"Not one Cornetto did we see,

but lots of men from the mil-itry

they brought us gifts of tuna fish,

they were delicious,

made quite a dish!

 

No dancing Ladies in waving skirts,

no chance of landing, but just a swim,

the water is luvelly, you must come in!

its time for leaving  .. we now must go 

 ... good bye for ever and  CH-ERI-O-O-O!"

 

( to be sung to the tune of " O sole Mio"  .. or "It's now or never" for the less cultured amongst you!)

 

We have received feedback from some of our avid readers that we should give a credit to the author of each blog - well, the co-authors are all delighted to give the credit to Malc for that one!!

 

After another night's sailing, we arrived at the promised land, but as you see, no Galite or dancing girls.  Ile de Galite is located 25 miles off the coast, just into Tunisian waters.  We were pleased to hoist our Tunisian courtesy flag having avoided the Algerian pirates for the last 4 days.  We were the only boat to anchor off the Island, but within minutes we were boarded by 'the military' arriving in a very tired looking rib.  After answering some questions and showing passports, we were told that we could not land until we had completed formalities on the mainland!  We could swim, but beware of the small jelly fish which have a bad sting.  We learnt that the island was guarded by four national guard, at least one of whom had been here for the last 5 years, and that no women or alcohol were allowed.  There were a few civilians on the island, which had a general air of dereliction.  They departed having relived us of some beers, a bottle of scotch, and some sweeties 'for the children' - what, no women?  These vital statistics were all skilfully obtained in French by our 'on board' translator, 'the Algerian'.

 

We have spent the day here. The heat of the sun prompted the erection of the cockpit awning and we have all been swimming. Water temperature good.  Malc's day for cooking called for the bbq , and what a feast.  As a picture tells a thousand words,  a camera never lies (???), and just to make you all 'wish you were here',  we leave you with the following pictures.  Tonight we are sailing to Bizerte on the mainland (50 miles) ready to shop and fuel up in the morning.  Rumour has it that they pay you to take on fuel - we shall see!!

 

Brian, Steve, John and Malc

The crew

SY Wishanger II