It took three hours to clear out of Morocco, despite the fact that we had notified the office and customs the day before. Three hours of sitting around, but at least we were prepared, as the tide would not turn in our favor till early afternoon. We had no orcas, (perhaps the little orca friend Barb Voss made for us gave us just the right amount of luck in avoiding them), but we had lots of dolphins. More exciting, we had a right whale swimming right along side of us for several minutes smack dab in the middle of the Strait of Gibraltar! (Luckily there were no big ships around at the time). Then he dove, showing us his tail! For several hours we had a huge amount of swell, and rain, but the current was pushing us in the right direction, so we carried on, with a healthy puke or two over the side every few hours from Trip. The winds finally turned favorable, and we decided on an overnight sail. The wind didn’t last long, and we were on to motor sailing, but we slogged along.
We decided on two days of overnights when the winds turned favorable for sailing again. A few minutes of consultation, we killed the engine and ran wing on wing for another overnight and a new destination. The winds died again around 3 AM (actually died around 1:30, but I was happy enough to drift along at 1.5 knots to let Trip sleep), and we motored again.
We needed an anchorage that would protect us from the Levante, the east- northeast wind that blows periodically – in this case two days. Cala de San Pedro looked like a good spot, and we arrived mid-day to find ourselves as the only boat and we dropped the hook.
The first thing I noticed was that all the locals came down to swim and sunbathe, totally nude, mid afternoon. We had read that it was a community of hippies. What we learned from two young men, Ayssa and Jonas, who swam over to the boat to say hello, was that the harbor is inaccessible, other than by boat or a 90 minute cliff walk to the nearest village. There is a stream that provides running fresh water, but people otherwise live in caves (the young men were cave-sitting for a friend), in ancient ruins, or in tarps or tents.
When we went ashore wet met a few of the locals who were so proud to tell us the history of the island (a pirate hide out), complete with castle ruins. The area had fallen into a very bad state with drug paraphernalia everywhere, but slowly a small group of hippies cleaned it up and reclaimed the area. Fixing up caves and ruins with driftwood, stuff hauled in, & solar panels, it is home to ~20 people year round, with another ~20 that come to camp for the season. They describe themselves as castaways from society, choosing to live in this small isolated community.
We climbed a bit to explore, and then headed to the bar, because of course there was a bar. For 10€, we had two beers apiece, and a bag of potato chips. We were also offered our choice of kittens and a young pup, new additions to the bar. A goat had chewed free of its tether, we could have probably taken that too.
Unfortunately we only had that one day ashore. The next two days brought some pretty strong wings from the northeast, so we were stuck on board. A few other boats came in to anchor for protection. One boat actually dinghied ashore, and then almost couldn’t get back. The swell was so bad it took them quite a while (with a small child!) to get aboard. Their boat was rolling badly where they were, so they upped anchor and moved behind us for a better position, only to find that their dinghy had flipped (with the electric outboard still attached), yikes!
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