And on again

23 November 2014

In the end we had plenty of time to reach Agadir. We were even too early so we had to wait a bit for ‘our’ place in the harbour. Our berth was rather small and people on quayside watched with admiration how the ‘Oosterschelde’ manoeuvred to her small place.
After a restful night the guest crew got into a cab for a nice excursion to the ancient walled city of ‘Taroudant’. They did some sightseeing and visited the souk. After that everyone got in the taxi to go to the oasis of Tout. After a tasteful lunch they stretched their legs in this beautiful oasis.
When the guests returned to the ship the crew got the ship ready for the scheduled event. The weather did not work with us as a heavy thunderstorm hit with hailstones as big as marbles. After the storm the wind died down a bit and a steady rain returned. Our guest crew decided to go to a restaurant so the guests on board had the ship to themselves during the event.
With a tent on deck and good live jazz music downstairs the group had a great reception onboard. At eleven o’clock, when the last guests had left and the catering was busy cleaning up, three ropes snapped because of the swell in the harbour and we decided to leave immediately. As if they knew what was going on the guest crew arrived exactly at that time and we could depart to spend the night out at anchor.
The next morning we had to go to customs and so the cook had some time to go to the fish market to do some shopping. When that was all done we continued our trip to Cabo Verde.
There was a light wind from the east and we set the sails. Unfortunately shortly after the wind died down. It returned a few hours later from the south and it came back strong. This was predicted and it was actually really good, because our plan was to sail to the west first. But the wind was getting stronger and stronger. So we decided to change our course and sail downwind, with the jib and the topsail up and wait until it was over.
It took a little longer than expected, and the wind was still increasing. In the end there were heavy showers and gusts of 10 Bft. Luckily this usually does not take long and at the end of the afternoon it got better. Now the wind has turned to the west and we are coming closer to our goal.