sySpringDawn

After some slow progress during Wednesday night, we made up some miles on Thursday especially towards the end of of our trip towards Monastir, the last four hours we were under sail and the wind built to a Force 5 late afternoon, so some reefing was in order. The weather was very hazy and it wasn't until we were close to arriving, about 8 miles offshore, that we could actually see the coastline.

We were slightly concerned that we weren't going to arrive before sunset as it's always a bit daunting going into an unknown port or anchorge in the dark and additionally, we were worried that there may be tunny nets laid near the coast which we were not keen to tangle with! As it was, we rocketed into Monastir just before 19.00 hours with Springy getting over-excited again and surfing down the waves at high speed, up to 8 knots at times. We were directed to a nice berth in the marina, alongside a quay wall by a very chatty and helpful member of the marina staff who informed us that, as it was our first visit to Tunisia, we would need to visit the Port Police and Customs and go through the check-in procedures.

We dutifully toddled off to the Port Police office with the all of our necessary paperwork to hand and then went through the protracted process of filling in lots of forms and answering lots of questions. The conversation was conducted in 'Franglais'....a mix of our limited French and their limited English! The main things they're concerned about are if you have any drugs or weapons on board (no and no!) and the second concern is if you have any wine, beer or spirits on board (yes, yes and yes!) Once the Policemen and finished with us and we'd completed all their forms, they sent us to the Customs office next door where the man was very thorough with his paperwork. There was also a requirement that we pay him 3 Dinar however, as it is illegal to either bring Tunisian Dinar into the country or take it out, of course, we didn't have any Tunisian currency! He said not to worry, we could pay him in the morning. Then, one of the Policemen appeared from next door, he'd now changed into civies - time was getting on, it was now early evening and they seemed keen to shut the office and go home! However, before they clocked-off, they needed to inspect our boat.

Off we all toddled back to Spring Dawn and both the Policeman and the Customs man came down below for a look-about and asked if we had any wine, beer and spirits - I said we had (we had previously hidden some of our spirit bottles in a hidey-hole). They asked to see the beer and wine. I opened the fridge and showed them the beer and white wine and then opened the cupboard and showed them the red wine (we had a couple of bottles each of white and red and about 8 cans of beer). The Policeman then asked to see the white wine again....so I opened the fridge again he stared at the fridge until I asked him 'vous aimez vin blanc?' 'Oui, oui' he said. So I gave him a bottle. Ahh-ha! Baksheesh is alive and well!

The Customs man had a rummage around and, handily, came upon a bag which I'd conveniently (deliberately) left lying around with a few trinkets in it. I'd bought a few bits and bobs and he liked the look of a little plastic bracelet and toy helicopter. I asked him if he had children and he said he had so I said that these were presents from me for his children.....so he slipped them in his pocket. More baksheesh!!

We'd heard that backhanders were expected but were still quite shocked that they made it so obvious that they expected something for themselves before they were happy!