Voyage of Traveler / Blog

October 23, 2009

Still in the Bouregreg Marina
Sale (Rabat), Morocco

Salam,

The big news here is that Yansen got his US Visa!  It was not easy.  Of the 100 or so people who had a visa interview the same morning as Yansen, only about 20 got approved, the rest were denied for one reason or another.  On Yansen’s behalf, I requested a visa for one year, but was expecting a visa that would be good for only about ten weeks because that was the date of his return plane ticket to Jakarta, Indonesia.  (We do not arrive in San Diego until the first week of July 2010, and September 14, 2010 was the farthest date out I could book a return flight.)  As it turned out, the US Consulate granted Yansen a four year visa, with multiple entries, so he can come and go as he pleases up until October of 2013!

We did an overnight side trip by train to Marrakesh (”Don’t you know were riding on the Marrakesh Express”).  The main square in Marrakesh, the Jemaa el Fna in the heart of the old medina, was packed, as always, with snake charmers, acrobats, story tellers, magicians and musicians.  It was quite a sight to behold, wandering around, and taking it all in.

We plan on sailing south for two days to the coastal resort of Agadir, Morocco, about 285 miles, and stay there for a couple of nights.  From there we will sail to the Canary Islands.  We plan on cruising to about five or six out of the eight Canary Islands over four weeks.  My friend, Larry Sharpless (we crewed together on Transpac 2003 and he sailed with us from Kona, Hawaii to Papeete) flies in to join us for the long passage across the Atlantic.  With Yansen and Brian, that will make four of us, so the watches will be reasonable.  We depart on November 22 together with about 250 other yachts, much like ours, who are part of the Atlantic Rally For Cruisers (the ARC.)

Today, the surf is up from a big storm in the North Atlantic, and we are going to check it out now.  Brian met some local Moroccans his age plans on surfing with them.

Livin’ the Dream,
Michael