Quick Facts - Destination Morocco / Tanja Marina Bay
An agent is not required to enter Morocco
Reservations recommended for the marina: info@tanjamarinabay.ma
Staff very friendly, helpful and responsive to inquiries
Very easy 'Welcome Dock' & Fuel Dock configuration near the check-in/out building
Check-in and out handled within a single location where customs, immigration, local police, and marina processing is located
Paper based system means slightly longer check-in (expect about an hour)
Customs will come aboard to inspect the boat for contraband on check-in and out
Drones will be held by customs and returned upon your departure
High level of security with key card controlled gates to pontoons and both local police and staff on the quay 24/7
Water and electricity included with mooring
Med mooring with some finger docks available
Average WiFi performance
Nice cleats on the pontoons to attach your stern lines (no rusty rings)
Plenty of 24/7 docking assistance available
No chandlery (planned for late 2020)
No laundry facilities (planned for late 2020)
Remember your courtesy flag as there is not yet a chandlery on site
Ideally located near Tangier city where the Old Town meets the New Town
Located near shopping and shoreside facilities
Super friendly & helpful people all over the nearby city
Call Boat Services for any Boat cleaning, Welding, Fixing, Canvas work
Try MDeco for custom Boat Furnishings & cushions
Entering Port Tangier and Tanja Marina Bay
Home of the Tangerine, we didn't really know what to expect as we sailing into the brand spanking new Port of Tangier, having just crossed over the Gibraltar straits.
Chloe had performed perfectly in 30+ knots for the few hours at sea. We arrived relaxed and we had a rather loose idea as to where the marina 'Welcome Dock' was located. We had emailed the Tanja Marina Bay Marina a week or so earlier and they instantly replied that they had space available for our size. Our Moroccan courtesy flag and Q flags were up on our starboard spreaders and we had our sails down. The wind was still blowing around 20~25knots as we approached - the Gibraltar Straits are certainly a huge natural Wind Funnel.
As you round the break-water to enter the Tanja Bay Marina, the visitors dock is a long pontoon to your left. When you're close it's obvious. (We have since added 'Visitor's Pontoon' as a location to google maps to help other folks.) Lots of friendly dockhands helped us with our lines and the receptionist even walked down from her office to greet us by name! Wow.
We were then ushered up the pontoon ramp into a series of 3 offices in the first block - Marina office, Police, Customs & Immigration. Paperwork was completed in French and we declared our little drone which was whisked away by Customs.
A short boat inspection was performed by a couple of very polite customs guys. It's rather superficial, such that we assumed they were only looking for people or contraband. They found Dawn inside! Peter tried to barter her for 3 camels at that point, but they just laughed at me.. and told me that I had no idea what I was talking about.. she was clearly only worth Two.
As we were fresh out of cocaine bricks and AK47's, they waved us through and sent us to our assigned slip which was to be our home as we waited out our Schengen visa reset period and perhaps the coldest Medi winter months too.
We put our little docking headphones on . Having cleared in we motored to our assigned dock. Being able to communicate when the wind is loud and from each end of the boat makes life so much simpler. Hence the name 'Marriage Savers', often used for these wonderful little headphone sets. More detail on these headphones to come in a future blog posting.
Tanja Marina Bay
The Tanja Marina Bay project is approximately in its 2nd to 3rd year of a 6 year phased project. It's already a fully functional marina and there is continuous construction happening in the adjacent waterways. Concrete, square, modern buildings, a cluster of modern restaurants are up & running and a set of marina shops are under construction, due to open later this year (in 2020). During our stay on the dock, we watched a complete new dock being made by a pack of excavators and thousands of cubic yards of concrete, several new shops being finalized to supply yachts with laundry, chandlery and supplies, and 4 new hotels being constructed from the ground up on the other side of the water.
As the marina space is new and modern, it is a hot spot with the locals. People are strolling along the quay and adjacent upper walkways near the restaurants throughout the day, snapping selfies and chatting on the quay benches. The marina is very clean and homogeneous, but more tradition, art and culture are located a short walk away in the Old City of Tangier, the Medina, perhaps Tangier's main attraction.
As a special note unique to this marina, watch-out for the 'minefield' of buoys floating in the fairways. Most if not all of the buoys are connected to an anchor via a chain and could get wrapped around the propellor, especially coming in Medi moor style. The dock facilities were great. Fresh water on a 1/2" tap. (make sure you have your adaptor! - there are at least two standards in Europe) and a 32 Amp 220 V supply. Chloe has a 16 Amp plug on on end of her shore power and a very cool and solid 'smart plug' on the boat end (Which we highly recommend). So we needed an adaptor to get from 32A to 16A. After hunting for a day, we eventually found all the electrical bits to make a simple adaptor in an electrical supply shop in Tangier, next to the Cafe Victoria.
The Marina is located in a perfect central spot in Tangier bisecting the New Town and Old Town. Good supermarkets with basics are 5 mins walk. Restaurants, cafes, hair dressers, fishing tackle, full service dry cleaning laundrettes and taxis are just step away. We easily found fresh bread including local flat bread called 'Msemen' (2 thumbs up) , veggies and phone SIM cards.
For boat services, we found the best bet was to contact Boat Services, who can find local tradesmen to help with any services that you might need. They found us stainless steel welders to make some adjustments to our railings and their work was very good. They also found us a place to make a custom passerelle.
While awaiting our Schengen visa reset period we became comfortable here as it was so convenient to 'live' in the marina so near the city - pleasant and quiet and the Moroccan people are just fantastic.
Internet
Internet has become a fundamental requirement for our way of life. Not only as were developing software for fun, but because we just wouldn't know where to go with out it. An obvious statement but it means that at each marina we take internet access seriously. For cellular internet access in Tangier, 4G SIM cards are from Orange or Maroc Telecom. We selected the later on a pay per use for $10/10Gig of data - a good standard price. Half the time, we had to use this to supplement the patchy WiFi quality. WiFi quality at the marina was standard 'marina quality'. Intermittent, but probably in the top 20%-ile of marina WiFi's. We've seen a lot worse. Ubiquiti Airmax WAP's were arrayed along the central dock, serving out WiFi5 at about 2~5MB/s. Chloe's antenna, at the far end of a finger pontoon was able to grab it for the most part. Rock-on WiFi6 (802.11ax) though.. we again encourage marinas to install it as soon as they can. It's available today!
Food
Though there is not a lot of variety in Moroccan food, it is unprocessed & healthy, comprised of lots of seasonal fresh veggies, a few sauces and meat. The predominant Tajines, especially the lamb and prune, are good, but the selection beyond that is limited. Lots of simply prepared fish too. No pork other than bacon pieces in the local Carrefour supermarket, one of the main French chains. The souk is the best place to find fresh vegetables. We highly recommend the fresh peas!! Beef is excellent and low cost. Turkey seems to be the dominant meat. Everything that might be made from pork in the Western Europe is made with Turkey: patties, burgers, sausages etc. Morocco is not a safe place, if you're a turkey. And it's cheap!
Morocco's bread is unto it's own. A strange and delicious flat bread was our favorate. Oily, layered and flakey. It's called Msemen or Raif; interchangeably apparently. A super bakery is just across the street from the Marina - serving cakes that would even entice the French in droves!
People
The Moroccans we met spoke either Arabic (100%), French (80%) or English (20%). So we spoke French for the most part. People are very down to earth, super friendly with good sense of humor, engaging, and just wanted to be helpful. Most locals called out 'bonjour' regularly. Peter bought a couple of 'Morocco' or 'Tangier' T-shirts. On the street they are a hit. Daily, strangers will give you thumbs up as you walk on by. People are just itching to smile back at you. What a contrast to the average Western 'eyes down' culture. Crime is minimal in the streets and women can feel safe to walk around, even at night.
Cats
The local cats, living in the rocks along the walkway kindly allowed us to stay at the Marina and to feed them daily. They popped out batches of kittens which, when old enough were adopted by cruising boats and locals. We saw several waves of kittens follow this cycle of life. Dawn carted cat food in her back pack for a lucky snack for several of them - Bat Face, Snot Nose and Abbey being her favorites. As a tiny abandoned kitten, Bat Face (the black and white one pictured) accosted us on day one, meowing very very loudly and insistently until he was given an evening meal. Now he's a big strong lad.
Tangier, Chefchaouen & Ceuta (Spain)
The City of Tangier is unique - a wonderful place for people and life watching. We spent many enjoyable hours, sitting in the many, many Souk cafes, just chatting and laughing with locals in our awful French or just soaking in the culture. In the summertime, we really enjoyed evenings at the Blue Pub outside in the courtyard with a view of the Gibraltar Straits. The marina is also very near the ferry terminal which can take you to several places north into Spain as well as to Gibraltar. In Tangier, we recommend visiting the Old Town with the souk and the Petit Socco, the Kasbah, Café Hafa, Café des Paris (for history buffs), the the Casabarata market, as well as some of the outlying tourist spots that can be visited on your own by taxi or on the red Hop-On-Hop-Off City Tour Bus.
This includes the Caves of Hercules where legend says Hercules met the beautiful Tinga and separated Africa from Europe by parting the Strait of Gibraltar in order to prove his love and strength. It is also said that both continents remain linked through secret underwater passages that connect the Grottoes of Hercules with St. Michael's caves, in Gibraltar.
We also found time to visit some outlying areas such as Chefchaouen, which is the 'Blue Pearl' of Morocco. Two days would be plenty to enjoy this area and perhaps an extra day if you want to take in a full day hike in the nearby town of Akchour. We recommend the bus company CTM which took about 3 hours and requires a quick taxi ride from the marina to the bus station. The town is super laid back and the Rif Mountains are a nice change of scenery. Chefchaouen is highly recommended as one of the treasures of Morocco.
About an hour east of Tangier is one of the two Spanish enclaves located within Morocco, Ceuta. Crossing the border could be a bit hectic as there are several long lines of day workers queueing up as well as people transporting goods across the border since Ceuta is a duty-free zone. For us though, it was quick and easy after we confirmed where to go with the local police. Remember to take your white immigration card provided by the marina at check in (as well as your passport). Also, it's best to inform the marina if you plan to leave Morocco as they can take care of any extra paperwork for immigration or the boat if necessary. Not only did we want to see and enjoy Ceuta, but we noticed that their electronics and white goods store, Marisol, sold electric scooters. We had been searching for scooters for almost a year now and either there was no stock available or the shops were too far away. So far, we have been very happy with the scooter as it makes running errands so much quicker.
As our Schengen visa time limits have reset, our next plan is to continue in the Medi and into the Schengen countries again. We'll start with the Spanish Coast, heading East to see what we can find.
We need to pick up an anchor trip line, our long awaited light wind sail and another Scooter so that we can better explore together. We haven't had much luck receiving mail ordered things in Morocco, so we thought it was best to wait until we were back in the EU.
Overall, Morocco is a country that is building and progressing. Stable, Safe and Friendly, we met a few folks that are seriously considering moving here to retire.
In only the short time that we have been here, Morocco has climbed from 100th to 96th place on the DI! How that for progress?!
We HIGHLY recommend a stay here.
