? We had had close encounters with big ships during the night, and the lines to our Dutchman broke. They got caught on the big insulators at the top of the back-stays! Tom had had a scarier experience; he had found about three inches of water on top of the floor in his port side hull. He finally found an open through-hull, he had forgotten to close before he left port. We know from our Bermuda trip how scary that can be, before you find out the cause! During the day the winds seemed to diminish again, and for quite a few days we would hardly have enough winds to fill the sails. Consequently, our track kept going down along the African coast, instead of heading out across the Atlantic. In one 24-hour period we only advanced about 28 miles, and when you look at about 3000 miles for the entire crossing, that was very discouraging. After that period, we used our engines quite a bit; once to outrun some strong southwesterly winds that were advancing to our area. We have about 70 gallons fuel capacity on our boat, but XTC has only about 28 gallons, so naturally he couldn't keep motoring forever, and we both tried to sail as much as possible, even motor-sailing when necessary. As we kept getting farther and farther south-southwest and nearing the Cape Verde islands, we decided that we had to stop there to re-fuel and take on some more food. By the time we reached Porto Grande at Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente, we had been on the way for twelve and a half-days, come about 800 miles through the water, but about 1000 miles according to the GPS. Guess the current helped a lot, but still not a very good beginning of our Atlantic crossing!

Of all the islands we had visited in the Mediterranean and the Canarys, Cape Verde Islands were the most inhospitable, desolate and barren looking islands we had seen. Why would anyone want to live here or come for a visit for that matter? If you wanted sun and hot weather, this was definitely the place to give it to you! Sailors like us, stopped by for provisions on their way west to the Caribbean or south towards Brazil and southern Africa, but it wasn't islands that encouraged you to stay. The people were very friendly, but tended to overpower us visitors when we went ashore. When you brought your dinghy in to shore, you had to enlist a person to keep an eye on it, otherwise any one of the men ashore could remove the ignition key and you had to pay to get it back anyway! We enlisted a man to show us around for one day, and it was worth the 1000 Cape Verde escudos; $1.00 was worth about 106.88 escudos at the time we were there! With the help of the local man, who incidentally has a sister living in Providence, RI, we found our way to the police and Immigration to check in, to the Internet Cafe', grocery store and boat store. After the first day we didn't need him anymore and found our way around by ourselves! Jobs on Sao Vicente are scarce, consequently lots of men hang around by the beach and pounce on the sailors. Everything used on the island is brought in; nothing is grown locally as there just isn't any rain to speak of, and the prices for necessities are quite high. No wonder small children stand outside the grocery store and beg for money for some bread, or maybe that is just to make us tourist feel sorry for them and hand over some escudos. We had a rip in our jennicker sown up by a local sail-maker, we thought, but I was not impressed with the work, even though we shelled out $40 for it; I am sure I could have done a much nicer job!

The anchorage in Porto Grande was very nice, and to our surprise full of sailboats from all over Europe, and besides our boats, some more flew the US flag! Initially, I had not wanted to stop at Cape Verde, as by then I had started to get used to life on-the-move again, and I knew once I stopped, I would not eagerly want to continue! But, as in the Canary Islands, once we got the weather from Southbound II, saying that the trade winds started to re-build from the high pressure over the Azores, we all, including me, got ready and mentally prepared to head out again. This time we would not stop until we reached one of the islands in the Caribbean! So, on Friday morning, December 20, 2002, we pulled up anchor on the eastern side of the Atlantic for the last time, and slowly made our way out from Porto Grande on Sao Vicente and set course more or less westward! Besides Stress Relief and XTC, three other boats also left the island that same day. One of those three, a Dutch boat named Iron Overload, we would keep company with for almost one week, before he veered farther south and set course for Barbados, while we veered more northwest towards Antigua!

As soon as we had cleared Sao Vicente and the most westward of the Cape Verde Islands, we encountered northeast, east, east-northeasterly or east-southeasterly winds for the duration of our crossing. Sometimes the wind blew higher then we would have wanted, but mostly it was a pretty comfortable crossing with following wind and sea! In seventeen days we crossed 1,891 nautical miles through the water, but with the currents help the GPS said we came a little more than 2100 nautical miles before we made landfall in Antigua in the Caribbean - a long way for sure!

A few days out from Cape Verde Islands we lost radio contact with Southbound II. During the last transmission an awful noise interfered and Herb could not copy us at all. We could still hear him, but very weak! When Dan could investigate the reason for the SSB noise, he found out that the grounding wire to the grounding plate had totally corroded off, besides the connection to the antenna tuner was only hanging on by one thread! Since we didn't have the necessary materials on board to fix the problems, we had to be satisfied with listening to Herb's weather forecast to other sailboats in our vicinity, and from that we had an idea of what to expect in our area!

The Flying Fishnet, which was, and is still I guess, a net of sailboats crossing the Atlantic, and who communicated on the SSB every day at 0845. At that time there was a general roll-call of boats; you gave your position and a brief synopsis of the weather conditions in your area. Since most of the boats were around us, we were able to connect with them, and they seemed to hear us pretty good. It was very reassuring to hear that so many other boats were out there on the huge ocean; about 25 different boats called in every day to begin with. Sooner or later the most advanced boats reached their destinations in the Caribbean and said good-bye, and I was eager for us to be able to do the same. On New Years Eve the Flying Fishnet had organized a New Years Eve Party over the SSB, which we stayed up till 0130 to listen to. Those who wanted to could recite a poem, a limerick, a short story or anything else that would entertain the others, and it was very enjoyable to listen to those who were brave enough to participate. At 0200 our particular time on the Atlantic, the old year disappeared and 2003 arrived. Loud shouting of Happy New Year through the SSB we heard, and we did the same to Tom on XTC and to Arie on Iron Overload, but through the VHF.

It was not as sad as I had expected to spend our Christmas and New Year on the Atlantic. For our Christmas dinner we ate mashed potatoes, fried, canned ham and corn - very good. The last of the bread had to be thrown overboard the day before - it was already moldy, but we had plenty of "toasties" we used instead of fresh bread! For our Christmas presents we split a big chocolate candy bar, and boy did that ever taste good. This was proof that Christmas doesn't have to be as elaborate as we seem to make it, and neither Dan nor I missed the stress or the presents! We did miss our son and his family, and the longer I am away from them, the more important they become to me! Our New Years Day dinner was almost the same as our Christmas dinner, otherwise I didn't spend that much time in the kitchen, but these two days were special!

One day soon seemed to blend into the next and not much sea life was evident. We heard that some boats had seen whales, but we never did. Neither did we see any dolphins on this leg, nor fish or turtles, only a lonely sea bird now and then. This part of the Atlantic was not as rich in sea life, which we could see anyway, as farther north!

Of course we couldn't get away without more problems with the boat, and to me they seemed to be huge problems, but Dan didn't think so. We had started to hear some new noises now and then, and when that happens we just had to find out from where they were coming? With our ears cooked to one side or the other, we slunk around the boat to pinpoint the noises, and we both agreed that one came from the mast! On closer inspection we both saw the mast move up ever so slightly with its bottom plate, at certain times when the sails snapped to one side or the other. I didn't like to see the mast move at all, but Dan reassured me that it was no way it could collapse, since all the stays held it in place. I guess the mast has to have some flex, but this was too much for my eyes, and I tried not to look at it! The second noise was harder to find! It sounded like a squeaking noise to port side, but nothing on the outside could accomplish that kind of sound. Of course with a boat the noises seem to echo through the boat much louder on the inside than on the outside, and consequently makes it harder to figure out from where it's coming! Eventually I zeroed in on the bulkhead over the entrance to my cabin; there the teak had been pulled apart some before, and now it was pulling apart even more. When I put my finger over the "tear", I could feel both parts moving! At the time I found this, Dan was taking a nap, and I wanted to wake him immediately to show him what I had discovered, but I restrained myself. When he finally woke up on his own, I was very stressed out thinking about the bulkhead, but Dan didn't seem to think it was too big of a deal. Of course it was something to be looked into more once we arrived home, but out there on the Atlantic it wasn't much he could do!

Every night at about 2100 we took our latitude and longitude and transferred the coordinates to one of our navigation programs. In so doing we could see how far we advanced every day and where our course was taking us. We always went farther according to the GPS, as we had the current in our favor almost all the time, and with at least half a knot "free", it added considerable mileage to "through the water" mileage. Just about every 24 hour period we averaged at least over 100 nautical miles, and one time we almost hit 140, and we were very happy about that. As I said earlier, the wind and sea were cooperating with our track and early in the morning of January 6, 2003, we started nearing Antigua. We had opted to make land-fall there, instead of the original plan which was to go to Barbados; we wanted to go farther north while we were at it - closer to home that way! It was still very early morning when we started seeing the lights from the island, so we had to reduce sail to almost nothing, in order not to arrive before sun up. My first impression of Antigua was that it was not a very high island, not what we had gotten used to in Europe and Cape Verde! Once the sky started getting lighter I could also see that the island looked green; how nice that looked after the barren African coast, The Canary and Cape Verde Islands! As we got closer to Antigua, we decided to first have a look in English Harbor, but since that anchoring spot was quite crowded, we opted to go a little farther west to Falmouth Harbor. There we found a huge bay with plenty of anchoring room, and finally, after just about 17 full days on the ocean we had crossed the Atlantic again, sat still and didn't move any more - heavenly!

In retrospect the crossing went much smoother than anticipated, and once we got the trade winds blowing in our favor, the miles seemed to melt away. I, for one, was very happy to be on the west side of the Atlantic again and have the crossing behind me. It had been something that I had dreaded, but had to endure to get closer to home, and I had endured! Dan was elated and proud of the accomplishment, as he should be, and it was another feather in his cap of achievements! Even though we had arrived to the Caribbean, we still had a long way to go before we would reach the shores of good old Rhode Island, but somehow they didn't seem that far away any longer!