sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
do any one have any upto date information on Al Hoceima , all the scearch I have done refir back to 2007 and dont sound too help full .
thanks
thanks
Al Hoceima Morroco info please
- Thread starter sailaboutvic
- Start date
ITH
Well-Known Member
No personal knowledge, but have just acquired the RCC North Africa Pilot (2010 edition). It describes Al Hoceima as "one of the only ports in Morocco where yachts have never been welcome . . . . . a port of entry currently offering very poor facilities for yachts and protracted clearance procedures. Things are due to improve."
sailaboutvic
Well-Known Member
thanks for that , we in Melilla at the moment so I guess we head back to Almerimar for some more rest then head west from there
Roaring Girl
Well-Known Member
Our info is 207 as well, I'm afraid. Went for one night and had to tie up to ferry dock. V uncomfortable and filthy and the only port in M where the officials (or in fact just one of them) was openly rude and dismissive of us as women. OTOH a nice little town with lots of bustling life, cyber cafes and the like. We;ve met cruisers (in Melilla) who really liked it. Mellilla is great too, of course.
blinder
New Member
Al Hoceima
We sailed to from Almerimar to Al Hoceima in 2009 as part of a trip to walk in the near-by Rif mountains. From my point of view it was a very positive experience but I appreciate that it might be a bit too adventurous for some. Don’t bother reading the following weighty tome if you think this might describe you.
As long as you are used to visiting Islamic countries you should find the port and city to be both charming and welcoming. If all you’ve experienced is European marinas and anchorages you might not find the place quite so accommodating and I can imagine that some people would feel intimidated. Don’t expect Al Hoceima to be anything like Melilla unless you’ve passed through the border control there into Morocco.
First of all Al Hoceima harbour is both a ferry port and a fishing haven; it is NOT a yacht haven. There is a very inviting anchorage close-by in a sandy bay under the cliffs protecting the town. Having whetted your appetite, don’t even think of dropping the hook there as its out of bounds. Thankfully we entered the port in daylight and were eventually directed to tie up in the fishing harbour alongside a couple of small boats that didn’t appear to have moved for some time. The Moroccans in this part of the country don’t seem to have what you might call ‘recreational craft’ and many locals need permits to even go a few miles out to sea. The vessels we tied up alongside were probably used as dive boats in the commercial sponge industry that is active in the area.
We then had to go ashore and because of the Swine Flu threat at that time we all had to check in with the port Medical, Customs and Gendarmerie Officials at the ferry terminal. Fortunately there was no ferry traffic otherwise our relatively straightforward check-in might have been a more lengthy experience. Once these formalities were overcome I then had to find the port office which was located on the opposite side of the harbour to the ferry terminal. The Port Captain had an old computer on his desk but there was no electricity to his office and I had to manually fill in the usual stack of different forms, each of which extracted more or less the same information but destined to be locked forever in different filing cabinets! The charge for our few days stay was incredibly cheap and the Port Captain almost swallowed his cigarette when I told him what we might pay on the northern side of the Med. I didn’t expect to be able to pay by credit card but he took cash and looked very happy.
Having spent a couple of leisurely hours in these various offices I returned to my boat to discover my crew involved in trying to rescue a fairly large fishing vessel that, although tied up to the quay just ahead of us, was actually in the process of sinking. The vessel had a steel super structure built on a wooden hull. It was holed below the waterline and had a diver in the water trying to stop the leak. Eventually a variety of large pumps arrived and the vessel was saved and towed away for proper repair but not before we witnessed the owner and his family weeping hard as they saw their probably uninsured livelyhood almost destroyed.
While ashore I was approached by a young man who indicated he would look after my boat and I gratefully accepted his offer. We had already removed any items from view that might prove too tempting, even for an honest Muslim and our visit to the Al Hoceima town was largely uneventful but enjoyable. Eventually, after paying off our smiling ‘boat boy’ a few days later we sailed further west to Marina Smir where we left our boat for 10 days or more while we explored the Rif.
In summary, we all had a great time in Al Hoceima and in Morocco in general. This was one of a number of trips and the Moroccans are mostly very friendly and welcoming people and you can expect a very different experience to anything that you might find in European waters.
One last important point, our path was smoothed by me making contact first with Marina Smir. They contacted Al Hoceima and pre-warned them of our plans so everyone knew well before we left Almerimar and appeared on the Moroccan radar.
Fair winds.
We sailed to from Almerimar to Al Hoceima in 2009 as part of a trip to walk in the near-by Rif mountains. From my point of view it was a very positive experience but I appreciate that it might be a bit too adventurous for some. Don’t bother reading the following weighty tome if you think this might describe you.
As long as you are used to visiting Islamic countries you should find the port and city to be both charming and welcoming. If all you’ve experienced is European marinas and anchorages you might not find the place quite so accommodating and I can imagine that some people would feel intimidated. Don’t expect Al Hoceima to be anything like Melilla unless you’ve passed through the border control there into Morocco.
First of all Al Hoceima harbour is both a ferry port and a fishing haven; it is NOT a yacht haven. There is a very inviting anchorage close-by in a sandy bay under the cliffs protecting the town. Having whetted your appetite, don’t even think of dropping the hook there as its out of bounds. Thankfully we entered the port in daylight and were eventually directed to tie up in the fishing harbour alongside a couple of small boats that didn’t appear to have moved for some time. The Moroccans in this part of the country don’t seem to have what you might call ‘recreational craft’ and many locals need permits to even go a few miles out to sea. The vessels we tied up alongside were probably used as dive boats in the commercial sponge industry that is active in the area.
We then had to go ashore and because of the Swine Flu threat at that time we all had to check in with the port Medical, Customs and Gendarmerie Officials at the ferry terminal. Fortunately there was no ferry traffic otherwise our relatively straightforward check-in might have been a more lengthy experience. Once these formalities were overcome I then had to find the port office which was located on the opposite side of the harbour to the ferry terminal. The Port Captain had an old computer on his desk but there was no electricity to his office and I had to manually fill in the usual stack of different forms, each of which extracted more or less the same information but destined to be locked forever in different filing cabinets! The charge for our few days stay was incredibly cheap and the Port Captain almost swallowed his cigarette when I told him what we might pay on the northern side of the Med. I didn’t expect to be able to pay by credit card but he took cash and looked very happy.
Having spent a couple of leisurely hours in these various offices I returned to my boat to discover my crew involved in trying to rescue a fairly large fishing vessel that, although tied up to the quay just ahead of us, was actually in the process of sinking. The vessel had a steel super structure built on a wooden hull. It was holed below the waterline and had a diver in the water trying to stop the leak. Eventually a variety of large pumps arrived and the vessel was saved and towed away for proper repair but not before we witnessed the owner and his family weeping hard as they saw their probably uninsured livelyhood almost destroyed.
While ashore I was approached by a young man who indicated he would look after my boat and I gratefully accepted his offer. We had already removed any items from view that might prove too tempting, even for an honest Muslim and our visit to the Al Hoceima town was largely uneventful but enjoyable. Eventually, after paying off our smiling ‘boat boy’ a few days later we sailed further west to Marina Smir where we left our boat for 10 days or more while we explored the Rif.
In summary, we all had a great time in Al Hoceima and in Morocco in general. This was one of a number of trips and the Moroccans are mostly very friendly and welcoming people and you can expect a very different experience to anything that you might find in European waters.
One last important point, our path was smoothed by me making contact first with Marina Smir. They contacted Al Hoceima and pre-warned them of our plans so everyone knew well before we left Almerimar and appeared on the Moroccan radar.
Fair winds.
Last edited:
Roaring Girl
Well-Known Member
That's interesting. When we went into Al Hoceima, travelling east and having stopped at Tangers, Smir and El Jebha, they came to us, as a pair, for the paperwork. (Also our experience in El Jebha.) This was the only Morroccan port where anyone (gaurdien, officials, greeting committee) came below and had even a cursory look around. We think they may have been because they saw two women and decided that below decks was not appropriate space for men to enter.
I speak quite good French but one of the officials at AH absolutely refused to speak or even look at me, requiring his colleague to do the talking, even when they spoke to each other in French!
To start with they said we didn't need to take our passports (to our surprise), but then the nicer, immigration man came back and apologetically confiscated them. This was a pain as we'd wanted to leave really early and then couldn't till they opened up.
We weren't charged a penny.
I speak quite good French but one of the officials at AH absolutely refused to speak or even look at me, requiring his colleague to do the talking, even when they spoke to each other in French!
To start with they said we didn't need to take our passports (to our surprise), but then the nicer, immigration man came back and apologetically confiscated them. This was a pain as we'd wanted to leave really early and then couldn't till they opened up.
We weren't charged a penny.
