36 09N 5 21W

Osprey
John Bowering
Tue 8 Jun 2010 19:08
John has been on board for a week and has now received several reminders
that he has been remiss in not keeping the web diary up to date. So here we
are, trying to catch up. John flew to Smir departing the UK at 2200 on the
1st June; arriving in Tangiers at 0100 local time on the 2nd June. By the
time he had been collected by Yassim and made the trip to Smir it was 0345
when he stepped on board Osprey. As Osprey was berthed next to the working
facilities at the boat yard there was no possibility of sleeping in past
0800 so it was straight to work getting Osprey ready to leave Morocco. The
main job was to change out all the various filters (and there are many). We
always leave this to the past possible moment as the filters do not like
sitting idle. This time it was a straight run and perhaps through experience
even the fuel filters on the generator and engine were changed without any
air locks developing. We now have some high capacity syringes which allow
the filters to be topped up with fuel through the bleed nipples rather than
using the fuel lift pump. This almost guarantees that the whole system is
full and clear of air as the bleed nipples are naturally at the high point
of the system. Nevertheless its still a fairly messy job and the task
immediately following is always to spray the engine space with degreaser and
then wash it down with a high pressure hose. The routine pre departure
checks were then gone through with pencil zincs, shaft lubrications system
and the other items on the check list all worked through. For once all the
lub oil filters were changed without any leaks developing. By 1600 there
was a distinct lack of energy available and a shower and some food was
required. Amazingly our friend Mustafa turned up with a supply of bread. He
is a wonderful character and had worked out that we needed fresh bread every
day or so and as the marina is miles from the nearest shop, he would pick
some up for us on his way to work in the morning and drop it off at the
boat. Usually this was a couple or four baguettes depending on how hungry he
thought we might be. Mustafa lives in Tetuan (about 30 mins drive from Smir)
and owns a fleet of Taxi's of which the one he drives is always based at the
marina. It says something for human communications that he is a Barbour and
therefore speaks a dialect of Arabic which is well beyond Johns basics.
Regardless we have always been able to communicate somehow or other. He has
never once charged us for the bits and pieces he brings to the boat and of
course we have always felt obligated to use him for any major journeys. As
an interesting aside he also has fishing lines strategically placed around
the marina and could always produce an 2 Kg fish on demand - amazing. Never
once would he accept any money for the bread and the boats adjacent to us
were always amazed at the way this worked and the disparate language
relationship.

The following day a yacht called RiRi pulled in on the opposite side of the
berth and the team immediately came over as they were from Bristol where
Osprey is registered. It turned out to be a hot day with temperatures in the
low thirties so the tent was quickly rigged before the outboard was
serviced, oil changed and the jets dismantled and blown through with
compressed air. By midday we were able to confirm to Captain Miguel that we
would leave early Saturday morning and cross over to the fuel and customs
berth late on Friday. On Friday morning we ran the usual check on he
navigation equipment and steering systems and by 1600 were ready to start
moving. This was always going to be a little tricky as John was single
handed and every move needed to be planned carefully in advance. The
planning worked well and we had no difficulties getting to the fuel berth,
topping off the fuel then moving to the customs berth. The local people are
incredibly helpful. Customs however were not quite so amenable as when we
tried to clear out of Morocco that night for a departure at 0400 the
following morning they could not accommodate us as the computer date of our
departure would have been wrong. So we duly woke them up in the morning and
after a great effort and providing copious volumes of coffee managed to get
them functional so that we were able to leave at 0545. The supply of coffee
did not seem to generate the need for any additional activity from the
customs officers so they promptly went back to sleep and John was left to
disentangle Osprey from the berth and get underway on his own.

We were clear of the Marina Breakwater by 0615 and then had the most
wonderful sail. The wind was on the beam at about 12 knots and all sails
were quickly hoisted. We then cruised across the worlds busiest waterway at
a steady 7.5 knots under constant interrogation from the traffic control
manager in Gibraltar. Osprey was back in her element and lifted her skirts
with obvious enthusiasm.

As we approached Europa Point (the famous southerly point of Gibraltar) fog
descended and it was with some trepidation that John hove to in the middle
of the traffic system to lower all the sails. Traffic control new exactly
what we were doing and where we were but it was questionable whether some of
the commercial vessels were paying the same attention to their radars. 20
long minutes later we were able to tell the controllers we were able to
proceed under power and were cleared into Gibraltar harbour. Traffic control
had told us that the fog had cleared inside the harbour but it was still an
amazing experience to be in one moment navigating by radar, knowing that
there were dozens of unseen ships all around you to suddenly being in bright
sunlight with the ships looming over you and only a couple of hundred metres
away. We motored through the congested harbour to Marina Bay which is
alongside the runway and requested assistance to berth. Amazingly they
allocated us the same berth at which Anita injured her hand last time we
were in Gibraltar. This time berthing went without incidence and we backed
into a slot only 1 metre wider than Osprey quite smoothly and were fortunate
that there was little wind to make life difficult. We were all fast at 1200,
cleared through customs and immigration by 1300 and were in Biancas' with a
cold glass of wine in our hand by 1330!