Crossing Continents - Gib to Smir, Morocco
Moxie - Beck Family Adventure
Mike, Denise, Asia and Aranya Beck
Fri 24 Jun 2011 15:56
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The long hot days started
getting the better of us so we decided to install an upgrade on Moxie, having
seemingly fitted every possible yachting extra already some thinking outside the
box was required and we settled upon a swimming pool.   We hung around in Gibraltar for a few more days and
again met up with Chanti whom we found were moored in Ocean Village, the'd been
at anchor a few hundred metres away in La Linea (Spain) but had come to visit
the rock for a couple of days. As South African Passport holders this
turned out to be a very expensive decision, Chengen? visas are not
valid in Gib and getting a local visa on arrival costs £300
each! It was a chance meeting for us but very worthwhile as Craig
told us about the Gib - Morocco Rally leaving on Friday. Unfortunately
Chanti could not join as they had exhausted their visa and could not stay
to Friday. I'd been trying to convince Denise that we should get
ourselves over to Africa and the rally closed the deal. Also we really
hoped that there would be a few kids involved as we have been through a bit of a
drought, where are the cruising families?
The Rally is in its 11th event and is organised by local
resident Derek Pennington on MV Albany, Ocean Village. Laid back, silver
haired, cigar smoking, tanned and happy - Derek recons he only stopped in
to Gib for diesel, that was 6 years ago. We attended the
skippers briefing on Thursday night at Charlies bar in Ocean Village, goody bags
were dispensed containing shirts, hats, frisbees, wine, coolie bags and a bunch
of other stuff.
At Charlies we met a couple and their grown up daughter,
she'd been home schooled her entire life and then went off to
university, much discussion followed. The crux of the conversation
was that teaching kids does not have to be rigidly following a curriculum,
learning can and should be fun. Basically you need to teach the kids how
to learn, to be investigators, to research etc. It's something we have
heard time and again, but there's a huge leap of faith required to step outside
the box of the standard education system, throw away the conventional text books
as it were, - we are not quite there yet but school is challenging to say
the least and something needs to give before it breaks.
An even more surprising meeting in Charlies bar was to
see Roger and Jas who we'd met at the cruising association in London a couple of
years earlier. Denise had already randomly bumped into them in the UK soon
after they left as they were pottering down the coast of England, so
meeting up again is flukey in extreme. www.svoceansunrise.com The SV
Ocean Sunrise plan was to take 3 years on a voyage to Darwin in their 27
footer. Everything was meticulously planned, I've never met anyone with
such a clear definition or objectives. Things change however and here they
are currently living in southern Spain with baby Aisha. The cruising plans
have been put on hold for a spell but have not been abandoned. These guys
are my hero's - determination and resolve (and a healthy dose of ARE YOU
NUTS?). Roger had joined the rally too and it seems that 2 and a baby were
not enough of a challenge so he brought a couple of guests - where everybody
slept I have no clue. Little Ocean Sunrise took 10 hours for the crossing
- we took 4. Darwin is a long way indeed at that speed but best of luck to
them, oh and if you are stonking rich they could do with some sponsorship,
they are well worthy of it www.svoceansunrise.com .
 Roger and Ocean Sunrise in Smir Morocco
The race to Morocco started at 13:00 outside Ocean
Village, so there were 30 boats milling around amongst the anchored tankers and
cargo vessels waiting for the start gun. The rally is open to all entrants
and the vessels ranged from SV Ocean Sunrise at one end to a 65 foot gin palace
complete with Persian rugs at the other. Being on the wrong radio channel
and not wanting to go bump we hung back and took a delayed start. Wind
conditions were a nice 15 or so knots but the forecast was for more so we
started out with a couple of reefs in the main and one in the genoa - pretty
conservative I thought. Well as it turns out the big rock causes some very
unpredictable wind patterns in the harbour and shortly after the start we saw
some commotion ahead with yachts weaving this way and that being rounded into
the wind. Gee I thought, I'm pleased we didn't join the mele with all that
going on. The wind started to rapidly increase and very soon we were
losing steerage due to being over canvassed. What happened next is a first
for us and I'm hesitant to broach upon the subject. We had a huge
gust of 30 knots which is way too much for the amount of sail we had out.
Moxie was off like a rocket but soon became overpowered, we heeled alarmingly,
water was flowing over the starboard decking, stantions (the little fence posts
around the boat) were in the water and we rounded up, it is called a
broach. Anyone behind us will know that Moxie (but
perhaps not her crew), has a nice clean bottom. Let's just say
we gave ourselves a 360 degree start penalty, the wind then promptly dropped to
a gentle breeze then stopped altogether for a spell and again started up with
the sweeping gusts to catch the unweary.
 Start of the Gibraltar - Morocco rally 2011.
Ahead of us one yacht turned back for reasons unknown
and another, after the gust, that now had a two part mainsail also had
to abandon the trip. We fully furled the Genoa and motored until we were
clear of big nasty ships and errant wind gusts. Tentatively, once past the
Rock and into the 'safety of the Gibraltar Straits' (busiest shipping lane
in the world) we put out some headsail, switched off the noise and sat back for
a pleasant trip to continents afar (or actually rather close). MV Albany
acted as Sheppard to all for the crossing.
Onroute we saw dolphins, first sighting this year and
also what we thought was a sunfish, a single black fin protruding from the
surface flopping slowly left and right (so not a shark) and a huge creature
beneath (2m or more round). We later learnt that it was a ray and the
flopping fin is the very tip of the wing. Not mentioned earlier are the
sea turtles that we have seen. I saw two of them between Rota and Barbate,
but I thought that I knew there were no sea turtles in this part of the world so
was doubting myself, we go past so quickly that they are only sighted for a
couple of seconds so impossible to photograph and even to point out to
anyone else. So brief is the experience that questions about what you've
seen race around in your mind - I saw a fin like a turtle, yeah definitely a
turtle fin.. I think. Thankfully between Barbate and Gib,
Denise and I both saw another huge one which confirmed itself majestically as it
briefly stretched it's scaly head up for a dozy scan of the horizon, which I
guess is not far away when your eyes are only 6" off the water.
 Friendly local catching a free ride.
We arrived in Smir at around 5pm, cleared customs and
berthed like professionals Med style stern to, our first ever attempt at this in
a very tight space no shouting required.
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