We left Portugal with plans to go to Maderia. I have been looking forward to seeing this island chain for years. Unfortuntely when we were 2 days out from Portugal, I found out there was no availability at any of the marinas in Madeira and all the anchorages were busy, so decided to go straight to The Canaries and visit Tenerife. Sadly the situation was even worse in The Canaries due to all the boats preparing to cross the Atlantic this time of year. 

So we made a decision to go to Rabat Morocco. After 5 days of sailing we were preparing to enter the river for the Rabat Marina. Blair had all the fenders out... We got a call on the VHF from the Coast Guard in Rabat asking us if we were planning on coming into the marina. We confirmed that yes that was our intension. They said " Sorry, but the harbor is closed due to high surf." It was currently low tide, so we said, we'd wait a few hours for the tide to rise. They came back on the radio to inform us that "The harbor is closed for the next few days, and that we were recommended to sail to Mohammedia, as they might have space for us there."

We sailed another 5 hours to Mohammedia . It is a tiny port next to a medium town. The fingers on the dock are so short, I basically had to jump off the bow to get off the boat. In addition, they kept our Passports, and we had to ask for them, if we wanted to leave the marina and return them when we got back. Since this was the roughest place we had been and it was 60Euro per night, we left after just 2 nights and headed for Agadir Morocco.