Spain lifted travel restrictions on Jun 21, exactly three months after the lockdown in Morocco began on Mar 20. Yes, ………..now we had a place to go to but, …………. We had to ask the Moroccan authorities for permission to leave since the country is still under lock-down until Jul 14. After signing a document promising not to re-enter Morocco we were allowed to leave.
The winds in the Strait of Gibraltar either blow from the East (the Levanter and prevailing this time of year) or from the West (the Vendevales) and we had to wait for the latter. On Fri Jun 26 and Sat Jun 27 a two day weather window opened up, enough to cover the 160 miles to Melilla. We had to depart Tangier with low water in Gibraltar to catch the tide in the strait, which meant leaving @ 11.30 am. That gave the officials enough time to clear us out. The boat was thoroughly checked and even a sniffer dog was brought on board to look for drugs.
Below foto’s of our departure courtesy of Ben from SV TL Summer.
We were “buddy-boating” with Sergei and Angelika from SV LUMA. The trip was estimated to take 24 to 27 hours and started off fine with a steady 6 Bft downwind, genoa set to port and screecher set to starboard, no mainsail. The conditions were at the limit for the screetcher and we knew it would be prudent to reduce sail for the night, especially since we lost our sea-legs after 3 months in a marina and anticipated seasickness.
At sunset the apparent wind was gusting 20 kts and we decided to reduce the sail area of the screetcher to an equal size as the genoa. But the sail had different plans!!
Frits had to use so much force (manual force – NO winch) to roll-in the sail that the plastic housing of the furler deformed and the ratchet mechanism jammed. Since we could no longer furl or unfurl the sail it was prudent to douse the sail completely and to store it in the startboard sail locker. Not an easy job to control a noisy fluttering sail with only two persons, but we got it done without further loss or damage. (The furler has since been repaired).
We decided to continue under Genoa only for the night. The following morning the wind had decreased to 10 to 12 knots and we sailed the final hours with the asymmetric spinaker. After rounding Cabo Tres Forcas we motored South to the marina situated in the tourist area between the fortified city “Melilla de Vieja” and the beach “Playa de los Carabos”, where we arrived @ 15.30 after 28 hours at sea.
In marina “Puerto Noray” we had to dock “Stern to – Med style” for the first time ever. The procedure is as follows: Put fenders on Port and Starboard as usual and this time also at the stern. Reverse the boat under engine into the allocated spot. Stop as close as you dare to the cay, careful not to bump into the concrete wall. Loop a mooring line from the boat to a bollard or cringle on shore and back to the boat to cleat off with sufficient slack to motor away from the cay. Do this on both Port and Starboard. Motor forward against the stern mooring lines. The boat will keep itself in position. Pick up the “lazy line” or “slime line” with a boat-hook and take it to the bow whilst hauling in the pre-laid mooring line. Cleat off the mooring lines on both Port and Starboard bow. Reverse under engine against the bow mooring lines towards the cay and adjust the lengths of the bow lines to the desired distance to the cay. Then cleat off both stern lines. Switch off engines. Done! Many thanks to Sergei of SV Luma, who talked us through our first Med-mooring!
After checking in at the marina office we went down town for a stroll. The town has a very relaxed atmosphere with many outdoor seating area’s and plaza’s with people chatting and drinking. We enjoyed our beer, tapas and an excellent meal at Casa Martin.
Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic trade establishment under the name of Rusadir. The history is similar to that of towns around the North-African Coast and Southern Spain. (see History of Iberian Peninsula). During the 15th century the city fell into decadence and the partly abandoned city was taken from the Berbers by the Spanish in 1497 virtually without any violence and has remained Spanish ever since. Click image below for larger photo.
Besides some trade and the occasional millitary skirmishes not much happened until early 1900. The current city limit was fixed by treaty with Morocco in 1894 and was basically determined by the shooting range of the heaviest guns, hence the nice semicircle.
In 1908 the Spanish started mining lead and iron ore, modernised Melilla’s port and built a railway between mines and port.
In 1912 the British insisted that a buffer zone be created between French North Africa and Gibraltar after which the French granted Spain a “protectorate” of 20,000 square kilometer between Melilla and Ceuta that reflected Spains’s desire to re-establish a colonial presence after the humiliating losses of the Spanish-American War 1898.
The local Berber tribes were not impressed with Spain’s efforts to bring the area under Spanish control and the escalating tensions eventually led to the Rif War. (Rif is the name of this region in Northern Morocco) The Moroccan tribes under the leadership of Abd el-Krim almost captured the town in 1921. It would take a joint army of French and Spanish forces to bring the area back under Spanish control in 1927.
Official Spanish casualties are 43,500 troops killed, missing or wounded. (Melilla population in 2019 was 86,487). The war related expenses are estimated at US$ 540 million, an astronomical figure compared to the size of Spain’s economy at the time…………………….Was it worth it?
A military uprising in Melilla in 1936 started what would become the Spanish Civil War (1936 – 1939) that would bring Francisco Franco to power who ruled Spain as a dictator until 1975. This statue is the only one left in Spain.
Don Francisco Franco Bahamonde
The old city or Melilla la Vieja built in the 16th and 17th century is beautifully restored. Your photo camera will make overtime. Normally there are food and antique markets during the tourist season but because of COVID all those activities are canceled.
The “Golden Triangle” is Melilla’s shopping district. The architecture is typical for the Catalan style of Art Nouveau or “Modernismo” during the cities hay-days early 1900.
Beside Franco’s, there is a surprising number of statues and sculptures in the city. Click to enlarge.
There are a few area’s were the city could improve. The “potable” water is desalinated seawater and is not really “potable” since it tastes brackish. We didn’t get sick though but we switched to bottled drinking water. A bigger concern however is air-polution. There are 4 large ferries per day visiting the port next to the marina with ships generator’s non-stop running on bunker fuel, not the cleanest of fuels. Then there are the outdated power plants without exhaust gas cleaning,……….Oops.
Wandering the city you wonder how the economie works. During our 19 days stay the three remaining cranes in the port have not moved an inch. There is no longer a functioning railroad. Trains stop at Nador, the Moroccan side of the port were coal and ore are now transhipped. Fishing boats also go Nador. Melilla’s “Darsena Pesquero” is now filled with pleasure craft. In 2018 Morocco closed the customs office at the Melilla border and nothing can be traded with the hinterland. (Officially that is). The produce in the supermarkets are all imported from the EU, not from Morocco. The ferries are only partly loaded. Melilla even has it’s own airport for only a handful of flights per day. Asking the locals; first they say nothing. Later they say: counterfeit and smuggling. “Go to the border at 02.00 am and you will see”.
The beautifully restored old city has signboards with references of funding. A lot of European and Spanish subsidies keep this city alive and being a VAT free zone there will be many parties who have an interest in keeping this enclave as a part of Spain.
Antonio, our neighbour in the marina, is a retired military service man who was stationed in Melilla and who is now living on his boat. He had a car and offered to drive us around when we needed to provision the boat for the onwards journey. Thank you Antonio for your help and your friendship.
We stayed in Tangier, Morocco for three months and despite the restrictions caused by COVID we had a pleasant stay. We were in Melilla for almost three weeks and had an equally pleasant stay. Yet there is a huge fence between these places.
A very costly fence.