July 15, 2014 ...One of the Worst...


I had been watching the weather forecasts and studying the cruising guides all week. Not only is the Straits of Gibraltar a busy channel, it is also treacherous due to the funneling of winds and the strong currents. We picked this day as the winds were predicted to be from the east at no more than 16 knots and we would leave three hours before high water in Gibraltar--the advised time to catch the right currents. We left Ocean Village Marina at 1500 and motored out, raising 75% of our mainsail once clear of the airport runway. The guide recommended not putting out all of the sail as the winds get up off Tarife Point. All was going fine and we put out the jib, life was good--until... The wind increased to over 34 knots and the currents switched directions as we progressed down the straits. The wind was blowing the tops off the waves sending spindrift spray into the air and creating a haze. The waves started to increase and become tricky as the current went against the wind. We took the jib in but left the main up hoping it would stabilize the rocking--that was a mistake. We would come down a wave and the following wind would try and turn the boat into a broach--it took all of my strength to control the boat as our auto pilot could not handle these conditions.
We surfed and turned our way toward the top west corner of Africa--our track on the chart plotter looked like a squiggly line. We hoped to escape the currents and winds once we rounded the African point and to do so before it got dark. As we rounded the point we were met with another counter-current coming from the south--then it got really rough. The seas were confused and the wind stayed over 34 knots--it was tough going. We were heading down a big wave and I was straining at the wheel to control the boat when we heard a big 'bang' from the steering pedestal--now we were scared. If we lost our steering at this time we would broach and possibly lose the boat. But the steering still worked and we continued off shore to give us more sea room from the coast. I decided we should take in the main as it was giving us the weather helm and we would be able to control the boat better with the sail down. Unfortunately, that meant we had to turn into the wind and seas--not good. We turned and started to lower the sail but as the sail lowered it got jammed and we had to raise it again to lower it. We finally got the sail down and could turn toward Rabat--but we ended up with two broken battens and a tear in the sail--that was rough sailing but we felt it could have been much worse.
Once we were far enough off shore we turned SW and the wind and seas did finally die down, but we were exhausted and we did not have a safe port in which to head. The night fell and the seas and wind died even more as darkness enveloped us. All would have been great except for the fishing boats five miles off shore. These were large trawlers that were working grids off the North African shore hauling nets behind them. At one time we had over twenty targets on our radar and it became difficult to avoid them. The fishing boats seemed to turn as we approached to pass us just in front or behind us--it was scary as we did not know what they would do and their lights did not make any sense--blue, geen, red, amber, flashing, etc. One big trawler passed 50 feet in front of us and we had to put the engine in full reverse to stop our momentum or we would have hit them. Oh, we were not having fun--then the fog came down. We are talking about thick, soaking, dense fog that seemed to choke us. It was at this point that our chartplotter and radar decided to shut down for about ten minutes--yikes! Thankfully, the fishing boats were less frequent and we motored on. By morning the fishing boats were gone and we continued on to Rabat. As we approached the coast near the Bouregreg River we started to see fishing traps buoyed with plastic coke bottles--they were everywhere. These traps are to be avoided as there are lines coming from them and we never knew if they marked nets or not. Again, we were on constant look-out changing course to avoid the 'coke bottle patch'. We finally arrived off the river and called the marina to send out their pilot boat to guide us up the river to the marina. We made it to the marina and tied up to the customs dock--this was one of the worst passages we have made--thank God and our Guardian Angels as we made it safely with minor damage and exhausted crew.