023: Boat Lift Haul Out in Tunisia, Visiting Islamic Schools and Tasting North African Street Food

It was another one of those epic passages with a ripped headsail and near misses with unidentified vessels in the night – a bit disconcerting with reports of refugee boats around the Libyan coast. But it was exciting sailing to a completely new continent even though, once again we limped into port with more broken bits!

Tunisia is a great place to get sailboat work done on a budget and that’s the main reason we were heading to Port de Peche – Monastir. The whole boat needed a good fit out. But dodging (party) pirate boats was the easy part compared to dealing with customs, the port police, the Garde-Nationale and port authorities.. particularly as we spoke no Arabic or French.

Our home got hoisted out of the water – much to the kids amazement – and put in the yard! But that was nothing compared to the look on their faces (and ours) when we checked out the boat yard toilets and showers. To save money, we had planned to stay on the boat during the fit out.. but roughing that much was really not an option. Luckily Woody’s Dad -who joined us in Malta – put us up in a local hotel last minute until we could find ourselves an apartment – life saver! We made good use of the pool but schooling always came first, so we set up classroom amongst the sun lounges and did a crash course in French!

While Granddad watched the kids we returned the yard. No-one was supposed to use the jabsco toilets once the boat was out of the water.. but someone had! The boat stank – so our first job was to pump the toilet through into a bucket to clear the pipes. Yachting is not all about having G and T’s on deck!

Amel Super Maramu purists will be horrified to learn that we also painted the tiles in the galley which got us thinking about the cushions and curtains too. Tunisia offered a great opportunity for a total refurbishment – watch this space!

Tunisia was very different to what we’re used to. There’s are sharp contrasts between areas that are really grand and well-kept and other that seem totally neglected with rubbish/trash everywhere. Our policy of picking up three bits of plastic every time we’re out seemed meaningless faced with such overwhelming plastic pollution.

We spent a day on the beach, swimming, drinking mint tea and making sandcastles. We were particularly fascinated by the women wearing burkinis in the sea. Is Tunisia safe after the 2015 Tunisian terrorist attacks on the beach? Well, there were plenty of security guards around (on the beach and around the hotels) We spent a lot of time in non-tourist areas and felt totally safe, although the kids’ blonde hair drew some attention!

We arrived in Tunisia as Ramadan was coming to an end and the festival of Eid was beginning and this made us curious about Muslim culture and Islam. We wangled an invite to a local school where Tunisian kids learn about the Qur’an. We learned a little about Arabic writing and pronunciation and even had a personal reading of the Surahs. It was a really educational afternoon and the kids even shot a few hoops in the playground afterwards!

Granddad finally flew home and we found a cheap apartment overlooking Monastir Marina – a little further east from Port de Peche. As the days turned to weeks we fell into a traditional routine – Woody went off to the port every day and I was the stay-at-home mum. The children adopted the local stray cats and homeschooling carried on.

The accommodation wasn’t great but it had a great view over the marina. The kitchen had to be re-arranged for cooking because the electric wiring was a bit.. shocking. Apart from the odd pizza we mainly cooked at home trying local Tunisian recipes like harissa, tagine and libanaise, washed down with the local beer – Celtia (Mum and Dad obviously). The electric tripping out became a regular feature of cooking, which all added to the experience!

More about our adventures in Tunisia in the next blog..

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