Preparing to leave Tunisia

It is hard to believe that it was 6 years ago since we set sail from New Zealand on this circumnavigation. And now here we are, still in the Mediterranean, and still not quite half way home. We can blame Covid for at least one of those years, waiting in Indonesia before we could move on. However, as we slowed our lives down to the cruising pace, we have found a wonderful cruising community of people from all over the world, all of them out here exploring the multitude of different cultures in exotic places, in their sailboats/homes. So, we say, “what’s the hurry!”
Monastir Marina, in Tunisia has been our home for the past 7 months, and I will certainly miss the comradery of the other cruisers we met there, our weekly BBQs, our ladies’ visits to the local hammam, the local markets and even the town itself was very pleasant. The genuine friendliness of the local people was remarkable and we were made to feel very welcome.

Since our last blog which covered our wonderful trip home to New Zealand, then our road trip around Tunisia with Francoise who came to spend a month with us over Christmas, we have had to get Mai Tai ready for our next cruising season, here in the Med.
Living and travelling on a sailboat puts a lot of pressure on the many systems that make up our floating home. Sails and rigging wear out and need to be replaced and adjusted, the engine needs regular maintenance and sometimes more. Pumps, cables, electrical items, hoses, LPG cookers, batteries, mast and boom, portholes and hatches, painted surfaces like decks and cabin sides, carpets, cushions, canvas sail bags and covers. All of these take a constant beating from the sea and the sun and general wear and tear.
Maintaining all of these systems when you are on the move is very difficult. For instance, if you need to order a part to repair the water pump and you are anchored in one of the remote Greek Islands, where do you have the item sent to? We have no fixed address and are rarely in one place long enough to receive a package which might take 3 to 4 weeks to arrive. So, we use our winter layovers to catch up on projects that can’t be done during the sailing season.
You may remember that we had to sail from Sicily to Tunisia without an engine last September, so one of the first things we had to do on arrival was to have the diesel injection pump rebuilt. Thanks to the large cruising community who also come to Tunisia, we quickly found the local mechanic able to do this job, plus the long list of other projects needing to be done.
When we arrived in Tunisia, our mainsail had torn during the passage and the yankee was also in pretty bad shape. We had these made by North Sails in New Zealand about 20 years ago, and now, after 32,000 sailing miles, we needed new sails. Impulsion Sails here in Tunisia were highly recommended for their high-quality workmanship. So, we approached them to make our new ones. They are also very competitive with their prices and we are pleased with our new sails.

Rabii and Amon at the opening of their new sail loft. Trying our new mainsail

The beautiful new Sail loft with double the space from before. Vey impressive.

We removed all our old bronze portholes which had been installed in Mai Tai when she was built, 61 years ago. A couple of them were leaking, causing some rot in the wooden lining inside, but we wanted to change the way they were installed, so Lane removed all 6 ports.

While the ports were out, we needed to repaint the area around each window inside, plus repaint the cabin sides outside, before reinstalling the ports. This time we replaced them using Butyl Tape as a seal rather than using sealant.
The old portholes were all polished and replaced and it looks amazing.

This project created a huge mess inside in order for Lane to get access to areas behind wall and ceiling panels. However, the finished job looks great and should remain water-tight for another 61 years.

Our old sail bags, mainsail cover and canvas awnings needed replacing. I have a heavy duty canvas sewing machine on board and found a shop selling Sunbrella fabric, just a short train journey from Monastir. While all the work was going on inside Mai Tai, we rented an apartment down at the Marina where we could stay and I could set up my machine to get all the canvas work done.

New sail bags for our hank-on headsails, plus new mainsail cover and wind scoop. It surely kept me busy.

But it is not all hard work. We took some time out to visit some local sites with our dear friends who we met cruising in Turkey.

President Bourguiba, born here in Monastir, was a very popular president for 30 years from 1965 to 1995. He passed away at the age of 98 in the year 2000. We went to visit his home which is now open to the public. Called the Marble Palace as it is constructed almost entirely out of marble.

Everything about this home is a reminder of the 1960s, a flourishing time for Tunisia.

Every year, on the anniversary of his death, the 6th April, the current president comes to the Mausoleum in Monastir to honour this great leader.

This year, it was the day we had chosen to check out of Tunisia to begin our cruising season, first stop Malta 185nms away. Little did we know that it was not to be today. All of the officials who would normally be doing our paperwork to leave, were tied up with the added security of the current President in town, so we had to delay our departure by a day. So, the fly over with all the helicopters we saw that morning, wasn’t for us after all.

At 0630 the following day, the police and customs were happy to complete our paperwork and send us on our way to Malta. It couldn’t have been more perfect with light winds filling our new sails and a pod of dolphins escorting us out of the bay.

The wind didn’t last and we had to motor for the rest of the way, but it was a beautiful night, with calm seas and we will reach our destination tomorrow afternoon.