Monastir, a Sailors Delight

bliss is found in Tunis

We knew that our dear Bolongo was in dire need of some good tender love care and upgrades. We first heard of Monastir, the sailor paradise in Tunesia from our neighbour sailor in Le Lavandou.

After lots of research we decided it was the place to go to get our upgrades done for an affordable price. It was also closer to our location then any other comparable location. So we set course to this beautiful destination.

It was only a day sail away from our last port in Gammarth, where we stayed only for a few days after flying back in from our 3 weeks in Rotterdam.

An easy 24 hours I would say. We arrived early (like 6ish) in the morning to the port. We started to call the marina on VHF but nobody replied. It was hard to see where we should go as just before the marina inlet there is a small bay. We could've maybe achored there and wait for them to respond for the radio. Obviously Anouk was being headstrong and decided we should just sail in an see if we could park Bolongo on a welcome dock/fueldock.

As soon as we slowly rolled in the marina a dinghy came out and guided us to the right berth in the marina. It looked like a bit of a tight spot. Our nerves would get us fully on focus for this parking session. Bolongo doesnt have any bowthrusters (for the people that don't know what bowthrusters are, they make manouvering in tight spaces a whole lot better). The guys on th dinghy helped us by pushing our bow more into the correct angle for the space and we slit right in!

A warm welocome from fellow sailors

That was such a relief! Finally we arrive in Marina Cap Monastir where we are suppose to stay for a few months to get Bolongo ready for longterm sailing.

As soon as we parked, the neighbours on the boat in the berth next to us came out. We have chatted all day about sailing and they introduced us to the sailing community in Monastir. There was a whatsappgroup and a facebookgroup, there are boatfamilies and lots of full timers, they have weekly socials and have coffee's together. At first we were quite overwhelmed with it. As we just arrived from France where Anouk staying almost solitary with the kids for months we now experienced the contrasting side.

Reiss was still moving away for a few months for work so Anouk and the kids have to stay for a while in Monastir. With this community it didnt seem like a hard thing to do.

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It didn't take us long to get adjusted to our new situation and get fully emerged in the social life. The kids had new friends that they loved playing with and it was so good for them to be able to connect with other boatkids. We were so thankfull to get the beautiful families from Kindred Courage and Xclip.

Also as a mom to connect wih other boatmons was a blessing. It definetly teaches you how others cope with the struggles and challenges.

Every friday night there was an organised drinks at a marinabar and on sunday a BYO barbeqcue at the yachtclub to get aquinted with the boaters that lived over winter/came in new at the marina.

We loved to join every social, meeting all the people that are scattered out all over the meditereanean in the summertime.

We made some true friends, some passengers in our lifejourney and heard some amazing stories from remarkable people.

We enjoyed the whole lot of it but it was not all fun and games. The whole reason why we went to Tunesia in the first place was all the boat work. It was a hectic time. Mind you I was discussing quotations with lots of different sets of tradies.

The jobs that we needed doing were:

Cleaning out the fuel tank
Getting the water in the bilge problem checked out
Re-caulk the deck
Build a solararch with davits
Get full enclosure bimini with canvas and sunshade
A new lazybag as the old one fell apart
Some fresh upholstery for outside

So that meant lots and lots managing tradies. In Tunesia this is definetly not an easy thing. Language barriers, customs and a difference in mentality is something that we struggled with as an efficient european .

In general we found tunesians and especially in the marina warm hearted and helpful. Everybody is nice an genuously want to help you. Being there as a woman alone with 2 children was super easy. The social control from either the sailors and the locals that live and work in and around the marina were a big help.

With a big shout out to all the marina employees who are always smilimg and helpfull.

With a big shout out to all the marina employees who are always smilimg and helpfull.

One of the great things about this marina, it offers a variety of restaurants an bars around. SO do you not want to go far for a little grub then that is ideal. However if you prefer cooking, on walking distance from the marina you find the fresh food market with a large variety of seasonal fruit, vegetables and very fresh meats, poultry and fish, lots and lots of spices, nuts and dried products. The pricing is amazingly low!

Bolongo boatworkx..

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