Marocco unreachable

I'm playing as the Spanish in the age of explorations (my first P&M campaign).

I seem unable to land a force from the Spanish mainland into Marocco although the landbridges are visible on the map.

1) Are there still landbridges in this mod? If there are, which ones?

No problem, I think, I'll just have to put a ship in the right sea lane. But apparently I can't put a ship there.

2) Is there a specific ship (type) I need? I believe I tried both deep sea ships as well as coast faring ships (at least the ones I got from the start)

And finally I've noticed that both the genoans and the venetians both have the same shield.