Dairy entry number twenty-one Tunisia to Palma Position 39'33:31N 02'37:53E
California of London
Allan and Ruth Dooley
Wed 30 Sep 2009 16:59
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Had planned to continue around the Tunisia coast
on Friday 25 September but bad weather kept us in port. Instead we visited
the blue and white cobbled village of Sidi Bou Said and had long lunch
overlooking Tunis bay. Unfortunately my camera packed up developing an
unsolvable 'zoom error' so only two pictures with this blog.
On Saturday early departure was thwarted by the
"Guard Maritime" who said "interdit de depart" due to "mauvais temp" (force
7-8)! We were given permission to leave
after lunch so set off and motored into northerly headwind and swell. The
sea state improved when we turned west towards Mallorca and the wind also
helped by going round to north-east and then the east.
So the passage back turned into the best
long trip of the whole journey. We had a cracking sail for two days with
the cruising chute or the jib surfing down the waves with the wind behind
us. The weather was beautiful on the Sunday and Monday but clouded
over on Tuesday on our arrival at Cabrera where we had a gentle day
recovering from three days at sea.
Wednesday 30 September was the last sailing day
of this trip and it was a beautiful sunny day with swimming, snorkelling,
sunbathing and a flat calm sea for a motor trip back to Palma. A fiting
end for a fantastic trip.
It has been a brilliant adventure which all went
according to plan with over 40 family and friends joining and leaving the boat
in different ports. California behaved brilliantly and did not let us down
at all. 5800 miles run, 6 countries on the journey and 146 ports
or anchorages visited in just 24 weeks!
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