Sidi Bou Said

We are based in Sidi Bou Said, just north of Tunis, on Cap Carthage. It is a unbelievably picturesque spot – turquoise sea stretching out over shallow sands, a fertile green hillside with a gorgeous village perched on the top. The houses are painted white with blue balconies and doors and adorned with luscious bougainvilleas.

We have taken delivery of our new 55kg Spade anchor. We were keeping our fingers crossed that it would fit on the bow roller and miraculously, it does! Hopefully we can look forward to drag free anchoring in future.

Sunday we went into Tunis and visited the Bardo Museum. An old bey palace, many of the rooms are galleried and exquisitely decorated with high painted and gilded ceilings. It houses a huge collection of Roman mosaics. There is also a fascinating exhibit from a Roman shipwreck – the contents of a 40m ship destined for Rome and filled with 2^nd -1^st century BC furniture and artefacts (including huge marble columns) for a very rich man’s house. He must have been devastated to lose it all.

Despite being an affluent suburb of Tunis and obviously a playground for the rich, there is no internet access in the area. To get online to check the weather and emails, we have had to climb the 365 STEEP steps up to the village from the marina, take a train (after a considerable walk to the station) three stops to the town of La Marsa down the coast and a further trek! Our consolation was a delicious Lebanese lunch at a restaurant on the waterfront.

The weather looks promising on Wednesday afternoon for our 450 mile passage to Ibiza. More news from there.