March 28 -- What once was a series of quaint fishing villages along a beautiful sandy coast called Costas del Sol is now one long line of hotels, condos and shops catering to northern Europeans and British. In 1932, a woman bought a piece of barren hillside near where we're staying. When asked what she hoped to plant there, she replied "tourists!" Following WWII, Costas del Sol became a magnet for the rich and famous. Then rich Arabs brought more money in when there was the oil crisis in the early '70's. Antonio Banderas was born here and lives here with his actress wife and family, Bruce Willis, Julio Iglesias have property here. Jennifer Lopez, Prince Andrew and others visit regularly. This morning, we set off for Malaga, the birthplace of Picasso, just 35 minutes north along the coast by train. Malaga was a bit of an escape from the touristy stuff, as it has still retained some of its Spanish charm.

March 26 -- What a sail! We left Africa (Ceuta) in the morning with 20-30 KN winds on a beam reach. With the two knot current with us, Big Sky was moving at times 10 and 11 knots, an excellent speed. We reefed the sails and settled into our sunny sail to Costas del Sol. Arriving that afternoon in Puerto Banus, we attempted to register, but when I was quoted 230 Euro for the night, (and with $1.57 Canadian dollar to the Euro) we said "no thanks." They then said "the best we can do is 130 Euro per night." We handed back the form and pulled in the lines and set off for Puerto de Fuengirola where we've settled in for a week (209 Euro) at less than the price of one night at Puerto Banus. It's very British here, you can get Bangers and Mash and your English breakfast on tapas for the real Spanish experience. Hmmm. Nevertheless, it's a nice marina and our rendezvous location with Shirlee and Mark.

March 24 -- Jose pointed out a product in a Moroccan outdoor kiosk, a pharmacy of sorts saying that it's a "fantastic oil for your body and hair." It's called "Sahar" in Arabic and "Huile d' Argane" in French. Jose said it's added to Clinique and other name brand products and it's very very expensive in Europe. I purchased 130 ml for under CND$5 in Morocco and gave it a try last night. In Lagos a few months ago, I had burned part of my hair under a wall-mounted hair dryer. Last night, I put the oil in my hair for 30 minutes or so then washed it out. It's a great product! My hair is already healthier. I put some on the backs of my hands and they're looking younger. Does anybody know what this product is? If you know, just send me an email (click here). Thanks.

March 22 -- It's Easter morning, and no sign of the Easter Bunny or chocolate eggs here in Ceuta, Spain. We woke up still feeling spellbound by yesterday's visit to Chefchouen, Morocco. It's hard to explain what it was like, because to tell you that we now know what "colour" is would sound ridiculous, but how can we describe what we saw. Our eyes soaked up so may beautiful hues and different shapes. Everything in the medina was displayed like a piece of art. We saw locals wearing traditional clothes and curly toed-shoes.


Chefchoen's backdrop is a breathtaking crumbling rocky ridged mountain range, that is slowly being chipped away by nature. The boulders have rolled into the green meadows of the rolling hills that seem to fold into each other to become the frame around this mountain town.

We entered the medina after a few hours drive up a windy road, not really knowing what to expect. It's a quiet, friendly town and we wondered if the people had any idea how unique it was in the world.

See the photo album.

We will remain in Ceuta until Tuesday, when the winds should be right to take us to Spain to pick up Shirlee and Mark!

March 18 -- Jose, our Belgium friend, two boats down from us in the Ceuta, Spain Marina invited us to join him for his weekly trip to Tangier. He's a positive man filled with curiosity and loaded with knowledge of the way of life for Moroccan's. We were transported to a whole other world the moment we drove through the Spanish /Moroccan's border.

Tangier and Ceuta

While waiting for our border papers to be cleared, Con and I watched as the steady stream of Moroccan's walking through the border and over the hills to their towns. There will be on average 10,000 Moroccan's walking through the border by the end of today (everyday)!

Our drive was breathtaking as we looked out over the Atlantic Ocean and at times taking in the massive Rock of Gibraltar to our right, and over our left shoulder our eyes soaked up the glorious blue Mediterranean Sea glistening under the hot African sun. We wound our way around fresh spring green grasslands with soft Mugo Pine trees dotting the hillsides, and saffron, magenta, and cinnamon coloured sandy rock formations scattered boldly throughout the land.


The clumps of white houses sprinkled along our route showed lots of activity going on. Donkey's were carrying loads of straw or herbs, goat herders tending their flocks, people were hand-working their gardens, clothes blowing on the clothes lines, colourfully dressed children playing among the sheep, goats, dogs, cats, peacocks and cows. The new Moroccan King is very keen to develop Morocco and is pumping his money into the industry (dam, new harbour, new highways, high-speed railway) to try to bring Morocco into the modern world.


After an hour on the road, we rounded another purplish sandy rock and Tangier loomed in front of us. It was an incredible sight!



We parked the car and stepped into Africa. We walked a short distance and we were enveloped into the centre of the medina, the shopping hub of Tangier. Jose drew a map for us on the back of a shopping sales slip and Con and I went on our way exploring the colourful markets.

We pulled out the Dirhams from the bank machine (about $7.50 to CND$1) and set out to let the day unfold.

We were surrounded by their ethnic culture everywhere we looked from women in full burkas to children with Shriner-type red hats, men in full tunics with their pointed hoods pulled down to their eyebrows, to locals in jeans and leather coats.



Con and I have wanted carpet for the kitchen and Big Sky's entrance area for some time and thought it would be interesting to price them in Morocco.

Before too long, we were being treated royally, (I was receiving all the compliments of my good artistic taste, and Con was called the "Minister of Finance") and about 30 minutes later, we had two carpets that we totally love. They're so beautiful that it's hard to put them on the ground and put our feet on them, let alone prepare food over them.

We met Jose for lunch and walked to the harbour, made our selection of fresh fish and sat under an umbrella. The meal came on a platter and its contents to be eaten with fingers (the best way!).


After we'd picked through most of the huge platter, we went to a central bucket to wash up.

The moment we stepped away from our table, we were absolutely shocked at the speed with which our table was swarmed by locals (who unbeknownst to us) had been waiting to finish our meals. Had we known, we wouldn't have stuffed ourselves so fully.

Jose shops for all his fruit, vegetables and Moroccan bread at a small town just outside Ceuta. With the Spanish celebrating St. Joseph tomorrow and the lead up to Easter, most and maybe all of the markets and shops will be closed over the next few days, so we filled up bags of fresh foods for about CND$10.

We returned to Spain just as the sun was setting and felt a bit shell-shocked by what we'd just experienced. Our trip wouldn't have been nearly as full if we didn't have the gift of Jose's offer for us to join him.

March 16 --We biked around the Ceuta from the North Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean southern coastline. It was a beautiful warm day.

The Ceuta marina is right in the down town and well worth the walk around just to look at the people.

In the streets you can see people in European dress, Jews with their kippa, Muslims in Moroccan costume and Hindu women wrapped in saris. The language is Spanish and Arabic. The city stays up late, just like any Spanish city, and siestas from 1 or 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. when almost everything shuts down.

Tonight was the Palm Sunday Parade down the main street. Con and I went to the Catholic church for the service, then sat in great seats for the parade.

This is a bit of a stretch getting off and on Big Sky in this marina!One does NOT want to slip! If Big Sky had moved back just a few inches, I'd be swimming in the marina -- again! (An embarrassing memory from last October.)


March 14 -- Yesterday, we made the decision not to take Big Sky out of the water in Smir, as the prices are similar to Spain's prices, and we're so far removed from the cities, grocery stores, etc. and would need to hire a taxi to go anywhere. Today, we're about to set sail north to Ceuta, Spain (a small piece of Spain on Morocco's soil).
March 12 -- We've just stepped onto African soil! This morning, we crossed from Gibraltar on a glorious beam reach sail, arriving in the afternoon to a very hot and foreign country, docking in Smir, Morocco, Africa.

We went out for African food tonight in a local restaurant and it was so so good. The bill came to $5-8 Canadian and half of that was the price of the Moroccan wine. Con had lamb and I had a salmon dish and we shared a Moroccan salad.

Looking at the people in the restaurant, we decided that we can be anywhere in the world and people are generally the same, but with subtle differences. The men here love being close friends, they touch and hug freely without being labeled. Big Sky may be hauled out here and we'll do a bit of touring.
March 11 -- There were Apes everywhere today! We took the tram up The Rock and Con snapped picture after picture of the little critters. See the photo album.

The Rock with the Mediterranean Sea to the right.

Follow the green line, that's where Big Sky is moored.

March 10 -- Setting off on bikes, we toured the eastern face of the Gibraltar Rock, which truly has a sheer physical presence, on the tip of the Iberian Peninsula, overlooking the Straight of Gibraltar. It's a small isthmus that made for a good strategic location for the British to control movement in and out of the Mediterranean. On our bikes, we ran into Gibraltar's most famous citizens.

The Rock Apes, known as Barbary Macaques, tailless monkeys run free in a semi-wild state. This is the only place in Europe where you'll find them in the wild. They're natives of North Africa and may have come to Gibraltar with the British garrisons a long long time ago. Tomorrow, we'll explore the top side of the Rock and see if I can get better pictures of them.
March 9 -- How exciting and significant for us today, to sail through Straight of Gibraltar, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. I sailed through the first hour or so, and Con hand-steered the rest, as the currents and wind didn't allow the auto pilot to do its job very well. See the video.

For a day that started out a bit wishy-washy with the winds and waves, it turned out to be a real exhilarating sail with speeds at times just over 9 knots and wind gusts as strong as 36 knots. This sounds like a lot, but in reality it was very manageable with Big Sky.

March 8 -- Barbate, another authentic Spanish town, not too influenced by tourism. Arriving from Cadiz should have been a six or seven hour sail, but an hour into our charted course, it would become an unexpected 10-hour sail. We heard a "boom" and about one kilometer ahead of us the plumes rose in the water where the practicing war ships had hit their target. ...or at least we hope they were that accurate.

The Military Explosion

Con quickly turned Big Sky 80 degrees as we significantly detoured the target area. Interestingly enough, we were just in the process of writing down channel 16's VHS Navigation Warnings as they gave the coordinates of the military practice areas. Yes, it confirmed that it was directly in our path! Thankfully, the sea was calm and with the sun shining, making it a pleasant day for sailing. Most of the sail was wing on wing, which means the wind was coming from behind and we opened the sails wide (one on each side). At the Barbate market this morning, there were more odd looking foods that we couldn't identify. When asking the locals, they confirmed that they really were for eating.



We were waiting for our turn with the butcher and watched a toddler get out of his stroller to pet a dog. His mother shouted loudly at him, swacked him on the top of the head, lifted him airborne by one arm, and threw him into his stroller from about a distance of two feet. This did not meet approval of the locals surrounding us, as they had plenty of quiet negative comments about the mother. It's curious that the European Parliament gets involved in decisions like "candies can no longer be sold with toys inside" (Kinder eggs) but we wonder what they have to say about this sort of behaviour.

March 6 -- In the local flower market, I was interviewed for the local television show.

We started the interview in Spanish and switched to English. We talked about -- flowers. Con took a series of photos of the fresh market. See photos.


Streets of Cadiz

Famous Cathedral of Cadiz
Cadiz was the favoured city over Seville and received the contract to begin construction of this cathedral which began their great economic expansion. It took 122 years to complete it in 1838.
March 5 -- Can the wind blow! We're in a protected marina with Force 8 and 9 blowing around us. We caught the gage reading 44.9 NM this morning! The sea is filled with white caps. The wind started last night and has continued throughout the day with no let up.

Yesterday, we cycled into the old town for supplies, (lost a loaf of bread during a left signal in the middle of a five-street intersection) but made it back with supplies and a great panorama shot of one of Cadiz's pleasant squares. See the photo.

We spent part of the evening debating whether to travel to Tangier or go straight to Gibraltar and then to Smir, Morocco. Tangier has a massive drug problem with some officials and drug lords in business together. In fact, Tangier exports 70 percent of the Europe's hashish. It wasn't too tough to decide to go on to a safer environment. Once the wind lets up, we'll head toward Barbate, Spain passing the famous sea battle ground, were 203 years ago, British Admiral Nelson soundly defeated the French and Spanish fleets stopping Napoleon from invading England. Nelson lost his life in that battle, but England was left for the Brits. A mini history lesson on the The Battle of Trafalgar.

March 4 -- Cadiz is in the shape of a "thumbs up" on the south west side of Spain, and about 55 NM to the Straight of Gibraltar. It's my kind of town, with just 2 1/2 km wide with water on all sides, except for the high bridge as an entrance and exit, I just can't get lost! It'll be a great city to zigzag through as its old section was built during the city's prosperous hey days in 1812.



March 2, 2008 -- I usually leave Big Sky's docking to Con, and I take the easy route of exiting the marina's. For the last few days, I've been docking and departing the marina's. (I tell Con it's so he can have more practice with the lines and that in fact, he's getting better.)

We left Rota in the fog the other morning, but the sun burned through the mist and another hot sunny Spanish day emerged. The end of February and first part of March, the Spanish are on holidays and laying out in the sun. Haven't they heard about skin cancer.



Puerto Sherry is a delightful town, bursting with potential. The beaches were filling with the locals. There's a beautiful forested area just behind it, and these cool condo's with little bars and stores below. Then, mixed within the town are huge structured left unfinished.

Big Sky departing Rota through the fog. And a replica of a sailing boat hundreds of years ago. When we motored beside it, we were the same size. The antique would have held hundreds of men; there are just two of us on Big Sky.

Earlier that day, we biked around Rota. The weather has been wonderful and warm.



In Spain and Portugal it's mandatory that the service industry (like restaurants, service stations, etc.) have "complaint books," but DON'T EVER REGISTER A COMPLAINT! One lady wrote a complaint in one of the restaurant books, and two years later the proprietor sued her for defamation of character and won. She had to pay the restaurant 5000 Euro!

January and February diaries