Its a while since we posted an update due to having family aboard, it was great to see firstly, Ellis and Poppy followed by Cameron, Holly and 10 month old baby Kayden. Fortunately the weather held up and we were able to get out and about. We had a lovely time visiting the Blue Lagoon, Aquarium and Science museum with them. We did discover however, that it was exceedingly difficult to find an anchorage with good holding for the anchor and not rolly. This meant that for both sets of guests, we retreated early back to Rinella bay to explore shoreside. We heard from a local later that this year was extraordinary in respect of rolly anchorages, the situation had been going on all summer with none of the usual spots being pleasent.
As soon as the guests left our attention focused on a weather window to get to our winter base, Monastir marina in Tunisia, where we would be based out of the Schengen area for 4 months. Having stocked up on provisions we knew were going to be hard or impossible to get there, Pork, Rum, decent tea bags, Cheese etc.we finally lifted anchor at 3am and motored off into a calm early morning. This would be a 30 odd hr passage and turned out not to be the best ever choice of weather window! We motored, then motorsailed, for the whole time until dusk, where we passed the small Italian island of Linosa, approximately halfway.
Linosa island at dusk
After that the wind rapidly built to 20 knts and we spent the night well heeled over on a tight reach with lumpy seas. With speeds exceeding 9 knots we sped on our way but didn't get much sleep on our off watches, the boat was too bouncy. We reefed the genoa during the night and again as we approached Monastir, our high speeds had meant we were too early as we didnt want to arrive in the dark. Reefing the second time took over a knot off our speed and we were easily able to see the Kuriat Island and associated reef (Complete with tanker high and dry) as we skirted it, still 10 miles out from Monastir.
Tanker on Kuriat reef - we had 6m under the boat when this photo was taken 10 miles out from Monastir.
We were suddenly joind by a small bird in our cockpit, the poor thing looked exhausted, presumably from the 20 knt winds that were still blowing. It huddled into a corner by Nigels feet at the helm and tucked its head in for a sleep. To avoid it getting accidentally stepped on we picked it up, put it in a box out of the wind and hoped to release it as we got to land. Unfortunately, as we got ready to drop sails, a quick check revealed that it had died.
RIP friend
We arrived in Monastir marina to be greeted by the smiling marineroes helping with our lines. We have to berth at the customs clearing berth initially and are given no time to relax, wash or get a nap, before being hustled off to immigration and customs where we were fingerprinted, photographed and paperwork done. We were then joined on the boat by 4 customs people who had a cursory rummage around the boat, one took a selfie video because "its the first time ive been on a boat". It felt more like a group of curious tourists were on board rather than a team of customs staff. Anyway, it was all very friendly and we were released to go to the fuel dock to fill up with Diesel, we are not allowed to fill up on departure (post customs release) and its good practice to have full tanks during the winter to prevent condensation water getting into the fuel.
Our winter view!
Finally we were given our berth, coincidentally next to our friends Malcom and Kate on Grace of Sydney who arrived a week before. A quick snooze and we were up and out to the first of hopefully many social events held by the livaboard community, Friday night drinks in one of the restaurants around the marina. There were about 30 people there. It is BBQ afternoon here today, Sunday, so it looks like we are in for a very sociable off season here.
Its now time to get the boat into winter mode, sails off, good wash, flush engine, pickle watermaker, change oil etc. We have a fairly long jobs and upgrades list to complete whilst we are here so that will keep us busy, we also hope to get out into the countryside, visit Tunis and maybe Egypt during the winter months.