day 3 Bizerte ... quicker than expected!
Gaviota
Fri 31 Jul 2009 19:09
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37:16.46N 09:52.85E
which means I am here! Arrived at 4.0 am after a busy
night.
But back to where I left off yesterday......
Well after twenty minutes I decided the shift was permanent ,
so wrapped up the genny and upped the spinnaker on port side and set it
traditionally.... the whole lot was to port of the forestay .. looked great, and
was a perfect balance to the mainsail (autohelm and me didnt really need to
steer at all)... but now we are surging along at 7 knots pretty effortlessly..
So I just setttled back in the sun and kept tweeking as one has to with the
spinnaker up! ... and another 5 degree shift meant that I would now have to gybe
to get to Bizerte... so sod that till evening when I got the spinnaker
down....which i duly did.... so now slowed down on port gybe to about 5 knots
and settled back... but big ships started appearing from both sides ... I
was running closer to the headland that everything from Tunisia and Lybia
heading west had to get round.... So spent the night ship dodging and the wind
now increasing up to 18 knots and more at times I am trucking along myself at 7
to 8 knots ... so no time to grab any of my sleeps!!!.. And would you believe
once round the headland and going across the bay to Bizerte ... A bloody
fishing fleet .. going in every direction and back (and then some) ... was I
awake or was i doing jumping jacks .... Thank god for this electronic navigation
stuff.... the harbour green light didnt appear till i was less than half a mile
away ... fine except that there were 3 very visible flashing red lights all in
different positions!!! .... not helpful (even confusing, but that could have
been my mental state by now!) and in the dark (moon gone) and a strange place!
So a nice big harbour and motored in at 4 am to just off the
pontoons used as a marina and dropped the hook (anchor) .... 5 am and I am
having a quick celebratory drink of cheap spanish brandy (that shook the
system!!!)... 5.05 am and fast asleep (except that by local time it was only 4
am) .... So i am now on the same time as UK summer time .. but the weather is a
bit better!!!!!
Woke up midday ish ... had breakfast .....and...... went back
to sleep!!!! 4pm (actually 3pm) got up and did the police, customs and
booked myself into the "marina" for a couple of nights ... so I can easily do
some vital stuff like cleaning, filling water tanks, charge batteries for a
couple of days on slow charge to get them well topped up ...etc etc and at 19
euro a night I think thats ok (better than the 76 they wanted in
Mahon!!!!)
So will spend a bit of time here cruising
round Tunisia (1 day , 1 week , 1 month? depends!!!).... will let you know
when I move on.
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