Return to THE ROCK

Gibraltar - We have spent the last 4 days back in Gibraltar for an unplanned repair after having been in North Africa prior.  More money!  Why didn't we listen when people told us having a boat was a money pit!?  ; )

Ceuta, North Africa - New, old.  Modern, Ancient.  Traditional, non-traditional.   However you want to say it, North of Africa is  an exercise in contrasts. 

Melilla is located on Africa's northern coast east in the Mediterranean Sea.  Because it actually is a Spanish enclave within Morocco, Melilla seemed like a good first step for Begonia to gets its feet wet in, since we have had mixed reactions about us travelling to this area of the world.  While we personally believe in the good of all people, there are those who are suspicious of all things that are different, be it language, culture or religion.  Many of the critics of this region we found, have been sailors who never even have come here, so we decided to go on the word of those who we've met who have come and have found the region completely enchanting and educational and do the 24-hour sail from Almeria, Spain, cross the Med.

Like the British control over Gibraltar in La Linea, Spain, it is not clear what the current reason is for Spain to continue to maintain Melilla, as well as Ceuta, another North African Spanish territory.  I guess the Spaniards figure if territories have been taken from them, they too can take territories from others.   Spanish is most widely spoken and tapas can be found just as readily, if not more so, as falafel and shewarma.  The people are a melange of Spaniards, Moroccans, East Indians, and other Arab cultures.

The city center is small but beautiful with palm date trees lining medium-sized avenues, and a large fort high on the cliff overlooking the beautiful water, like many other Med pictures we have seen.  October is already the off-season, but still it is is warm, about 75 degrees, although not warm enough to enjoy the water, and you can actually see some people walking around in fleece and one guy even had a jacket on!  Obviously this is much cooler than the normal temps in the heat of summer, and of course how someone feels the temperature is all relative.

Nador is a Moroccan city located just about 2 miles southeast of Melilla that we were recommended to visit, and here you see the contrast between Spanish Melilla and the true Moroccan city.  The local bus ride to the border was an experience in itself since most of the passengers were Moroccan going back home after a day of shopping in Melilla.  Riding a bus is aways a great way to see the local color in a foreign country and it always seems like you, the tourist, is the only one who does not know how to play the rules of the game.  Funnily, many of the passengers had clear plastic packages with blankets in them, as it does get cold in desert climates at night.

Now the border itself was quite spectacular... organized chaos?  Or just chaos? There were hundreds of people at the "bus stop," comprising of street vendors selling delicious looking fruit, toys, candies, watches, etc.  Some of the vendors are roaming, some have stands, but they all are pretty aggressive in their sales tactics.... lots of loud voices, gesticulating and bargaining.  It was not clear exactly where or how we had to pass through the border, but we followed the crowd of people and eventually tried to stand in a line, which we then kind of got pushed out of since there is not a culture of waiting for one's turn.  Tourists/foreigner have to fill out some paperwork and naturally we had forgotten to bring a pen.  The officials do not lend their pens out... we were denied when we asked them... instead there are a few enterprising individuals who are not government officials, but simply citizen entrepreneurs who have a pen and a couple of the papers on the side and will charge you 4 euros for this service!  I had wanted to take a picture of this whole scenario, but it did not feel right.

Once in Nador we went to the main square and street.  Vendors here sold beautifully decorated women's chadors, handmade leather unisex pointy flats, and plastic toys from China!  Again there was tantalizing fruit, but since we were hungry for lunch we went in a different direction.  Finding a place to eat was difficult.  There were no women seated at the cafes we saw, and it wasn't clear why.  Was it forbidden?  Were these private members-only men's clubs?  Again, we did not know the rules and we did not want to offend anyone but having me sit down in the middles of everyone, so we kept walking.  Finally we came across a place that had one woman so we sat down there.  But the next obstacle was that it was too early for lunch and there was not much food to order.  There was also a language barrier, and the only food we could seem to get across was "one fried egg and Coca Cola."  So that's what we ate!  I don't even like Coca-Cola, but it was really the only thing we could communicate.  I am ashamed to say that since that "one fried egg and a Coca-Cola" was not enough food for us, we ended up stopping at a McDonald's we found on a street heading back to the border.

Ceuta was our next stop and the first one for the Portuguese Henry the Navigator when he first started his sailing campaigns in the 1400s.  Somewhere throughout history the Portuguese lost this territory to the Spaniards so as mentioned above, it is part of Spain.  Another ancient fort up on a cliff and beautiful date palms lining the streets.  Another McDonald's with free wi-fi, food the kids will eat and a playground for them to play while we are on the internet.  Their marketing strategy really works for us on this trip, even though back home we rarely eat there!

In Ceuta Sebastian went up the mast( regular procedure before long passages) and  discovered a problem with one of the shrouds.  There is one wire broekn (out of 19) and it must be fixed befroe doing a major passage.  So, back to Gibraltar where we know they have cost-effective materils and labor for sailors.  Like back in the Azores, where we had 6 out of the 19 wires of the forestay, it is important to fix as soon as possible, or it jeopardizes the stability fo the mast.  Thus our trip back to the monkeys and back to the Rock.

NEXT STOP:  Rabbat, Morrocco - leaving tomorrow.

Typical Mediterranean terrace.

Scene from Southern Spain

Melilla downtown

The boys in Melilla before taking the bus to Nador

Chicaken market in Nador... pick your own live chicken!

Our delicious Nador lunch

Posing along the waterfront

North Africa of old and new.... that's McD's there in the background!

Uncle "Cork" and Karla

Nador street scene

The kids play with a local little guy

More Nador street scenes

Crossing back into "Spain" to Melilla from Nador... much more organized than in the way in!

More dolphins on the way to Ceuta.

"Red skies at night: Sailors delight... red skies in the morning, sailor's warning" Thank goodness this was in the evening!

Arrival in Ceuta

Captain, Cork, Benj, Sof and Barbie in Ceuta downtown

More Ceuta scenes

Going back in time...

three of the four Koziuras...

Nice Ceuta plaza

Tile depicting Ceuta centuries ago

Market Street in downtown Gibraltar

It almost looks like London!



On the Rock contemplating life and watching planes landing and taking off at the airport below.



Corcho and a monkey

On the Rock contemplating life and watching planes landing and taking off at the airport below.

On the bus to cross the border back into Spain.

The Puerto Madryn contingent... Patagonian friends, Maria Ema and Jose happened to be in Spain for a business trip and stopped by to visit

How many Patagonians does it take to haul a Captain up a mast?

Taking turns cranking Sebas up there....

Corcho helping to fix the shroud... he shall be missed once he leaves us in the Canaries.  He has been great company and a great help.

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.

Solamente Fotos/ Only pictures

Pic-nic in Santa Eulalia, Ibiza

first mate, always bussy

Co-Captains

Getting ready for an afternoon swim

Settling in a new anchorage

Begonia on way

Good feeling after squash game

Tired after a lot of walking

Good friend Corcho

Trying to understand city map

Pato and Ale took us touring

Free transportation

Good mate afternoon with friends.

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.

4 Balearics and a Wedding

Torrevieja, Spain - So much has happened in the last two weeks that I feel a quick blog entry does not do it justice.  We are now at the midpoint of our trip (9 months down, 9 to go) and it has been a culmination of visitors and great sailing.  Rather than focusing on touristy activities and sightseeing, the focus has been reuniting with buddies from Chicago who have come through.  We feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends and the opportunity to get together with them to share fabulous moments.

After the Bretones' visit in Denia, we met up with an old friend, author, poet, professor, Juan Arnau whom we met about 10 years ago at the University of Michigan.  Juan is originally from Valencia, Spain and spent some time in the Midwest getting his PhD in "Southeast Asian Studies," and now is an expert in "Indianology," as they say in Spain.  One of those situations where he was a friend of a friend of Sebastian's in Argentina and we ended up keeping in touch after all these years.  Juan is now married with two chillden and we were all able to meet in a town called Javea, where they have a weekend house. 

Juan loves to sail and actually was chosen as crew back in 1992 for the celebration of the 500th anniversay of the discovery of America, to sail on one of the replicas of Columbus' three ships and retrace the trip - this time using modern technology for the navigation, but eating and sleeping in the original style on the three ships - an open boat, no comfy cokpit cushions, nor chairs, no autopilot, etc.  There were bunks set up down below, which is a step above how the original sailors did the trip.   Only a few were selected to malke this journey as it was a very important event for the Spanish government.

If any one you know Juan you would not be surprised to hear that Juan was the main reason for a mutiny among all the crew once they arrived to the Americas, a story that mnade the papers and changed history!  No need to go into details, biut suffice it to say, Juan was a little too opinionated and dare I say "subversive."  We were thrilled then to have Juan join us again in Ibiza, as he sailed with us to Espalmador and then back to the mainland.

The Balearics islands are located just east of Spain in the Mediterranean.  Their own version of Catalan is spoken there, although Castellano is widely spoken too.  The islands' biggest export these days is Rafa Nadal, who just lost in tennis to Djocovich in the US Open.  Their are four main islands here:  Mallorca, Menorca, Formentera and of course, Ibiza.  lIbiza has many facets depending on what you are looking for.  One of the first towns we visited on Ibiza was San Antonio which was twenty-something party central and very, very British.  In other words, a traditional "experiencia ibicenca" it was not.  All the bars were English pubs, with English-speaking workers and clientele.  Not our scene at all, and this was in fact reiterated when club promoters trying to get passers-by to come inside, would simpy ignore us.  Two forty-somethings with two small children were not their target-market.

Another side to Ibiza is hippie side, where there are people from all over the world converging to have free peace and love, and smoke whatever they are smoking.  Yet another part, in Santa Eulalia is a little more upscale with families, shops and outdoor restaurants.  But the best of the Balearics for us was not Ibiza at all, but Espalmador, a tiny unpopulated island between Ibiza and Formentera.  Only about a 2 hour sail from Ibiza, but a world away in terms of what you find there.  Espalmador has beauitful crystal clear waters like the Carribbean and very few people there.  There is not the feeling of overcrowdedness or tourism in the bad sense of the word.  There is nudity, or toplessness, or normal bathing wear - whatever you choose, along with a real sense of community and open-mindedness with the sailors there. There are mudbaths there which are fun to visit and your skin ends up being unbelieveably soft. although I am not sure I want to publish photos of us enjoying this local custom! We can honestly say this visit was one of the highlights of our entire trip.

While it was difficult to leave Espalmador, we were in a hurry to get back to the mainland to meet up with my friend Colleen, one of my best buddies form Chicago, who was flying in for the wedding of Kelly O.D. and her Spanish fiance.  Juan, Sebas, the kids and I did an overnight passage to make it back.  It had been a while since we did an overnight and it was quite fun since the moon is great inspiration for some good discussions, and I was thrilled to have Juan aboard to enjoy this with us.  I find that the overnight passages are so peaceful - it's just you and the stars, and this 20 hour crossing could not have been more perfect with perfect weather, perfect wind, etc.

I was thrilled to meeet up with Colleen after so many months and to catch up with her in person... and I was thrilled to be her date, since I have met Kelly on several ocassions on her visits to the US and I also sublet her room in her apartmetn in Madrid when I lived there in the year 2000, so I was excited to see some of the roommates I shared some fun times with.  The interesting thing is when living on a boat you lose touch of certain niceties such as brushing your hair all the time, or wearing clean clothes every day, wearing shoes, etc. So, I find I really appreciate these times back in civilization.

Colleen reanted a car and we zipped up the coast back to Denia where we had just been two weeks prior, to meet up wth Kelly and her family and friends.  The wedding was a string of activities lasting four days.  Kelly is a very outgoing, well-loved woman who has friends from all over the world.  We stayed at a beach side hotel and it felt like old times.... lots of laughs and great talks and great fun.  The wedding itself was in customary Spanish style in the sense that it lasted until 5 in the morning.... Colleen and I are still suffering now, a few days later as we were a litttle achy from all the dancing and caught colds.  All in all a great time had by all.

Today another firend fo Sebastian's, Corcho, from Puerto Madryn, has arrived to sail with us for a few weeks throuh Morroco and to the Canaries.

NEXT STOP:  Melilla, Morrocco leaving in a couple of days. (please excuse the fact that the photos are completely out of order!)

Crew member still smilling after 3 days, good sign!

Chicago buddies!

Our jumping crew member

The Begonias still smiling after 9 months of sailing

Enjoying Uncle Juan

Honeymooners

10 years later

I look really cool

Still enjoying each other, after 9 months of sailing

Med sunset

Colleen visiting from Chicago, good crew member!!

Buddhist writer sailing in the Med

This is better than LA

First mate

The island of Tabarca located just east of Alicante... where we took Colleen.

Coll and I at a pre-wedding event at the marina of El Portet in Denia.  Ironically, we were at this very marina - one of the sailboats parked behind - just a week and a half before with the Bretones.

Part of the U of I gang

Kelly after just getting dressed, looking out over the wedding guests right before the ceremony.  Beautiful!

A Paella Party the day after the wedding... we were exhausted after having not slept much!

Colleen captures the moment when Begonia + Juan arrives into Alicante from Ibiza.

At the entrance of Tabarca.

The guests milling about before the ceremony.

Just looking gorgeous at a European wedding!

Quite a different lifestyle than on the Begonia!

Coll swims at Tabarca.

Colleen is an aunt to many....

The kids getting creative with paint Colleen brought them!

Tabarca with Alicante and the mainland in the background.

The bride was very happy that day!

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.