Arrival in Monastir is reasonably straight forward. Jumping around the boat in thirty eight degrees to moor Kerensa along side the resturants has its challenges (with an audience), grateful for some help from the captainerres as the stress levels are through the roof. The walk to visit the police and customs is a strange experience, feeling the effects of many days at sea, and trying to compensate for a bouncy floor is now unnecessary. Showing all relevant documents then Kerensa get the customs officers looking her over, didn't take too long although they were intrigued with the label maker which Nigel had to demonstrate as they thought it was some sort of espionage device for messaging. Looking in all the drawers!! Luckily Kerensa was tidy and they were good at putting everything back, we obviously hadn't upset them and had all the right paperwork. One thing we didn't have was money to tip the captaineres so straight away we had to head off to the bank. Doing anything in the midday heat is madness.
One thing Tunisia is is cheap at least, with our ever extending list of boat jobs to do, we can tick off the repairs on the sail cover ( broken zip) and holes in various places on the bimini. We get "persuaded" to get hatch covers made, we had heard that the quality of the materials were not necessarily that great. But we take the chance at bargain prices.
Midweek we head off down the back streets, with initially amusing interactions with (mainly men) trying to get Amanda to buy everything she looks at... browsing is not really an option. Eventually the amusing becomes annoying, but everything is so cheap. Although Amanda is a great fan of shopping, it becomes not as fun anymore.
One of the main features in Monastir is the Ribat, impressive fortress. Famously known for scenes from Life of Brian filmed here. With its beautifully preserved walls, towers and chambers, very lovely when lit at night. Climbing the tall tower with its narrow staircase reveals a stunning view across the beaches and shows the whole layout of the ancient alls.
Our time here has been relaxing and we have ventured beyond Monastir, finding banks, supermarkets, speaking to other sailors and service providers. Tomorrow we are prepping the boat to set off to Malta on Monday, about 2 days sailing.
Malta here we come!
