I got up early to walk near to Port in order to get wi-fi and gribs. Whilst walking back to the boat a man stopped me and started asking questions – I didn’t want to answer anything but he said he was the Capitainere (not the same one I saw previously) and he thought we were the boat that came in during the night and parked in the Garde Nationale place on the quay. I convinced him it wasn’t us and he eventually went away. Bob later went to the Border Police to get our passport stamped for exit. He got accosted by an official who was convinced we hadn’t paid and when Bob showed him the “facture” didn’t seem to be able to read it. Eventually we escaped to sea! We had a plan to anchor off Cap Bon for the night and then cross to Pantelarea the next day. However the wind was a little more than expected so we sailed to our anchorage – winds 20+ kn and arrived by mid afternoon. Getting into the anchorage was an epic as although the waves decreased the wind increased and although the sea bottom looked like sand and weed we were not sure if the weed was really rock! We got the anchor down and well dug in and the boat swerved and veered from side to side quite madly. By now we were boiled alive with the heat and a swim and cup of tea enabled us to make a plan. Although I knew we were not going anywhere with the anchor well dug in. I didn’t want to stay the night there and the wind would not be good for Pantellarea so we decided to head for Marsala in Sicily overnight. Bob set up the cutter sail to give us more flexibility in our sail plan and we set off.
The seas were quite lumpy but not too bad. Not a ship or yacht to be seen anywhere! Darkness fell and we entered the exit area of the Cap Bon traffic separation zone – then there were ships EVERYWHERE – mostly they seemed to be coming to get us! One large boat was on a collision course with us – so four miles out Bob radioed him on channel 16 – no reply, three miles out I tried again – no reply, we slowed down and changed direction but he was so close we had to start the engine to get out of the way. Was there anyone awake on the boat???
Picture is Dry Dock at the Punic Port