Taitonga

Rabat, Marokko

Eine sehr angenehme Stadt !

01.01.2012, Sunday - "Shall we leave tomorrow or wait for better weather?" (Christian)
Yesterday we had spent Sylvester with Roger a singlehander from England and with Regula and Christian on their boat. It was good eating and we had a very nice time! Rabat at 12:00 was very quiet, only the restaurant in the harbour seemed busy and not a firework to be seen.

The weatherforecast for rabat is not very good. Swell up to 3,5m (coming from the bad wheater in Europe) and NE-Winds only with 4 to 8 knots!!! is expected on wednesday (we wanted to leave then) in Rabat, which means the harbour will close and we can not get out.
On the way we will expect swell from NW upto 4m and NE-Winds but not too much wind! => that will roll a bit! And when we arrive in the canaries the wind will calm down. I am not to sure what to do!
When we leave before wednesday we have either to start in the dark in the morning or to start into the dark in the afternoon, because of the tides. It would be nicer to start into the day!
We have to decide 24h before leaving, so the police and the customs can prepare their paperwork.

04.01.2012, Wednesday - "We stayed" (Christian)
We did not go because we were not ready and it will take aprox. another two days to be ok.
We prepared the spinnaker and checked a lot of things, but there is still plenty to do.
Dagmar is working on the sprayhood, which is not easy to measure (How said Roger´s father: "Measure plenty, cut once").
Working on the Sprayhooddesign

Tomorrow we will check the jerry-cans, take fuel and check the mast. Afterwards I will try to go to the hamman.
The weatherforecast is not very good. Too less wind to sail. I hope to go on the weekend!

The harbour is nice, but the restrooms are sometimes not very cosy, the shipchandler is only situated on 3 qm, the buildingsite on the quay is a bit noisy and the washingmachine and the dryer (both 50dh) are not working. The staff is incredibly friendly (especially if you compare it to Spain) and the guards are doing their job very correctly!
360 degrees of the harbour
The Medina from Salé with the patisserie and market is about 10 to 15 min by foot, the next supermarket about 15, and the Qasba of Rabat about 20 min (incl. ferry across the river for 2 dh) (11dh equals ~1 Euro)

We had been recommended to a washingfacility "Pressing Tafrout, 42 Rue Chahid Billal, Mellah Jedid, Salé, Tel. 0656-25-15-16". We took 10 kg of cloth, paid 120dh and are satisfied . The only thing I do not recommend to let them wash your basecap, mine looks clean now, but also as if a Bulldozer has run over it (They realy do pressing ...).

10.01.2012, Tuesday - "We will start tomorrow to the Canaries" (Christian)
Oh je, wir waren die ganze Zeit über schwer beschäftigt, aber was ich am 04.01 geschrieben habe haben wir alles noch nicht erledigt. => Manjana! Es geht voran, allerdings langsam! Alle Langfahrtsegler, mit denen wir gesprochen haben,haben
a) die gleichen Erfahrungen gemacht
b) finden wir haben in der kurzen Zeit eine Menge geleistet
c) sagen: Genießt es, es ist wie es ist (=> dies fällt mir schwer (wir sind jetzt 4 Wochen hinter unserem Zeitplan !)
Ich werde versuchen die Bilder als Karo einfach einzustellen und auf der Fahrt zu den Kanaren die endgültige Struktur inkl. der dazugehörigen Beschreibungstexte (die das Salz in der Suppe sein werden) einzustellen.