from unspoilt bays of northern Tunisia to trendy vibes in northern Ibiza
Goodbye Tunisia
Quite a few of you know by now that we didn’t (yet) get our visas for Algeria and so decided to take “the long way round” via the Balearics. The last sailing week in Tunisia from Bizerte to Tabarka, last stop before getting to Algeria, had been so beautiful: several magnificent anchorages along the green northern coast in unspoilt bays along empty sand beaches. Being one of very few boats sailing, we also got the full attention of the Tunisian coast guard (😉), we did some nice snorkelling, saw more dolphins and fished more…. bonite!
géante et magnifique méduse à Bizerte 
soirée crêpes à Bizerte 
soirée crêpes à Bizerte 
bracelets brésiliens 
bracelets brésiliens 
dauphins en accompagnement 
accompagnement agréable 
lever du soleil Tunisie nord 
baie tranquille Tunisie nord, nous y sommes restés 2 nuits 
eau cristaline 
le plaisir de tous les jours 
la bombe d’Oliver 
coucher du soleil
no visas, no interest!
After our last evening with Harissa-Sandwiches we crossed from Tabarka to Mallorca in 3 days (68 hours to be precise) with mixed feelings: looking forward to European food variety and living standard, but also disappointed about the lack of feedback from the Algerian consulate, knowing there would have been lots of incredible anchorages and historical sites along the Algerian coast. But without a visa, we would have probably been confined to the harbours, shopping allowed only with an escort… and not being able to visit the cultural sites. We wrote an “adapted” letter to the consulate with a copy to the Algerian Ambassy in Bern…
328 nautical miles
Our crossing to the Balearics was quite eventful: we didn’t have the predicted winds, much less in fact, so we happily hoisted the spinnaker (large balloon like sail you use with not too strong back wind). When we brought it down though – it was dark already – it got tangled around the forestay and nothing could be done to undo the mess that night. Fortunately, we managed to settle the problem the next morning while sailing. Jean-Luc went up on the mast and after one and a half hours the spi was back in it’s bag and didn’t have the right to come out again before long!
Mallorca and Cabrera
Arriving on Mallorca, suddenly we had to take care of other vessels, sailing or speeding. Crowded indeed, mostly rented catamarans, and not only experienced sailors… Wanting to get a good shot of Illika in the picturesque Cala Pi, we went on shore, walked up the cliff and had to watch, unable to do anything about it, how another sailing boat trying to anchor in the same creek bumped into Illika. What a stress! She was fine luckily.
After that, we enjoyed two peaceful days on the island of Cabrera, a nature reserve.
Palma, Balearics
Back in Palma, we didn’t get a harbour place – not even for a couple of hours, fully booked! (no the Ballearics are not full of boats, who said that?) – but we managed to get groceries and (hopefully) found a solution for our freezer problem. Just another little thing to take care of… : we needed someone who could weld a copper tube for the cooling system. But of course, we also saw the Cathedral of Palma, ate some tapas and walked through part of the old town!
¡ Hola Ibiza !
Still part of the Balearics, Ibiza is a good day’s sail away, which we did getting up early and partially running on the engine: the days are getting short and we have to adjust to that! We landed in a nice and sheltered bay with a few other sailing boats. At 2 o’clock in the morning, the wind grew stronger and Illika was pulling on her anchor chain the same as all the other yachts. Our anchor alarm woke us up because the depth had reached a defined limit. Again, we were lucky: checking the situation we noticed that a neighbour yacht had started drifting towards us, the anchor not holding anymore! Luckily it missed us by 2 meters. We whistled and shouted until the lights on deck went on and the crew took control of their vessel drifting towards the rocks…
Right now, …
… we’re anchored in front of a hotel complex with a nudist beach – to the boy’s disgust! The trance and chill out music from the bar all afternoon and of the disco until late at night reminds us of our wild days… 😮 Kind of cool! The bay is pretty and not crowded, we’ll stay a couple of days settling things (our to do list seems to be getting longer…), plan our next steps, do some boat schooling and wait for better winds.
Take care, hear you soon!
Details there which you haadn’t mentioned on WhatsApp!!