Last days on shore before setting sail
After Alexander’s friend Pablo had arrived, we knew we had a few more days to spend visiting cultural and historical places in the region before the deck would be finished. And we did visit some interesting things. The El Jem amphitheatre and mosaics where very impressive (see home schooling) and so was the fish market and Ribat of Monastir.
Moorings dropped !
Friday, 1 hour after the teak deck was finished, we started sailing again. Still all very dirty and dusty, but we would deal with that later – we wanted to leave! Following the east coast of Tunisia northwards, we stopped in Port El Kantaoui, from where we visited the medina and a rich family’s traditional house in Sousse. We anchored in front of Hammamet old town, outside Kelibia (no, we didn’t attempt to enter the harbour this time but went in with the dinghy!), anchored at the shipwreck at Haouaria and had an interesting stop in the fishing harbour of Sidi Daoud. The traditional bread given us by a young woman was the most delicious bread we tasted in Tunisia! Very touching moment, too.
Tunis doesn’t allow yachts in the harbour anymore and Sidi Bou Said was sanded up, so entering the harbour was impossible. Anchoring in the sandy bay beside the presidential palace below blue and white Sidi Bou Said is quite ok too. Slightly more north, from the harbour of Gammarth we visited 1 day Tunis and and one day Carthage and had an extraordinary sail to Bizerte. We had to do it in one go as the weather and wind direction was going to change the following day which would have made it impossible to sail to Bizerte.
On the way to Bizerte, we had a last snorkelling stop for all of us before Pablo would fly back (with Jean-Luc) to Switzerland. It was great having you here, Pablo, to share with you a little bit of our boat life, including home schooling, washing up, sailing, cleaning, fishing (successfully, yes!), shopping, swimming… Thank you for all the help and being a very very good boy!
It all looks wonderful and very interesting, comments and photos!
Keep going!
xxxx
Yes it is really wonderful. And it was interesting to have someone on bord. Not at all the same dynamics. The 3 of them spend hours with their adventure stories, each of them alternating the role of story teller. School for instance was in some way easier, but then also more difficult when Pablo was finished with what he was doing, there was no way to motivate Alexander to carry on, because he took more time at the beginning discussing if or if not to do what he was supposed to… you see what I mean?
Tunisia part IV will be online soon!
xxx
What an amazing adventure! Pablo was thrilled to be part of it!
Thank you!
It was really great to have him! I hope Alexander will finish his post about those 2 weeks within the next days… with some photos, too, if we may.
Keep in touch! kiss kiss