Sidi Bou Said,Tunisia
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Wed 11 Aug 2010 19:15
36:52.06N
10:21.143E
Wednesday 11th
August 2010
We finally left
Malta on Saturday 7th August, having waited all week for a decent weather
window. It didn't look as good as had been predicted earlier in the week
with fairly strong winds still blowing dead against us and lumpy seas, but
we were both getting harbour fever and needed to be on the move, so we
accepted it would be a bumpy start to the passage and let go the lines
around mid-morning. Sure enough, once out of Valetta main harbour, we had
20+ knots of wind on the nose and waves that were determined to push us
backwards.
We set a reefed main
and yankee, steered best course to windward and off we went - straight towards
Sicily! Oh well, a few hours on this tack to get in some North, and then
we'd take the other take to get some West. This was going to be a long 220 miles
if the wind didn't ease as predicted later that evening.
We spent best part
of Saturday sailing lots ofmiles but not necessarily in the right direction,and
the wind didn't really ease until almost light on Sunday. When itdid,it
died away completely, leaving us to motor into the waves it left behind.
Eventually the sea flattened and we were able to motor comfortably up the
rhumb line (in a straight line directly towards our destination for our
non-sailing friends!).
We both thought we
had seen the end of the wind, so were quite surprised when around 18.30 on
Sunday evening it picked up again to a lively 16-20 knots, but this time from a
direction that meant we could sail a bit more off the wind. By altering
our plans to pass South of Pantelleria instead of North, we were able to make
the most of this wind and were stonking along at 7knots over the ground for
hours.
This turn of events
meant that we made up the time lost and arrived in Sidi Bou Said around
18.00 on Monday. Unfortunately we could not get into the marina,but the weather
was calm now and we spent a peaceful night anchored off the
beach.
Next morning we were
told we could enter the marina after 12, and by lunchtime we were tied up
against the quay in Sidi Bou Said marina.
Today we took a taxi
into town which is very touristy and was choc a bloc with hundreds of tourists
from cruise liners docked in Tunis, not far up the coast. A twee little
town all painted white with blue doors and windows, it is not really our cup of
tea. However, we plan to visit Carthage and Medina, both of which are
apparently a train ride away.
We spent the rest of
today using the wifi in the internet cafe to track down necessary parts for the
autopilot, which although fixed in Malta, decided it would only work for an hour
before giving up again. Fortunately the backup wheel pilot did an
excellent job instead, so we didn't have to handsteer this time. Steve did
an excellent job of replacing the starboard navigation light so we now have a
full set of working nav lights again (he had to go to the top of the mast to fix
the tricolour in Malta - fortunately it just turned out that the glass of the
bulb had parted company with the metal base so a quick replacement was all that
was needed, much to his relief!)
It is very quiet
here at the moment compared to yesterday evening when the quayside was busy with
people eating and drinking at the marina restaurant which has tables almost all
the way along the quay. We suspect it is something to do with being the
first day of Ramadan, and that it will become somewhat livelier as the sun goes
down!
The plan now is to
spend a couple of days here and leave on Saturday, weather permitting, to head
West towards the Spanish coast. We have no interest in the Balearics
at this time of year, so will pass them by and make straight for Cartagena
possibly, or Duquesa, depending on the wind.