36.22.388N 10.32.741E

After our wine tasting we spent Tuesday recovering, pottering around the boat. Stephen started varnishing our new table and glass holder. The weather was very hot and humid (75% humidity). Koshka & Yoyo didn’t really know what to do, so they did what they do best – slept! Even they found it hard to sleep while it was that hot and humid. We decided it was only fair to let Koshka & Yoyo out all night, so they had a chance to cool down a bit.

On Wednesday Stephen helped Duncan by winching him up a mast. Duncan was sorting someone’s steaming light out. Unfortunately the wire from the light had fallen back into the mast and due to the design of the mast it was impossible to find the wire again. Of course to find out what was going on with the light there were many trips up and down the mast. Stephen was getting quite good on the winch by the end.

On Wednesday evening we went out for a meal with Duncan, Kim, Jo, Julie and Martin. We went to a local Tunisian restaurant where we were the only non-Tunisians. We had a fantastic meal with wine for a very reasonable price. Unfortunately Anne got a bit confused with the menu and which items were starters and main courses and she forgot to order a main course. Luckily the starters were quite substantial and the meat eaters didn’t want their veg’s so she had plenty to eat.

As we have now finished the work on the diesel tanks we wanted to fill one tank up and check our connections were OK. With Duncans help we went over to the fuel pontoon early on Thursday morning. While we were filling up the pirate ships came onto the dock to load up with tourists. It’s quite disconcerting to have a large pirate ship on the move only a few feet away from your bow!!  We also filled up our jerry cans, so once we were back in our berth we really topped up the diesel tank so we are sure the fittings on the top of the tank are sealed. Good news – our fittings on the port side tank are diesel proof. Now we only need to test the starboard side.

All week has been hot and humid so our usual jobs, such as cleaning the boat, take far longer. On the plus side our pores should be clean as we have been sweating so much!!

At the usual Friday night “Liveaboards Happy Hour” we found out that there was a municipal market in Hammamet. Armed with directions we went off bright and early to the market on Saturday. It was so nice to wander around the stalls. It’s quite a small market, but at least we had a choice of stall for vegs.

Julie and Martin had made a comment that they couldn’t get a mosquito net for the door on their boat, due to its shape. Always ones for a challenge, we went and had a look and said we thought we would be able to make something for them. On Saturday evening we went over to their boat with a prototype net. The main problem was getting the net to sit at the top of the curved doorway, we had thought that large curtain weights would work but they didn’t. After a few glasses of wine and various weird and whacky ideas such as extra weights of coke bottles, water bottles and even spanners (we thought this might cause a concussion when taking down the net in the morning) we came up with the solution of a piece of pipe, which we split and this fitted nicely over the runner for the door. We delivered the finished mosquito net to Martin and Julie on Monday, they were thrilled with it. In the evening we had a few drinks on board Tiamat. Stephen managed to whip up an evening meal for 6 on board Tiamat. He quite enjoyed working down below on the air conditioned boat and mentioned something about moving onboard!

The best part of the week was that over the weekend we had a Mistral (north westerly wind) which meant things cooled down a bit and got less humid.