Nomad's Travels: Essaouira Morocco

Wooden boat building is still done in Morocco

Four hundred miles is the distance from Madeira to Essaouira Morocco.Not a very long trip as far as ocean voyages go, but arriving in west Africa is like landing in another world. Nomad arrived in the late afternoon and I was able to complete clearing in formalities by sunset. This was a bit of a challenge, as the locals speak mostly French and Berber and all the forms were in French. As I stepped off the boat into the chaos of a busy fishing port, I asked for directions from a local and was taken directly to the office I needed to find. I found the people here friendly, as everywhere in Morocco, and willing to help despite the language barrier.As in all of Morocco, I was not permitted to anchor and had to pay 244 Dirhams, about 22 Euros per day to dock. The next day I went exploring the fort around the harbor and then entered the ancient walled city of Essaouira with its narrow streets and marketplace which is called a souk. This was my introduction to shopping Moroccan style: outside of cafes, bargaining is expected and is quite an art form and every local is a super salesman. The sight and smells of the souk are unforgettable,fresh baked flatbreads, spices, mountains of olives of every kind, pickled lemons and the most amazing olive oil. All this mixed in with shops selling everything from handmade woodwork to clothes and more with every shopkeeper trying to get you to come in for a cup of mint tea and to buy something from them.After a few days of this I was thinking of moving down the coast to the next harbor, intending to explore all the harbors down the coast before heading to the Cape Verde islands. It was here that I met a couple of hitchhikers (one from Texas!) looking for a ride to the Canary islands. I was not planning on going that way, but invited them to stop by the next day to chat. They arrived the next day looking for a place to stay, so I invited them onboard. We got talking over a bottle of Portuguese wine and found we had similar tastes in travelling so Kris and Lyza got invited to a trial run to Agadir, the next port south to see if they could handle the boat life and see how we got along with the possibility of making a trip to The Gambia if it went well. It was a bit of a squeeze getting them in since I have been mostly singlehanded sailing and was using to other cabins for storage. I arrived in Agadir with two new sailors lookiing for adventure on the sea.