5th Ocotber /07
Allan Dobson and Donald Hughes on board with us. Leaving Tunisia having
spent three days there for some r & r on our way from Turkey to Gib and then
to the Canaries. Tunisia was fascinating; we rented a car with driver and
drove down to Kairouan, one of the holiest cities in Islam. Here we visied
an ancient Mosque and a well where water was discoved after removing a gold
vessel originally from Mecca. The watrer is drawn up by a camel walking in
circles which works the wheel and pump. On to El-Jem to visite the third
largest remaining coliseum in the world complete with lion pits and cells;
had difficulty finding somewhere to have lunch as it's Ramadam. The boys had
to do without a cooling beer. After leaving El-Jem we headed towards (at
least it should have been towards but our driver took a wrong road)
Monastir to look around the Ribat (defensive fort but also a place of safety
during the Christian raids from Italy and a place to school in the Koran)
This is also whre the 'Life of Christ' and 'The Life of Brian' wre filmed.
Back to the yacht which was at Port El-Kantaoui, a pleasant little marina
purpose built in a holiday village, not the most sophisticated place of
earth rather full of tattoed Eurotrash who seem to do nothing but eat
burgers and drink beer all day. We did find one good restaurant right
opposite the yacht which did very good traditional Tunisian food and seafood
called La Mediterannee. I highly recommend the baked saffron fish.
The sail (actually mainly motoring) from Turkey was five days of not a lot
happening apart from catching fish; Donald caught his first fish ever, a
Dorado. We passed Malta late evening the day before we arrived in Tunisia.
We did have one very good sail averaging 8.5 knots for a few hours. Night
watches were spent playing with Allan's new toy a 'Star Gazer'; using GPS
you point it at any star it tells you the name and how many light years away
it is. We were lucky to have a full moon which made night watches far more
pleasant.
We should be arriving in Gibralter on the 9/10th October all being well
where we will be joined by Hedley Saunders for the sail to the Canaries.
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