When storms hit Cap Spartel, Omar becomes Tangier’s unofficial bard. In the lantern room’s ghostly glow, he recounts shipwrecks like family gossip—the 1942 freighter that vanished in 20 minutes, the yacht carrying stolen Matisse paintings that ran aground just east of the light. The real treasures are in his weather journals: wine-stained pages documenting every major tempest since 1967, complete with pressed seaweed samples and fishermen’s prayers scribbled in margins. On clear nights, he’ll point out the “phantom light”—a mysterious glow that sometimes appears three miles offshore, matching no known ship. The coast guard humors him, but seasoned sailors bring offerings of sweet tea “just in case.”
