Fins & Feathers
We filled our fuel tanks and jerry cans before leaving Agadir, not least as it was only 65p a litre! Heading off on another 250nm passage, it was a case of sailing until the wind died, motoring for a bit, and then sailing again. Hours after setting out, yet another lively pod of dolphins came to play, mostly females with young. It is impossible to get tired of such visitors, weaving their spells around the bow of the boat, only inches from the hull. Some leaping clear of the water to provide a spectacular show. In the distance there was a larger creature that spouted, probably a pilot whale.
The passage was later livened up by an unusual visitor, in the form of a young grey heron. Probably not the brightest of its species, and very tired as it made a real effort to try and catch us up. These slow flying birds are not normally seen well offshore, and one suspects those that are may not make land again. However this one fought to stay aboard despite the lack of grip on the deck.
Not that long after, we were joined by a canary, first perching on the rail and then inspecting the boat in greater detail, inside and out. Maybe just practicing navigation because of the time it spent studying the chartplotter!
The heron left after about 12 hours, at about 3.30am. One feared for it given that we were around 50nm from land at that point.
Another 24 hours and we were anchoring off Playa Blanca, Lanzarote, prior to moving into the marina, stowing everything, and heading back to the UK. A shame because we would have liked to take a few days to rest up, but Steve has to be on a plane back to South Africa within 48 hours to do some more work. Never mind, hopefully we will make it back before too long.
Freebooter 
Hi Annemarie love your pictures and blogging, please carry on as lots if interesting facts.
Regards Doreen (Scanner) from work. 🙂
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Hi Doreen
So lovely to hear from you. It’s been a wonderful trip so far. So much fun, so many great people and places and stories. The picture which isn’t up on the blog was of the heron on the deck standing behind me, while the canary was on top of the instruments in the cockpit. This was half way between Morocco and Lanzarote – about 120 miles out!
Our most memorable meal in Morocco was the lunch we had at a roadside “café” (ie eating at a table overlooking the traffic) in the middle of El Jadida. The fish was presented to us – the clear eyes pointed out and the gills to show how fresh they were, and then they were grilled over an open barbecue in the street. We were given a first course, which wasn’t ordered of massive sardines (which are normally too bony for our taste!) and given a flat loaf to eat them with. ie No knife or fork. We all agreed they were the best sardines we had ever had in our lives, and the eating with fingers probably made them even better!
The Moroccans we met away from Marrakech were lovely people, and most of them speak French as well as Arabic. In most places we saw few if any westerners.
Definitely a country to visit again!
Hope all is well with you.
Love Annemarie
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superbe photos annemarie profitez bien de votre voyage
eric et marie
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Cher Eric et Marie
Your French lessons have helped us enormously – thank you! We are so sorry that we didn’t manage to meet up with you in Brittany last year, but hope perhaps you will come and join us somewhere, sometime on our travels.
Love Annemarie
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Vous nous faite rever avec votre voyage, encore trois années de travail et ensuite ce sera pour nous le grand voyage(en mediterranée-via espagne-
portugal baleares et corse bon voyage à vous
eric et marie
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Helen and I loved the pictures of the birds and what a nice picture of you………so, three “birds” in total.
We really do enjoy reading your “blogs” and seeing the pictures. When I was a road safety officer I used to collect pictures of overseas police and their vehicles, mainly with the intention of making school road safety more interesting. I just loved the picture of the Agadir police car. Can’t see it featuring in any dramatic car chases though!!
BHS rumbles on……..more challenges every day. I only have 9 months left before I have to stand down.
Safe travelling – enjoy.
David and Helen (Kerry)
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