Quick update on the last couple of days as we are just about to head to Tunisia – 120 miles and approx. 18 hours journey overnight so that we arrive in the Marina in Bizerte in the morning just in time for breakfast!

We arrived in Villasimius on the south easterly tip of Sardinia midday Easter Sunday, to await the arrival of our next guest and great sailing friend of ours, Bernard.

Bernard will be with us for the rest of the journey up until 30th April and taking in the two long treks from Sardinia to Tunisia and then Tunisia to Sicily.

We moored up quite easily with the help of the marina staff, only to notice when we were safely tied up that there was a slight problem!

The quay was about 3 feet higher than the boat exit point! Our gangplank (the metal one) formed a rather steep ladder – possibly feasible to leave the boat but to get back on?? Even without a couple of glasses of Prosecco it would be a challenge! The marina staff found us the yellow wooden one which did reach from a higher point on the boat to the quay but barely!! Again, not exactly Health & Safety compliant!

We ended up moving the boat so that we were alongside the quay – no need for a gangplank – now just required the ability to step over the boat rails and jump from the side of the boat to the concrete quay!

Soon after that adventure, Bernard arrived and it was very emotional! Not sure if Jacques’ emotion was more about the bottle of Ricard that Bernard brought than seeing his dearest friend!

An aside about Bernard – Bernard has been sailing since he was a boy and it was with his encouragement that Jacques chartered a boat and set off for the first time on holiday to the Med some 25 years ago! Jacques and Bernard have sailed many times together including in recent years the ‘Route du Jasmin’ which is an organised 3 week rally from the south of France to Tunisia via Corsica and Sardinia (sound familiar?).
When Jacques, some years back, was heard to say that if he ever had his own boat, his dream would be one that would sail like a monohull yet have the space and comfort of a Catamaran, and did that exist?? It was Bernard who said ‘look at the Neel Trimaran’. And now here we are! Thank You Bernard!

We had celebration drinks and thought about heading to the Marina restaurant for dinner BUT being a very Catholic country on Easter Sunday, not surprisingly it was closed! We consoled ourselves with a not very difficult Easter Egg Hunt – there are not too many places to hide anything on a boat but I did my best!! You have to look REALLY closely but there is a little bunny hidden amongst the fruit!

Monday morning we set about preparing for the long sail to Tunisia. We were due to set of mid afternoon so that we arrived in Bizerte Marina early morning in daylight. We set out to the Marina shop but guess what? It was closed! Our main issue was our lack of drinking water so we made do with buying 20 small bottles of water from the (now open) restaurant as well as treating ourselves to a slap up lunch in the knowledge that our next proper meal would be in Tunisia!

Despite the shop being shut, the boat was already full of biscuits, crisps, chocolate and other easy to grab food which was lucky as overnight crossings and being on watch are a great excuse to eat sugary, carb filled foods!

We set off under sail at 2pm, estimating our arrival at 8am….. this is the sunset and I’ll update you complete with the sunrise on the other side!