TRANSATLANTIC TIPS VIDEO! MEDITERRANEAN TO CANARIES VIA MOROCCO

Kadash Departing Rabat - Passing the Kasbah of the Udayas

I’ve just posted a YouTube video paul weston author sailing - YouTube about the first part of our transatlantic trip aboard Kadash, our 40 foot sailboat.  This took us from Almerimar in Mediterranean Spain to the island of Lanzarote in the Atlantic, as a jumping off point for our subsequent voyage down the Trade Wind to the West Indies.

Kadash's Route from Southern Spain to Lanzarote

I hope that the video will be interesting for casual visitors, and useful to yachtspeople thinking of a transatlantic crossing.  Topics include orca avoidance and countermeasures – we didn’t see any, but were ready for them – and the passage though the Strait of Gibraltar via Ceuta and the Moroccan coast.

Waiting at the Entrance to the Bouregreg River

I’ve included a section on visiting Rabat on Morocco’s Atlantic coast.  Few cruising yachts visit Rabat, the capital of Morocco, which is a shame as it is an interesting place, full of cultural riches.  The main obstacle – literally – to visiting is the shallow and exposed entrance to the Bouregreg River, and the video passes on what knowledge I’ve acquired about crossing Rabat’s bar.

Kadash Running Down to Lanzarote

From Rabat to Lanzarote is about five hundred miles.  It’s usually downwind, but the Atlantic coast of Morocco is not exactly full of harbours suitable for yachts, and we did it in one, rather windy, hop.

Landfall! In the grey dawn under jib only, Kadash approaches Lanzarote

The trip for us was a wonderful experience, was the inspiration for ‘Gulf of Lions’, though Snowden, in a great hurry, disregarded the advice of his creator and took HMS ‘Oleander’ though the Strait in the teeth of a westerly gale.

Rather him than me.

Rabat was part of the inspiration for 'Gulf of Lions'

Author and Kadash at Puerto Calero, Lanzarote