After playing the "Great Time Warp Haul Out Sweepstakes", we deterimined that just down the road 10 nm from Ceuta, Spain to Smir, Morocco was the best place. So after checking out of the La Linea Marina this morning we headed across the channel.

Crossing the Straits of Gibraltar in a sailboat is a bit like playing the old Atari game 'Frogger' with all the freighters coming and going through the Straits. Leaving Gibraltar bay we watched one freighter put the pedal to the metal as he gave us one blast and passed us on our starboard side. (We blasted back, like we are supposed to!) But, wow, could that ship accelerate. Within minutes he was in the teens on speed!

Crossing the Straits we had to wait up to let 2 freighters pass. It is crazy out there -- sorta like crossing I-5 any time of day!

We have arrived in Morocco and checked in. I was surprised that the police didn't want their baksheesh (bribe) of a bottle of whiskey like they did in Tunisia. I bought 2 bottles of cheap whiskey before leaving, so I gotta give them to someone!

But we talked with the lift operator and everything is 'go' for tomorrow on the haul out. I'll spend the week working on the hull -- which after April's haulout better be pretty dang easy or else!! I plan to buff the hull with some Teflon to help the hulls slide through the water for our ARC non-race. (It's not a race, it snot!!) Otherwise the rest of the week will be spent repairing the rudder before we head out on Friday for Chefchaouen, Morocco.

We decided to take a 2-day B&B run inland and check out the place. It might be our only time we get to Morocco! We tried to get a hotel in Tangier, but all the cheap hotels were already booked. So that one doesn't look good at this point unless we can meet someone with a brother in Tangier who owns a hotel, and....you get the picture!