Rose & Brian 15 January 2010 Tunisia

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Rose & Brian 15 January 2010

Tunisia More stones and Monastir

Hi All

We arrived in Monastir just before New Year, six months after we left Holyhead last

June. Having looked around and liked what we saw we have booked in here for amonth of R&R seemed like loads of time but it is already half gone! That is partlybecause we have had our first visitor, but we have been busy as well doing a bit ofsightseeing, boat work and the usual finding our way around and shopping.

But back to when I signed off before Christmas: Brian has been working hard on theelectrical systems, removing redundant wiring, making his new instrument panel.This is initially for a rather cunning digital display that will show us how muchelectricity we are using when sailing or anchored i.e. when only the wind generatoris charging the batteries. He has also moved the bilge pump switch to the new panelas it draws a lot of power and seems to burn out the original rather delicate Frenchswitches. So he is regularly buried somewhere in inaccessible places trying to eithertrack down existing wiring or running new wiring behind cupboards and under thefloor.

Corinnes Catamaran Christmas Day

On the social side, we met the sole occupant of the catamaran that I had taken aphotograph of and published in the last newsletter as it tossed about on the waves.Corinne had been at anchor outside the harbour and in the high winds the anchorstarted dragging. Being somewhat alarmed by this, she got the harbour people tohelp bring the boat in and they tied it up behind us. We found out that her fianc had

done a bunk in November but that she had found a skipper to come and help sail herboat back to Palma so she can sell it and revise her life plan. The skipper wasnt freeuntil 5th January, so she was on her own all that time in Sidi Bou Said. Once she wastied up in the harbour we could invite her in for a bit of company, and Rhiannon from


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Swyn-y-Mor invited herself on board Corinnes boat as she wants to build a 10 storeycatamaran when she grows up! We were all invited to follow.

I have to say the accommodationbeats ours into a cocked hat veryluxurious and spacious with allmod cons. But it would be too bigfor two of us and outside our price

bracket, so that is that! Ourarrangements for Christmas thenincluded Corinne. Severalshopping expeditions later wewere stocked up with a couple ofnice bottles of wine, food for theholiday and some lovely fruit flansfrom the bakery in town. The planwas to go to the Pirate restaurant just next to the marina for Christmas lunch us,

Swyn-y-Mor and Corrine.The table was booked for2pm and we had aperitifsand nibbles on our boatbefore hand. Christmasday started cloudy andgrey, but by noon wasabsolutely gorgeous hot, no wind and acloudless sky. We satoutside on the restaurantterrace, and had a very

long 4 course lunch. We retired for anhours break, went to Corrines boat for

coffee and fruit flans, then reconvened onour boat for a cinema evening to watch TheGolden Compass a Philip Pulman film inthe science fantasy category. That wasgreat fun and quite long, so we all retiredlate having had a very sociable day.

I rather enjoyed dressing up for the day too the first time I had got out any of mysmart clothes. Brian wore his Hawaian

shirt that my sister had bought him a fewyears back.

Christmas Day on Swyn-y-Mor with James


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The next day we went back to theCarthage sites, this time to the RomanAntonine Baths. These are amazingand huge although all you can see isthe basement area. The artistsimpressions of what they must havebeen like are just incredible to havesuch massive and opulent structures

built so long ago. Such a shame theywere torn down! The size of themarble pillars that remain just showhow big everything must have been.

Again, many mosaicswere almost hidden bylichen and mud althoughthey had been excavatedand framed in situ. I fearthe Tunisians dont reallyvalue this heritage.However they are ratherkeen on planting lots ofshrubs around the sites!

After the excesses of theday before, we had egg,bacon (left over fromPalma), sausage, bakedbeans and mash for

dinner! Very comforting.

Again the dayhad improvedand Brian took alovely picture ofthe sunset overCorinnes boat.


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The time had come to move on again, seeking calmer weather and winter sunshine.Sidi Bou Said was quite exposed and being on one of the outer pontoons it was oftenrather bumpy even while tied up! A suitable weather window opened up on Monday28th December and we set of at a leisurely pace after filling up with diesel (less than50p a litre) and getting ourselves prepared. We tried the cruising chute for a whilebut the wind was initially in the wrong direction and then become too strong, so wehauled it back in again after a bit of a struggle (and that was while it was snuffed).

Lesson learned sail away from the wind when trying to do that! We had planned anovernight sail again all the way to Monastir. We could have stopped off at Kelibia onthe way, but had noticed more high winds predicted for the end of the week sothought it better to get to our intended destination.

We managed about 3 hours under sail alone, but the wind resolutely stayed a bitmore south than had been predicted, so it was motor sailing most of the way. Briandid a bit of nifty navigation in the dark as a fishing boat flashed lights at us to warn usaway from a long net it had just laid hour later it rushed up and put a flashinglight on the end of the net only 100 metres away from where we were. As werounded Cap Bon we headed south again into the wind and towards Monastir acrossthe Gulf of Hammamet. Alixora was crashing rather noisily into the choppy waveswhich meant that neither of us got much sleep. Just near Cap Bon we were joinedby a few dolphins the first we have seen for ages which was great. It is alwaysnice to have a bit of company!

As we drew close toMonastir, rather bleary eyedafter a 29 hour trip, thecoastguard kindly pointed outthat we were heading for thewrong harbour a rapid

right hand down a bit andwe tied up in Cap MonastirMarina. What a differencefrom Sidi Bou Said.

Friendly harbour staff, half the

price per night, no problems ingetting a key for the new toiletand shower block, lots of cafson the harbour front, a propersupermarket in the harbour, alaundry and plenty of shelter.After checking all of this out, wedecided to book in for a monthand this was duly arranged aftera bit of discussion to ensure thatthere was space. The monthlyfee is half the price again of the

short stay fee, so we were wellpleased.


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Our wifi aerial has managed to pick up a goodalthough intermittent signal, so we were able to letour friend Colin (on the right, outside his apartment)know that we had arrived and were staying for awhile. He immediately booked a cheap flight fromManchester to Monastir and, not being a boatyperson, reserved a studio flat in the apartment hotelright next to where we are tied up! All very

convenient. He arrived on 6th January and leftagain on 13th, after a weeks fairly easy sightseeingand doing not a lot! The only incident worthreporting was that we locked ourselves out on his2nd floor balcony on the night he arrived (fortunatelyquite warm and windless).

We managed to get released after hour, but we were getting rather hungry bythenIt seems rather strange that the balcony doors have no handle on the outside,and apparently no key that fits not even a master key!

Fatimid(?) Arch in Mahdia

We visited Mahdia (another fishing portwhich Brian and I may head for when weleave here) which has a reputation for silkweaving. It has a ruined Fatimid port witha huge arch possibly not original butvery impressive. Another day we went toSousse which has an old medina and

souk (but rather touristy), a very oldmosque that you are allowed inside, Ribatand Kasbah (closed for renovation atpresent), carpet shops where you can seethem knotting the carpets, a big port andlots of good cafs.

Colin inspecting the Mosque inSousse


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Calypso Caf next to ourboat our favourite eatingout place!

Monastir itself has the requisite large and imposing castle next door to the marina(the Ribat) datingfrom 850AD andwhere they filmedscenes from Life ofBrian among others,a rather tatty walledmedina which isntparticularly historical,a very lively fish andveg market, severalsupermarkets thatalso sell wine andbeer, mosques and a

very large andmagnificent mausoleum housing the body of Habib Bourguiba the previouspresident who was born here and his relatives. One day we saw a big queue ofmen outside the mausoleum collecting what seemed to be free bread some kind ofreligious offering? They didnt seem to be particularly poor. A shop near the grandmosque sells photocopies of the larger scale charts that we needed at 2 a squaremetre.

Inside the Ribat in Monastir


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We even have our ownRoman(?) archeological site onthe island that forms thenorthern part of the marina

with a big derelict harbour cutout of the rock that has seenmany alterations up to quiterecent times but seems to havevery old original bits.

A visit to the shipyard with ourbroken vang plate resulted in

them finding a workshop that would cast us a new one. We collected it on Tuesdayand it looks perfect. However they dont do the stainless steel rivets we need or havethe rivetting gun that would be needed, so we have now found a supplier in the UKand have to get them (and a rivet gun) sent over. We dont really want to set off forplaces with fewer workshop facilities without getting that fixed.

Our fish diet has expanded to include arather large tuna, shrimps, a trigger fish andbarracuda as well as other unidentified fishthat we have had in restaurants. Theexcellent fish market has yet to be fullyexploited, but the variety changes daily.Last week they had swordfish, so we mighttry that soon (not a whole one I hasten to

add). The fish soup served in all therestaurants is very welcome when it is cooland windy.

Rhiannon holding a swordfish head inSousse market! Brian commented that shecant be squeamish at all.

After a very uneventful New Years Eve (westayed up but there were no fireworks), weset off on New Years day to look at thefishing harbour down the road out of interest. It is advertised in our pilot book as analternative to this marina and much cheaper, but when we got there it lookeddistinctly unattractive with a lot of resurfacing work being carried out, and huge fishfarm pens spread out on the docks. It was a warm day, a long walk, so lunch wasurgently needed. Without thinking we walked into the large restaurant we had seennearby, and sat down assuming they would bring menus. However having beengiven bread, water and nibbles, they informed us that it was a set menu. Well, wethought, thats OK we were quite hungry. So after the nibbles we were servedsoup, then a huge selection of cold and warm tapas-like dishes with fish, octopus,

mussels and other shellfish, rice and vegetable dishes, fatimas fingers (friedvegetable fritters) and so on. Gosh, that was a nice lunch we thought as they clearedthe plates away only to see a huge platter of two whole grilled fish (bass andsomething else) with salad, dips and chips being placed in front of us! We manfully


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and womanfully chomped our way through most of that (amazing how space can befound when the food looks, smells and tastes so nice). Finally we were served lemonicecream (the staple around here) and then mint tea and biscuits. We could hardlymove. A bit nervously we looked at the bill - 14 each!

As we walked (staggered) back we

were amused as ever at theTunisians who wrap themselves upwarm for winter. Even on the hottestdays they wear padded ski jackets orwoollen overcoats, knee high boots(women), woolly hats (children) andscarves (everyone). We look a bitincongruous in our Tshirts and thintrousers.

These ladies had just come out of themosque

Rose, James and Rhiannon arrivedhere on Swyn-y-Mor a few days afterus and are arranging to have theirboat taken out and anti-fouled next

week, before setting off on a grand North African tour of Libya and Egypt. We couldhave joined them on the trip to Libya, but felt that we had enough excitement on ourdoorstep and really would like to carry on to do more sailing.

With James and Rose in Mahdiaoutside the long tunnel through thetown wall

Our social diary stays quite fullwhen they are around which isnice! We plan to visit El Jem withthem before they go a bigRoman amphitheatre and a fewmore ancient stones. Brian feelsthat we have perhaps overdone

the old stones as Butte Farm hada lot anyway, but here, when theyare put together, they are ratherimpressive and a bit larger thanthose in Derbyshire.

So that is all for now we have been watching the UK snow and temperature reportsevery day and feeling very sympathetic hopefully you have all survived in onepiece. As I write this, the wind is howling a Force 7 or 8 gale and the desert dust isswirling about the boat, but this is minor compared to what people in the UK havehad to deal with recently.

All the bestRose & Brian


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Fishing boats in Mahdia

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Rose & Brian 15 January 2010 Tunisia